Huon Pine is a special and rare timber. It's even more special and rare when the timber features the bird's eye grain. You get the birds eye grain in the timber around the burly sections of the tree. The burl looks like a cancerous growth on sections and sometimes complete lengths of the trunk. This... Continue Reading →
Were introducing the dagger style letter openers into our growing range of pen kits and woodturning projects kits. Letter openers are a great way to match an additional item to that special hand made writing instrument. They particularly go well with lidded pens that are designed for the table. This kit has an additional piece... Continue Reading →
Once I have squared up the cheeks on the disc sander, to clean out the inside of the blank is quite easy. I use a sharp pointed tool and press on where the CA meets the brass tube. A bit of pressure will separate the two. Using a disk sander to square the cheeks of... Continue Reading →
I know I yap on a bit about how important it is about matching the grain on your hand made pens. Above is a photo of a Red Cedar pencil kit. It is of the one pen with the grain lined up in two different positions. The bottom picture is of what a grained matched... Continue Reading →
When gluing up, I set myself up over a rubbish bin – that way all the surplus glue drips into the bin rather than all over the floor. I use thick CA to glue my brass tubes into the pen blanks. Mitre Fix is the actual glue I use. I prepare the tubes by sanding... Continue Reading →
What a wonderful week it was at Sturt. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the entire week, I had to miss out on the Friday lesson because I was dragged screaming and kicking to a conference at Darling Harbour. Luckily I managed to work quick enough to have all the carving and the majority of the... Continue Reading →
I am back to school this week to learn a bit more about wood carving. I am attending Winter School at the Sturt - School of Wood for a 1 week course on wood carving with Grant Vaughan. It was a very cold start of the week in the Southern Highlands but the carving action... Continue Reading →
After cutting the blanks on the band saw, I line up the blanks and I start drilling the holes for the brass tubes. I always start with the larger diameter holes, that way if I stuff up, I can recover the other half for a smaller pen like the Sierra or Elegant Beauty. When it... Continue Reading →
