Last night I participated in a live chat with Jen Kiaba and Timothy Adam.  It was very informative and I believe everyone came away with something to add to their photo skills toolbox.  You can read a transcript of the chat here.

Jake

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When I started turning pens several years ago, I seldom even took a picture of my work. Of course, looking back, I wish that I had so that I could see the progress I have made over time. That is one reason why I made the recent changes to this site and started trying to blog about the pens and things as I made them. One thing it has done for me is to increase my camera useage, and with that my skills and techniques behind the lens.

While I still want to get a DSLR Camera, I am learning to improve the product I get from my little Fuji Film Finepix digital. It is pretty old as modern cameras go, but it seems to be doing a pretty good job for what I do. I am looking at lighting solutions to help with my ability to take quality macros of my pens. I have seen several tutorials like this one explaining the process for building a lightbox, but call me lazy, I went out and bought a plastic tub in white to serve as my light box. Now I need to start working with different light sources and bulbs to get the colors to come out the way they should.

Till Later – Jake
Shop at Etsy

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I really like to work with Leopardwood. It turns easily and has a very unique grain pattern.  It is a wood that grows in the South American countries of Chile and Brazil.  The trees can grow as high as 150′ and have trunks as much as 4′ in diameter.  A medium to dark brown when finished the grain can put one in mind of the scales on a snake, or the spots on a leopard.

Leopardwood Sierra Pen

This particular pen took considerably longer to complete than it should have thanks to several interruptions.  First and foremost, I just got a new job and that is taking a lot of my time (I’m not complaining, mind you) especially considering that I have been unemployed for the last month since the company I was working for finally decided to call it quits in this economy.

Second, and probably more pertinent was the yard sale that had my shop in a flux over the past week or so.  Boxes piled up and bags o’ stuff laying about kept me from getting in and working on anything.  I think all of that is in the past now and I can start getting my shop back to normal.

Additionally, and I don’t see how this could possibly affect my time in the shop, (add whatever degree of sarcasm you desire here) but I just started using Twitter as well.  That can be a time vacuum that will suck the day right out from under you if you aren’t careful.

All that said, I have this one completed and a couple more in the pipeline, so there should be some more stuff coming out soon.

Jake

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I can hardly believe that it has been 4 days since my last post!  I guess that life just keeps on going while you are doing other things.  I started a new job last week, well, it is a temporary job, but still and all it is really getting in the way of me being in the shop and working on pens. 

On the other hand, I do like to eat, so I guess there is a certain balance that needs to be maintained.  That plus we are getting ready for a yard sale, it doesn’t seem like I have had  time to do anything at all the past week or so.  I hope to get a pen finished this weekend and I’ll get it photographed at least.  This one is made using one of my favorite woods for turning, Leopardwood.  It has a really neat grain that will be spotted on part and scaly on others.  It makes for a pretty good looking pen.  Definitely something to look over when you take it out of your pocket.

I am also working on some ideas for some pen bodies that will have to be made up, always a fun and challenging process.  Anyway, I better chop it off for now so I can get some things done.

Jake

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Checkerboard Sierra Pen

This is really a neat pen.  The checkerboard body was made by cutting a black walnut and poplar blank lengthwise making 6 1/4″ slices. These were then glued up to make a 3/4″ thick blank of alternating colors. After allowing the glue to cure, this blank was then sliced into 1/4″ slices and each slice was turned 90″ to create a checkerboard pattern on all 4 sides then stacked, glued, and clamped. Once cured, the blank was ready to drill and turn as normal, and the result is what you see here.

I always feel like I am walking on eggshells when I turn a pen like this.  While glue is an amazing substance, if it isn’t applied right or allowed to cure (see previous post on the Red Tide pen) you can blow it out and ruin a lot of work.  Should the blade catch on a piece that isn’t glued up right, the whole thing hangs in the balance.  At any rate, I spent a lot of time and a lot of care making sure this blank was built right before starting this pen.

Jake

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Here is the last item listed on Etsy, a Sierra pen in Desert Ironwood and Copper. It’s really nice!

Sierra in Desert Ironwood

Jake

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Normally, I don’t make many pencils. Most people want pens and few are willing to pay for a pencil, even though the same work goes into one, and generally the parts for a pencil are more expensive than for a pen.  It is a more complex device overall, so there are normally more small parts and mechanisms that go into it.

Red Tide Pen with Flaw in Body

This one was actually going to be half of a Pen and Pencil set as I had matching pieces of Red Tide turning blanks.  I still find myself getting in a hurry sometimes and that is always a bad idea.  It is okay to go fast but never hurry, that is when mistakes happen.  And so it was for the Pen half of this Pen and Pencil set.

I was just in a hurry to see how the Tide would turn, so to speak and I didn’t let the glue set long enough before starting to turn the pen.  I was actually within a hundredth of an inch or so  of being through turning it and starting on the sanding when disaster struck.   I could feel it before it happened, yet it happened so fast that there was nothing I could do about it by the time I felt it.

The actual thickness of the blank over the tube varies with the type of pen, but it can range from barely a 64th of an inch to nearly an 8th.  It doesn’t really matter since it is the glue that keeps the blank from shattering off the tube as it is turned down that thin.   I broke the cardinal rule of not letting the glue cure before starting to turn the pen and paid the price, I lost an incredibly beautiful pen.

I say I lost it, I really didn’t as I was able to finish the pen out and assemble it, but there is a small chip out of the body revealing the tube and I won’t sell a pen that way.  I am posting a picture of the pen and the pencil as well.

With the glue not being cured, the torques and heat of the turning combined to loosen the

Red Tide Pencil Completed

blank on the tube and that loosening allowed it to chip out as I neared completion.  This really does  not damage anything except the blank, and normally, I would have just gone ahead and turned the pen all the way down to the tube, removing all of the blank so that I could start over with  a new blank.  This time, I just took the blank and finished it out as though it were completed properly and assembled it for my own use.

Needless to say, I waited for the glue to cure on the pencil before starting it, and the completed pencil has been listed on Etsy.  I do have mechanisms to make another matched pair, but this was the only blank I had of the Red Tide variety, so I am thinking about a really nice pair in Mango.  But first, I have a click with a checkerboard blank.  I’ll try to get it listed tomorrow and get some pictures posted.  It is one I am really proud of as I made this one myself from scratch and it really looks good IMHO.

Jake

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I think I may be learning a bit about taking pictures of small items, at least I hope so.  It certainly seems to me that the pictures I took of this Blue Illusion Cigar Pen came out well.  I took them outside using natural light.  Actually, the pictures I took of the Curly

Blue Illusion Cigar Pen

Koa Cigar Pen in the previous post were taken at the same time, also outdoors.  At least I am taking pictures of my work now.  I used to be bad about making the pens, but not taking photos or even writing down the materials I used to make it with.

This pen actually uses my favorite material for fittings and that is Black Titanium.  It really doesn’t show up as being anything other than chrome, but there is a darkness about it that makes it more attractive, at least to me, than the shiny chrome finish.  Both finishes are extremely hard wearing and will last a long time,  with Titanium coming in as being harder than the Chrome, but both are good choices for finishes.

I used micro-mesh to polish this pen out and took it to 12,000 grit.   I’m not sure, (and I’m really not willing to try) but I think that 12,000 would actually be fine enough to take scratches out of my glasses.  It certainly polished this pen out to an incredible shine and really shows a depth that tends to make me want to look at my pen rather than write with it.

Jake

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Yes!  The Curly Koa Cigar Pen has been Completed! I will get it listed on Etsy sometime later today.  After a complete do-over on the top finish, the result is very pleasing, well, at least I am pleased with it.  I did realize what caused the problem in the first place though, or at least I realized what I did different the first time than I normally do.

After applying BLO to the blank and letting it soak in and the surface dry out, the CA is

Curly Koa Cigar Pen with Black Chrome Fittings

applied.  I always use the same paper towel I used to apply the BLO which gives me a lubricated applicator.  This smooths the CA out very well and doesn’t leave it pooled and ready to drip.  The first time I applied the CA I used a new paper towel which didn’t give me the same smoothness I am used to acheiving.  I learned my lesson.  At least I did for now, as I am sure I will forget again sometime and have to redo another pen.

You can see the curl in the photo here, but one thing that is very hard to see in a photograph is the chatoyance of the wood.  When held in your hand and looked at in the light, the wood virtually comes alive with pattern and light.   It is this characteristic  of wood that really caused me to fall in love with turning pens in the first place, and I wish there were some way to capture it in a photograph.  If you have ever looked at a check with a reflective watermark and seen how the watermark disappears as it is held at a different angle to the light, then you have seen in a small way how the wood can have a depth so deep you feel you could put your hand in it.  But I digress. . .A cigar in blue illusions acrylic is next and it’ll make your eyes pop too!

Jake

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This just really has not been my week for finishing pens. I am working on a Cigar Pen in Curly Koa (a really pretty piece too I might add), and had finished turning it on Tuesday and started applying finish.

I put on a coat of BLO (boiled linseed oil) and came back with a coat of CA (cyanoacrylate or super glue) which gives the pen a really hard wearing finish which is needed to protect the pen from the natural oils present on our fingers.  Normally, I use three coats of CA then polish it out using about 9 progressively  finer grits until it is like glass.

I went out this morning to put on the final coat of CA when I found that I had evidently left a drop on the pen with the previous coat.  That meant I had to sand that section back down to the wood to get rid of the drop.

So, instead of finishing this Curly Koa and starting on a new acrylic blank that I have ready to go, I will be re-finishing this one.  Oh well, such is life.

Jake

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