Desk Pen

Hi all,
I managed to get into the workshop and turn the desk pen set I was making. Not only that, I also managed to do some pyrography on it and paint it.

Here it is in all its glory.

The pen is just short of 10 inches long but it really makes a statement.
I turned it from lime wood using three lots of tubes to give it some rigidity. The joints are obviously under the first three round bulges. The black line that has been burnt in, hides the joints.

I used the index facility on my lathe to allow me to produce a symmetrical pattern. It was then just a matter of carefully burning in the pattern with my pyrography iron. I used a spoon tip which is ideal for burning lines on curved surfaces like a pen.

Here's another picture.

In this picture you can see that the pen is powered by an humble Biro and that might be a disappointment to some people, but to me it makes sense.

The advantages of using a Biro are as follows.
The reliability of the Biro is amazing, the company has been making pens for years so they are very reliable. If it runs out of ink, all I have to do is take one from another Biro, so it couldn't be simper or cheaper.

 The other issue is that I have made a lot of kit pens, given a few away and have lots of others dotted about my house. Unfortunately, I have to report that a few of the kit pens have stopped working because the mechanisms have packed up. I probably got them from the wrong supplier and because I used several I don't know which ones gave up the ghost. Anyway, I have lost confidence in pen kits and I'm just pleased that I only ever sold one.

Not sure what I am going to do next, but please watch this space. Any comments on the pen are welcome.

Just one last thing, one of my fish books, "Learn From The Tips And Laugh At the Tales"

will be available for a free download from the 27th of November until the 1st of December. To go straight to amazon for the download please click here.

Another Santa

Hi All,
I thought I'd be showing you my latest woodturning in this post, but I'm afraid I haven't quite finished it yet. I've done the actual pen but it seems a shame to show you that without its base. I will endeavour to get it done in the next few days because I can't wait to show it off.

In the meanwhile, I've had a go at carving some faces that are not flat. I want to do a special Santa Clause for my wife for Christmas, so I need to get some practise in.

Here's arandom face I did to improve the shape.

It's a bit rough but I was more concerned about the shape than the actual finish. It's a bit bigger than my usual whittles so the next thing to do was something small. And, seeing as the whole exercise is based around Santa, I thought I try another small one and make it into a fridge magnet. My wife can have that at Christmas too as a little surprise.

He's not painted yet or finished good enough for my painting plans, but at least the shape is there. I especially like the hat.

Doing these quick carvings can be enlightening because although he is pretty good, I can see plenty of room for improvement. Here are a few things I don't like.
1 His nose is too big.
2 He looks a bit grumpy. (perhaps because his nose is too big)
3 The gap between the bottom of his moustache and his nose is fraction too wide.
4 His forehead is slightly too big.
5 His face is too long, Santa has a round chubby face.

Anyway, I'll give him a bit of paint and I'll show you the finished item in my next post.

The next thing I need to do is make a model of the Santa I intend to do for my wife. I will make one out of plasticine and then I can get on with the carving process. It's only about 5 weeks to Crimbo so I need to get on with it. I also have feeling that the weather is going to get much colder so I will be spending less time in the workshop. I have just remebered that I said I'd do a review on the oil fill radiator that I've recently purchased, well, it's beens so mild I haven't used it yet. Perhaps next week.

Anyway, we haven't had a bad winter so far so let's hope it continues. The last thing we need is another beast from the East like we had last year.

Wooden Vase

Hi all,
At last I managed to do a bit of woodturning, nothing very big but at least I produced something. Here it is.

Like I said it's not very big, approximately 6 inches tall. It is a new shape to me and I think it looks quite elegant. I'm afraid the picture doesn't do the wood justice but in real life the grain really pops. I know some of you will want to know what species of wood it is turned from but I' afraid I don't know. I purchased the wood some time ago and the bit with the label got cut off when I used it on another project.

This vase is the first of  several vases of a similar size that I'm doing for a display cupboard to heat my wife purchased recently. My plan is to turn vases of various shape, using various wood and I might even do some inlay work on some of them. It's nice to have a list of things in the pipeline, because it avoids procrastination. Having purchased an oil filled radiator to keep my workshop warm this winter I will have plenty of stuff to get stuck into.

Talking of heaters, I did say I would do a review on the heater mentioned above, but to be honest, I haven't used it yet because the temperature has gone up. As soon as we have another cold snap I will do the review.

On the lathe at the moment I have a long pen, (10 inches).

I'm still not sure what method of decoration to use on it. It might be pyrography, but there again it might be colour. I hope to put the finish pen up on my next post so we will see.

Last  but not least, I have reduced the price of one of my paperback books. It is the first one in the Fishing Detectives series and is called "Carp Rustlers". It's a fun book and you don't even need to be an angler to enjoy it. Here is the link if you are interested.

In my next post I should also have a bit of carving to show you, hopefully I will have solved the flat face problem.

If you want to see more of my stuff, woodturning, woodcarving, pyrography or art please take a look at my website by clicking here.

Father Christmas

Hi all,
I managed to finish the carving of the Santa shelfie and gave it to my wife to paint. Here is the finished article.
Front view

He looks pretty good from that angle even though I do say it myself. However, the side view isn't quite so clever. The sack is alright but the face lets it down again.

The problem is that once again I have carved a flat face. I know I've said it before, but a flat face is the trade mark of a novice carver. The mitt, the boots and the rest are okay, but the face lets it down. The strange thing is, I carved a really nice Santa face on a piece of scrap wood for practise, so I thought I'd got it sorted. To be honest, I think the problem arose because I put the face too far back on the body which didn't allow me to take off enough wood on the face.

Well that's my excuse we'll see what the next one come out like.

I said I was going to turn a vase and I've got one on my lathe, but it is so cold in the workshop I've abandoned the project in the short term. To resolve the situation, I've ordered an oil filled radiator and when that comes I'm hoping my workshop will be toasty. I will do a review on it when I've got it running because I know a lot of people have trouble with cold workshops at this time of the year.

I hate the cold weather so here is a clip to a nice warming video of my garden which I filmed earlier this year.