#352

NOW SOLD

Amethyst Polyester Resin and Titanium Plated 

Rollerball 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 (down to 12000 grit) and polishing start to reveal something special and I really like acrylic again... until the next time.

We didn't stay too long in Braunston, the weather wasn't good enough to open the shop but we had our promised dinner and a few drinks out at the Boathouse Pub on the canal side. We had also been trying to meet up with some boating friends who were in the area and the following day they were due to treat their daughter (over on a visit from China) to a meal out in the now reopened New Inn just past Norton Junction so we arranged an after dinner drink in the pub followed by coffee and cake back on our boat. It was a pleasant trip up the Braunston locks, through the tunnel (not one of my favourites) and past the pretty Norton Junction to moor up by the top lock of the Buckby Flight.

Whilst at our daughters house in Poole the week before I had picked up three packages delivered from the other side of the world containing pen parts, acrylic pen blanks and some rare exotic timber pen blanks that I was looking forward to turning.

Pen #352 was turned on the 27th July at Norton Junction on the Grand Union Canal.