Scarlett perch Cigar pen

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
This pen is two firsts for me. The first pen I ever made with a skin wrapped in transparent wood veneer ;) and my first Cigar. I'll post elsewhere my experiences turning this 'wood'. It is a black Ti from CS. The cigar style seems a bit heavy for my hand. But it is a popular style so that assessment is an individual thing.
 

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Frank that is a beauty. Love the shot. Mighty fine work.

Thanks. I actually put zero effort into taking pictures of pens and other small items. There is a rock wall just outside the door of my shop and I simply put the item somewhere on the rocks where I think it will look good. If the sun is too bright and might glare, I stand so my shadow is cast on the subject. Call it lazy art.
 
Very fine looking pen and great photography. Can't wait to hear about the process. :thumb:

Joan, the blank was purchased from Glimmerz N More. I don't cast resins. My interest is wood but I do want to make some snakeskin pens and these folks make fine blanks. As for turning the pen, since this isn't a penturing forum I wasn't planning on telling the whole experience. But, if you are interested, take a look at it on The Pen Shop forum.
http://www.thepenshop.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5887&PN=1
 
OK, my experience turning this pen. Note my reference to "transparent wood". On the penturning forums, I am well known as a 'wood only' guy who doesn't care to turn synthetics. It is a standing joke that I refuse to ever turn anything but wood. Below is copy and paste from one of those forums.
"In Show Off I posted my first skin pen in a Cigar style. Having never turned this particular transparent wood before I wanted to experiment before launching into an expensive blank. To the credit of the fine folks at Glimmerz N More, when I ordered my rattlesnake blank, I asked if they had a chunk of scrap material so I could test before turning. What they sent was the Scarlett perch blank claiming it was defective. Folks, I expect that close examination and a good imagination might find fault with this blank. I like it and thank them for their generosity and compliment them for their skills in making these. Enneyhow, I quickly found that it is soft and turns easily. I used a large skew from start to finish. What I didn't expect was the mess it made (see picture). Instead of shavings, it generated this fluffy stuff which I had to clean off the skew every few seconds. BTW, I saved all the waste in a plastic bag. It will be used as filler for voids in other projects. Turning was a routine experience. The time and frustration came in sanding. I first tried pads made for plastics (Abralon?). I started with the third coarsest and it scratched something awful. Gave that up pronto. Turned to Micro Mesh used wet. That did the job but I had to resand three time, skew again, resand twice more with the MM to get the scratches out. The sharp eyed here will note from the picture that I used the 'no mandrel' set up. (Sorry Johnson) So my sanding experiment was limited to only one half of the pen. Number two went much easier. Once polished with MM, I gave another polish with my trusty wool blanket. Put a coat of Trade Secret Wax from Top of the Line Auto Products on and re polished with the wool blanket. Turning this 'transparent wood' is nothing to be afraid of but care is needed. Heck, when isn't care needed?"
 

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I'm a bit late to the party, but man, that's a gorgeous pen, Frank. Great photo, too. It's neat how you set up the rocks and moss and leaves in your photo tent, too. (Cute "story" about the wall by your shop and all...) :rofl:

I kind of like turning acrylics, and I've been tempted to try some type of cast blank. Thanks for the heads-up on Glimmerz N More.
 
I'm a bit late to the party, but man, that's a gorgeous pen, Frank. Great photo, too. It's neat how you set up the rocks and moss and leaves in your photo tent, too. (Cute "story" about the wall by your shop and all...) :rofl:

I kind of like turning acrylics, and I've been tempted to try some type of cast blank. Thanks for the heads-up on Glimmerz N More.

Thanks all. Even though I am known on the pen forums as 'anti-synthetic', I did want to do some snakeskins. And with the new (for me) Cigar style, I learned a couple things. One, how to turn this material, two, I kinda like the big Cigar even though it seems a bit top heavy for me. As for the picture, unlike some, I believe that a nice background can enhance the story of the subject. I'll use natural light when possible and will pose pens, other items and even people on what is handy, including stumps, rocks, whatever. My first job (age 13) was taking sports photos with a 4x5 Speed Graphic and I earned a living with camera and typewriter for many years thereafter. Maybe I haven't lost it all yet. Note the Glimmerz folks are $8 to $13 LESS expensive for their skin blanks than many other sources. Nice folks and quality products. My next skin pen will be rattlesnake on a full sized Gentelman rollerball. If I don't screw it up it will be my new personal pen.
 
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