# Prickly pear cactus pens



## MesquiteMan (May 14, 2006)

I got a wild idea a few weeks ago to try to use some prickly pear cactus to make a pen.  I took the internal skeleton of the cactus and poured it full of epoxy dyed with Transtint dye.  I tried using PR for the first time but evidently it is not compatible with Transtint since it did not even begin to set up even after 1 week.

Anyway, I thought the came out pretty cool and it was fun thinking outside the box!

The prop in the first pic is a piece of the cactus skeleton after it is cleaned up and dried.







This is a quick scan to please excuse the lousy quality.


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## Dario (May 14, 2006)

I love these!!!  [:0][:0][:0]


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## JimGo (May 14, 2006)

WOW, those are cool!  I just threw away a cactus I had hoped to make a pen out of because the inside was too squishy...never thought about using epoxy or casting it in PR!  Duh!


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## knottyharry (May 14, 2006)

Great job Curtis...
Very creative.
Harry


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## Johnathan (May 14, 2006)

Wow, What a great unique look. I think your going to get a lot of questions about this one.[8D]


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## dubdrvrkev (May 14, 2006)

Those look great, good thinking. The top one almost reminds me of lightening.


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## leehljp (May 14, 2006)

I love the creativity involved with your pens and material. Besides that, the pens are standouts! Do some more!


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## Jim15 (May 14, 2006)

Great looking pens. 

jim


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## chigdon (May 14, 2006)

That is awesome!!!


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## elody21 (May 14, 2006)

That is really Wild!! Great idea! I love them!  Did you have problems getting the epoxy to come to a high gloss? The reason I ask is I have tried to use black epoxy to fill air bubbles in black resin and the spots will not shine. elody21 - Alice


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## pete00 (May 14, 2006)

very cool !!!!!!! love em.......
do some more blanks then sell them to us...[][]


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## stinger (May 14, 2006)

I never would have thought of doing something like this. The results are fantastic.


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## PenWorks (May 14, 2006)

Great looking pens and terrific design [:0]
What part of the prickly pear is that ?
The leaf, branch or root?  
I have cut saguaro, ocotillo and jumping cactus,
but never seen prickly pear like that.


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## rtparso (May 14, 2006)

How did you remove the flesh????


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## Deere41h (May 14, 2006)

Those are really neat.  I would love to hear more about your process.  Have you tried it with tinted PR?  Did you wrap the cactus around the tube and then add the epoxy or did you make a blank and drill it to add the tube?  I like the outcome.  Thanks for sharing them with us.  Gives a lot of us new ideas.


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## chitswood (May 14, 2006)

Excellent! You get [:0][:0][:0][:0] and 1/2[:0]

For the unique turning material


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## guts (May 14, 2006)

looks like you got a lot of folks wondering how it the world you did that including me,all i know about the pears is don't touch them without gloves on.[]


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## MesquiteMan (May 14, 2006)

Thanks everyone for the nice comments.  I am going to post a quick run-down on the penturning section on how I make these pens.  I figure more people may see it there.


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## airrat (May 14, 2006)

Curtis you have definetly "stepped outside of the box".  FANTASTIC!! work.

I dont have the ability for your process.  If you plan on selling some blanks I would be interested.


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## arjudy (May 14, 2006)

Very cool idea.


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## gerryr (May 14, 2006)

Those are great!!!!  I have prickly pear growing around here and even straight Roundup will not kill it.[:0]  Now I know what I can do with it.


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## woodscavenger (May 15, 2006)

That is awesome!!


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## Tropical (May 15, 2006)

Really cool!   [8D]


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## Glenn McCullough (May 17, 2006)

Time to start a business....if you make them ,they will buy them, I certainly would!
Still waiting...


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## fiferb (May 17, 2006)

Fantastic.  I would buy blanks as well.


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