Day 340: 3 B's

I needed to make a couple of pens today.  One for my wife to use at her new job and another for a friend of hers for a gift.  She picked 2 blanks, both acrylic.  Burnt Copper Polyresin (top, exoticblanks.com) for her friend and Burgundy Invisavue (bottom, woodcraft.com) for herself.

These are not the easiest blanks to turn but the results are worth the effort.  This photo was taken in the shade, the reflections in direct sunlight were too bright for my camera, it fails to capture the high gloss finish on the blanks.  It takes a while longer to get a good finish like this but in the end it's worth the trouble.

After things cooled down a bit this evening, it was 105 this afternoon, I went to work burning the maple hollow forms I've been working on.  I normally start the burning process for this design by dividing the piece into 8 even sections.  I'll fill in every other section around the piece and then fill in the remaining open sections.  I'm reconsidering that plan on these pieces, I'm thinking about leaving 4 of the sections unburned.  Opinions?

Day 4, large and small

Turned 4 simple pens this morning, these will be donated to Packages from Home to be sent to the troops overseas. Coffee Tree, Walnut, Maple, and Mulberry.








After last night's success I decided to go for broke and pulled a very nice piece of Spalted Maple off the shelf. 12" long and 4 1/4" square.
















Finished turning, stands 11" tall and 4" diameter. The bottom was left a little thick so it is stable when standing.