re: Big Ben pens

Thanks, guys.

Keebs, these do have the Schmidt mechanism. Pretty much all the pen kits I buy take Parker refills (because the JetStream uni-ball pen refills I like are Parker-style) and have the Schmidt mechanism.

Yeah, Splint. There was a pretty knot in the juniper too, but I ended up turning it away, and all that remains is a dark spot I hid under the clip. But I’ve been saving offcuts from other projects and have about half a cubic-foot of ready-to-go pen blanks. When I rummage through there, I generally grab the pretty stuff, and then figure which end is better before trimming it to length.

I’ve also got a few dozen 2 inch and shorter pieces which are all going to get chopped into quarter to 3/8 inch long pieces and then glued up into multi-wood pen blanks one of these days. Just trying to decide if I want to do diagonal cuts or not before I start making blanks.

There’s also a cubic foot of blanks that need stabilizing. Guess I’m going to have to get my vacuum pot set up pretty soon too.