Looking Stone or Crystal Pen Parts

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Fine Engineer

Fine Engineer

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Joined
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Carson City, NV
Does anybody know of a shop or fabricator that can or does make stone or crystal pen parts? I'm thinking of center bands, finials, or other parts made from turquoise, lapis, amethyst, etc. I haven't seen very many of these, and I think it could be a cool addition to the overall pen.

I've been looking around, and can't even seem to find the right search term that could get me to the right sources. Stone could be interesting from an appearance standpoint, and the crystals could open up a new market among crystal enthusiasts.

Jeff
 
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Stone is pretty easy to make, as long as it is soft. Catlinite (pipestone), alabaster, and soapstone are the easiest. Semi precious stones would require a cooling mechanism i imagine. It would be really neat. I'm sure somebody must do something like that.
 
For possible finial pieces, I check jewelry suppliers like Riogrande clearance items from time to time, got a few interesting ones but haven't made any pen with them. One thing I need to research is how to glue them so they don't fall off after two uses of the pen...
 
Fred Bruche said:
For possible finial pieces, I check jewelry suppliers like Riogrande clearance items from time to time, got a few interesting ones but haven't made any pen with them. One thing I need to research is how to glue them so they don't fall off after two uses of the pen...
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You ever try a silicone glue or liquid nails? I would think something like that might work.
 
Fine Engineer said:
Does anybody know of a shop or fabricator that can or does make stone or crystal pen parts? I'm thinking of center bands, finials, or other parts made from turquoise, lapis, amethyst, etc. I haven't seen very many of these, and I think it could be a cool addition to the overall pen.

I've been looking around, and can't even seem to find the right search term that could get me to the right sources. Stone could be interesting from an appearance standpoint, and the crystals could open up a new market among crystal enthusiasts.

Jeff
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Are you thinking more in terms of cut stones, small size, that you could use in bands, finials, etc.? Or raw material (i.e. trustone like) that you could turn?
 
jrista said:
Are you thinking more in terms of cut stones, small size, that you could use in bands, finials, etc.? Or raw material (i.e. trustone like) that you could turn?
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I'm thinking of things harder than Trustone, so lapidary equipment would be needed. Some of the softer stones like soapstone and others are a real possibility, but I'd like to explore things like granite, quartz, amethyst, and others. For an example, think about reproducing the center band of a PSI Designer in some kind of bright stone or a crystal. I guess Trustone might be a good place to start though.

Oh, and it has to be cheap :cool:
Actually, I'd settle for reasonable as far as cost goes.
 
Crushed stone is of course not solid, but as a start it is cheap and easy to use. See this one in real turquoise:

100_4567 comp.jpg
 
Pierre--- said:
Crushed stone is of course not solid, but as a start it is cheap and easy to use. See this one in real turquoise:

View attachment 329151
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I just wanted to say, I really LOVE this pen design. The white (is that holly??) and the turquoise go so well together! I hope you don't mind if I make a similar pen? Probably a different kit, but, I really do like this look/style.
 
Fine Engineer said:
Thanks for this Jon. I'll check this out.
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I am probably going to get some 2mm 1/4 ounce of a few myself. I'm trying to find softer materials to start. In looking through all that this store has, it made me wonder, how exactly were you planning on handling harder stone? A lot of this stuff would normally require lapidary equipment...but, with a pen spinning on a lathe, I imagine instead of normal lapidary equipment you would want some kind of hand tooling or something to work these harder stone down to the right diameter?

The other thing that came to mind was, when I turn anything with metal in it, even soft metals, I often have a hard time keeping the neighboring wood and the metal at the same diameter. The metal, being harder to cut, tends to feel like a slight bump without a lot of extra careful work to turn just the metal down, without turning the softer wood down more. I guess maybe with hard enough woods it might not be as problematic...but, it does get tricky. I imagine that problem would be compounded while trying to lap down hard gemstones and the like, without over-turning the neighboring wood?
 
jrista said:
I am probably going to get some 2mm 1/4 ounce of a few myself. I'm trying to find softer materials to start. In looking through all that this store has, it made me wonder, how exactly were you planning on handling harder stone? A lot of this stuff would normally require lapidary equipment...but, with a pen spinning on a lathe, I imagine instead of normal lapidary equipment you would want some kind of hand tooling or something to work these harder stone down to the right diameter?

The other thing that came to mind was, when I turn anything with metal in it, even soft metals, I often have a hard time keeping the neighboring wood and the metal at the same diameter. The metal, being harder to cut, tends to feel like a slight bump without a lot of extra careful work to turn just the metal down, without turning the softer wood down more. I guess maybe with hard enough woods it might not be as problematic...but, it does get tricky. I imagine that problem would be compounded while trying to lap down hard gemstones and the like, without over-turning the neighboring wood?
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My thought was to use stone or crystal parts as replacements for the metal parts rather than as a segmenting material. This way I wouldn't be trying to turn hard material on a wood lathe.

I ran into the same problem that you describe when I did a half knot in copper on a mahogany pen. The metal was much harder than the surrounding wood, and the half knot being less stable than a full knot, there was substantial tear out of the copper. I'll try another one soon with a full knot, and pre-rounding the blank on the belt sander before turning (working the blank from a square was another issue that I think was responsible for much of the tear out).

Jeff
 
Fine Engineer said:
My thought was to use stone or crystal parts as replacements for the metal parts rather than as a segmenting material. This way I wouldn't be trying to turn hard material on a wood lathe.

I ran into the same problem that you describe when I did a half knot in copper on a mahogany pen. The metal was much harder than the surrounding wood, and the half knot being less stable than a full knot, there was substantial tear out of the copper. I'll try another one soon with a full knot, and pre-rounding the blank on the belt sander before turning (working the blank from a square was another issue that I think was responsible for much of the tear out).

Jeff
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I found that using a carbide cutter in a sheer cutting position helped a TON when turning wood blanks segmented with metals. I tried using just a negative rake cutter, but even that didn't work all that well. Either a normal or negative rake carbide cutter worked much better as a sheer cutter. It made it easier to control where you cut, so when the time came to level out the metals with the surrounding wood, I was able to more tightly target just the metal and the bits of wood that rose up to meet it. I don't think I was able to get it perfectly turned in the end, but I got it much closer with the sheer cutting than anything else.
 
jrista said:
I just wanted to say, I really LOVE this pen design. The white (is that holly??) and the turquoise go so well together! I hope you don't mind if I make a similar pen? Probably a different kit, but, I really do like this look/style.
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Please do. The white stuff is deer antler, see the pen rest.
About turning materials with different hardness, I also found that a carbide tool in a sheer cutting position was quite good, but not perfect, I had to do the last cuts with sanding paper backed on a piece of hardwood. But in fact I tried really hard material juste once, it was pink quartz, and after using meters of sanding paper with a poor result, now I just avoid too hard stuff.
 
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There is also cultured turquoise
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Exoticblanks has the crushed opals in their ring making supplies that would work. You could glue them down and probably use the quick set UV resin to coat them, then turn them to shape.

Crushed Opal

Crushed Opal. Our Crushed Opal is a synthetic lab-made or cultured opal. Natural opal can crack and craze over time, but the polymers in the cultured opal make it much more stable, workable, and economical than natural opal. The magical brilliance, stunning color, and unsurpassed vibrancy make...
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JohnU said:
Exoticblanks has the crushed opals in their ring making supplies that would work. You could glue them down and probably use the quick set UV resin to coat them, then turn them to shape.

Crushed Opal

Crushed Opal. Our Crushed Opal is a synthetic lab-made or cultured opal. Natural opal can crack and craze over time, but the polymers in the cultured opal make it much more stable, workable, and economical than natural opal. The magical brilliance, stunning color, and unsurpassed vibrancy make...
www.exoticblanks.com www.exoticblanks.com
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That's a cool idea John. I'll look into it.
 
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