Mechanical Artist Pencils

Here are 2 pencils I turned this last weekend. One is from an acrylic whose colored name is Fire and Ice. The other is from a piece of spalted wood. Each style of material has its own features and drawbacks. The acrylic pencil is for my daughter, the wood for myself.


The bore I drilled for the brass tube was 29/64, which is pretty big. I then ran sandpaper through the bore to enlarge it slightly, as the tube itself was about a hundredth larger than 29/64. I had to start with a 3/4 inch square block, no cheating on the size like I do with the 7mm stuff. Neither was difficult to turn, and I started with a roughing gouge and then switched to a skew for both pencils. The whole process took less than 2 hours, including time to epoxy the tubes in the holes I drilled and resharpening the skew. Very satisfying.

Enjoy, but be careful of the splinters.

Still more pens

I turned two new pens tonight, both 7mm American Slimline Twist. One is from Myrtal Wood for my boss, the other is from a branch of something my sister gave me (I think). I also turned a bottle stopper, but forgot to take a picture. I gave the pens a little weight as I knew they would be used by men. I need to make my own center band so I may try taking a jewelry class this winter to try and get a taste for working with metal. The alternate is to turn the band from wood or acrylic.

I picked up some resin to try pouring my own blanks, as it does add a different aspect to the pen making. The store was out of catalyst, but I'm not in a hurry anyway.

Had the power company stop by today to look at our house to help determine if I need to increase my feeder size for the shop. Maybe not, I can only hope, as this would be about 1/3 of the shop price.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Apple Figure

This project is a piece of an apple tree I got from a friend. I hollowed it out, simply to allow the wood to dry when I nuked it. The color is great. I would have liked to done a better job on the interior, but I was trying to save as much of the exterior as I could. The piece was part of a burl he took from where they had been trimming the branches off, for years.

Enjoy.