Aluminum Segmented Blade

Today I made this Blade pen. It's got a nice SKM-88 clicker. It's my first time using this kit. It was on sale over the holidays so I bought 20 thinking the long single body would give some space for nice segmenting. This isn't nice segmenting though. Just an experiment to put oily glue to the test. I cut this blank in an arc eight times, slapped some aluminum in there and glued it back together. Twice a piece popped out and I was able to get it back together without any trouble.

FYI, oily glue must be some form of CA. I hit it with CA accelerator and it cured instantly like CA anyway. Mostly I just held the pieces together for 40 seconds and when I let go, they stayed put well enough to go directly to the bandsaw for the next cut. The advantage of oily glue is that it doesn't fail if it heats up, like regular CA does.

The wood is cocobolo that I got from Egnald. The aluminum is from a can of cherry bubble seltzer. Obviously it doesn't match the curf of my bandsaw, so every cut threw off the pattern, achieving total randomness out of 8 (nearly) identical cuts. I finished it with a topcoat of CA, though I took the photos to show the aluminum rather than the finish, so you'll have to trust me that it's smooth and shiny. Anyway, THANKS for looking at my pen.

Cool Pen. Wow it looks like your turned cocobolo is lighter than it looks in your glue up. I've always thought of cocobolo like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates - until you turn it, you never know what you are going to get. - Dave

Pretty cool idea!

Oily glue is definitely good stuff.

Really cool! I really enjoy some good asymmetry. The segmenting and randomness look great. Thanks for the inspiration.

Interesting pen. I don't think it would ever be one of my favorites because of the asymmetry, but I do like the cocobolo. I've never seen one exactly that color.

This is the first I have heard of oily glue. I see lots of brands available, most being unpronounceable names on Amazon with plain labels. Is there a particular brand to look for?

that's really cool! I have done a couple blades, they're neat pens because it is such a long canvas to show something.

Mind explaining more about oily glue though?

hooked said:

This is the first I have heard of oily glue. I see lots of brands available, most being unpronounceable names on Amazon with plain labels. Is there a particular brand to look for?

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I've never heard of it, either.

Very cool and creative pen, Todd.

It came to my attention when Ken brought it up back in August.

I bought the SX brand 2-pack on Amazon for $10. I'm just starting to get into it as I apply and prepare for the upcoming craft show season.

Thus far, I'm certainly impressed. It's easy to use and hold up under penmaking conditions— cutting, drilling, turning. I used it for the scalloped pen I posted not long ago.

Todd

Todd in PA said:

It came to my attention when Ken brought it up back in August.

Oily Glue

Has anyone tried oily glue for any aspect of pen making? If so what did you think of it?

www.penturners.org

I bought the SX brand 2-pack on Amazon for $10. I'm just starting to get into it as I apply and prepare for the upcoming craft show season.

https://amzn.to/3O4Q2wf

Thus far, I'm certainly impressed. It's easy to use and hold up under penmaking conditions— cutting, drilling, turning. I used it for the scalloped pen I posted not long ago.

Todd

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so do you use it in place of CA when gluing tubes into blanks and making multi piece blanks?

I usually glue tubes with 5 minute epoxy, but for this pen, yes, I used the oily glue. I've gotten tubes stuck halfway in with ca flashing solid before I've got it placed.

I used epoxy on the scalloped pens.

I did something similar and it was really hard to match up with something as thin as a soda can. I really like the thin look of the aluminum from the cans, so I'll revisit it in the future. (probably after you figure it out and tell us all how )

I guess oily glue works pretty well on oily wood. Is it true that it doesn't stick to your fingers?

I made a new one using purple heart and just 4 cuts. Unfortunately my blade wasn't razor sharp, and the aluminum took a few wrinkles. But I got the symmetry better.