May 2015 PITH Pictures

[lyonsacc]

:biggrinlease post pictures of your pens and blanks for the May 2015 PITH here!!:biggrin:

 

[Phillip Kelley]

Probably not a good choice....

So I am still lookin' for that spalted Hackberry...

 

[jsolie]

I received a PM from my trading partner that my pen and blanks were on the way. I was expecting them early next week, and was quite surprised to find a box waiting for me in yesterday's mail. I opened it up and found a beautiful Patriot pen done in antler.

Rocky, who has only been turning pens since February this year, did an amazing job on the pen. The hardware really works well with the antler. He also included a bit of antler and a Texas Longhorn blank. The fit and finish on this pen is excellent. Thank you and well done, sir!

A couple more pics:

 

[Dale Lynch]

OCD Segmenting

Todd aka penmaker1967 asked me to post pics since has cameras broke.So here goes.I forgot how many slices are in there.keep getting lost trying to count them.It is a twisted ladder design done with my Millers.

The main body is ??? Bocote maybe.The segments are yellow heart.The yellow heart end grain is a different hue giving the pen a 3 wood coloring.

I think this is the best pen I have done to date.Really like how all the slices came together and how many twists around the barrel there are.

C&C encouraged

Didn't get a pic of the blanks sorry 5 blanks all wood different species.

 

[Rocky1247]

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[PenPal]

Love the two pens off the rank so quickly my back is locked up in spasms so can only say my progress with Joe is there I have the theme the bits and the enthusiasm together I hope later next week to realise my dream setting. Love the one to one swaps where confusion is eliminated.Amazing on Google earth view to see where your pen etc will end up exciting indeed.

Both these pens are totally different unusual blanks and kits with those goodies well done you guys.

Kind regards Peter.

 

[Dale Lynch]

Thanks Peter.

 

[Argo13]

Received my swap last week

I received this pen and blanks from tomtedesco on the 15th of May. (sorry for the delay in posting) He appears to be an overachiever since he also sent a ton of blanks as well. (I am not complaining)

The pen is an Orion I think and The wood is desert ironwood from Mexico.

The darkness of the wood and my photo skills don't allow you to see the pen like it is in person but I think you can tell he did a great job.

A Nice assortment of blanks will keep me busy for a while.

Thanks for Overachieving Tom!

Jason

 

[CrimsonKeel]

So the theme is entertainment. is anyone following the theme? If there is a story behind the pens id love to hear it.

 

[PenPal]

Entertainment in every swap mine is finished will post next week never post international end of week.Have had the most entertainment personally.

Peter.

 

[Rocky1247]

Swap from Josua

Stephen, just received his swap from Joshua Lyons. He was real excited about the pen and the blanks. The stripes in the pen are suppose to represent color of belt in Karate. Which, Stephen is into. Thanks Josh

Trying to post photos, but, the site isn't letting me. Will someone teach this old horse a new trick.

 

[Wolfeman46]

Those are some great pens so far! Maybe by the next PITH I'll be able to make some nice ones to swap.

 

[oneleggimp]

Guess I'm stupid. What does PITH mean in the context of pens??

 

[SteveJ]

pen in the hat

 

[jsolie]

It stands for "Pen In The Hat."

Legend tells of long-ago meet-ups between pen turners where each pen turner brought a pen to share. Someone would take a hat (bowler hat, perhaps?) into which each turner would deposit their pen to share. Thus a Pen In The Hat. Towards the end of the festivities the hat would be passed around and each person would withdraw a random pen to keep for their own.

Since it's kind of hard to pass a hat around in a physical sense on the Internet (plus it's kind of hard to shove a pen into a laptop for transmission out to the Internet), the idea has remained the same, but the means are different.

 

[Dale Lynch]

So the theme is entertainment. is anyone following the theme? If there is a story behind the pens id love to hear it.

Segmenting is entertaining.It consumed all my free time till it was done.My attention was fully entertained with that pen.

 

[lyonsacc]

Stephen, just received his swap from Joshua Lyons. He was real excited about the pen and the blanks. The stripes in the pen are suppose to represent color of belt in Karate. Which, Stephen is into. Thanks Josh

Trying to post photos, but, the site isn't letting me. Will someone teach this old horse a new trick.

Here are some pics of the pen Josh made for Stephen.

 

[alankulwicki7]

2015 PITH pen from skewed-logic

Here's the pen that I received from Paul Hirt (skewed-logic). It's a gold Sedona rollerball with Japanese Washi rice paper cast in PR. I've only seen this pen type in photos and it has a great feel to it. I also haven't seen a finished version of the rice paper before. I think the blank and pen kit go great together! Great job, Paul!

Along with the pen, Paul included some goodies: a cool homemade pen case, a BOW blank, a Cocobolo blank and Vertex kit with a rice paper PR blank. I haven't tried the Vertex kit before so I'm looking forward to that

Paul said that the Vertex/red rice paper blank was Plan A but didn't think it was 'entertaining' enough so he made the Sedona. I'm sure that I'll be entertained when I turn it!

Thanks again, Paul!
Doug

 

[Edgar]

PITH Pen from Plantman

I received my PITH pen from Jim Schumacher (Plantman) today. As usual, Jim knocked it out of the park.

The pen is a Rhodium Jr. Retro with a Texas Prickly Pear Cactus blank from Curtis Seebeck (Mesquiteman). I've admired photos unique blanks by Curtis, but I've never actually seen one of the blanks, let alone a pen made from them. Who'da thunk that I'd wind up getting a pen made with such a special Texas blank from a guy in Wisconsin. :biggrin:

The blank is a deep blue color, but the light has to hit it just right to see the depth of the blue color. Curtis is truly a master at making these kind of blanks & Jim did a superb job turning & finishing this one. The pen was housed in a walnut lift box that makes an excellent display stand. It's going to have a prominent place on my desk.

Jim also included two great blanks - a crosscut & dyed spalted oak blank and a Banksia Pod blank from George Valentine (Robutacion). Both are fabulous & I have some special plans for them.

On top of it all, Jim included a gift for my wife. It's a polyclay blank on a fancy copper slimline. My wife will truly be surprised & delighted with this. What's really amazing about this is that I also made a little gift for Jim's wife and neither of us mentioned that we were doing that.

Thanks Jim, this was a really fun PITH and I hope we get paired up again sometime down the road.

 

[Krash]

It stands for "Pen In The Hat."

I tried to get Mike (healey days) to do a CITH ...

Car In The Hat.

I generously offered a MUCH newer car, like 39 years newer, in exchange for his old car but for some reason, he didn't bite. Oh well, his loss. My 1998 Honda Accord will stay with me while he is "stuck" with a green 1959 Austin Healey 3000! (like ... who wants a green car anyway?) :biggrin:

 

[plantman]

I received my PITH pen from Jim Schumacher (Plantman) today. As usual, Jim knocked it out of the park.

The pen is a Rhodium Jr. Retro with a Texas Prickly Pear Cactus blank from Curtis Seebeck (Mesquiteman). I've admired photos unique blanks by Curtis, but I've never actually seen one of the blanks, let alone a pen made from them. Who'da thunk that I'd wind up getting a pen made with such a special Texas blank from a guy in Wisconsin. :biggrin:

The blank is a deep blue color, but the light has to hit it just right to see the depth of the blue color. Curtis is truly a master at making these kind of blanks & Jim did a superb job turning & finishing this one. The pen was housed in a walnut lift box that makes an excellent display stand. It's going to have a prominent place on my desk.

Jim also included two great blanks - a crosscut & dyed spalted oak blank and a Banksia Pod blank from George Valentine (Robutacion). Both are fabulous & I have some special plans for them.

On top of it all, Jim included a gift for my wife. It's a polyclay blank on a fancy copper slimline. My wife will truly be surprised & delighted with this. What's really amazing about this is that I also made a little gift for Jim's wife and neither of us mentioned that we were doing that.

Thanks Jim, this was a really fun PITH and I hope we get paired up again sometime down the road.

Glad you liked the pens and extras Edgar !! Jim S

 

[plantman]

Christmas arrived on my doorstep yesterday from Sugar Land, Texas in the form of my PITH exchange from Edgar Ohmann ( edohmann). The more I unwrapped the box, the more items came into view. First was another box addressed to my wife. It contained the little bird house that Edgar had turned for her. She loved it !! Second was a sleeve holding a 4 CD Collector's Edition of That's Entertainment. Seems I heard those words somewhere in the PITH guidelines !!! Most of you out there are a little young to remember these 1970's shows. Third was the pen box holding my PITH pen which Edgar named "party Confetti". He was trying to get the look of the first fancy bowling balls that also came out in the 70's. I hope my photos show up the colors in this blank. On the bottom of the box were two so-called blanks of Camphor Wood, I would call them tree slabs myself, as I could make around 25-30 blanks out of them. I have them sitting on top of one of the display cabinets in my office, and the aroma fills the room. thank you Edgar, you did well !!! Jim S

 

[Edgar]

Christmas arrived on my doorstep yesterday from Sugar Land, Texas in the form of my PITH exchange from Edgar Ohmann ( edohmann). The more I unwrapped the box, the more items came into view. First was another box addressed to my wife. It contained the little bird house that Edgar had turned for her. She loved it !! Second was a sleeve holding a 4 CD Collector's Edition of That's Entertainment. Seems I heard those words somewhere in the PITH guidelines !!! Most of you out there are a little young to remember these 1970's shows. Third was the pen box holding my PITH pen which Edgar named "party Confetti". He was trying to get the look of the first fancy bowling balls that also came out in the 70's. I hope my photos show up the colors in this blank. On the bottom of the box were two so-called blanks of Camphor Wood, I would call them tree slabs myself, as I could make around 25-30 blanks out of them. I have them sitting on top of one of the display cabinets in my office, and the aroma fills the room. thank you Edgar, you did well !!! Jim S

Thanks Jim - I'm glad you & your wife liked what I sent. I knew that my pen-making skills would pale next to yours, so I tried to come up with some entertaining ideas to make the exchange a little special.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but the body of the birdhouse is Black Wattle from Robutacion in Australia via Mark James. The cap and finial are SASSAFRAS!

I gave my wife the pen you made for her this evening - she was quite surprised and very thrilled. Thanks so much for thinking of her.

Edgar

 

[Krash]

Edgar .... Jim

Thanks for setting the bar stupid high for the rest of us pen hacks!

Seriously ... great job by you both!

 

[plantman]

Edgar .... Jim

Thanks for setting the bar stupid high for the rest of us pen hacks!

Seriously ... great job by you both!

Kelly; Like they always say "If you can't blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bull $hit", and I have tall boots. This is the second time Edgar and I have exchanged PITHs, so with the PMing back and forth over time, we know each other's likes fairly well. The extras added to the exchange are from the friendship we have developed on this site over the years, but Edgar and I would do the same for any partner that we may be paired with. Jim S

 

[USNR'03]

Eric (Santaeric) you box is on the was and should be there soon. my theme is "Men at work" and the land down under as the blank is from there. I hope you enjoy.

 

[Rounder]

Eric (Santaeric) you box is on the was and should be there soon. my theme is "Men at work" and the land down under as the blank is from there. I hope you enjoy.

AWWW man! I had the exact same theme for my pen to Smitty. And I thought I was going to be unique. Guess great minds think alike, lol.
P.S., Smitty, your pen will be on the way this week. All I have to do is package and send. I got your package yesterday and LOVE it. I will get pics up this evening.

 

[Simsonicole]

Hi Mike...mlconnolley! Your pen is on its way! As a little teaser...Its theme is music (represented for me) and rollerball with a little extra of you (represented for you). It is made from a guitar neck (birdeye maple) as the business that I own manufacture custom guitars. Hope you like it!

 

[healeydays]

Ok, the pen is off to New Mexico and Krash. The theme for this PITH was:
"That's Entertaining"

So going along with that theme, here is my clue for Krash...

 

[Rounder]

Here is my pen from Smitty. Beautiful pen. Also received 2 Caballero pen kits and 5 beautiful blanks. Thanks Smitty. I LOVE THESE PITH'S!!!:biggrin:
Please forgive the poor photos. A photographer I ain't!:embarrassed:

 

[Krash]

Ok, the pen is off to New Mexico and Krash. The theme for this PITH was:
"That's Entertaining"

So going along with that theme, here is my clue for Krash...

The famous Mike honeycomb no doubt!

 

[skewed-logic]

PITH Exchange from Doug Swanson

I received a fabulous fountain pen from Doug (alankulwicki7) last week and a plethora of blanks.
As this is my first PITH I was somewhat hesitant to deviate from the guidelines. I can see that in the future "creativity" is the rule rather than the exception with this group.
The FP is stone acacia and has a marvelous fit and finish.
I feel really inadequate now for following the "two blanks" suggestion as there a bunch of "interesting" pieces that I would have liked to share.
Thanks, Doug. You did a really nice job.
-p

 

[healeydays]

Ok, the pen is off to New Mexico and Krash. The theme for this PITH was:
"That's Entertaining"

So going along with that theme, here is my clue for Krash...

The famous Mike honeycomb no doubt!

No, I decided to make my own ink using honey...

 

[Edward Cypher]

On its way.

 

[DigBaddy72]

Got my package from Cody! BRAVO!!

Got my package last night, just got done taking pics. LOVE both pens! Living in Wisconsin, it's not hard to guess which professional sportsball team I root for. Plus I can see Lambeau Field from my office so when I saw the GB pen I was pumped! I am now the envy of the office. I have yet to play around with the water transfer technique for pens and Cody did a great job on the logo. It is smooth and flush with the finish. It now hangs in a place of honor around my neck at work (ID badges have to be worn above the waist, I use a lanyard).

The second pen is a beautiful segmented pen with a Schmidt roller ball insert. That thing writes like a charm and feels good in the hands. That is now my desk pen, replacing an old .30 bolt action I made 2 years ago.

Then he sent, not one, not two, but THREE blanks!!

Box elder, a Brooks blank, and (my favorite blank) a home cast blank with a Green Lantern stamp. I can't wait to get that on a pen kit. I've been toying around with ideas for a Justice League pen set....this may factor into those plans!

Thank you thank you thank you Cody! You have made my first PITH event a great one! I only hope my package does not disappoint!

 

[Flynny]

May 2015 PITH

HOLY SMOKES - talk about going above and beyond. Today I received my package from Truckfixr a/k/a Chuck in Texas. Two beautiful pens a Navigator with a home brewed blank with logos from all the Boston sports teams - and a Wall Street II with a Shiner Beer bottle cap wrapped around Hackberry and Mesquite and embedded in CA. Shiner is a Texas Beer that I am partial to, plus several blanks, most new to this Massachusetts boy.

Pictures and details on the blanks to follow.

Thanks again
John

 

[clieb91]

Sophia received her pen last night from Doug's (alankulwicki7) daughter Abby. She loves it as it features her two favorite colors. She also got a nice supply of blanks and a special treat.

Thanks, your box will be on the way in the morning.

 

[clieb91]

Tonight I received my PITH pen from Bill (bjbear76) What a great looking pen I have not seen a Vertex close up and really like the look and the feel. The blank is just cool with lots of mica bits throughout. It came with a generous supply of blanks to use for the future and I look forward to finding the right project for them.

Thanks much and your box will be on the way in the morning.

 

[alankulwicki7]

I received a fabulous fountain pen from Doug (alankulwicki7) last week and a plethora of blanks.
As this is my first PITH I was somewhat hesitant to deviate from the guidelines. I can see that in the future "creativity" is the rule rather than the exception with this group.
The FP is stone acacia and has a marvelous fit and finish.
I feel really inadequate now for following the "two blanks" suggestion as there a bunch of "interesting" pieces that I would have liked to share.
Thanks, Doug. You did a really nice job.
-p

Glad you like the pen, Paul. I thought the blank was fitting since I received it in one of George's 'entertaining' contests Wish I had more of the Stone Acacia

Sophia received her pen last night from Doug's (alankulwicki7) daughter Abby. She loves it as it features her two favorite colors. She also got a nice supply of blanks and a special treat.

Thanks, your box will be on the way in the morning.

I'm glad Sophia likes her pen. Abby is looking forward to receiving her pen

 

[Cwalker935]

Got my package last night, just got done taking pics. LOVE both pens! Living in Wisconsin, it's not hard to guess which professional sportsball team I root for. Plus I can see Lambeau Field from my office so when I saw the GB pen I was pumped! I am now the envy of the office. I have yet to play around with the water transfer technique for pens and Cody did a great job on the logo. It is smooth and flush with the finish. It now hangs in a place of honor around my neck at work (ID badges have to be worn above the waist, I use a lanyard).

The second pen is a beautiful segmented pen with a Schmidt roller ball insert. That thing writes like a charm and feels good in the hands. That is now my desk pen, replacing an old .30 bolt action I made 2 years ago.

Then he sent, not one, not two, but THREE blanks!!

Box elder, a Brooks blank, and (my favorite blank) a home cast blank with a Green Lantern stamp. I can't wait to get that on a pen kit. I've been toying around with ideas for a Justice League pen set....this may factor into those plans!

Thank you thank you thank you Cody! You have made my first PITH event a great one! I only hope my package does not disappoint!

If its not obvious, my theme was green- Green Bay, Green Lantern, and yellow popular. What's yellow popular got to do with a green theme- its green. Lot of IAP stuff played forward here. Orange osage used for the Packer's pen was received from an IAP member, got assistance for the water slide decal from another member, and the segmented pen used a blank that I won in the Superbowl contest with some yellow popular and one of Smitty's caballeros from one of his special sales. The box elder was purchased from a member and the brooks blank was part of a door prize that i won at the MAPG. The green lantern blank was inspired by some of the work posted here previously and benefited from some forum articles and discussions. Stamps have been tricky for me but I think I have a good approach now.