# titanium with wood spiral prototype



## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

I completed my prototype for the titanium pen with wood spirals.  I wanted to prove out the finishing of the wood and titanium together.  It seemed to work OK.  The wood looks a little anemic in the pictures, but looks like normal olivewood in person.


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

<br />

Here's a shot of the pen in its base.


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

Here's a side on shot.  The nib is Anthony's small 14K nib.  It works great.  I'm redoing every single part on the entire pen with slight tweaks.  I'll be making the base 8X heavier by adding tungsten, I'll lighten both the upper and lower barrels of the pen and widen the base just a squeak.  The pen seems to work well.


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## PenWorks (Sep 23, 2005)

Damn right it works great [] Think I'm gonna sell you some cluncker nib to put on that drop dead gorgeous pen ! I really like the transition from the wood to non wood part of the pen body, the contrast looks great. I can not think of seeing a metal/wood twist pen by anybody. I would hope you can name your price on this model for the time and effort put forth. Good luck with it. It sure is a GRAND PEN to be prized by some collector.


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

Thanks Anthony.  I was about to start with making a pen with the new revisions tonight and I realized that I needed to use the old coordinates to cut the wood back down after gluing, so I went ahead and finished this one out.  Since I hadn't yet tried wood in metal, I needed to see how well it worked, and needed to see if I could indeed finish the titanium back out to mirror finish.  It took a lot of handwork, but did OK.  I had to do the upper barrel from raw wood to finished completely by hand.  Mounting that back on the CNC will need a dedicated fixture because the of angled cut it has, and since I'm about to change all the inside bores, decided to just do it by hand instead of making a fixture to be used only once.

I decided to try olivewood for the first time in the spirals.  I soaked it in olive oil and the spirals seemed flexible enough to seat in the slots well.  I did some very minor tweaks to the laser code based on what I found here, but it should be pretty dialed in by next time.

Looks like I might need a few more nibs!


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## rtjw (Sep 23, 2005)

WOW!!! It turned out fantastic. Was worried about how big something like that would look but knew you could do a wondeerful job.


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## alamocdc (Sep 23, 2005)

Bruce, since you need to make all those changes, you can just send this one to me. [] It looks fantastic, BTW. Great job on the design.


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## Ron Mc (Sep 23, 2005)

All I can say is, "WOW!!"
What a great pen to see first thing in the morning! It's going to be a GREAT day.


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## ashaw (Sep 23, 2005)

Bruce
  Wow.....    
  I see a future article in pen world.  Greeat job.....[

Alan


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## Tangboy5000 (Sep 23, 2005)

OMG, there are no words to describe what I'm feeling right now.  That is one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen.


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## Ron in Drums PA (Sep 23, 2005)

Wonderful!

How many spirals?


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## Paul in OKC (Sep 23, 2005)

That is just awesome.[:0]


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## JimGo (Sep 23, 2005)

Bruce, that's just AMAZING!  You mentioned the wood being anemic; it seems like a lot of the Olive's grain pattern is lost in the thinner strips.  I wonder if a burl might not add more character to the wood.  Obviously, it will depend on the look you're going for - a nice dark Cocobolo or Purpleheart could also work well, but would be different from the Olive.

No matter what, it's a stunning pen, and one I'm sure most collectors would love to have!  Can't wait to see the final version!


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## Old Griz (Sep 23, 2005)

Bruce, have I told you lately how much you really (expletive deleted) me off ..  [}][!][]
That is a absolutley fantastic design and wonderfully executed... 
I wish I had half your imagination and talent... keep at it you make us all reach for a new star


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## Penmonkey (Sep 23, 2005)

WOW DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![][^]


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

Thanks guys.  Tom, I didn't mean to make anyone mad.[]  For what it's worth, it did take an amazing amount of work to produce.  Ron, there are 6 spirals if you include the ones from the top continuing down bottom.  For the wood, I didn't use my highly figured olivewood on this one; it was just an average piece.  I might check into mahogany burl, which is some truely awesome wood.  I used cocobolo for the base ring on the plastic prototype I described in the Making Progress thread.  It has a nice look too.  It's got a dense grain and is oily; properties that work well for the spirals, which I need to flex to put in position on the base.  The purpleheart that I have here has a bigger grain and I think wouldn't do as well.  I'm not sure if there are different densities of grain to the wood or not.  

One thing that I need to consider, is that I'll have a little plug of wood in the end of the pen that will take on the same angle as the pen, but have a hemispherical shape.  This will have a lasered logo, so I need to use a wood where that can work well too.  A darker wood like mahogany or cocobolo might do better simply because the CA on the wood traps fine metal particles as I sand and buff the metal, so won't show that stuff up as much.  Another consideration is that I would need a wood to look consistant enough for an entire batch of the pens.  I'll need to figure that out.


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## Rifleman1776 (Sep 23, 2005)

Bruce, normally, I am turned off by non-wood pens. But you have combined machine skills, design, art, wood and imagination into something beyond out of this world. What you do is in a separate galaxy.
Supurlatives would echo only faintly.


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## Tom McMillan (Sep 23, 2005)

WOW, Bruce that is most awesome!!!  Nice work as always!!! []


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## JHFerrell (Sep 23, 2005)

Absolutely amazing....


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## wayneis (Sep 23, 2005)

Bruce that pen is beautiful and it is only a prototype, I can't wait to see the finished project.  A couple other woods to consider are Lignum Vitae, bloodwood, blackwood.  I don't think that you really need to worry about consistane grain patern from pen to pen.  Because it is wood, if you try to match up grain so all pens are alike you would be taking something away.  One of the things that people who like wood like the most about wood is that every piece is different.  I believe that even with a limited edition pen that as long as you put a statement in your write-up the would go with the pen and advertisments about the fact that wood differers from piece to piece it just adds to the excitement.  I think that if you find wood that is so alike for all your pens then it won't look as much like wood, it will look more like an imitation instead.  Another thing that you may consider is a larger run but have two or three different woods to choose from.  You could have a total of 750 or 1000 but only 200 pens per wood type.  If you did something like that you could try to pick woods from different countries or areas so that someone could buy a pen with wood that would be native to them.  I really think that as far as the wood goes you have a lot to think about, to me its the wood that really sets the pen off.

Wayne


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## vick (Sep 23, 2005)

Thanks Bruce now I have to retire from pen turning aftert seeing that.  Great design!


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## JimGo (Sep 23, 2005)

BTW Bruce, did I mention that my consulting fee will be relatively trivial?  I'll limit it to just a single pen out of the final batch.  I don't want to get greedy and ask for more than one! []


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## ctEaglesc (Sep 23, 2005)

Another exquiset pen!
Makes me wish I had a CNC lathe and the knowledge to operate it it.
Did you need to take into consideration movement in the wood should the metal body of the pen be subject to temperature extremes?


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

Thanks guys.  Mike, don't quit just yet.  I still need to find a way to make these things where it doesn't take me 3 months!  

Wayne, the wood choice is a great way to extend the limited run issue.  I was wondering what might happen if the pens were to ever sell well and the limit was fast approaching.  Offering different woods is a great way to overcome that should it ever become necessary.  I could also envision an all wood, acrylic, or marble version as being possible.

Jim, I certainly appreciate your modest consulting fees. []

Eagle, the lathe I have comes close to programming itself.  You get the arc and line coordinates from CAD and essentially draw it in the machine's program.  It figures out the necessary roughing and finishing passes based on the material and cutters.  You can override all its assumptions.  That part is not as bad as it seems.  You can learn that part in a week.  The tough part is in the setup and tooling.  I'll need to take a picture of it cutting the middle wood ring.  There's a drill above the chuck and one below the chuck.  They miss the chuck by around a quarter inch while extending past it by a good 3" or so.  They narrowly miss the back wall of the lathe.  It's scary to watch. [:0]

I haven't considered temperature extremes.  The titanium itself won't move much and the wood is soaked in thin CA, so that will help it become a rigid matrix.  Do you think the wood might pop out?  I waxed the wood with RW since total sealing with CA is not possible since it needs to be sanded back down to the metal.


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## Doghouse (Sep 23, 2005)

Bruce, OUTSTANDING work.  Is it possiable to make a lip on the inside edge of the spirals, then pop the wood in? or like jewlers leave a burr that could be pressed down to lock the wood in?

Just thoughts, I don't know the properties of many metals so pls excuse any ignorance.


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## wayneis (Sep 23, 2005)

Bruce,
Two things to consider, first if you are going to consider the possibility of adding different woods then it should be stated as such in your ads.  People may think that the limited edition doesn't meen anything if all of a sudden with no warning another version shown up.  Its not a big deal I see this type of advertising in collectable all of the time.

Second I really don't trhink that you have to worry much about wood movement because anyone who is going to spend $1500.00 isn't going to be carrying it around much.  I would think that something like this is going to be in a special spot in an office or home and pretty much stay there, IMHO anyway.

Wayne


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## chigdon (Sep 23, 2005)

I am in awe!  That is the best looking pen I think I have ever seen (turned pen or Omas, Grayson Tighe, Namiki, etc.).  

I agree with Wayne; this won't be a pocket pen or left in the car.  It should be relatively safe.

I think Lignum Vitae or Vera Wood or Blackwood would also work well due to their similar characteristics.  How about Desert Ironwood!  It is probably one of my favorites to turn and I would think it would hold up well in a situation like that.  

I also wonder if burl might not be a good choice due to it's lack of grain orientation.  I am not sure if that would be an advantage in this case (as long as it was not a brittle wood).


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

Doghouse, I can rough up the inside of the grooves if necessary, but it may not be necessary since each spiral goes about 180 degrees around the pen.  They are actually inlayed fairly deep.  The metal is so tough that rounding the metal over is close to impossible.  Although I've done them, I don't offer blind set stones in my rings on my site for this reason.  The titanium's really tough stuff.  Just drilling this one's nib restriction hole out a few more thousandths of an inch by hand got the material so hot that it seared the skin on my fingers and caused blisters when I went to get it out of my hand lathe!  I wasn't expecting it to get THAT hot!  When gluing the wood strips in, it's a huge mess with wood and glue sticking out all over the place until it's turned again back to flush.  I bathe the thing in CA to be sure all the wood and slots are filled in.  As Wayne says, when someone spends so much on a pen, it will likely reside in a nice airconditioned doctor's, CEO's, or lawyer's office.


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

Thanks Chris.  That's high praise to compare to those guys.  I still have a bit of work to do to get to their league.  It should be fun to experiment with different woods.  I agree Wayne about the disclosure about the different woods up front.  I would certainly do that.  It just bumps the "probably won't happen" way out to "darn near impossible" probability of selling out.  I guess if that were to happen, the wood would be the least of my worries.  I'd need some serious help!


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## Jim in Oakville (Sep 23, 2005)

Pen Art...nothing less that that, it's wonderful!!


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## Fangar (Sep 23, 2005)

Holey @#$%& !  

I quit.

FOR SALE : One Dumb lathe with stewpid wuud shavings all around it.  Oh yeah, take the tewls too.  They are dumb also. They don't werk good.  

P.S.  Holey #@$&$

Fangar


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## PenWorks (Sep 23, 2005)

<b>Classifieds Wanted....</b>

CNC Lathe & Mill, Laser engraver, EDM, & silver casting foundery. [)]


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

That should just about cover it.  Don't forget about the stereolithography machine, where you can "print" out a 3D model of your pen, then cast it in silver.  They're about $30K, but in a few years, they will come down to be "only" a couple thousand dollars for use at home.  I was looking at some of the high end silver pens in Stylophiles magazine, and that must be what they do to produce some of the pens seen there.


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## Scott (Sep 23, 2005)

Hi Bruce!

Beautiful pen!  I just hope I can get one sometime!

Scott.


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## Jim Boyd (Sep 23, 2005)

Too nice for me[V] Us rednecks ain't got enough class for one of them[] Very classy!


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## dubdrvrkev (Sep 23, 2005)

Absolutely stunning! I need to go back to Anthony's 101 list and see what smiley is for speechless. I am at a loss for words about this.


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## Ryan (Sep 23, 2005)

[:0][:0][:0][][:0][:0][:0]

Ryan


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## Chuck Key (Sep 23, 2005)

Speechless


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## btboone (Sep 23, 2005)

Thanks guys.  Gosh, you're embarrassing me.[:I]

[][)]


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## woodscavenger (Sep 23, 2005)

I'm not worthy.........


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## Randy_ (Sep 24, 2005)

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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## btboone (Sep 24, 2005)

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.


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## timdaleiden (Sep 24, 2005)

Bruce, 

 That is really something special. Well done!


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## BigRob777 (Sep 24, 2005)

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


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## btboone (Sep 24, 2005)

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.


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## pastorbill1952 (Sep 24, 2005)

Penmonky said it for me [] WOW DUDE!!!!!! 
Bruce you are in a whole different catagory of excellence.


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## wicook (Sep 24, 2005)

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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## YoYoSpin (Sep 24, 2005)

Bruce, 

Your titanium pens are all outstanding, worthy of the highest praise (and price)...but this one is the top of the line. A magnificent accomplishment. Well done!


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## btboone (Sep 24, 2005)

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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## driften (Sep 28, 2005)

AMAZING! just AMAZING! 

Another sample of  master from you!


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