Another frustrating day in the shop today. I think I was preoccupied and failed to pay attention as I was trying to make a new pen. The last Purpleheart Baron Fountain pen that I made ended up with blotches in the finish and I was sick and tired of looking at it. I started out with my last Honduras Rosewood Blank but when I drilled the short blank, It split at the lower end. Then I cut my last purpleheart blank, but wasn’t paying attention when I was drilling the blank. The Baron tubes are two different sizes, but I started to drill the long blank with the short blank drill bit, so I had to start over again. I found a Mun Ebony blank and decided that would do.
The Mun Ebony is a beautiful wood. Not very dark at all and a beautiful grain when turned down.
After turning the blank, I finished to 1500 grit and then “buffed” the blanks with some of the shavings. This tends to clean the blank out and fills in exposed pores with some micro shavings. Before I applied the final finish, I cleaned the blank with some rubbing alcohol, and then applied the EEE Cream. Once the EEE Cream was cleaned off, I had a wonderful smooth pen blank. The final step in the finishing was a new wax called Shellawax. It is a shellac based finish that takes approx 3 weeks to fully cure, but they encourage use during the curing time.
To Everything, Turn...Turn...Turn 