A new beauty

I finished up an order for a friend: One Artists Sketch Pencil made from Cocobolo in black chrome. When she requested black chrome on a dark wood, I initially thought it wouldn't turn out that great, but I must admit I am sold and quite jealous that this pencil isn't for me. It turned out great despite the awfulness of the picture. When I moved to Texas I lost the hot lamps I was using for photography previously so I need to hunt some more down. These will have to do... for now.

Back in the Saddle!

The time following graduation found me with much too much free time on my hands. I strayed from pen making and wood turning all together, spent more time with family and friends, and moved to Austin Texas! I've recently been contacted by someone who wants to commission me to do seven high end pens to give away to high paying clients as gifts. I also have been contacted by a friend to make a couple as presents, so stay posted and I will have much to show off soon.

very GOOD mail

My good friend Timm sent me some segmented pen blanks in the mail ! I got right on turning the best of the bunch and here is the result. It really makes me want to get some more tools so I can start segmenting as well. Nice work Timm, this is my new daily pen.

Meet the ladies

I finally got done with 2 projects that have been on hold for longer than I will admit. The first is the stars and stripes pen kit I started a while back. I ran into some issues waiting for some parts to be made for me to properly square the blanks (proper fitment is important after all) but gave up on the guy and made my own, and they turned out OK. After finishing the stripes I had a problem where one of the stars popped out on me and I had to perform some surgery to get it back in properly. After that you couldn't even tell it had happened. There are some things I don't love about how I did it, and am sure the next one would come out perfect, but its still darn impressive to sit and stare longingly into the awesome.




The next is a very special pen that almost got ruined, but also was saved. It is an incredibly gorgeous piece of Cocobolo Burl. I've never seen Cocobolo Burl before, didn't even know it existed. My burl supplier told me in his 20 years he's never seen it come in before, and when he did I got 3 of the 100 pieces he made available to the public. Below is the first pen I've made from it, and it sure is gorgeous. I've never seen such a deep orange and awesome figure before. It will be a shame to part with her. 

These two, plus the pen I talked about here will make up the first batch of pens for my Etsy shop which I will post hopefully later tonight. Wish me luck!

How to fix a broken centerband

The pen I featured in my previous post "The Penmakers Dilemma" had one problem, the golden ring in the centerband was loose. Upon calling my supplier I found out that it was a common problem they had with this run of kits and were happy to replace it for free. The problem being that I had already assembled it and didn't want to disassemble the entire pen just to get that out. I went down and visited my good friend Roger at Craft Supplies USA and he gave me this idea for how to remove the centerband without disassembly. WARNING following this will destroy the center band. DO NOT do this if you need to preserve the original centerband.


First thing you need is a hacksaw blade. I bought this mini hacksaw for 4 dollars at wallyworld. If you look closely you can where I used a grinder to make the end smaller so it would fit in the pen barrel.


Next use the saw inside of the centerband and gently hold the barrel while you saw through to the copper barrel. I did this in two different spots to give it more flexibility when I remove it.


After I had two clean lines cut through on the inside I gently pulled the metal centerband out with needlenose pliers.



Next do the same thing with the plastic insert that is left inside of the barrel.



Now you can reinstall the new centerband after cleaning out all of the plastic and metal bits. I did this with compressed air.


Hopefully in the future I won't ever have to do this because I will always check the centerband, but on the off chance one comes loose on a customer after the fact I now have this in my arsenal to solve it.

Casting and such

Ever since my eyes were opened to the world of penmaking beyond the slimline kit (everyones first kit) I've been fascinated by all things you can do with pens. Casting in particular has been something I've been wanting to get into, but have lacked the motivation / project to use it for. Well the casting card has been pulled. A buddy of mine has been helping me with making some metal "sleeves" to help perfect my pen turning even more and when asking him how I could repay him the subject of a pen came up. Knowing that he is a fella who likes cars I asked if he would like me to make him a pen from carbon fiber. He thought it was a neat idea, but wasn't sold. I then sent him a picture of a pen I'd seen elsewhere made of it and his response was more what I expected the first time. He was sold, now I just needed to either find someone who would sell me a premade carbon fiber blank or... OR make one myself !

I decided to start my research and found out that doing clear casting is fairly simple. My biggest nemesis will be air bubbles. Since I don't have a pressure/vacuum pot I will have to make sure to eradicate all air bubbles from the resin before it sets, otherwise I could run the risk of having a trapped air bubble between my cast and carbon fiber, which of course would be a deal breaker. So to get started I need to get all the materials and something to cast it in. In any case it should be fun AND a learning experience. And if it works out I could make more in the future, but I'd also really love to experiment with color casting, which would be making entire pen blanks from scratch!

The PenMakers Dilemma

As a pen maker it is very common for my best work to be sold, sort of a hazard of the trade you could say. Typically it is a little painful to let said treasures go but extra cash lining my pockets help ease the pain. This is not to say I don't carry nice pens myself, just maybe not as nice as some of the ones I've made for others.

I've had a particularly nice 2 toned piece of Amboyna laying around for a year or so now and finally decided it was time to turn it into a Gentlemens Kit to sell to get some more money for new tools ect... Well I finished it a weekend or two ago and have been having a serious issue deciding whether or not to sell it. It is a larger kit designed and weighted specifically to be a desk pen. The cap does not post (screw on to the end of the pen) so it isn't realistic to carry it around, it would have to sit at my desk at work where it would see much use. I don't know why but something about the combination of sapwood and heartwood here really does it for me. I forgot to take pictures of the back because I am so drawn towards the front. The back is all heartwood (non-white) and is also gorgeous, but its truely the front I'm fixated with.

Most people who do some type of craft will keep a showcase of their best work. I feel this would be a great first piece to add to that but I also feel I'm early enough in my career that more like it will come.


On the side note of my inlay kit I started a while back, I am waiting on a good friend to complete some metal "sleeves" for me in order to help get it perfect. Once the sleeves are complete I will post about what they are and how they work and why they are neccesary for someone as anal about getting things right as I am.