# A comeback! BOW Sierra with abalone inlay



## yaroslaw (Oct 3, 2017)

Hi!

It's been a while (1.5 year?) when I last visited IAP. And I missed it! 
So after two days working on photos of my recent pens, I've decided to post some of my "special" pens here. The one's that I'm proud of, first

When me and my better half were preparing for a wedding a year ago with local pastor, I've noticed him having few pens at hand, and they were not the cheapest Bic's (and not something expensive either.

And I was working on a inlay process for a special order, so I decided to make a pen for Father Michal (reads <mee-khal>) as a present for spending quite some time with us (something like 10-15 hrs in total) and beeing just an amazing guy  

So here it comes - "Bethleem" Olive Wood with Abalone inlay. And, laser engraving on a plastic ring (kit is Zodiac from ExoticBlanks.com, I removed zodiac ring and turned black acrylics and engraved it with pastors name).


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## KenV (Oct 3, 2017)

Elegant and personal!


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## mark james (Oct 3, 2017)

Welcome back stranger!

What a mighty awesome pen to re-introduce yourself.

I have been showing off the IAP Collection this past month, and each time when I chat about your two pens I say:  "Hope this guy is OK!  Haven't heard from him lately."

Superb inlay.


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## yaroslaw (Oct 3, 2017)

mark james said:


> Welcome back stranger!
> 
> What a mighty awesome pen to re-introduce yourself.
> 
> ...



Thanks Mark! 
I'm doing good. Kickstarter thing last year kicked me in the back, so I had to work 12x7x3month for free (em, total net is *-*$1500 not counting work time). After that it was a recovery Now doing some small custom orders for some big companies. Will share them later


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## leehljp (Oct 3, 2017)

Beautiful work, and great pictures too!


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## elkhorn (Oct 3, 2017)

Welcome back! Beautiful pen and photography!


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## thewishman (Oct 3, 2017)

I LOVE that!! Beautiful work!


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## skiprat (Oct 3, 2017)

Superb!!


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## turncrazy43 (Oct 3, 2017)

Yaroslaw, Beautiful pen. Great work. Very nice to see you back with us, we were worried about you.

Thanks for sharing your work with us.

Turncrazy 43


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## jimmyz (Oct 3, 2017)

Very nice work!  Can't wait to see some more.


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## SteveJ (Oct 3, 2017)

That is a very nice pen!  Thanks for coming back and sharing.


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## LouCee (Oct 3, 2017)

Looks great!


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## FrankH (Oct 3, 2017)

What a beautiful pen.  I'm sure Father Michel is enjoying it.


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## MPVic (Oct 3, 2017)

Incredible work of art!!  Talk about a labour of love!


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## keithncsu (Oct 3, 2017)

Easily one of the best, most tastefully done pens I have ever seen on this site.  The blank is so beautiful I almost didn't notice the gold accented hardware.  While it is never my first choice, it really works with the BOW you have.  Well done!!


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## yaroslaw (Oct 4, 2017)

Thanks guys! More pens to come!


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## jeff (Oct 7, 2017)

Good to see you back! A great pen for the front page. :biggrin:


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## wood128 (Oct 7, 2017)

Beautiful work !! Wish you well :hypnotized::tongue::wink:


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## Rolandranch (Oct 7, 2017)

Awesome work! I think it fits nicely on the front page.


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## mredburn (Oct 7, 2017)

Its good to have you back Yaroslaw, glad to hear your ok, great pen.


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## leehljp (Oct 7, 2017)

I knew when I saw that pen that Jeff would put it on Front Page Display! 

CONGRATULATIONS ON Front Page Display! :good:  :good:  :good:


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## JohnU (Oct 7, 2017)

A very nice touch with the name on the custom center band. Congrats on the front page, Very deserving!


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## NLAlston (Oct 8, 2017)

This is truly stunning.  Words could never be enough, to express how beautiful I see this pen to be.


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## yaroslaw (Oct 8, 2017)

Wow!!! Thanks! It's been a while when my pen was on a front page! 

Thanks once again!


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## ed4copies (Oct 8, 2017)

Good to see you again, Yaro!!!

You certainly improved that kit!!!!  BEAUTIFULLY done!!

Most important, good to see you are OK!!

Ed


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## yaroslaw (Oct 8, 2017)

ed4copies said:


> Good to see you again, Yaro!!!
> 
> You certainly improved that kit!!!!  BEAUTIFULLY done!!
> 
> ...



Ed, I'm making now 30 new pens with "custom" plain black bands. It would really help if I could just buy them (painted metal will suffice))


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## ed4copies (Oct 8, 2017)

PM sent, to stay out of trouble regarding advertising.


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## MikeL (Oct 11, 2017)

That must have been a delicate pen to make. You did great. Your photography is also impressive.


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## magpens (Oct 11, 2017)

Congratulations on the front page appearance !!!!!

Hey, I asked you a question in your "Colored Pencils" thread .... about the brand name of the pencils with the black interior :biggrin:

If you can tell me that, please, I would appreciate it .... might be able to get some and try your "never again" project !!


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## PenRanger (Oct 17, 2017)

Handsome pen. A very nice gift indeed


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## kronewi (Jun 7, 2021)

yaroslaw said:


> Hi!
> 
> It's been a while (1.5 year?) when I last visited IAP. And I missed it!
> So after two days working on photos of my recent pens, I've decided to post some of my "special" pens here. The one's that I'm proud of, first
> ...


I just ran across this post. What did you use to laser the Abalone? I am looking for a CNC w/laser to do some work but I am having issues finding a laser strong enough to so the job.


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## yaroslaw (Jun 7, 2021)

kronewi said:


> I just ran across this post. What did you use to laser the Abalone? I am looking for a CNC w/laser to do some work but I am having issues finding a laser strong enough to so the job.


I have used 40W CO2 laser for a job, it's doing it not really easy but also not on 100% power. But I don't know if neje-style lasers will work for this application - they have usually much less power - 5W probably isn't going to work. I've seen some newer modules go up to 40W, but thing with lasers is that ability to engrave and cut heavily depends on combo of material properties and wavelength of the laser. As an example both fiber lasers and co2 lasers emit in IR and pretty close, but fiber lasers can engrave metals, but fail miserably on resins and most woods (opposite to co2).

And I've never heard of industry grade laser diod engraver (the one I suppose you refer as cnc w/laser) so I suppose it's working worse then co2 or fiber lasers (both of which start at 30-40W). Anyway, you need to check first if your preferred material can be engraved with given wavelength, if it can't no amount of power will help. 

Hope it's helpful.


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## kronewi (Jun 7, 2021)

It was helpful. Thank you. 

I was just speaking with Nextwavecnc that makes the Shark machines. Theirs will not do it. I will keep looking.

Thanks again,
Kevin


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## qquake (Jun 7, 2021)

That is GORGEOUS!!!


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## yaroslaw (Jun 10, 2021)

qquake said:


> That is GORGEOUS!!!


Thanks! It's an old pen (and a post...) should make something like this again


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## yaroslaw (Jun 10, 2021)

kronewi said:


> It was helpful. Thank you.
> 
> I was just speaking with Nextwavecnc that makes the Shark machines. Theirs will not do it. I will keep looking.
> 
> ...


I have cheap chinese K40-style laser, it may be cheaper to just buy it separately from CNC, but you need a place for it (it isn't really big but anyway) and software is cringy.... On the other hand, those blue lasers just may not be suitable to cut abalone, purely by the physics of it. 
I've tried to upgrade my CO2 laser to jewelers fiber laser to make more precise engravings on my pens (I do quite a lot of company logos engravings) just to find out that resins and most woods are transparent to that laser so it doesn't evaporate material from the surface as it should, but penetrated deep and just heat up resin all at once, melting and burning it. So for now I'm stuck with CO2 laser, unfortunately.


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## RichAldrich (Jun 11, 2021)

Nice Pen!


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## Madman1978 (Jun 11, 2021)

Awesome work!


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