Gatsby Grande Dymondwood

qquake · Jan 12, 2021

This is a Gatsby Grande pen in chrome and gunmetal from PSI. The blank is an old Dymondwood given to me by a fellow rocketeer. He bought several of them on clearance at Woodcraft several years ago. I don't know why he bought them, he's not a pen turner. I hadn't turned Dymondwood in over 10 years. I used to turn a lot of it, back when it was more readily available. I looked it up and saw a reference to the factory where they were made burning down in 2014. I had forgotten about that. Anyway, it was fun, and brought back some memories.

Even thought it's resin infused, I finished it with Pens Plus. It turned out really nice. I'll give this pen to Jeff, who gave me the blanks.

qquake · Jan 12, 2021

I chose the Gatsby Grande kit because the tube is 3/8" instead of 27/64", and the blanks are 5/8". Even so, it drilled crooked, and barely worked out. But in the end I was able to turn it with a slight bulge, which I prefer.

qquake · Jan 12, 2021

I had an unusual problem with this kit that I've never encountered before. After I assembled it, the finial would rotate but not extend or retract the refill. I examined it, and initially thought the finial was rotating on the transmission because it was so polished inside. I tried roughing the inside of the finial with a Dremel, but that didn't help. So I glued the transmission in with CA, but that didn't help either. Come to find out, the gunmetal sleeve on the finial is a separate piece, and is loose. I thought about wicking some super thin CA into it, but was afraid it would just make a mess. I found out you can rotate it by grabbing the very end, so I decided to leave it as is.

qquake · Jan 12, 2021

The Pens Plus really darkened it, but I like it.

Gatsby Grande Dymondwood

qquake

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