Family 2023 Christmas Pens

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JohnU

JohnU

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Ottawa, Illinois
Many years ago I started a tradition gifting everyone in the family with a pen. The biggest challenge is doing something different each year and I'm running out of ideas. In the past I've done feathers, snakeskins, alligator jawbone, acorn caps, pinecones, sticks, shredded $, cherry pits, watch faces, etc. This year I decided to finally use up some burl caps I've been stock piling over the years. After 3 days of drying and stabilizing, then 2 days for casting, and a week to cut, drill, epoxy and turn, I finally finished them. There were 40 in all but here a couple pics of some during the process. The wood is Boxelder burl and the resin was Alumilite Clear with 3 colors of mica mixed during the pouring process to give the blanks some highs and lows. All were finished with gluboost, polished and assembled on the Diamond Knurl Sierra Ti Gold / Chrome pen sets. I like them because the recipient doesn't have to pull them apart to replace the ink, just unscrew the chrome nib.

All Comments Welcome, Thanks for looking!
 

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Those are great John. I love that they are all the same but still each very unique!! Plus I'm a sucker for Boxelder Burl and resin hybrids.
 
Those are beautiful pens. I have to do some family pens with a special piece of wood from what we refer to as "the sibling tree", but I'm still formulating ideas.
 
Very cool. I really want to make some hybrid blanks sometime, but at present I only have round molds and I don't have any burl caps like that. These are beautiful. - Dave
 
JohnU said:
Many years ago I started a tradition gifting everyone in the family with a pen. The biggest challenge is doing something different each year and I'm running out of ideas. In the past I've done feathers, snakeskins, alligator jawbone, acorn caps, pinecones, sticks, shredded $, cherry pits, watch faces, etc. This year I decided to finally use up some burl caps I've been stock piling over the years. After 3 days of drying and stabilizing, then 2 days for casting, and a week to cut, drill, epoxy and turn, I finally finished them. There were 40 in all but here a couple pics of some during the process. The wood is Boxelder burl and the resin was Alumilite Clear with 3 colors of mica mixed during the pouring process to give the blanks some highs and lows. All were finished with gluboost, polished and assembled on the Diamond Knurl Sierra Ti Gold / Chrome pen sets. I like them because the recipient doesn't have to pull them apart to replace the ink, just unscrew the chrome nib.

All Comments Welcome, Thanks for looking!
Click to expand...
These look great. Keeping them all the same every year is a great idea. The vast majority of my family members end up with a pen every year besides the kids, and I'm not sure how long I can sustain doing a "special" one specific to everyone each year. It's become too large of a task. Your idea is awesome, since it's special in its own way that everyone gets sort of "this years" model. I think I'm gonna start copying you on this one.

And 40 pens is a lot, but there are always worse problems to have than having a big family. ☺️ (I have to remind myself that every December😂)
 
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