Hock knives

[Landlubber Mike]

A few months back, @vossiewulf posted pictures of some gorgeous knives he made using blades from Ron Hock, Japanese blades, etc. (haven't seen vossie on here in a while, hope he is ok).  I thought I'd give it a shot since I had the tools to add handles, and went ahead and bought a few from Hock.  He sells some knives already with handles, but I thought it would be more fun to put my own handles on.  

 

I ended up using Sindora burl for these knives (from left to right, two violin knives, a marking knife, and his 1" carving knife).  I had purchased a block that I was going to use for pen turning, but decided to split it into four blanks that I used for the scales.  For the spacer piece that went alongside the blade in between the two scale halves, I used boxwood.  The finish is what I started using when I turn pens - a coat of boiled linseed oil, followed by a few coats of boiled linseed oil/medium CA mixture, followed by a few coats of medium CA.  From there, I used micro mesh pads from 1500-15000, then put them on my buffing wheel.  Fun little project if you're looking for something different than building models.

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Last few months I got sidetracked into a new hobby and started turning pens.  I had a lathe so I figured why not try it.  Well, like most hobbies, it can suck you in and before I knew it, I ended up upgrading to the larger bed Sherline lathe and bought a few other accessories.  I pretty much went from knowing almost nothing about lathes to now being fairly proficient, which should carry forward into model work.  It's also been fun learning about different woods, finishes, etc.  In ship modeling we try to go for wood with minimal grain.  In pen turning, I personally prefer turning wood with lots of character, including burl woods, spalted woods, etc.  They tend to be trickier to turn given that they have cracks, voids, punky wood parts, etc., but the natural beauty just can't be beat in my opinion.  Here is a batch I recently made using spalted woods from Hawaii:

You can also turn acrylic blanks.  Lots of interesting bright colors, patterns, etc.  I prefer the wood pens, but my daughters like the brightly colored ones, so I what can I do?  Here are some I've made from acrylic for my kids:

 

Anyway, just thought I'd share.  Sometimes it's nice to take a break and try something different.  Frankly, I think delving into these other areas will make me a better modeler because of the techniques and other experiences I have learned which can likely be transferred over to model work.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Landlubber Mike

[Bob Cleek]

Beautiful work there! I particularly like the knives and the Hawaiian wood pens. Spectacular figuring!

 

[mtaylor]

Beautiful work. I do love the knives more than the pens though.

[Bob Blarney]

great work on the knives.  

 

I know what you mean about lathework and turning pens.  I made one once to avoid watching the news when I got home from work.  I took it work and showed someone, and soon people were calling me to turn pens.  Well, it got a little embarrassing because I wasn't there to sell pens, but when someone offers $50-150 for an hour or two of relaxing work then why not?  It also paid for some shop improvements.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks very much guys.  Not sure that I would ever make pens to sell - I think I'd be even harder on myself to make them absolutely perfect.  Right now I just enjoy puttering around and trying out new tools, techniques and finishes on them, and then give them out to family and friends.

 

In terms of selling, it seems like there are a ton of people already selling pens.  For many, they are mass producing using fairly inexpensive pen kits and blanks.  There was one guy on the pen forums who cranks out thousands of pens a year, and had it down to the number of seconds it took per step per pen.  I think if I did that it would seem too much like a job, and I probably wouldn't enjoy myself being my boss.  I prefer to make them using higher end kits and more interesting blanks.  Working with the burl and spalted woods takes a lot longer - you have to be careful because the wood can have cracks, voids, and punky spots that can catch your tools and chip or crack or otherwise ruin the blank.  Then there is the finish as well - if there are cracks and voids, you have to fill them to help stabilize the blank and end up with a smooth finish.  So, the finishing can take quite a long time.

 

With all the steps involved, and higher priced materials, I would probably end up barely netting minimum wage when all was said and done.  😬

[Bob Blarney]

6 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Thanks very much guys.  Not sure that I would ever make pens to sell - I think I'd be even harder on myself to make them absolutely perfect.  Right now I just enjoy puttering around and trying out new tools, techniques and finishes on them, and then give them out to family and friends.

 

In terms of selling, it seems like there are a ton of people already selling pens.

 

.... 😬

Yep, a lot of people sell pens now.  But it was more than a fad - many people made the rent when times were hard after the Mortgage Meltdown that destroyed the economy in late 2007.  But for me, I never kept an inventory - that was too expensive.  It was about working with someone person-to-person in an artist/craftsman way to make a pen that they really liked and used.  It was a matter of engaging them in the process, and I've run into people who wave their pens at me that were turned years ago.  It was fun, and sometimes I still do it.

All that said, I'd say that learning one craft always aids in learning another.  The experience of handling tools with one's hands sharpens the imagination.

[Moab]

Mike; not sure this will help basically because I live in Chicago and there’s a couple of excellent fine hard wood yards in this market.

I go to Owl lumber yard. They have a broad range of cutoffs many with awesome grain patterns and you can’t beat their prices.  There may be a yard relatively close to you.

 

Your pens look fantastic.!!...Moab

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Thank you!

 

[Bob Blarney]

Your lathe is a versatile tool.  Here I'm polishing and washing 50 small parts.    The pill vial is held in the pen-blank jaws, with a dead-center rod to give it a small offset for tumbling the parts.  My lathe is powered by a variable speed DC motor that I scavenged from a bedroom clothes rack (aka an exercise treadmill).  It gives speed from ~20-4000 RPM with a simple modification of the controller board, and is reversible too (use a chuck that locks on the spindle!)

Edited September 2, 2019 by Bob Blarney

[Bob Cleek]

44 minutes ago, Bob Blarney said:

Your lathe is a versatile tool.  Here I'm polishing and washing 50 small parts.    The pill vial is held in the pen-blank jaws, with a dead-center rod to give it a small offset for tumbling the parts. 

Wow! I've never seen that trick before. Thanks for posting it. Offsetting the pill bottle is brilliant. 

 

Now I've got an answer the next time my wife asks me why I'm always saving those pill bottles.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Very clever - thanks for sharing that!