Normally, I don’t make many pencils. Most people want pens and few are willing to pay for a pencil, even though the same work goes into one, and generally the parts for a pencil are more expensive than for a pen. It is a more complex device overall, so there are normally more small parts and mechanisms that go into it.
Red Tide Pen with Flaw in Body
This one was actually going to be half of a Pen and Pencil set as I had matching pieces of Red Tide turning blanks. I still find myself getting in a hurry sometimes and that is always a bad idea. It is okay to go fast but never hurry, that is when mistakes happen. And so it was for the Pen half of this Pen and Pencil set.
I was just in a hurry to see how the Tide would turn, so to speak and I didn’t let the glue set long enough before starting to turn the pen. I was actually within a hundredth of an inch or so of being through turning it and starting on the sanding when disaster struck. I could feel it before it happened, yet it happened so fast that there was nothing I could do about it by the time I felt it.
The actual thickness of the blank over the tube varies with the type of pen, but it can range from barely a 64th of an inch to nearly an 8th. It doesn’t really matter since it is the glue that keeps the blank from shattering off the tube as it is turned down that thin. I broke the cardinal rule of not letting the glue cure before starting to turn the pen and paid the price, I lost an incredibly beautiful pen.
I say I lost it, I really didn’t as I was able to finish the pen out and assemble it, but there is a small chip out of the body revealing the tube and I won’t sell a pen that way. I am posting a picture of the pen and the pencil as well.
With the glue not being cured, the torques and heat of the turning combined to loosen the
Red Tide Pencil Completed
blank on the tube and that loosening allowed it to chip out as I neared completion. This really does not damage anything except the blank, and normally, I would have just gone ahead and turned the pen all the way down to the tube, removing all of the blank so that I could start over with a new blank. This time, I just took the blank and finished it out as though it were completed properly and assembled it for my own use.
Needless to say, I waited for the glue to cure on the pencil before starting it, and the completed pencil has been listed on Etsy. I do have mechanisms to make another matched pair, but this was the only blank I had of the Red Tide variety, so I am thinking about a really nice pair in Mango. But first, I have a click with a checkerboard blank. I’ll try to get it listed tomorrow and get some pictures posted. It is one I am really proud of as I made this one myself from scratch and it really looks good IMHO.
Till next time -
