Turquoise Wall Street II and BWE Gatsby pens

[Doug B]

Well, it seems to be a little slow right now in the woodturning forum, so here are the second 2 pens of a 4 pen request that I had to get done for a customer.

I had the Black and White Ebony (BWE) Gatsby done a while back, but did not take a pic of it til today. The Wall Street II Black Titanium and Platinum finish with Turquoise Trustone has to be one of my favorites to make - this it the third one I've made and I have one more that I'll be making very soon. But, at $17.00 per pen kit, these are few and far between.

Here is the Wall Street II using Turquoise Trustone.




And here is the Black and White Ebony (BWE) Gatsby.

[sachbvn]

Nice looking pens Doug - You've posted several Gatsby pens....at first I didn't care for the pen style (your part of it was great of course) but I think it's grown on me a bit..... I may have to get a set of bushings and try a kit out. They aren't terribly priced either if I recall correctly.

The Wall St II is a nice looking pen also - but wow 17.00 / kit? Pricey! I do have a Majestic Jr. kit I bought, that's been the most expensive - but I can't figure out which blank I want to use.

I'll try to get some photo's up here - I've made several pens and BS but haven't posted pics....heck - haven't taken pics. Been busy - my pictures suck..... yeah - haha - oh well.

Both look good man!

Zac

[Doug B]

Thanks Zac,

There are a couple of things I have issues with one or both of these kits. You are correct that the Gatsby is very reasonably priced, but the twist mechanism and the way it works in this pen are not great. The Gatsby advances the ink refill by twisting the very top (black) portion of the pen - kind of awkward. Also the black portions of the pen kit are plastic - that is probably going to get scratched up at some point. The top portion of the Gatsby that twists can be pulled off the twist mechanism and I can see no reason for it to be able to do that. Just not the best designed pen I've seen by far.

Both the Gatsby and the WSII kits use a 27/64" drill bit and tube. That is huge in comparison to the final pen dimensions and the wall thickness of the turned material ends up being very thin. Any material that has a tendency to be brittle is likely going to crack when the pen gets assembled - I have had several very beautiful cross cut Cedar or other brittle wood crack during assembly. Cuss words were said...loudly...

And there is no way in hades that you can use a rattlesnake skin blank on either pen - you would end up getting into the skin itself. Also, most synthetic materials are going to require that you paint the tubes or else the copper will show through once the barrel is turned to size.

Now for the good things...a single barrel pen means that you can get 2 pens out of a single pen blank...very nice when you are using something very expensive. Trustone works very well on these pens.

The WSII has a very, very nice twist mechanism that feels very smooth and solid. And it twists just like you would expect a pen like this to twist - between the upper and lower barrels.

As for why the Gatsby is a pen I still make a lot of...for the ladies that want a slightly bigger pen than a slim they are the perfect pen and you can put a Parker ink gel refill in them which helps make them a nicer writing pen. The WSII is a definite step up from the Gatsby and it comes in Black Titanium which is one of my favorite finishes.

So, the Gatsby is the economical step up from the slimline for ladies pens and the WS II is the premium one. They both have a good reason to be used.

[Joe Lyddon]

OOOooo... Very stunning!

[Doug B]

Thanks Joe!

[sachbvn]

Doug,

Thanks for the nice reviews on both pen kits - and the heads up on the Gatsbys.... I wondered how that plasticy looking part was.... that IS a weird twist mechanism.....

A pen kit that I've wanted to try, but haven't, is the Polaris kit.... it actually kind of looks uni-sex - not really geared towards male or female. IMO anyways.


Zac

[sawduster]

Very nice looking pens, and thanks for the heads up on the issues with the kits. I really like the idea of the Tru-Stone.

Some time back I made several pens with real turquoise banding. What I did for those was to cut a groove a little wider than my 1/8" parting tool around the circumference of the pen, then use some crushed turquoise beads and thick CA glue to slightly over fill in the groove, then a real sharp skew to slice the turquoise back flush to the wood. It was a real PITA but folks liked them, especially with mesquite. Had taken some pics but they got lost in a hard drive crash.

I think one could crosscut one of those blanks (or use the scrap from another pen made with one of them) and build up a blank from wood and 1/8"-3/16" thickness of the Tru-Stone to add a band in an appropriate place on a pen.

[boodrow]

Doug the pens look great! Im partial to the BW wood. I bought some from woodwork couple weeks ago & that chit aint cheap! Since I seen the first one u posted ive wanted to turn some of it. To my surprise is how heavy it is. Bout to take a break from cat boxes and get back to my real hobbie , turnin.
Boodrow

[Ruffnek]

Those are fine looking pens, Doug, but I really like that B&W Ebony. It's classy!

[Doug B]

Feb 7, 2010 7:06:27 GMT -6 sachbvn said:

A pen kit that I've wanted to try, but haven't, is the Polaris kit.... it actually kind of looks uni-sex - not really geared towards male or female. IMO anyways.

Zac

I have not tried the Polaris either, but something about the clip end crimped look does not appeal to me. I've always thought of it as a mans pen too, just like the cigar pen. We haven't even talked about my absolute favorite "unisex" pen...the Classic Twist. I really like that kit a lot and it seems to appeal to both men and women equally.

[Doug B]

Feb 7, 2010 9:25:13 GMT -6 sawduster said:

Very nice looking pens, and thanks for the heads up on the issues with the kits. I really like the idea of the Tru-Stone.

Some time back I made several pens with real turquoise banding. What I did for those was to cut a groove a little wider than my 1/8" parting tool around the circumference of the pen, then use some crushed turquoise beads and thick CA glue to slightly over fill in the groove, then a real sharp skew to slice the turquoise back flush to the wood. It was a real PITA but folks liked them, especially with mesquite. Had taken some pics but they got lost in a hard drive crash.

I think one could crosscut one of those blanks (or use the scrap from another pen made with one of them) and build up a blank from wood and 1/8"-3/16" thickness of the Tru-Stone to add a band in an appropriate place on a pen.

Thanks Jerry. Yes, I always have a little piece of trustone left over which I save for cutting into banding material just like you suggested. Matched up with some b/w/b pick guard it works really well.

There is another pen turner who sells at the Farmers Market and he does some Turquoise inlet the same way you did yours. In my opinion it looks much better than the Trustone Turquoise - it is more natural looking. I am going to have to try that one of these days, especially with some Mesquite. I think he used Mesquite too and it looked very striking.

[Doug B]

Feb 7, 2010 10:24:50 GMT -6 boodrow said:

Doug the pens look great! Im partial to the BW wood. I bought some from woodwork couple weeks ago & that chit aint cheap! Since I seen the first one u posted ive wanted to turn some of it. To my surprise is how heavy it is. Bout to take a break from cat boxes and get back to my real hobbie , turnin.
Boodrow

Boodrow, that Black and White Ebony is one of my favorites. I've had some trouble with my CA finish on it once in a while, so I switched to Lacquer dipping it - that Gatsby got 2 dips of the Lacquer technique that Tim wrote about and it came out fantastic. I did not even think about polishing it up on the lathe or with the Beall buffing system. You just have to fuss with it for a few minutes after dipping it so that it does not build up on the lower end of the tube - I just flip it back and forth every few seconds for a couple minutes and that seems to prevent any running or build up. And I cork up the tubes to keep them clean.

Now get away from them gato cajes and get back to turning something again - it's good for your soul ;D

[Doug B]

Feb 7, 2010 10:37:31 GMT -6 Ruffnek said:

Those are fine looking pens, Doug, but I really like that B&W Ebony. It's classy!

Thanks Cody! I really like the looks of that pen too. Hopefully my customer will too.

[boodrow]

Doug thanks for the scoop on the finish, now tell me a couple things , one where do u find corks that small and on the laquer dip what kind do u use ? If u buy it by the quart do u just pull the lid off and dip it? Also back when me and bro in law painted cars , if we used laquer u had to apply several coats. How many coats on the pens?
Boodrow

[Doug B]

Boodrow,

Tim did a write up for us here: worldofwood.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=articles&action=display&thread=1216

I found the little corks at Lowes - they had all different kind of sizes.

I give the pens 2 skinny dips and that's it. Done.

[maverick31]

both pens look awesome doug

[sdb777]

Both are great, but I really like the top one!


These are sold already?





Scott (be the one's I'd grab first) B

[Doug B]

Thanks Mav and Scott!

Yes, both are already sold. I give out my cards at craft shows and the Farmers Market and this lady got in touch with me recently asking about my pens. She lives in another state and picked up my card when she was in town for a wedding.

I emailed her the link to my pics on FLICKR and she ended up ordering 4 pens. I ended up making all 4 of them from scratch because of the combination of wood and kits she wanted. She only wanted 2 pens for presents until she looked at the pictures and then decided she really wanted a couple for herself. I had to order the Wall Street II pen because I did not have any of those kits in stock.

When I sent her these pictures (posted here) for her approval of the last 2 pens, she asked about mechanical pencils...so it looks like she may be ordering some of my special Pentel mechanical pencils in the future as well.

So,,,it pays to hand those cards out at the craft shows!

[boodrow]

Doug do u sand um between the 2 coats of laquer?
Boodrow

[Doug B]

No Boodrow, I just wait for about 30 minutes to an hour, then dip again. No sanding or polishing between coats or after the final coat. Smells like chit though, so I hang em outside to cure.

It is really, really important to flip them back and forth several times for a few seconds each time before letting them hang to dry. Otherwise you get build up on the bottom end of the barrel.

I really think it will work well for bottle stoppers too.