Padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii)is a bright orange color when it’s freshly cut but quickly fades to a pretty reddish brown with exposure to light. The sawdust is strangely sticky, clinging to everything it touches, metal, skin, clothing, etc. This makes it somewhat difficult to work with because the dust tends to pile up on my knives [...]
Archive for the ‘Handmade’ Category
27 Oct
Mpingo Slimline Ballpoint Pen
This pen could be named serendipity. While working on a couple of other pens made from Mpingo, I managed to break the wood on one of the barrels of each. Several weeks went by and the individual barrels got lost in the shuffle on my assembly bench. Yesterday, I found both of them. On a [...]
26 Oct
Ipé Slimline Ballpoint Pen
This pen is made from Ipé (Tabebuia chrysantha) which is incredibly dense, so much so that it won’t float in water or sustain a flame. I made it with matte black fittings so it’s very understated while still stylish with a nice weight. I really like turning Ipé because it takes an incredible finish, even [...]
22 Oct
Peruvian Walnut Slimline Ballpoint Pens
Peruvian Walnut (Juglans neotropica) is very similar to American Walnut but it’s difficult to work because it’s very prone to splintering and tears out. However, it takes an incredible finish and it’s grain is very pretty. The wood I used to make these pens were off-cuts from a dining table I built for friends a [...]
21 Oct
Padauk Cigar Ballpoint Pen
This pen was one that I’d actually forgotten I had a kit for. I was looking through my stock of kits for something else when I found it. The bushings that it requires to make as well as the necessary drill bit were also present, so I was set. I had some Padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) [...]
16 Oct
Mpingo Slimline Ballpoint Pens
This pen is made from Mpingo (Dalbergia melanoxylon) commonly known as African Blackwood. Some folks like a thicker barrel on their pens, so I turned this one to a larger diameter than I usually do. The extra wood gives the pen a bit more heft, so it feels nice in your hand. Mechanism: The mechanism [...]
15 Oct
Mpingo .50 Caliber BMG Pen
I made another pen from a once-fired .50 caliber BMG (Browning Machine Gun) shell casing, this time with Mpingo (African Blackwood). It is the pen in the right in the above photo. Making these pens is kind of fun. There’s only one barrel to be turned and there are only a couple of tricky spots. [...]
11 Oct
Black & White Ebony Slimline Ballpoint Pens
These pens are made from Black & White Ebony (Diospyros embryopteris) which is also known as Pale Moon Ebony or White Ebony. There are so many species of Ebony in the world that it’s sometimes difficult to classify what you’re working with, but I’m pretty sure this is correct. I bought the wood from a [...]
7 Oct
Mpingo Bottle Stopper
Mpingo (African Blackwood) has quickly become one of my favorite woods to work with. It machines well, smells nice, isn’t grumpy on the lathe – meaning it doesn’t split or crack easily although it will if you try hard enough. This particular piece said “bottle stopper” to me as soon as I saw it. The [...]
5 Oct
Alder Slimline Ballpoint Pens
These two pens are made from Alder (Alnus rubr) harvested from a friend’s swamp he was trying to reclaim. I probably pulled close to three cords of it out of the mud and blackberries on his back forty. Although it’s technically a hardwood, Alder is very soft and surprisingly difficult to turn at the pen [...]
