The Results Are In

Several people expressed interest in how the blanks I glued up yesterday would turn out. Well, I had a very productive day today and turned all four of them.

So, let's start just like we listed them yesterday, starting from the left and moving right.

This one is yellow heart with a center strip made of walnut and box elder.

I was extremely happy with this one. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much for my first time ever working with yellow heart. The blank, before turning, looked very plain. After turning it and smoothing it out in preparation for finish though, it gives off an unexpected brilliant glow.

This was my latest attempt at the celtic cross. It is done with box elder in purple heart. It was a success, sort of.

As far as technique goes, it is perfect as I have seen. The only thing I don't like is the angle I used. This was done on a twenty two and a half degree angle. While it is done correctly, a steeper angle would open it up more and make it look much better in my opinion.

I am just thrilled over the top though that I finally glued one up correctly. I think I learned enough that I will be able to do the steeper angle without as many issues as I've had in the past.

Here is the long elliptical one in walnut and box elder.

This one was a failure. I turned it correctly and done everything as I should have, only to find out after pressing the pen together that the advance mechanism is malfunctioning. It will not advance. Instead of scrapping the pen completely, I pressed the advance mechanism out further so the pen point simply stays out, ready to write. I will use it as a shop pen.

I will be checking the advance mechanisms from now on before pressing them in.

Last but not least.

This one is red heart, box elder, and ziricote. If you remember, I was worried about this one blowing apart if it came near a cutting tool. I simply was not happy with the glue up. It wasn't as tight as I would have liked. This morning though, I filled several gaps in it with glue and gave it a shot. In my humble opinion, this terrible glue up turned out to be one of the nicest pens I've done in a while.