Jeff...'s wood put to good use!

[ChrisMathes]

Many of you will remember the stabilization project that Jeff... had a year or so ago with his "spalted, curly, wormy sycamore". I loved that wood and have not seen anything like it since. Anyway, with Jeff...'s generousity, he sent me a few blanks through the NCWW Pony Express as a bit of a surprise. I have made a few pens with the blanks and the one I typically carry is made from that tree.

One of the pieces was quite interesting in that it had a bunch of voids in it. I have been holding on to this blank since then. I knew it had potential and I was waiting until I got inspiration. The time has officially come for this blank. I am not a big fan of many of the turnings where voids were filled with material that are a shocking contrast to the wood. I do think, however, that there is an opportunity to fill the voids with an unusual substance while being a bit more subtle. I hope that I have
achieved that with this pen.

To fill the voids, I took a piece of amethyst, put it in a cloth bag and broke it into pieces with a 3 pound hammer. I colored the tube to prevent the brass from reflecting in the purple gem. I used CA glue to hold the amethyst in the voids and turned it on the lathe. I used a rhodium Jr. Statesman to hold the blank.

I was shocked at how hard the amethyst proved to be as it took me FOREVER to turn. I think I took a couple inches off of all of my tools from constantly resharpening. I also went through a bunch of sand paper In the end, I sanded the blank through 12000MM to polish the gems as much as possible before applying a CA finish. The finish was further protected with Renaissance Wax.

I entered this pen into the week 3 Penmaker's Challenge contest on the IAP and won 1st place :eusa_danc:eusa_danc I'm pretty psyched. :icon_thum:icon_thum

Thanks for looking...
Chris

 

[sapwood]

Wow, that's a beauty. I see why it's a winner :icon_thum

Congrats, Chris
Roger

 

[Wildwood]

Congratulations, really nice looking pen!

 

[DaveO]

I entered this pen into the week 3 Penmaker's Challenge contest on the IAP and won 1st place :eusa_danc:eusa_danc I'm pretty psyched. :icon_thum:icon_thum

Thanks for looking...
Chris

Beautiful pen Chris, and very innovative infill methods. You are really rocking the IAP's world with you pens lately :eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap
Impressing that bunch isn't too easy, not shabby at all :icon_thum

Dave

 

[ScottM]

Great job Chris. I can see why you won. I can also see it on the 2009 NCWW calendar.
:notworthy::notworthy:

 

[erasmussen]

Congratulations, can see why you won:icon_thum

 

[jeff...]

I can't believe you actually turned that bug hole ridden pen blank, what you did there is really unique :icon_thum

 

[ChrisMathes]

Thanks for the comments, all! I appreciate them very much. I have been fortunate with the outcome of the contest...especially with the pens you can see over there...gorgeous.

Mike, fwiw, I was thinking of you when I made it ;-):-D Jeff...still some of the prettiest blanks I've ever had. You wouldn't believe the number of requests I get for a pen from those blanks. I think they become even more sought after when I tell them that they are a limited edition and I can't get any more of that wood :eusa_clap:eusa_danc

...btw...do you still sell wood over there at iap? seems like I haven't seen you in a while, unless you changed your name..seems to be an epidemic :eusa_thin:-D

 

[jeff...]

Jeff...still some of the prettiest blanks I've ever had. You wouldn't believe the number of requests I get for a pen from those blanks. I think they become even more sought after when I tell them that they are a limited edition and I can't get any more of that wood :eusa_clap:eusa_danc

...btw...do you still sell wood over there at iap? seems like I haven't seen you in a while, unless you changed your name..seems to be an epidemic :eusa_thin:-D

Hey Chris - I'm currently not selling over at IAP, although I should start again. The moderators sent me a couple of e-mails telling me I needed to move into the business classified section. But I really didn't want to do that, so I just stopped and sold all the blanks I had cut. I was kinda fun I even was a sponsor and sent off a couple of flat rate envelopes of pen blanks to some of those contest winners.

Your also right about limited addition... I've milled up a few sycamore logs since then, but that was the only curly one I've ran across so far. I had a lot of fun with that tree and gave away lots of pen blanks from it.

Let me know if you get in a pinch, I may be able to dig up a few blanks for you

Thanks

 

[sawduster]

Wow ! 8-O How do you guys do that ? Absolutely incredible :icon_thum:icon_thum:icon_thum :notworthy:

 

[Eaglesc]

Congratulations Chris.
I too am not fond of filling voids with materials like turquoise
etc but the translucency of the amethyst makes this one a looker.:eusa_clap:icon_thum

 

[cskipper]

Wow! It should have won. Great job!:eusa_clap

 

[TV]

As other's have stated, Wow! Beautifully done! :eusa_clap

tv

 

[clowman]

Wow... haven't you took 1st place in about every contest they have had in the past 2 years?