Shambam1962 Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 I ordered an assortment of acrylic pen blanks just before Christmas and they arrived the first week in January to complete, for an order in February. They have been on the shelf above the lathe for the past few weeks, and just haven’t had time to complete them, with things going on at home. My youngest daughter, had an operation in our local Hospital, and on returning home, within 3 days, my daughter contacted COVID, and generously gave it to my wife and I. The first 3 days I felt really rough and had a pounding headache and high temperature and sweats. I felt a bit better yesterday afternoon and went down the shed to start turning the pens, and completed 3 of the 6. I completed the rest of the blanks this morning and pleased with the end result. I had a set of 3 carbide tipped turning chisels for Christmas off my daughters and found them very good on the acrylic blanks I also ordered some tooling last Thursday from Craft Supplies USA and the order was delivered Monday morning 9am by Federal Express. The tooling was used this afternoon to make 2 different style duck decoys, and I cut a few aluminium collars to try out on the call barrels. Quite pleased how they turned out, especially the cross grain Zebrano wood duck call , which shows off the lovely grain colour. Here’s a couple of before and after photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 WOW! Yet again, very impressive. The aluminium ring on the Zebrano call really sets it off nicely. Glad you're all getting better. Keep up the GREAT work, we really enjoy watching your growing abilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holloway Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 Glad your feeling better ,hopefully all of your family as well ,your stuff has always been high quality but it looks like its getting even better if thats possible ! the pen you sent me looks superb and performs flawlessly so style as well as substance . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shambam1962 Posted January 27 Author Report Share Posted January 27 Thank you TIGHTCHOKE and holloway for your comments, it’s very much appreciated. Both my wife and daughter have tested clear for COVID, but I am still positive after testing this morning. I had to get out of the house and do something, as the day time television programmes, was cooking my head. It was a year this month I posted my first Dragon Staff walking stick project, and I never thought I would be doing the things I’m doing now. I only did woodwork in my first year of comprehensive school at 11 years old, and then had the option to choose your subjects, and I chose metal work !! It's funny how 50 years down the line, I am making items in wood and using a wood lathe. I think, I am improving and most importantly enjoying learning to make the sticks, pens and most recently the calls. The recent tooling purchases, have definitely helped making the items a lot easier. I haven’t spent a fortune on the tools, and purchased a few quality second hand chisels, which had split brass collars and replaced with new brass collars I made. I purchased an assortment of 5 Henry Taylor wood turning chisels for £28 and find the steel is very good and holds a sharp edge. The one gouge alone would have cost £65 new, and it’s a bit big for what I make, but was part of the job lot. My recent purchases has been a collet chuck and an assortment of different size collets and a few expanding mandrels, which are brilliant to hold small items in the lathe and hopefully use for many other projects. Holloway I’m pleased you liked the pen and thought you would appreciate a Zebrano wood turned pen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldypigeonpopper Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 hello, nice work again Keven, good to hear that your all doing better👍, as it happened i came top in 4th year woodwork and went into Engineering, my teacher was not pleased, 🤔🙄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Touchstone Posted January 27 Report Share Posted January 27 The Honey Noire and Classic Green pens look the part. 👍🏻 T Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shambam1962 Posted January 27 Author Report Share Posted January 27 Thanks oldypigeonpopper and Touchstone for your comments. The Classic Green ( Conway Stewart blank) is really nice in natural lighting, and I made it up with an antique gold pen kit. I only had a few antique gold style kits to try out, but I will definitely order more for future pens. The hardest pen to physically turn was the blue and white pen, and it had really hard parts when reducing to size. This is a selection of chisels I have purchased second hand and cleaned the surface rust from the shafts and replaced a few brass ferrules. The spindle gouge on the left, is actually bigger than the midi lathe I use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIGHTCHOKE Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 (edited) Look like some good tools there............................... Edited January 28 by TIGHTCHOKE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDog Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 Some great talent there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchman Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 great pictures.............quite impressed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shambam1962 Posted January 28 Author Report Share Posted January 28 Thanks TIGHTCHOKE, JDog and ditchman for your comments. I can’t blame the tools now can I This is the brass expanding mandrels I purchased from America and arrived in a few days, and had excellent service from Craft Supplies USA. The mandrels are very good for holding the call blanks, when turning to size, and easy to remove the blank and turn around to work on the other end. The collet chuck was ordered in China and it arrived in 10 days, and is a brilliant bit of kit for the lathe. I purchased the collets separately as I required certain sizes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JKD Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 Well, there's certainly some talented people on this forum, and you're up there with the best 😀 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shambam1962 Posted January 28 Author Report Share Posted January 28 Thanks JKD for your comment, it’s very much appreciated . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted January 28 Report Share Posted January 28 Hello ShamBam1962 Thank you for sharing more of your Craftsmanship. The Duck Calls look too nice to use.... L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shambam1962 Posted January 28 Author Report Share Posted January 28 Thanks Loki, the Zebrano wood duck call is for my mate, who gave me the book, which planted the seed in my head. He is in the wildfowing club in Haverfordwest, and it will definitely get used. I’m waiting on a email from USA, to inform me when some items are back in stock, and I plan on making a few acrylic style duck calls in the coming weeks. A lot of the parts are readily available . In the words of TIGHTCHOKE , there may be some chunky acrylic pens, if they don’t work out as duck calls !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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