Gifts

Hi All,
I said in my last post that I was going to make a couple of pens to give away as gifts. Well here's the first that I turned from a piece of lime.

It's click pen with a Harlequin design. Most small pens have a twist mechanism that I don't particularly like so I thought I'd have a go at a clicker. Unfortunately, click pens have a bad reputation because according to some turners the click mechanism isn't very reliable. Only time will tell with this pen, which is working fine at the moment. It was going to be a gift for a friend but when my wife saw it, she bagsied it and said I could make my friend another pen. Charming.

For those that are interested, the dark lines are burnt in with my Peter Childs pyrography iron, using a spoon tip. And the colours are Winsor and Newton pro colour markers. I find it much easier to use markers rather than painting the colour or stain on with a brush. The black pyrography lines help to stop any bleed between the colours.

The second pen I made for my mother in law. She likes bright things so I made her a happy pen.

She thought it was great, she loved the colours and said that the extra thickness made writing much easier with her 85year old hands.
Details are the same as the first pen. Turned from a piece of lime, black line burnt in, this time with a wire while the pen was still on the lathe. And the colours were the same as the pen before. In both cases, the finish used was melamine.

The happy pen doesn't have a mechanism. The ink is supplied via a bic pen. I just took the pen part out and threw away the plastic tube. The piece of lime is drilled out to 4mm to accept the nib and ink tube. Drilling it out is the hardest part of making this typr of pen because it needs a long straight hole, and being wood drills often veer off because they like to follow the softest grain.

I have just started a new project which will involve, turning, carving and pyrography, so please watch this space if you want to see how I get on. It is a unique project and you won't see another like it anywhere.

Just before you go, one of my books, "Carp Rustlers" will be free to download from Amazon until Saturday 21st July. Please grab a copy and have a good laugh. click  here to go straight to Amazon.