Best place to buy pen blanks?????

I see them on ebay all the time, often without any bids but of course it's always a hit-and-miss thing finding what you want.

Ken Grunke

You also might want to join the Yahoo Group penturners as they have lots of resources listed. I've gotten a lot of good info there.

Joe

I bought a box of 60+ assorted blanks off eBay for $20. Here is the link for that auction.

The seller threw in another 15 or so blanks of walnut and maple. Black walnut isn't my first choice for pen turning, but its good for practice as I had just gotten my lathe. If you're looking to get a bunch of blanks to get started, and don't have the time/resources to cut your own, ebay is the way to go. But, you never know what figure you will get in the blanks.

I live near Atlanta Wood Products which carries many varieties of exotic woods. I have gotten a bandsaw recently and plan on making my own blanks as it is much cheaper than buying blanks from woodworking stores which usually charge $1 per blank for the low end species.

If you can possibly avoid it, do NOT buy pen blanks. Providing you can find 4/4 stock in the wood that you want pens out of, or pretty much any other form, you will save a tremendous amount of money if you have the capacity to saw your own. Pen blanks have to be one of the most overpriced consumables in all of woodturning. There are many outlets online (including eBay) that sell exotic and domestic hardwoods in various cuts, many of them as lumber or various dimensions of turning squares or blanks. Even a tiny band saw or a homeowner's tablesaw would be sufficient for sawing out pen blanks.

I am particularly fond of the guys at

They have a great selection of exotic hardwood lumber, and do carry pen blanks as well. I don't work there or own any stock, but I do get a lot of wood there. If you simply must have pen blanks, though, (like you don't want to saw or can't) then has a good selection you can take a gander at. But like Ken suggested, eBay is always a good place to pick up reasonably priced pen blanks.

Shop around for pen kits. My suggestion would be to buy a few from several different companies, and compare until you find a company that has kits you really like, because I have found that quality varies quite a bit, and in the case of pen kits you _do_ get what you pay for...ie. "cheap" kits usually means "cheap" kits.

caveat emptor

Try

- they are brilliant there. Bill Baumbeck is the chap there and is a member of the Pen Turners' Guild. Really is a good shop

Paul

Bill, I find a great source for FREE pen blanks at my local custom door makers' shop. They usually have tons of scrap maple, walnut, cherry and mahogony in thier dumpsters! It's unbelievable what they throw out! I know my dad also frequents a local furniture shop where he lives and they give him all the maple he can carry! TimQ

Mini-lathe indexing system

What kind of blanks? Solid wood? Stabilized?

I prefer to buy big sticks of wood and rip them to be blanks - I like curly maple, so I buy a 6" wide 6' song (or so) piece, and rip it on the tablesaw to the correct width. I DON'T cut it down in length, but just cut off how much I need, so I get more blanks out of the wood I use.

We could also answer the question easier knowing -

Where you live (area wise) Your relative skill level Whether or not you have a table saw or band saw

I like these folks a lot:

Join the penturners group on Yahoo, and you can get all kinds of deals.

Also try penturners.org , there's apile of references there.

But, if you are doing just wood pens, I strongly encourage you to make your own blanks. I get curly maple (my favorite) for 7.75 a board foot, and can make at least 16 pens (allowing for saw kerfs and screw-ups) out of a board foot, less than 50 cents a pen! Even expensive woods such as koa, ebony, cocobolo, or tulipwood become much more reasonable when you source the wood yourself.

Mark

And, if you want to turn corian, a countertop shop can help you with that.

Mark

I cut pen blanks for a second income. Starting from a rough-sawn (or even 'bark on') piece and taking it down to smoothed 3/4 x 3/4 x 6" in a dried state is certainly worth at least a buck a piece even for pine. For more desirable species, it is entirely reasonable to pay $1.50 and up per stick.

I pitch about 5-10% of my pieces as being unfit for use and retain another

10% or so as being good enough for my own use but of lower quality than I am willing to sell. I do not ship obvious defects even if I know from experience that they will not exist in the finished pen.

So I am assuming all the risk. I lug the wood, I breathe the dust, I use the saw, I place the ads (and have to pay whether I sell or not), I closely inspect the finished product and then I absorb the scrap and 'seconds'.

If you cut your own blanks, you get to do all of the above.

Search "goncalo alves pen blanks" on eBay today ... there are five

10-packs with identical pictures. That's me. I should have some slippery elm heartwood available next week. IMHO, it's prettier than the goncalo alves.

Bill