These pens are made from the blanks i cast with the rockler pen mold. The cholla cactus came from my good friend Dave Polaschek. Here is how the molds were loaded. This mold allows the tubes to be cast in the blank so no drilling required, and very little sanding to square the ends.
The blanks came out a little too big due to over filling the mold. A little sanding on the belt sander quickly squared them up though.
The epoxy i used came from amazon. it's supposed to be bubble free but i did get a few very tiny ones. Probably due to not getting the epoxy down in the mold with the cholla. It has a work time of 40 mins. The color was done with Star Bond mica powder. Diamond sky blue and merlot red. The pen kits are gun metal cigar. They are finished with micro mesh wet sanded then final polish with stick fast.
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
That Cholla has lots of pores that will emit bubbles. If you have a vacuum pot you could give them a suck for a short time. I use the same resin, just not the "New Formula" (what's wrong with the old?). Same stated work time but I find it still moving around after 1-2 hours.
thanks mike. no vac pot. the bubbles i got were very tiny so for what i did im very happy with the result. yeah they say 40 minutes work time but it was still soft after a couple hours.
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
OMG... are we experiencing a Pottz dopleganger? No... not two of them,
I'm not an avid fan of acrylics, however, I do give credit² to your casting. That timber makes the pen... and the shape, I should stop before I break into tears.... I remember paying a small fortune to get this hybrid blank, that never sold.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
that pen is gorgeous ducks. i wanna make some hybrid blanks, i love the look of of em. cant afford to buy em though , they want way too much ! ill probably cast em without the tubes though so as to get more wood.
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
Nice Pens, Larry. I don't know about the gals,,,look like they could tear you butt apart!!!!!!! The is a small cholla cactus in the desert called pencil cholla. If you get a skeleton of one of the smallest pieces, it could be put whole into a pen especially one of these fat ones. Cheers, Jim
Cheers, Jim ........................ Variety is the spice of life...............Learn something new every day
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