Just a simple project to keep my hands dirty.

This is made from Bloodwood with white oak accents. I used the cutoff from the main board for the pen and letter opener blanks and laminated the rest together with some white oak to make the blank for the magnetic paper clip holder and pen well. CA glue finish on the pen/opener and semi-gloss poly on the board. Nothing fancy, but fun. Found out I am allergic to bloodwood….I’m still itching.

Now that my last big project is done, I thought I would get back to playing on the lathe and learning to turn. I had this spalted hackberry bowl blank and thought it would be fun to try making a bowl. I sharpened up the bowl gouge and went to work. I need to work on ways to chuck the bowl up. I started off screwing the blank to a faceplate and trued it up. I then cut a dovetailed recess in the bottom to accommodate my chuck jaws and turned it the rest of the way with the chuck. But now the bottom has a recessed hole in it. I guess I could have turned a tenon for the chuck to hold onto and later saw it off. I should take a lesson or two. Who looks at the bottom of bowls anyhow?

I applied a simple wax finish after sanding to 600 grit.

I have been blogging on this build, but now it is done and I thought I would post it as a project. The wood is VG fir with walnut accents. The top has breadboard ends held in place with walnut dowels. The feet and cross supports also have walnut dowels through the mortise and tenons. Finish is General Finishes Seal-A-Cell and Arm-R-Seal topcoats rubbed out with 0000 steel wool and wax.

The wood for the top came from a friend of the table’s owner who built a magnificent yacht/schooner and gave her some left over wood that sat in her barn for the better part of a decade. Now it is a table sitting under the framed picture of the yacht’s blueprint. You should check out the link—apparently it was built in a barn in Montana. What craftsmanship.

As a bonus, I threw a cutoff from the trestle beam on the lathe and made a candle holder and dug out some pieces from the cutoff bin before it goes to the fire pit to make a trivet with the same motif. More pictures are available on the blog.

A good example of how one projects leads to another. About a year ago, I built a larger version of this cabinet for a friend’s shot glass collection. Now, she needs another. This one is a bit smaller (14” x 21” interior dimensions). Wood is red oak finished with Oil/Varnish rubbed out and waxed. Case is dovetailed together (hand cut). It can sit on a table or be wall hung by the integrated french cleat in the back (mating piece taped in place in last picture). I have yet to install the interior LED light system, but at least the wood working is done.

As my pen addiction continues, I have started to branch out using different materials. Here’s some combination acrylic and wood pens I made today. The first is East Indian Rosewood with tortoise shell acrylic and maple accents and the second is curly Koa with tangerine swirl acrylic and wenge accents.

I finished them by using plastic polish from Penn State Industries (it says to not use on wood, but worked great), then 3 coats of Crystal Coat then Renaissance wax.

Having fun with different materials and slim line kits.

The first pen is a nickel .308 cartridge with deer antler in chrome
The second pen is a nickel .308 cartridge with deer antler in gun metal
The third pen is a brass .308 cartridge with Indian River Buffalo horn with Snakewood accents in gold.

These were fun to make (once I got the smell out of the shop….)

Just a quick little Christmas gift for a friend. The wood is Koa and the top is crushed red coral and super glue. I was hoping for a deeper red color to mimic a red wine, but it is more of a rose. I left the stem a bit thick for strength. Finish is Shellawax.

The first pen is a nouveau sceptre from PSI that is made from spalted black ash. The second is a majestic in cocobolo. PSI has a great deal for these more expensive kits—all the accessories are included (bits, bushings, trimming sleeves, etc). The majestic is definitely not for small hands and lacks a postable cap. I like the sceptre the best and will definitely be doing more of these.

I thought I would try my hand at one of the patriot pen kits. The upper barrel assembly is not as easy as the instructions make it out to be. Needless to say, despite using soapy water (per the instructions) and taking my time, about half of the little stars would not fit. I spent over an hour trying to tweak each opening. When I went to try to seat the stars better, the upper barrel cracked in a couple of places. A few choice words later, I calmed down and ordered a blue dyed buckeye burl blank and used it for the upper barrel. I think it came out OK but sure would have liked to have all those stars. Mechanism is an Ultra Cigar.

This is a display cabinet to house a shot glass collection. I started a blog during construction—mainly for the customer to follow along as I made progress. I hand cut through dovetails for the main carcass (hidden under the moldings). Made from red oak per the customer’s request. I am still waiting for the LED lighting system to arrive before I deliver and install it. She wants it wall mounted, so there is a french cleat built into the back.

Finish is multiple coats of oil/poly blend, then buffed out with 0000 steel wool/wax to a smooth sheen. Silky smooth, except for the pores which I did not fill.

Comments/critiques welcome.

Penn State’s sculpted pen and letter opener in curly Koa. Too bad they don’t make a matching pencil as well. These are to be gifts for my wife’s aunt in Hawaii (she’s rather partial to Koa….)

Its been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I would share some recent pens. The Christmas season kept me busy making Bethlehem Olive Wood Euro styles with a Christian motif. Sold about 20 of them and forgot to take pictures! Anyway, here are some recent ones.

1) A matched Pen/Pencil/Letter opener set in Curly Koa (Euro style)
2) A black titanium Atlas in buckeye burl
3) A rhodium Euro in Gabon Ebony and Buckeye burl (had to do something with the cutoff from the Atlas…)
4) Some quick slim lines in purple heart (father/son project), and sapelle with maple celtic knot (a “thank you gift” for a friend who gave me a bunch of hickory and sapelle)

All are finished with CA/BLO

OK…I started doing some pens and bottle stoppers for gifts and now my sister who owns a home furnishing and flower store wants to sell them. She wanted a display stand and I saw some inexpensive acrylic ones online. But who would want to buy a nice wooden pen or stopper from someone who displays them using plastic? This rack displays 9 pens and 5 stoppers. Made from Caribbean rosewood (aka chechen I believe). I turned the pegs on the lathe which was a good exercise in creating identical, correctly sized parts. I’m skeptical that anything I made would actually sell for a profit, but who knows…...

I decided to branch out from slim lines using the Rockler cigar kits.

Woods (L to R)
Purpleheart
Zebrawood
Leopardwood
Tulipwood

Between all the pens and stoppers lately, I think I am finally ready for Christmas!

Just some more fun with the lathe.

Woods from left to right:
Olive wood
Bocote
Redheart
Tulip Wood
Cocobolo (I’ve posted this before but threw it in for the heck of it)

After playing around with different finishes, I really like using eee-ultrashine and Shellawax.

I’ve been pulling the small cut offs from my “I know I’ll use this some day” bin to have some fun on the lathe. Little chunks of cocobolo can go a long way. I made a couple of pens earlier (separate post) and decided to do some more. I got the kits from my local Woodcraft store.

The pen has yellowheart (cut in at 60 degrees) and maple (at 45 degrees) to make the knot. I had to make a simple sled to handle the small pieces to keep my fingers attached to my hand. That was the hardest part. This stuff sure is addicting. I just may need a 12 step intervention to stop…..

This is also an experiment in different finishes. The pen and shorter stopper are using HUT PPP brown and white wax sticks. The long stopper had HUT CrystalCoat. I like the PPP better.

Here’s a utilitarian piece: my take on a carver’s mallet. I had some chunks of hickory and goncalo alves, so I glued them up and turned it on the lathe. The grooves in the handle were to make it more “grippy” and I spaced them by eyeballing it. Even if it is just a shop tool, I should have taken the time to lay them out properly for better aesthetics.

Now that I got my Jet lathe, I have been slowly learning the process. Went to my local Woodcraft store and picked up some pen making supplies and had some fun this weekend. Thanks to Fellow LJ Gary, whose blog made the the Celtic knot easy and fun.

Wood is cocobolo and the knot is maple.

The addiction has begun—turning wood that is. I’ve been waiting for the OK for another major purchase from the “boss” and for my birthday, I got the Jet 1220 lathe. Once I got it all set up, emptied my local library of all their books on lathes and turning, and watched as many reruns of woodworks and new yankee workshop turning episodes, I gave it a go. My wife likes mojitos and suggested I make her a muddler….so here it is. I realize there are a lot of awesome turners on this site (which provided loads of inspiration in just looking at their wonderful work), so don’t laugh too hard. Now I can understand the addiction: I’ve tasted it and it was good!

BTW, the shakiness of the first picture was not the effect of a mojito but rather too slow of a shutter speed. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Wood is Goncalo Alves.

Well, I finally went and got myself a mini lathe—Jet 1220. I decided to make this stand out of bits and pieces in my cutoff bin. Its not pretty, but serves the need and was essentially no cost. Top and sides are double layers of 3/4” mdf laminated together. The rails are from reclaimed maple face frames from some old discarded kitchen cabinets as is the plywood top to the tool bin. The feet are laminated pieces of 2×6 fir with heavy duty refrigerator levelers. The stand is quite heavy and rock stable. I was going to fill the bin with sand or bricks, but I realized I didn’t really need the extra weight after all and it was a good place to store the turning tools (the lathe came with a starter set of gouges that I’ll be using to get going). It’s time to put away the lathe books and put tool to wood. My first “project” will follow…..