Heres is a pen I turned this afternoon. It's an Elegant Sierra Chrome & Brushed Chrome Click pen kit and the barrel is Turquoise with Gold matrix Tru Stone polished to 12000 grit. This was my first Tru Stone pen and I must say it was very easy to turn. I've read several reviews that people say they are hard to turn. I used a quality bradpoint bit to bore it out, started with sharpened tools, took my time and then wet sanded with 600 grit up to 12000 grit and it turned out very shiny. The only complaint I have is that I wish I had used the silver with gold trim bands with this blank. I will be turning more of these tru stone blanks.

Thanks Charles. I didn't think about that, it isn't wood is it. I'll turn a wood one later to make up for the faux-pa.

Heavens yes it's ok! Now let me get this straight, is that real stone?

Charles Nicholls said:

Lol that's quite alright there are many pens here that get displayed that are acrylic etc, its a turners forum so unless John says otherwise, it's ok

My understanding is that it is crushed stone that is mixed with an acrylic resin.

Taken from: http://www.thegoldennib.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_15

"Tru Stone Pen Blanks,  This material is a mixture of actual stone and resins. This is the PLYABLE mixture. You need very sharp tools to cut these blanks. I have noted on some of them that even though they are plyable, some are EXTRELY HARD and difficult to turn. The regular tru stone blanks are the easiest to turn, when you mix in the gold veining, they become harder and more difficult, the red and black are the hardest. Also the newest ones Honey Jasper, White Horn & Chrysocolla are extremely hard. This is just my opinion on various hardness of different Tru Stone blanks.

Softess - Persian Turq, White turq, Turq web, Kingman turq, Larimar turq, Black/white banded, Malachite, Leopard jasper, Obsidian, Red/Black, Rhodinite, White web

Moderate-  Reds with gold veining, Turq with gold veining, White Horn, White with gold viening,  

Very Hard - Red & Yellow Dino bone, Honey jasper, Black with gold veining, Chrysocolla."

John, that is a great looking pen. Nice job on the turning, sizing and finish. It really looks very good on that pen kit. Very classy looking.

 

I haven't turned any of those yet, but I can see that will get added to my list of todo's.

 

If you decide to try one of these order it from this place:http://www.arizonasilhouette.com/ I bought mine at woodcraft only because I saw it while I was checking on an order at the store. These folks at Arizona Silhouette are great and have the best customer service than any supplier I've ever dealt with. They also do a lot of work with various Veterans groups. I've also found them to have the best prices on most supplies.

 

Sorry I didn't mean to turn this into a plug for a retailer.