Well I hope you are all doing well and are staying healthy. Pen making has been a little slow this week but I have actually done some, which is better than none.

* Pen making

This weeks project was to attempt to get a few new skills in my repertoire. The first was ink windows, clear resins have been a bit of a pain in my side for a while now. There seems to be a bit of randomness as to whether I can get the inside clear or not. I have managed it once. I asked around and got some tips from some other pen makers and I went for it.

[Here](https://i.imgur.com/7TxSwVz.jpg) is what I started with, the pen was shaped and just needed to be sanded and polished with some minor shaping to the section. I started by using a metal rid which I had cut a slot lengthways down the rod which I could mount a flag of sand paper in. I wrapped the sandpaper around this and dunked it in water before applying a bit of pressure to the wall of the window while it was spinning at approx 1.1k rpm. The grits I went through were 180, 240, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000. I had to do this twice to get rid of the marks. I realised I had to attempt to polish inside the window, unfortunately I don’t have any liquid polishing fluids. Best I have is burnishing fluid. I applied this with tissue but this didn’t work. I realised I had a head for my dremel that would fit into the window section, so I cranked this up and used some of my usual 3 stage polishing compound one after the other. This did a better job. So here is what it looks like now with cap [on](https://i.imgur.com/48yaWZI.jpg) and cap [off](https://i.imgur.com/99Hh4ra.jpg). Unfortunately I made some small [nicks](https://i.imgur.com/LHoMi3v.jpg) in it, so it looks like I might need to [start again](https://i.imgur.com/krBPMT3.jpg). I will probably order some proper liquid polish before I do that though.

The blank mixing is back in the swing of things. My wife is getting more [comfortable](https://i.imgur.com/ibw7jAg.jpg) with it, which is great as it means we can now get 4 blanks done in one go. Even if it does turn the [kitchen](https://i.imgur.com/JBBmWea.jpg) into some sort of [alchemical laboratory](https://i.imgur.com/vG3MhUD.jpg). [Here](https://i.imgur.com/Rn19SVW.jpg) are the blanks that came out of that pour.

Things seem to be picking up now, I have a bit of a waiting list for the first time since I started this. It’s not very big but hopefully it will continue. I tool a bit of time out this morning to clean up [the lathe](https://i.imgur.com/SflGbU6.jpg) it made it look brand new. I also had a little sort of the [workshop](https://i.imgur.com/gcD1C3x.jpg). I turned some blanks from square to round, I am love doing this to [new materials](https://i.imgur.com/Kcyy3GC.jpg). However it made the lathe return back to [normal](https://i.imgur.com/UtYKvy3.jpg).

I have a job going ahead which is another one of the skull sculpted pens, much like the one I made for my birthday. I made the barrel today and put it in the vice ready to [carve](https://i.imgur.com/9cYe01Z.jpg).

I am pretty sure I will be called into work from the 8^th so this is going to be the last week that I am offering the 10% off codes to people. If you want one, just send me a private message and they will count to money off on anything ordered from my site. I am only doing this for the reddit community.

As usual feel free to give feedback or suggestions in the comments. Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones and stay safe.