Sorry it’s a bit late. I know I posted yesterday that the update would be today and I will honour that but my brain is not with it. My dad got hit by a car yesterday when he was crossing the road on the way home. Spent 10 hours at accident and emergency over night and got sent home. Found out this morning, he says he is fine but it didn’t sound like it on the phone. So yeah, my brain is not with it this evening. Anyway, on with the update.

• Pen Making

Made a few mistakes this week, but at least I know why. I shattered a blank when I was threading it, I know that type of blank is quite prone to being brittle and I didn’t create a good enough lead in for the tap. So when the tap went in the thread started to catch and it created cracks which lead to it shattering. The other mistake was due to me making the wall of the cap a little too thin. I threaded it fine and when I tested the threads on the barrel I over tightened it and it ended up cracking. So that was two blanks down. Not a massive disaster just annoying.

I have a bunch more pens that I can show. I have made a plain blue one, there is going to be nowhere to hide with this one so sanding and finishing it are going to be a bit of a challenge. This is it which is unsanded.

I taught myself a new skill too. I made a brass ring to fit on a pen. I had a bit of an epiphany when I was thinking of how to do it. I was thinking I would have to thread them onto a pen which would be (and this is a highly technical term) a total ball ache. I figured that I could just make a brass washer and then sandwich it between the different parts of the pen. So this is how it ended up on the green blank before I broke the blank. I had a similar blank with a different set of colours and so used that instead. Turned out well when I made it, so it looks a bit rough and that image of the pen not sanded yet. I sanded it earlier today and it looks much better.

I also made this it was a nice blank to work with, no idea what material it is though. Also the section came out too narrow in my eyes. My wife says that it is well suited for smaller hands though so there is that.

• Pen Show preparation

As of today I only have 4 pens to make and I have 5 I need to finish sanding and polishing which will hopefully be done early next week. I will be going to my dad’s place tomorrow to cook him lunch with my daughters so I doubt I will get any pen work done. Family comes first. I am starting to feel the pressure of it all. I feel like I am getting nowhere and I am scared that I won’t be able to sell anything when I am there. I honestly don’t think I am good enough for this. I am exhausted, I feel like all I am doing it working my day job and then making the pens with little time for anything else. I have managed to halve the time it takes to make the pens though, so there is that.

*Questions

So it is almost a year since I started doing those (well it probably is a year if you take into account the odd break), and I wanted a little feed back, if that’s possible.

• Do you still like these update?
• Are there any details you want to see more of or less of?
• Do you to see more photos? Or are there too many?
• Any other feedback?

Anyway take care everyone, have a good weekend and I will hopefully see you next week.