This hops cone pen is one of the Asheville, NC Beer City theme pens. I started experimenting with hops cones, leaves and vines from O.B. Joyful Farms, an Asheville hops grower that supplies our local micro-breweries. Hops cones harvested at the end of the 2015 season were carefully cut is half and drizzled in thin layers of cyanoacrylate (Crazy Glue) to preserve their color and stabilize the delicate leaves. Allowed to air dry for 75 days, the cones were cast in clear acrylic and held under 40 pounds of pressure for an hour to prevent air bubbles from forming while the acrylic hardened. The cured blank is drilled and back painted black so the internal brass tube isn’t seen through the clear acrylic. The casting is hand turned on a lathe and areas of fragile hops cones exposed in the turning are continually sealed with applications of CA glue to hold the cones intact.
Once turned to size and shape, the entire surface is sealed with seven layers of thin CA. The barrel is wet-sanded by hand through 9-steps from 1500-12,000 grit and finally polished with White Diamond wax on a jewelers’ wheel to a high-gloss finish. This one-of-a-kind hops cone barrel was mounted in hardware chosen for the antique pewter and antique copper platings, which resemble the stainless steel brewing pots and copper apparatus used in beer production. Use the copper lever to engage and disengage the ink cartridge. Your pen uses Parker ball point or gel refills.