Turnings for Labor Day Weekend, 2010
Labor Day weekend is always a busy one with the start of the Fulton County Fair and miscellaneous home projects, but I did manage to find some time to sneak out to the workshop and spin up the lathe. I finally enabled a slideshow feature on this website, this link will load up all of the additional images for each project. The first project is a lidded container made from maple and purpleheart. I misjudged the amount of maple I had to work with and really wanted a lid for this container. A bit of leftover purpleheart fixed that problem. The container is about 5 inches in diameter at the widest point and about 4 inches tall overall with the finial. The next project is a honduran rosewood classic profile yo-yo with gold plating. The finis is a coat of boiled linseed oil followed by a tripoli/white diamond/carnauba wax high speed buffing. This yo-yo has a sleeve bearing for good sleeping and is exceptionally well balanced. The next project is a Wall Street II profile ballpoint pen with twist mechanism. The wood is an Ebonized Madrone Burl, a pacific hardwood with rich dark textures. The next pen is a Tycoon style rollerball also dressed in Ebonized Madrone Burl. The Tycoon is simply a great looking pen. It features ultra smooth and durable threading, striking facets on the rollerball nib, and rhodium plating, an exquisite and valuable precious metal from the platinum chemical group. Rhodium's brilliance, hardness, and beauty make it a favorite of fine pen makers and collectors. Rhodium is extremely durable; it resists tarnish and is very resistant to scratching. The rollerball is a ceramic tipped Hauser and the cap can be posted for extra weight if desired.

The last pen project really warrants it's own paragraph. The pen is a David Broadwell designed Art Deco Rhodium & 22kt gold dressed in Indian Princess Acrylic. Art Deco was an opulent and lavish art form that spanned the 1920's and 1930's. The art form influenced architecture, industrial design, interior design, fashion, and film of the period. All components are cast, polished and plated with a durable 2-micron 22kt gold plate. The band includes spires and starbursts that characterize the Art Deco period. The Pen clip features unique Art Deco design and a radiant Swarovski Crystal and easily posts with threads on the end cap. The pen also features a Schmidtâ„¢ steel cartridge refill with a ceramic point. The Indian Princess acrylic is finished using micro mesh wet sanding to 12000 grit.