African Ebony Fountain Pen

[raging.dragon]

  On 4/12/2013 at 5:44 PM, drgoretex said:

Thanks guys, these are great tips for sure, and worth taking to heart for and work with woods.

 

Fortunately for me, the vast majority of my exotics (and non-exotics) are well over a year old - most are several years old. Regardless, I tried to stabilize the wood with thin CA as I got near the final turning. It seems to have done nicely, though as per one of the other tips noted above, I will advise its new owner not to leave it in the sun (or let it get soaked, etc)

 

Awesome bits of advice here!

 

Ken

 

Also, prolonged exposure to sunlight will definitely bleach the wood.

[georges zaslavsky]

pretty neat

[aprayinbear]

Beautiful pen..... I truly admire all your work for its subtle beauty and design integrity. Very nice indeed.

 

One more word about checking. Wood does not cracK/check simply because it is wet. Rather it is usually the drying process, although it can also occur as wood takes on moisture (as in the case of an item made in a desert climate and then moved to a more moderate zone with more moisture.) The problem is that different parts of the board, log or pen, take on moisture or dry at different rates. That is why fresh cut logs check at the ends as the ends lose moisture at a much faster rate then the body of the log. When we seal the end of a board or log after cutting, we are equalizing the rate of moisture loss or gain in the piece. This is most profound at the ends of a piece, thin sections, or when we only seal one side of a piece and not the other. Using CA glue throughout should solve the problem. Adding heat (like sun light) intensifies the problem so more coats of finish will be needed to minimize the chance of a problem occurring.

 

Thank you again!

[drgoretex]

Thanks for the kind words, and for tips on wood care, Aprayinbear!

 

Cheers,

 

Ken

[fountainbel]

Exquisite design, beautiful material and perfect finish...surely a winner !

My sincere congratulations Ken !

Francis

[duncsuss]

Wow ... terrific craftsmanship. I love ebony, and your treatment of it is superb.

 

One thing that people seem to overlook concerning wood movement (which can result in cracking/splitting/checking): as wood takes on or loses moisture, the cells do not necessarily change size uniformly. The radial expansion might not be synchronized with the circumferential expansion -- which will lead to internal stresses in the wood, and potentially to cracking.

 

This is independent of the trouble that comes from the cut ends of the xylem & phloem losing moisture faster than the middle of the billet of wood (which typically leads to end-checking).

 

Bottom line: it's wood, it grows outdoors on trees and it'll do what it wants ...

 

And all of that said -- it's still a beautiful pen

[ShallowJam]

How did you do the grip to barrel and grip to cap? Is the wood threaded or is there an acrylic insert glued into the barrel and then threaded to receive the grip? ditto cap.

The Jowo from meisternibs?

 

Very impressive pen, definitely an eyecatcher. I hope to be able to do some wood pens in future.

[Daisy25]

Gorgeous pen, simple and elegant.

[drgoretex]

  On 8/19/2013 at 1:42 PM, ShallowJam said:

How did you do the grip to barrel and grip to cap? Is the wood threaded or is there an acrylic insert glued into the barrel and then threaded to receive the grip? ditto cap.

The Jowo from meisternibs?

 

Very impressive pen, definitely an eyecatcher. I hope to be able to do some wood pens in future.

 

Thanks very much!

 

Your guess is spot-on. I use an acrylic (or ebonite, depending on the order) insert in the cap and barrel to create threading. Wood just doesn't thread well enough. The JoWo nibs are indeed from MeisterNibs.

 

Ken

[chugbug]

HI Ken,

 

Good looking pen!

 

Cordially...John

[jetsam]

I almost put this pen in the "most beautiful pen you have ever seen" post because I'm a minimalist and there's something about the texture and curve of this pen that subconsciously grabbed me at first sight, pen stand included.

Please, what is CA for sealing wood?

I guess African black ebony must be ideal for pen carving, being an instrument wood, and also unaffected by moisture from hands or mouth.

I'm now wondering how this pen would look in ebonite.

I'm a lignum vitae freak, but lignum can't touch this pen.

 

edit. ....all thanks to the A+ photography of course.

Edited November 1, 2013 by jetsam

[richardandtracy]

CA = Cyano Acrylate = Superglue.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[drgoretex]

  On 11/1/2013 at 12:16 PM, jetsam said:

I almost put this pen in the "most beautiful pen you have ever seen" post because I'm a minimalist and there's something about the texture and curve of this pen that subconsciously grabbed me at first sight, pen stand included.

Please, what is CA for sealing wood?

I guess African black ebony must be ideal for pen carving, being an instrument wood, and also unaffected by moisture from hands or mouth.

I'm now wondering how this pen would look in ebonite.

I'm a lignum vitae freak, but lignum can't touch this pen.

 

edit. ....all thanks to the A+ photography of course.

 

Sorry, missed this.

 

Thanks very much for the kind comments!

 

Like Richard said, CA is cyanoacrylate, which comes as liquid available in various degrees of viscosity. On exposure to air/water vapour, it polymerizes into a hard acrylic resin.

 

One of the lovely things about CA is that the thicker, higher viscosity CA can be used to build up a hard, glossy colourless shell on wood, giving it a nice jewel-like finish; or, one can use the thin, low viscosity CA to soak into the wood itself, sealing and protecting the wood while keeping the feel of the wood's surface. Wonderful stuff.

 

Ken

[jetsam]

  On 11/4/2013 at 11:12 PM, drgoretex said:

 

Like Richard said, CA is cyanoacrylate, which comes as liquid available in various degrees of viscosity. On exposure to air/water vapour, it polymerizes into a hard acrylic resin.

 

One of the lovely things about CA is that the thicker, higher viscosity CA can be used to build up a hard, glossy colourless shell on wood, giving it a nice jewel-like finish; or, one can use the thin, low viscosity CA to soak into the wood itself, sealing and protecting the wood while keeping the feel of the wood's surface. Wonderful stuff.

 

Ken

This is very useful information. I love exotic woods, mainly on knife handles.

I'll definitely be on the lookout for ebony from now on.

[Tim Self]

The only issue I've experienced with ebony is from heat. I lost a beautiful ebony fountain pen at my last show because of heat and expansion/contraction. The only advise I can give with a wood to prevent "checking" or cracking is to keep it from direct sunlight and changes in humidity.

[amk]

That's a beautiful pen; understated in design so that the texture and slight colour variations of the wood really show through. I particularly like the fact that there's not a pronounced 'step' as there is in so many wood pens.

 

I think last time I saw such a nice wood pen, it was a Hakase :-)

[drgoretex]

  On 11/18/2013 at 10:21 PM, amk said:

That's a beautiful pen; understated in design so that the texture and slight colour variations of the wood really show through. I particularly like the fact that there's not a pronounced 'step' as there is in so many wood pens.

 

I think last time I saw such a nice wood pen, it was a Hakase :-)

 

Thanks very much for the compliment. To compared to Hakase is high praise indeed! :-)

 

Ken