Show Us Your Oblique Penholders!

[Anne-Sophie]

Thank you for sharing all those beautiful and useful works of art!

 

A real wonder!

[MusinkMan]

I finished this one today. 10 inches or about 25.5 cm long. I used a beautiful piece of extremely figured Cocobolo Rosewood for the handle; a bit of Pale Moon Ebony for the grip, and Gabon Ebony for the foot. I thougth that this piece of figured Cocobolo was stunning. Nature can be one heck of an artist can't she. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a couple more in progress...I'll post up some pics when I get them finished.

Edited July 21, 2013 by MusinkMan

[thang1thang2]

Oooh... That one's just delicious. The textures are just awesome! Great work there! I swear, I can almost see you improve with each and every pen holder you post.

[hzsimms]

Great looking pen, Musinkman. I finally got in the colored ebonite I had been waiting on. Sort of like a kid with a new toy, I put everything else down and turned a couple. Thought I'd go ahead and post a pic.

 

http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/p743/hzsimms/Ebonite_zps2afa287d.jpg

 

The green one, obviously, is unfinished. I have a flange for it but haven't had time to put it on yet. It's a more traditional flange. The red rippled pen was the first one I did so I went with the universal style nib holder.

 

Turning ebonite is a bit different. I don't think I'd trust a Zanerian type flange installation in it.

 

Thanks for looking,

Howard

[MusinkMan]

Oooh... That one's just delicious. The textures are just awesome! Great work there! I swear, I can almost see you improve with each and every pen holder you post.

 

Thank you Thang, I appreciate those words. This piece of cocobolo was so highly figured and so unusually colored that I kept saving it; I actually hated to use it, but what good is it sitting in my wood stash. So I paired it up with some of that otherworldly Pale Moon Ebony, and let it rip. I swear, everytime I make some of these I can hardly bear to part with them. It feels like I'm selling my children or something. LOL! But in all seriousness, thanks for the nice comments. It looks so much better in person, the photos just cannot do justice to nice woods. Maybe I need to invest in a better camera and photog setup.

[MusinkMan]

Great looking pen, Musinkman. I finally got in the colored ebonite I had been waiting on. Sort of like a kid with a new toy, I put everything else down and turned a couple. Thought I'd go ahead and post a pic.

 

The green one, obviously, is unfinished. I have a flange for it but haven't had time to put it on yet. It's a more traditional flange. The red rippled pen was the first one I did so I went with the universal style nib holder.

 

Turning ebonite is a bit different. I don't think I'd trust a Zanerian type flange installation in it.

 

Thanks for looking,

Howard

 

Those look great, Howard. Where on earth did you find ripple ebonite? Nice find and made some beautiful pens. I know what you mean about the Zanerian flange in there...I'd be worried about the ebonite cracking in one of the fault lines, but you never know. It may be solid as a rock. I personally feel that the epoxy and pin method is superior to the Zanerian installation anyway. It is rock solid, and if you set the flange at the proper angle, there is no reason to remove the flange. Brass will last longer than any of us will live; even if it's repeatedly bent and re-shaped to accomodate different nibs. Some prefer the Zanerian mount however; they enjoy swapping flanges from different holders rather than adjusting the flange or better yet, having a different dedicated holder to different nibs that are favorites. That's what I do. Anyway, those look awesome Howard...good work bro!

[thang1thang2]

 

Thank you Thang, I appreciate those words. This piece of cocobolo was so highly figured and so unusually colored that I kept saving it; I actually hated to use it, but what good is it sitting in my wood stash. So I paired it up with some of that otherworldly Pale Moon Ebony, and let it rip. I swear, everytime I make some of these I can hardly bear to part with them. It feels like I'm selling my children or something. LOL! But in all seriousness, thanks for the nice comments. It looks so much better in person, the photos just cannot do justice to nice woods. Maybe I need to invest in a better camera and photog setup.

 

Your camera setup is actually quite phenomenal and they show off your beautiful children far better than most people would be able to photograph something. The only way you could upgrade now is a multi grand setup used for professional grade studio photography, and about 3 grand in lighting

I don't think you need to worry about that.

 

But yes! That wood looks so fantastic! I get my senses mixed up all the time, and whenever I look at it, I feel it rippling over my skin, looking orgasmic as it tastes like cherry with a texture that's just... divine

 

I could stare at that holder in a happy little puddle of goo for hours.

[caliken]

I personally feel that the epoxy and pin method is superior to the Zanerian installation anyway. It is rock solid, and if you set the flange at the proper angle, there is no reason to remove the flange. Brass will last longer than any of us will live; even if it's repeatedly bent and re-shaped to accomodate different nibs.

On occasions, I find the replaceable flange useful in another way. If I want to use a nib which doesn't quite conform to the curve of the flange, I remove the flange, place the nib in position in the curve, close it shut with my fingers and then re-insert it into the holder. It holds rock-solid and hasn't involved any re-shaping of the flange.

Having said that, the permanency of the fixed flange is re-assuring, in a way!

 

Ken

Edited July 22, 2013 by caliken

[Stompie]

 

 

I have a couple more in progress...I'll post up some pics when I get them finished.

Oi, where are the pics of our latest kids???

 

[MusinkMan]

Sorry Stompie...I didn't want to post pictures of them until the nurse washed off all of the...um....debris. LOL

 

Here are my latest quad. Man, I sent yours without photogaphing it. Bummer, because it is really nice and maybe a bit eerie. :-) I loved the way it fit my hand, and made myself one because I liked it so much. But mine isn't very much to look at, due to being a very plain piece of wood with very little figuring (even though it is Pale Moon Ebony). You got the good one, bro! :-) I'm anxious to hear what you think of it.

 

Meantime...these are all completed (finally). I played the "flange-making game" for too long today! :-) All of these are Zanerian-mounted flanges. Drill, re-drill, measure, mark, slice, measure flange, bend flange, cut flange, grind flange keys...etc. etc. etc. I will freaking DREAM of flanges all night!

 

Anyway, here they are...in all their glory.

 

[Stompie]

I like the shapes of the Olive and Blood wood units!

I must not buy more holders I must not buy more holders I must not ............

[hzsimms]

 

Where on earth did you find ripple ebonite?

 

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words. I got these particular rods from India. The black ones I'd used previously came from Japan. I've always really liked the way rippled ebonite fountain pens looked so figured why not?

[hzsimms]

 

 

Here are my latest quad.

 

That Yucatan Rosewood is awesome! I don't think I've seen that wood before.

[MusinkMan]

I like the shapes of the Olive and Blood wood units!

 

I must not buy more holders I must not buy more holders I must not ............

 

 

 

Stomperoo, I'm happy to hear that you like the shapes of those 2 holders. Yous is very similar to those shapes. I hope it arrives soon, as I'm anxious to see what you think of it! I was sobbing aloud when I packed it up to ship it to you...Oh how I wanted to keep her. LOL

[MusinkMan]

 

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words. I got these particular rods from India. The black ones I'd used previously came from Japan. I've always really liked the way rippled ebonite fountain pens looked so figured why not?

I wondered if that ebonite came from India...it looks eerily similar to the Ranga fountain pens. Nice work!

[hzsimms]

I wondered if that ebonite came from India...it looks eerily similar to the Ranga fountain pens. Nice work!

Good eye, that's exactly where it came from, Ranga. They're supposed to be shipping some blue ripple shortly (yeah, never heard of it either).

 

While I'm here, I thought I'd put up this pic of a segmented pen I finished today. MusinkMan has been an invaluable instructor in my efforts to actually build one of these things (thanks for explaining why my blanks kept shearing apart!).

 

http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/p743/hzsimms/IMG_2536_zps51120fa1.jpg

 

Sorry about the picture quality, or rather lack thereof.

 

Howard

[MusinkMan]

Well there you go, Howard. Nothin' wrong with that one, brother! Nice pairing of the ebony and the padauk...always makes for a beautiful color combination; the red and the black. It just wouldn't be the same if it had red and black paint, now would it. :-)

 

That handle and grip olivewood? Very nice! luv it!

[MusinkMan]

The pen gods were not so gracious to me today. If you have the heart, look at my pen du jour:

 

 

A defective piece of Padauk...shame on me for not examining it more closely.

What you see here is about 5 hours of work down the tubes....straight into the garbage can.

Would have been a really nice pen staff, too.

If anyone heard some loud cursing in the direction of Louisiana, it was probably me.

[smk]

Don't throw it away - finish up the front end and then carve it by hand to finish the shaft. You'll be surprised what you end up with.

 

This holder of mine resulted when the piece of wood broke into two:

 

(More pics here on blog)

[MusinkMan]

Ha...you made it into a baby whale or a dolphin tale? so cool...but I won't have anything to carve...the tail is almost down to "rat tail" diameter, so all I would have is a grip section and a foot...with a little umbilical cord sticking out of the backside. Most of the ebony at the front of the pen is waste...it's the section that is "chucked" to the lathe, so you can see where the foot of the pen is. I didn't quite have the grip section formed...it's still a little "tube-like"...had just a little more shaping to do on it. It's not so bad when something goes wrong early in the game, but it always seems to go kaput after I've invested a few hours. Frustrating schtuff!!!.

 

By the way Sal, I sent you a couple of pieces of sheet brass a few days ago. You told me that you were running low on it for your flanges, and I have plenty of the stuff. It probably hasn't arrived yet...I sent it as a "letter" and therefore didn't complete any customs forms. I think it will get there, but ya never know with all the crazy rules these days.