Sunday, January 8, 2012

Vintage Styled Celluloid Keep away from open flames

I have been looking at this little piece of orange material in my parts bin and wondering what sort of pen that it might make.  I was in the shop for most of the weekend so I thought I would see what I could come up with.  The first hint of trouble was when I sliced off a hunk large enough to make into the body.  It smelt like Vicks 44.  So those of us old enough to remember the face cloth pinned to out pj"s and reeking like hell, your eyes watering all in the guise of helping us get better will know what I am talking about. 
The first thing I did was slow all the machines down so the heat produced was at a minimum.  Once I had some shavings I put them on the floor and touched a match to them and poof.  I had celluloid on the lathe.  I do love working with this material as it has a life of its own.  It moves and changes size so you have to make your joints a bit tight as they will shrink back a bit.  The piece was not long enough to do a complete pen so I went with a black blind cap and a flat top on the cap.  I am not sure if this material is vintage or not but I went with a vintage style on it.




1 comment:

Annie Hughes said...

Very pretty! Beware the fire.