Dyed Box Elder - Jr Gents & Artist Pencil

[Paul Heely]

Finally got around to turning some of the stabilized and dyed box elder blanks I had. I was able to turn a nice smooth surface using a skew but it was some hard stuff. I definitely had to take light cuts compared to turning plain wood.

Finishing was wasn't too bad. The yellow blank had a few deep voids that got filled with sanding dust and thin CA. Other than that the blanks polish up very nicely. I used MM on the blanks then Enduro sealer and poly.

Yellow dyed box elder, chrome artist pencil

Black dyes box elder, rhodium Jr. Gents roller ball

Thanks for looking. Comments, good or bad, always appreciated.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking pens Paul. Well done. How do those stabilized blanks turn?

[Patrick Taylor]

Fantastic job Paul! That Jr. Gent is a real beaut. Shape, finish, and wood are outstanding!. Don't you love the filled voids of the stabilized blanks? They're great.

How do you like the Jr. gent? Is this the "II" version? I've been doing Gents and thinking about doing Jr's as well. Love to hear your thoughts on size weight and balance.

[Paul Heely]

Great looking pens Paul. Well done. How do those stabilized blanks turn?

Bernie, The stabilized blanks were different. I found them very hard to cut and stopped several times to touch up my skew with a diamond hone. I wasn't able to hog off most of the wood like I normally can. Normally I only use a skew to take my pens from rough to finished. I ended up roughing them out with a spindle roughing gouge but even that was slow. I'm guessing that whatever is used to stabilize them is very hard. In the end I was able to get a good finish right off the tool but had to take my time and make light cuts. Overall I like them very much, they just took a little longer to turn.

I think the blanks are also brittle. I had one that I was cutting a little too aggressively when roughing one to round and had it shatter. Sent a couple of good hunks around the shop. Friendly reminder everyone, always wear eye protection.

The poly/plastic or whatever chemical it is has a strong odor. I didn't notice it when turning, the dust collector helped out here, but once turned the blank stunk for a little while.

Overall though I like them and will keep using them.

[Paul Heely]

Fantastic job Paul! That Jr. Gent is a real beaut. Shape, finish, and wood are outstanding!. Don't you love the filled voids of the stabilized blanks? They're great.

How do you like the Jr. gent? Is this the "II" version? I've been doing Gents and thinking about doing Jr's as well. Love to hear your thoughts on size weight and balance.

The blank for the Jr. Gents didn't need any filling so that was a treat. The yellow one on the sketch pencil had several big voids, they had to be filled in several steps. So I'm 50-50 so for in the not having to fill voids department. Oh, the one I shattered didn't seem to have any voids either, at least not before I got a hold of it....

The kit is the II version. Its the first time I've made this particular kit, I also have some Jr Statesmen's II which are the same size with fancier parts. The weight of the pen is nice and I think its just small enough that you could carry it in a shirt pocket. For writing I don't really like it with the cap screwed back onto the end of the pen. It's long and the balance does not feel good to me. Without screwing the cap back onto the end it feels fine. I haven't done any of the Gents so can't compare the Jr to them.

Had a problem with the Ti Gold version of this kit. The hole in the clip is too small for the end cap to fit through. Was only a problem with the Ti one, the rhodium kit was fine. CSUSA is sending out a replacement. If anyone has any of these kits sitting around you might want to check that the hole in the clip is large enough for the end cap to fit through. Hopefully mine was just an anomaly and its not a wide spread problem.

[Patrick Taylor]

Had a problem with the Ti Gold version of this kit. The hole in the clip is too small for the end cap to fit through. Was only a problem with the Ti one, the rhodium kit was fine. CSUSA is sending out a replacement. If anyone has any of these kits sitting around you might want to check that the hole in the clip is large enough for the end cap to fit through. Hopefully mine was just an anomaly and its not a wide spread problem.

I had that problem with some CSUSA gents, but pressed them together anyways and it was fine. I don't know how much smaller your clip ring is though.