Beech and Walnut

[naxie]

Haven't been able to get any lathe time for a while now and having just spent two lovely weeks in France but, unfortunately, not a piece of workshop machinery in sight to dabble with, I was eager to get cracking!

I have spent a bit of time on holiday relaxing with a glass of wine and reading through the forums and wanted to try a few new things and managed to get a lot of them in this experiment.

Its a beech pen with my first attempt at a sort of Celtic knot pattern in walnut, with a walnut centre band and finished with EEE and an old dried out pot of Shellawax cream which I bought back to life with some shellac and a microwave!




I would have preferred to use a gold kit I think but can't for the life of me find any! My dad was house sitting while we were away and has reorganised the garage a bit, at least I found the lathe though!

 

[Jim]

That is a very good attempt of Celtic Crosses Ed, and a nice shape to the pen, my only criticism would be that the C/B is a little to thick ...

 

[Terry]

Excellent for a first effort!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Woody]

That is an excellent pen well done although I do agree with Jim about the center band but if that is all it cant be bad can it

 

[Alan Moore]

the cross looks good.

 

[naxie]

Mark 2!

I found a few gold kits............but they were the ones with the rubber end which I think looks a little odd. I decided therefore to have a go at making a walnut end cap as well.

The banding on this one is more of a wavey pattern than a knot but its all practice. The centre band is around 50% smaller than the last one. :wink:

 

[Jed Baxter]

I like this pen naxie, the top cap looks good did you have to glue it in?

 

[naxie]

I like this pen naxie, the top cap looks good did you have to glue it in?

I held the blank cross ways in the smallest set of O'donnell jaws, turned about 3/4" to the diameter of the end of the pen, rounded the end off and then cut the bit that goes inside down to the internal diameter of the tube with the tip of the skew at about 1/4" long then parted off.

It was a tight fit when offering it up, about the same as an end cap, but as a precaution I did roll a drop of CA around the inside of the tube.
I thankfully had the foresight to quickly line the clip up before the glue took hold!

 

[Jimjam66]

Both lovely pens, Ed. well done! I think the walnut and beech make an excellent combination.

 

[Jim]

A nice piece of innovation Ed, something i may just borrow off you in the future .. The CB certainly looks more uniformed in this pen, a very nice pen indeed ...

 

[Terry]

Nice work Ed!!!!!

 

[rowdyyates115]

Me too, very good idea
Well Done Sir

 

[walshjp17]

Using the contrasting wood on the CB and cap for the second pen really makes it stand out. Well done.