‘Explore’
Acrylester Click Pencil
I wanted to see how a light colored acrylester work out: to what extent you can see through the material and how well the inner sleeve color combined with the outer barrel. I have done something like this before, but not with material this light, and I have painted the inner barrel black in the past to avoid bleed-through. As you can see from the photo, there is a certain amount of translucence to the barrel. You’re actually seeing the color of brass sleeve coming through. I like it and will play with this some more in the future.
Nouveau Scepter FP in Cocobolo
Yup, it turned out as nice as it looks here. This is just a gorgeous piece of cocobolo. I could see the grain in the rough piece, but I couldn’t see the different colors. I just love having things like that appear as I’m working the wood. Particularly when it gets down to the finishing stage, since that is when the real details come out.
Grape Vine Knot and Lignum Vitae
The cap for this came from the knot of a grape vine. I was wondering what the grain could look like inside that convoluted mass, but I couldn’t foresee the pineapple that appeared. My wife says it’s a wolf instead, but I still say pineapple. I may remake the body in grape vine also, but the lignum vitae is such a lovely wood to work with and the color seemed to work. Let me know what you think.
Acrylic and Acrylester
I like Acrylic and Acrylester as accents to wood. Wood is still what it’s all about for me at this time, but this seemed like an intriguing combo all by itself. Sort of a fade from night into day, although the purple in the middle is a bit “purple-y” for that metaphor. If you’ve got a better metaphor let me know.
Bubinga Calligraphy Set
Each calligraphy set comes as standard with 6 nibs, extra ink cartridges and 1 converter for using bottled ink. Either “boring-but-appropriate” plastic case or “pretty-but-impractical” wood case included (For now. I may end up making my own cases). Bubinga is also known as African Rosewood. Frequently used for musical instruments and fancy furniture. Also used for the dashboard in your second cousins Lexus.
Thuya Burl Fountain Pen
This is available if I can convince my wife that it is for sale. It really is very beautiful. Email me if you want me to sneak it out of the house. The material is not easy to come by, but when I see it available for a reasonable price I buy it. This might be my favorite wood… except for some of the others.
Cocobolo Burl and Pau Ferro w/ Chakte Viga Inlay Ballpoint
This piece of cocobolo shouted at me from the shelf. It was just a small scrap, useless for furniture or the like because of the huge knot in it. I absolutely couldn’t pass it up. I decided not to dodge the rough part of the knot, and I’m glad I did. The swirl of grain on the opposite side is just lovely. These are a bit more difficult to make, but if they all turned out like this I might not do anything else.
















































