Ebonized Maple Pen
Click to enlarge
In the June 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking there was an article by Brian Boggs that really caught my attention. The article was on ebonizing wood. As I read the article I imagined a pen made from ebonized maple inlaid with aluminum. Why not just use ebony? Well, a couple of reasons. Firstly, though not a huge factor when dealing with pen blanks, maple is a lot cheaper. Secondly, maple is a lot easier to work with. Finally, ebony has a tendency to crack and split.
I laminated a maple pen blank with some aluminum, turned it and then followed the steps outlined by Brian on ebonizing. The picture above shows the results. Read on to see what is involved and my thoughts.
Continue reading Ebonizing
Inspiration for this pen came from some of the work of Ed Davidson. You can see more of his work at http://yoyospin.com.
One of the fun things about turning a closed end pen is that it frees up more design considerations as you are not restricted by the hardware on the end of the [...]
I drill all my pen blanks on the lathe. It takes a little bit longer than using a drill press, but I find it to be more accurate, both in terms of the hole size and drilling through the center of the blank. The later is particularly important when drilling a segmented blank, as you need to drill directly through the center of the design.
I’m sure others have slightly different techniques, so feel free to post any comments or tips on something I may not have mentioned.
The pen blanks I show here are cherry. A customer ordered a couple of Perfect Fits and supplied a slab of cherry from which I milled these two blanks.
You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.
Continue reading Drilling a pen blank on the lathe
This is my “Unraveled” design. It is made from Mesquite and aluminum. I’ll be sending this pen to a friend to include in a regular shipment of pens he sends to the troops overseas.
You can click on any of the images to see a larger version.
I mailed off a couple pens for submission in the Pen Display at the 7th Annual Penturners Rendezvous held in Provo, Utah and hosted by the Penmakers Guild. The first pen shown is a collaboration between myself and Dawn from Exotic Blanks. It is a full size Gent made from alternate ivory, inlaid with [...]
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