As you may have noticed, I've been posting more not-knives than knives lately. Not because I don't enjoy working on knives anymore, but because I actually like to finish projects every once and a while.
It is amazingly satisfying to finish things, all day most days I work on projects that may take years or longer to finish. I am still finishing up projects that my predecessor started, and I've been at my job for about two years now. Coming home and adding an hour to a project that will take quite a few hour or multi-hour blocks is not very appealing most nights.
The inspiration for my small projects is the result of my friendship with Rocketpants and Bill.
Somehow I convinced them to let me teach them how to shave with a straight razor, and despite me spraying blood all over the bathroom (never wave a razor in one hand and wine glass in the other), they were game and now each has a razor and brush. Since I'm not ready (wrong set of tools) to try making the razors themselves, I decided to try shaving brushes, as seen in an earlier post (Bench and Brush).
Now Bill commented a couple times that I should try pens, since he likes fountain pens, so, because I needed more hobbies I started with some basic pens and a wine stopper (As the wood turns).
I thought they were pretty basic and realized that I preferred other types of pen, so I bought more.
I tried the POLARIS (like the rocket?) They look small but fit well in the hand, and take Parker style ink - which means that you can use gel refills - which I prefer to rollerballs. These are black titanium.
In Redwood Burl
In Maple Burl
I tried a heavy duty sketch pencil (5.6mm lead)
This is desert ironwood and chrome- the picture doesn't do the wood justice;
I tried a bullet pen (.30 caliber in this case) in black titanium...
This is the same block of desert iron wood - and doesn't do the wood justice either.
I tried a seam ripper...
In bloodwood, with copper powder inlay;
And finally I tried the fountain pen - first I tried Manzanita with turquoise inlay... and the wood tore off the barrel, then I tried Ancient Kauri, and the wood tore off the barrel, then I tried gabon ebony, and caught it and glued it before it tore off.
And I think it looks better than the other woods would have. I hadn't realized how much of the fittings were black. The shiny stuff is rhodium plated, and the tip is iridium.
Looks fancy! Writes well too.
Now all I have left to try from this batch is a walking stick - but I might need to buy some longer pieces of wood to pull this one off :)
And in closing, a gratuitous picture of Autumn:
Bye now!
A
