titanium with wood spiral prototype

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Bruce: Very impressive piece of work!! I do have a question, however. The wooden "centerband" appears to be partially unsupported although I am quite sure that it isn't. What would happen to that wooden band if the "cap" were tipped over or dropped onto a hard surface?? From the pictures, the band looks a little fragile and susceptible to injury??
 
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Hi Randy. The middle band is supported by a boss of titanium that extends up into it about .080". There are some splines that do extend downward that are partially cantilevered, but are also glued to the titanium from the inside. I have a couple pictures of this piece on the Making Progress thread toward the end. If it were dropped on a hard surface, there would probably be trouble. The base is extremely hard to tip over, and with heavier weighting at the base, will become even more stable, so tipping over is not as much of a concern. I think it could survive tipping over without damage though.
 
YOWSA!!! Bruce,
That is completely unfathomable to me. How would crosscut wenge or zebrawood work? Maybe angle-cut (bias) would work, if it was in the opposite direction. still, the olivewood definitely works, as you have created a virtual grain pattern with your spirals. I'm sitting here with my mouth hanging open in amazement.[:0]
Rob
 
Thanks guys. Wenge doesn't work well in my ring inlays because the grain is so large and "splintery." It has definite breaks and holes in the grain. I imagine it would be the same issue here. Zebrawood might work if the grain was going the other way as you pointed out. I definetily don't get zebrawood's full effect on my rings, but it might be worth experimenting on the pen. African blackwood looks good against titanium, is super tight grain, and is oily, so that's one good option.

The continuing grain pattern that shows in the pen is actually due to the way it came off the blank. It is cut in those spirals with that spacing. I inlay the blanks in the order that they come off the laser blank. A more highly figured blank should show that effect better. The bottoms of the top spirals and the top of the base spirals start out interlaced and come from the same end of the blank to also help with matching the look. I went a bit conservative on this prototype with the olivewood blank I chose. One issue that I'm faced with is that some metal dust gets into the pores of the wood as I polish the metal. It's not very noticeable, but I need to keep an eye on that to be sure it doesn't take away from the wood at all.
 
What a gorgeous pen, Bruce. After all the accolades in ahead of me, I'm not sure what else to say...
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Thanks guys. Ed, the pens do kind of evolve over time. I liked the twisting fountain pen, but was concerned that it might not always seal well enough to work all the time. This one shouldn't have that issue. I still don't know whether to offer a cap as an option or not. I imagine that an expensive pen like this might best be left on a desk.

I'm trying to hash though different packaging options. This one will be a bit tricky because of the wide and heavy base. I may need to do a custom vacuum form to nest all the parts. Another possibility is a clear tube where the pen is visible through it. I assume that pens like this get both an ink pump and some disposable cartridges in the package. There's a lot of those types of details to work out before trying to sell to dealers.
 
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