Some lathe time after a week with the cold from hell.
Chinese Hat Box2-Way Tech 24kt Gold Twist Pen with Bethlehem Olive WoodCredit Card Satin Ballpoint Pen in Bolivian RosewoodSlimline Pro Satin Ballpoint Pen and Pencil Set in RedheartAfter being knocked senseless for over a week by the cold from hell (I'm blaming my office co-workers), I finally had a weekend where I did not have any major scheduled events and I felt healthy to play out in the shop. I have a few new kits I've been wanting to try lately, and one special project I needed to get done this weekend. The pens from left to right include: A Slimline Pro gel-writer pen and pencil set dressed in Redheart. The metal finish is silver satin and the mechanism for both instruments is a click style. The Slimline Pro design is similar to the standard slimline with a slightly wider body and clean straight line design in the clip. The wider body allows for a gel-writer cartridge versus standard ballpoint. The pencil features a .7mm mechanism with an eraser behind the click cap. The finish is BLO/CA with high speed three wheel buffing. The second pen was a request from my wife. She wanted a turned pen small enough to fir comfortably in her pocket. There are several different kits available in a shortened format, I opted to try the Credit Card Ballpoint style. The pen features a twist mechanism mini-ballpoint reload with Silver Satin plating and dressed in Bolivian Rosewood. The width is comparable to a standard slimline ballpoint. The next pen is a 2-Way Tech 24kt Gold Twist Pen with Bethlehem Olive Wood. This pen is actually for me. Since I got a new touchscreen cell phone recently, I wanted a PDA stylus I could have on hand for jotting notes. This particular mechanism can load two different nibs (it ships with three, a plastic PDA stylus and one black and one red mini-ballpoint cartridges). I loaded the black ballpoint and plastic PDA stylus, and this will be the pen I carry with me. The last item I turned today was a last minute birthday gift. I completely forgot my mothers birthday last week, which turned out to be O.K. since I did not see her anyway due to my bad cold. I am planning on meeting up with her for lunch this week, and I wanted to make her a little something since she objects to getting gifts. I have a lot of walnut aging in my shop, so I decided to crack into some of it and make a Chinese Hat Box. The dimensions are about 4.5inches in diameter, and 5 inches high. The finish is Danish Oil and high speed buffing with Tripoli and White Diamond. Total time is about 3 hours. I should have spent a bit more time on the lid bottom and bottom of the body, but I am still satisfied by the overall presentation.