• Pen making

So I thought I would share my polishing routine with you guys this week. Mainly because I remembered to take some progress pictures as I did them as I was asked on instagram. My memory is terrible so the fact that I remembered is an achievement all in itself, so yeah, go me!

Do you remember the brown pen with the brass rings I made last week? This one , well that is what I started with, shaped and with the ring made and whatnot. Not a great start really. When I sand I go through a number of grits. I set my lathe to spin up at the highest setting of the lowest of the two gears, that turns the chuck at around 1340RPM (Revolutions Per Minute), not the fastest in the land but fast enough for what I need it for. The grits I went through were 180, 240, 400, 600 and 800, once I had gone through all that I ended up with something like this a bit better but we can improve on it. The polishing system I use is here which was recommended to me by another pen maker in the UK. So after stage one we have this , that is getting better. After stage 2 we have this , wowza look at that shine it’s like a J J Abrams movie. Finally after stage 3 we have the final finish, that is better. So before when I had made the brass ring I had put a notch in it, I had also turned out some of the ring to the same depth as the clip ring was thick . It fits like this , When finally put together this is what the cap ends up looking like .

Other than that I made a monster of a pen using a venom kirinite set of blanks. Here it is capped and uncapped . I fitted the clip to the cap so the clip ring was hidden on this one too, it is a skill I need to practise so you will be seeing a lot of it.

The other thing which happened was I broke two blanks trying to make one pen, and I may have lost my temper and thrown the remains across my workshop. The main image is one of the blanks which died, the second one in fact. It was for this pen. The other blank was a whole blank of the original material. Once they had broken I was left with very few blanks that would match the material, I ended up using this at least the purples match. I will post up the result next week. I think I have figured out why, I was rushing basically.

*Pen show Preparation

I am making a slow but steady headway into the show prep side of things. The business cards are ordered, the table cloth is waiting downstairs, I only have 2 pens to make before I hit my target. I am getting really stressed about it though. I feel like even when it is done I have a lot which needs to be done. I am attempting to make laminated examples of each of my designs, even if I am not taking pens made of that design. This is so that people can order pens while I am there. They will also fill up some space on the table.

*Thank yous

Thank you guys for your continued support of me and this venture of mine. It has been so rewarding sharing these things with you and I hope to share them long into the future. I hope they are entertaining and provide an insight into things you wouldn’t normally see. I enjoy sharing it all, my techniques and my designs, I know some day it may come around and bite me in the butt somehow but I don’t mind. I just want to be open at things and I truly believe that knowledge should be shared.

Also thank you about your kind words concerning my dad and my mental health last week. They mean a lot to me. Just to give you an update my dad is feeling better but he just hates being stuck indoors.

Take care everyone and have a good weekend.