#315

Now Sold

Black and White Acrylic and Chrome Plated Ballpoint Twist Pen

Whenever I start to make a pen from an acrylic blank I always remember the negative points. Acrylic turning is messy, I really try to clear every last scrap of it up; it can also be smelly; the sharp little chips get everywhere and it can blunt the turning chisels really quickly. By the time the pen shape is turned and I start the messier job of wet sanding through about fifteen different grades I'm usually trying to convince myself that maybe its better to just concentrate on turning wooden pens.

Then the final grades of sanding and polishing start to reveal something special and I really like acrylic again... until the next time.

This pen was turned on Friday 12th June 2015 whilst moored at the pretty little village of Church Lawton on the Trent and Mersey Canal. We had left our mooring in Westport Lakes and travelled through the Harecastle Tunnel - one of the lower ones which meant I was nearly kneeling down steering at times and quite long at nearly 3000m long. We expected our mooring to be rather quiet but lots of boats had moored up as, unfortunately, a few locks further a narrowboat had sunk in the lock. The steerer had managed to get the rudder of his boat pinched between the two lock gates and as the water level rose the boat stayed on the bottom. That's why narrowboats have the large fender at the back of the boat which should be a couple of inches longer than the rudder. Luckily nobody was hurt this time.