I just meant to start a thread on the "show off your pens" section. My interest is in seeing shoe-string budget creativity. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy seeing high-end burl emperors as well as slimline pens made of less expensive woods. Pens are beautiful things....
Mostly I was interested in seeing how clever or even amusing the good people of the IAP can be. For example, I had a buddy some years ago who made a beautiful segmented pen that had transparent / translucent green and clear spirals runnig the length of the pen (a slim-line model). His materials? Two liter plastic bottles of Sprite and diet coke, cut into small squares, pressed together and very slowly melted into a blank in a modified propane barbecue pit. I would classifiy this as much more trouble than its worth, but certainly 10 for 10 for creative cheapness. I recently posted a sierra pen made from a chunk of 3/8" coppper water pipe, that I was pleased with. I just like the idea of alternate materials, designs that are out of the box, or just plain "out there"
I don't at all mean to disdain high-end pens that use the best possible materials, I just finished a set of Emperor rollerbal and fountain pens in amboyna burl to memorialize the signing of my son's adoption papers. I just thougt it might be fun to see what folks might come up with, with only a few bucks. My current project involves creating a blank made of pre-1981 pennies (made from solid copper slugs) and nickles. I'm pre-drilling each coin to accept the correct pen fittings and will try to solder every thing together and then finaly put it on the lathe and get to work.
The cost of $5.00 is negotiable, I was thinking it would just cover the pen kit and blank material, not sand paper, glue, or finishes, etc.
Just thought it might be a fun idea. Perhaps I should have posted this on the show off your pens forum....
Best wishes to all[
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