# Thread wrapped blanks I"m working on now.



## Ted Sachs (Feb 7, 2017)

Here are a few of the blanks I'm working on now. I've been doing a lot of Sierra Vista type blanks, which are the same as the Wallstreet III and the Monarch Grande. I've also been doing a lot of the Jr series blanks, but don't have any of them cast yet. Anyway, here's what I've got so far since I started back.


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## Ted Sachs (Feb 7, 2017)

Here's a few more I forgot about in the OP. The double blanks or for the Sedona type pens.


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## Ted Sachs (Feb 7, 2017)

I definitely need to take some better pictures after seeing them here.


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## skiprat (Feb 7, 2017)

Those are amazing. How long do you spend on a typical one?


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## Jim15 (Feb 7, 2017)

Every one of those are awesome.


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## tomtedesco (Feb 7, 2017)

Great looking blanks, waiting for the pens.


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## jttheclockman (Feb 7, 2017)

As always great looking work. Always amazed. How is the making a long blank and cutting it in half working out for you???  Do you lose too much of the pattern or not be able to center it well on the tube???  Also are you prepping the blanks with anything to color preserve them before casting??? Are you casting in Silmar or Alumilite??  Thanks.


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## Ted Sachs (Feb 7, 2017)

skiprat said:


> Those are amazing. How long do you spend on a typical one?



They all vary, and some by a good bit. I can spend an hour or two on the simplest of patterns, or thirty or forty on some not so simple ones. That's wrapping a ten inch long tube though. I can usually get at least three pen tubes out of  a ten inch tube.  You have to take in to consideration the pattern and making sure it's balanced on the tube. There are some patterns that are such a way that you have very little to no waste, and there are some that have a lot of waste.

I'm glad you like them and I thank you for saying so. Give it a try with a dowel rod and some embroidery thread.


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## Ted Sachs (Feb 7, 2017)

jttheclockman said:


> As always great looking work. Always amazed. How is the making a long blank and cutting it in half working out for you???  Do you lose too much of the pattern or not be able to center it well on the tube???  Also are you prepping the blanks with anything to color preserve them before casting??? Are you casting in Silmar or Alumilite??  Thanks.



Thanks jt, glad you like them so much. I answered part of your questions in the preceding post, but in answer to the other two, I don't use any color preserver at all now. I use thread that doesn't require color preserver. It works nicely and has rid me of that problem. I'm using Silmar, but hope to be switching to West epoxy in order to get a little better results, and a lot more consistency when casting. I did get the Cast Right vertical system, and it has been a big help. I have some new patterns that I'll be showing off along the way. Right now, I'm not making very many pens. I'm going to be selling through Classic Nib exclusively, other than an occasional piece that I wrap doing a new pattern or a really tedious one that I have no intention of duplicating for retail.


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## jdmacdo (Feb 7, 2017)

*Before you cut...*

What are you using to hold the threads in place before you cut the tube apart for casting?  I have done a couple and some times use the ThreadMaster rod finish with enough coats to just sand it down to size.  I tried the rod finish on it and casting it, but there was some reaction that caused the resin to not cure at the intersection of the two.

Thanks


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## Ted Sachs (Feb 7, 2017)

jdmacdo said:


> What are you using to hold the threads in place before you cut the tube apart for casting?  I have done a couple and some times use the ThreadMaster rod finish with enough coats to just sand it down to size.  I tried the rod finish on it and casting it, but there was some reaction that caused the resin to not cure at the intersection of the two.
> 
> Thanks



I put several coats of CA on after burnishing the wrapping. I start with the thinnest I can find so it will soak all the way to the tube.  Let it dry on its own without using any accelerator so that it can penetrate all the way to the tube. I'll usually put five or six coats on, but I'm thinking about cutting it to only three now to get a better look. I use the veritical casting system Jim Pratt sells at Cast Right.  Awesome set up to cast multiple blanks. I can do as many as sixteen tubes if I get the wife to help pour half of them. I'm too slow by myself. Old age sucks sometimes.


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## MrPukaShell (Feb 7, 2017)

I had thought about doing this but you beat me to it.  I have done some diamond & tiger wraps for fishing poles and wondered how they would look as pens & now I know.  Have you thought about casting the whole wrapped tube and cutting to size after?  Keep up the awesome job & if wanted could one pre-order colors & style?


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## Ted Sachs (Feb 7, 2017)

MrPukaShell said:


> I had thought about doing this but you beat me to it.  I have done some diamond & tiger wraps for fishing poles and wondered how they would look as pens & now I know.  Have you thought about casting the whole wrapped tube and cutting to size after?  Keep up the awesome job & if wanted could one pre-order colors & style?



I thought about casting the whole ten inch tube then cutting, but fitting it in the pressure pot would be difficult, at best.  I will do requests, but will do them on ten inch tubes so I have duplicates to sell. I'll also be doing individual blanks on occasion with some of the more difficult patterns that I'll be auctioning on FaceBook.  

So far the patterns I'm doing for Classic Nib to sell are the different diamonds, both open wraps on an underwrap, and closed wrap using two different diamonds. I'm doing the different chevrons, tiger wraps, snowflakes, fish, fish scale, maze, and black widow. There will be more that I do for them as well. It took about a year to find out what I had to change from rod wrapping to pen wrapping since it doesn't carry over exactly the same. There isn't room on the blank to do a tie-off like normal. You'll end up turning in to the thread if you stack too many layers.  I'd love to do a couple in A thread so I can do a tie off with bands and JTOB's on it. That would have to go on something with a long blank like the Zen pen kits.


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## jttheclockman (Feb 7, 2017)

Thanks Ted for sharing your knowledge. This is a craft that will not be copied very easily and I have not seen anyone do it as well as you. I told you this before, I still like the one in your avatar the best. It stands out so well. Has to be the color combination or something. But always love looking at this type work. I have been on a few rod tying sites and they do some amazing work as well. This has always intrigued me. keep up the great work and keep posting.


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## Kenny Durrant (Feb 8, 2017)

Nice work Ted. I have a cousin that builds fishing rods and I talked him into wrapping some tubes for me. He didn't do any fancy designs just the standard wraps. I wanted the center plain so I could glue a small fly or spoon on top. Once again very nice work.


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## Ted Sachs (Feb 8, 2017)

jdmacdo said:


> What are you using to hold the threads in place before you cut the tube apart for casting?  I have done a couple and some times use the ThreadMaster rod finish with enough coats to just sand it down to size.  I tried the rod finish on it and casting it, but there was some reaction that caused the resin to not cure at the intersection of the two.
> 
> Thanks



Iput on a few coats of really thin CA before casting them. This locks the threads in and I can cut it off of the turning mandrel I use and then cut to length since I usually wrap ten inch long tubes. Once cut to length, I'll cast them. It's the casting part that was killing me for the longest time.


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