I've wanted to make segmented pen blanks for sometime now to take my pen making to a new level. My questions are:

How do you cut the thin pieces?

What tools and jigs do you use for assembly / clamping?

What materials do you use in your segments?

What type of glue and technique do you use to glue them up?

What are the pitfalls to look out for?

I can only answer part of the question here and hopefully others will take the rest. Mostly i see Titebond II III being used to glue the blanks up because of its reasonably long set time. As for clamping i have seen C clamps to a combination of clamp/plywood being used.

Anyone else?

---

Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

Charles I use Epoxy only because I'm gluing metal, wood acrylics together. Titebond works great for wood on wood for simple glue ups but when they get complex I have to take my time and I want a quick set for the glue. I glue 1 segment at a time. It makes for a long process but in the end the joints are tight and strong.

Yes you are right  Mike. If you are talking about securing the tube in the blank then I almost always use epoxy. The only time i don't is in instances where a failure to hold will not matter because there are 2 pieces of metal being pressed in the tubed wood to hold it together such as the Gatsby/Sierra type pens. I guess i was not picturing your glue up correctly. i was picturing a segmented pen blank already glued together with the Titebond then the hole for the tube being drilled then the tube glued in with epoxy.

Any segmenting work that i have seen always uses thick CA to put the tube in but other than that it's just multiple layers of thin CA. but we both know the hazards of doing that with mixed types of material, ghosting being one of them.

---

Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

Thanks Arlin, that's my plan. I saw a pen posted on IAP that has a Scale look to it and after studying the picture for a few hours I have come up with my process for joining, drilling and turning. Now the work begins.

Arlin I've seen a few turned blanks for the BIC, they do dress it up for sure. I like the look of metal and wood, it takes pen turning to a whole other dimension. I hope you get back to turning soon.