Pen Turning

Berea Hardwoods

> What kind of tools do you use in your pen turning? A small roughing gouge to round out the blank and a skew.

Free wood of course!

It's actually pretty easy to make a pen.

Mark, Try looking at

They have some starter kits that supply all that you need. Usually they send Rosewood pen blanks. You will also need a mandrel, but they have that too.

I expected Mac to chime in here, but I imagine he's on his way to Baja now, so I'll do it for him: Pens of Color. He swears by them for selection, price and exceptional customer service. I've honestly never used them, but if Mac says they're good, that's good enough for me.

Honestly, if you are patient and learn to sharpen your skew, you can do it all, rough to finish, with a sharp, 1/2" skew. To be fair, though, if I have a bunch of pens to turn, I will admittedly use my

5/8" bowl gouge for roughing and shaping, then finish with the skew. Saves a heckuva lot of time, and I don't have to prove anything with my skew to myself. It's a nice skill to have, though.

Check with the Yahoo penturners group.

Plenty of links and comments about suppliers.

I second the recommendation on the Yahoo penturners group. They have an excellent FAQ section that should tell you everything you need to know to get started. Brad hardingpens.com

Actually, thinking about it, making a pen is easier than making a dowel

- no whip as it's got an chunk of steel through it and it'll only be 4 inches long, in two pieces at that. The only hard part is that it must be close to a certain diameter. Of course all bets are off if you're doing something fancy like desk pens, wood finials, odd shapes, fancy inlays or spirals. I now make pens that are all wood (no metal parts other than one 2mm tube, two 7mm tubes, the mechanism, and the re-fill) from just two pieces of wood, a spiraled walnut one looks like a Tootsie Roll.

I doubt you'll be making much stove fodder, I didn't when I made my first ones - pen and pencil sets for everybody on my Christmas list and I wasn't (still am not) very good with the lathe. Although I won't say they were really good, but they were as good (better, I think) as the ones I've seen in stores.

What kind of wood is best to practice on?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ But, seriously, Mark: the pen kit costs much more than the wood, so I would recommend choosing a good looking piece of hardwood with fairly fine grain. A piece of wood may look good as a log, but by the time you isolate a 3/4" shaft, the beauty of the grain may be lost.

Initial investment for fun pen turning is about $30 to $50 if you already have basic turning tools...

I tried 3 different mandrels (the thing that hold the wood you're turning for the pen) and really am happy with this one:

It comes with a set of bushings (size guides when turning) and a drill bit, so you're ready to turn pens.. I'd start with 10 or 15 "slimline" pen kits.. they're priced from $1.70 and have everything you need to make a pen, except a couple of wood scraps and some glue..

My wife bought me a pen press, which is handy, but not really needed:

If you have a friend that turns pens, or somewhere nearby that sells "predrilled" pen blanks, you can look at one and see what/how/where, etc.. you need to start... If not order a few and duplicate them...

As you can see, my links are from Pens of Color... I really like their stuff, their service is outstanding and I can't find better prices on kits.... most kits come with instructions... Your basic pen is made from 2 pieces of whatever you want to turn, with a normal starting size of 3/4" x 3/4" x 2" with a hole drilled down the center... you can see that the definition of "scrap" gets a lot smaller when you do pens... I can make a few pens from the stock left from cutting a bowl blank..

If you ask him REAL nice, Chaz might send you a copy of his "pens made easy", which has a lot of great info.. Mac

Hi Mark, I am just in the process of writing a "How to make a wooden pen" instruction. I have it finished except for pictures. If you like I can email it to you. The instructions are seven pages long without the pictures so it is fairly detailed. I also have a web site where I sell highly figured exotic wood pen blanks that you might be interested in once you feel confindent in turning pens. It is

All the best, Bill