Pictures

[mlcannon]

To all,

I recently joined and in nearly all of my welcome e-mails I was encouraged to post some pictures. I am happy to announce that I have managed to post just a few to start things off. Please take a look if you have time in mlcannon's album.

Take care,

Mike

 

[DaveO]

Beautiful work. Clay has got himself some competition

Dave

 

[Ray Martin]

Mike,

Those pens are beautiful. Did you say you wanted to give each of us a pen for our birthdays? :icon_flow

Ray

 

[mlcannon]

Dave,

Thanks. I have a bunch more made, but without pictures. I'll get them on soon.

Mike

 

[mlcannon]

Ray,

Thanks! I'll see what I can do!!

Mike

 

[DaveT]

Mike,

Nice work! They are gorgeous pens!

 

[clowman]

Nice work Mike! Gotta love those burls.

 

[clowman]

I also meant to ask what finish you like for your pens?

 

[D L Ames]

Great looking pens Mike. Thanks for posting those for us.

D L

 

[cskipper]

Great looking pens! Clay beat me to the quesstions - what finish did you use

 

[skeeter]

Great looking pens. I really like the wood!

 

[mlcannon]

I also meant to ask what finish you like for your pens?

Clay,

I typically use boiled linseed oil and CA glue with an in-between coat of Hut PPP.

I do BLO followed by CA about 2 or 3 times, then Hut PPP, then a final coat of BLO/CA.

Occasionally I use Mylands Friction Polish in the place of PPP. A friend who got me into turning pens told me that for stabilized wood all I needed is sanding and then Polyurethane. I did this on one and it turned out nice.

Is this similar to what you use?

Take care,

Mike

 

[clowman]

I use 2 types of finish.

The 3-step method. Which is 3 coats of sanding sealer followed by 3 coats of friction polish, followed by 3 coats of carnuba wax.

The CA method.

I personally like the finished feel of the 3 step method best, but nothing is as eye catching and as durable as a pen finished with CA. I make CA finished pens 10-1 over the 3 step. People like shiny things. When people ask me to make a pen for them, I describe the 3 step finish and the CA method. When I tell them that the 3 step needs to be periodically polished, they nearly always want the CA pen.