Made my first pen!

the noobie

the noobie

New member
i made my first pen on the lathe here yesterday... all i can say is pen making is fun!! ive turned quite a few bowls and cups and even made my first box here a couple weeks ago theyre fun but for some reason Pens are just fun and neat.

anyways im looking for ideas on what are some good types of wood for turning pens that are easy to get a good finish on, are cheap, and that are eye catching...

also since i dont have a pen mandrel and a pen press and other tools im making the pens at school so the tools at school are not nice carbide they are some cheapy ones that kids drop on the concrete, try to sharpen themselves and just mess up horribly, and some get get destroyed... so it needs to be an easier wood to turn. i made mine out of wallnut and that was pretty easy.

I was thinking some red heart would be fun (i heard as it ages it gets even more red) even though its not good to breath i thought about making a pen out of purple heart with a black or silver hardware kit. but im not sure yet
 
no pics yet... but im not sure if its worthy of pics i couldnt get a shiny enough finish for my wanting because the school was out of shelac and wasnt getting anymore because someone spilled a whole can on the floor...


Wood craft has these assortments

Woodcraft website

and i was thinking about getting one of those and just seeing what woods i like making the pens and then just giving them to family as gifts
 
Alrighty my camera won't get a picture that shows off my favorite part of the pen but up by the clip there was a knot and i saw it in the blank so im like hmm i wonder what this will turn out like. well i turned it down and almost turned through the knot but the wood has a neat swirl up there. and since i have big paws i left the centers of the wood a little fatter just for some meat to hold onto.

heres the best pictures i could get.

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pen001.jpg
 
Nothing wrong with that pen there Mr Noob!!
I also make pens and have to agree, they are fun. I nice break from calls too.
I looked at your sample of woods in that link. Very nice selection.
Keep the pics coming!
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i went to the wood store today... picked up 3 more gold pen kits and 2 silver kits then picked up 2 tulip wood blanks (how does tulip wood turn?) then they had some black palm on clearance (im not ready to turn this they said make sure your tools are sharp and you go slow so ill hold off on turning it for a while but i will report back when i get another pen or 5 done.
 
I like tulipwood a lot. I use a lot of it too.
I think it sands and finishes well.
I have not turned palm, although I'd like to try it some day.
I stick to the more basic woods like cocobolo, tulipwood, zebrawood, African blackwood, probably in that order. I have bought stabilized burls and really like them, but at $6 or more a blank, plus shipping you have to hike the price of the pen up and they don't sell as fast.

What are some of your favorite woods?
 
I'm not 100% sure if i can make clicky pens. im gonna turn out these 5 pens and give them to grandparents for gifts then I'm wanting to try making a few mechanical pencils and clicky pens and see how they work out.


I honestly dont have a favorite wood yet... Ive turned a quite a few little cups and stuff but its usually just pine becuase it cheap and easy for me to walk out to the fire wood pile and pull a piece out. but ive turned pine, mahogany, wallnut, cedar (never again its to soft and i had an allergic reaction to it),ash, poplar,apple tree,oak, and then i finish sanded some fancy wood from hawaii for my teacher but so far wallnut is my favorite its hard and pretty easy for me to get nice and shiny.

How do you all finish sand? my steps are 60 grit to 400 grit then take a paper towel and dampen the wood and hit it again with the 400 then take a dry paper towel and sand then put shellac on and it gives me a decent finish...
 
You've turned a lot of diff woods!! Good on you!! I like the finer grained woods as they turn and finish better than coarse woods like oak.

Sanding procedure... I'll usually start with 220, depending on how the wood looks when I'm done turning. Then 320, to 400 then 600. I've never bothered to wet sand, but I'm sure it don't hurt.

PS - you can make clicky pens, just buy the right pen kit. Go google PENN STATE INDUSTRIES. That is where I get my pen stuff.
 
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Originally Posted By: sharkathmi
Sanding procedure... I'll usually start with 220, depending on how the wood looks when I'm done turning. Then 320, to 400 then 600. I've never bothered to wet sand, but I'm sure it don't hurt.

PS - you can make clicky pens, just buy the right pen kit. Go google PENN STATE INDUSTRIES. That is where I get my pen stuff.

I need to go pick up my own 320 400 and 600 paper... the school if the teacher brings any in you get the einsteins that try to use the nice 600 to sand something thats very rough so they go through a pack of paper and wonder why its not getting smoother so he brings me a couple sheets to use from home but i need to just get my own and have it for when i want to use it. just curious but would say getting a couple of coats of shellac then sanding with something like 2000 then another couple coats give me a better finish?

and to make clicky pens and mechanical pencils do i need a different press?

Heres the pen press i have access too.

or will the one shown above work?
 
I have sand paper that goes to 1000 grit.
I have sanding pads that are 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 grit.
And yes, I sand between every other coat.
Quote:just curious but would say getting a couple of coats of shellac then sanding with something like 2000 then another couple coats give me a better finish?
Absolutely!

RE- vise?
I've never done a clicky so I don't know how they go together.
Sorry, I can't help ya there!
Would your shop teacher know?
Also, you can look up the clicky pen you want to make on that Penn Sate link, when you find the right pen, you can read up on all the instructions to know how it goes together. That should help a bunch.
 
whats the difference between pads and paper? and what would be better paper wise to get 1000 or 2000? they had both and i felt them but they felt soft to mee so which is better for inbetween coats?
 
Nice pen. definitely a nice first effort. Congratulations.

re: different press - nope, you can use that press on click pens. I make a lot of pens; anything from twist, to click, to capped, and the same press works for all of them. It also works for making key chains. Sometimes you have to use an extra block to press the pieces together, but it will work.

I agree with Shark concerning the finer grain woods and their finish, but they can get expensive to buy

Ash turns really easily, and makes a neat pen. I also like basic walnut and cedar. The exotic woods are really nice, but they can get pricey.

I buy a lot of stuff from Penn State as well, and they are good folks to work with.

I would suggest using some of the cheaper woods to start with (I am turning some Oak and Hickory that my dad got as firewood a couple of years ago for some pens right now, and the finish is harder to get clean).

I am currently working on a project for my sister. She asked for 24 pens and 16 key chains to give as Christmas presents. About halfway done, and trying to not make them all similar is getting tough at this point.

I will take some pics in a bit and post them.
 
Let's see if this works. Just a random sampling of some of the stuff I've turned lately. And, as you said, pens can be a lot of fun. Enjoy. And please do not think I am trying to hi-jack your thread. Have no intentions of that.


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hehe. that's 4 pieces of scrap that I glued together and made a pen from. Kind of neat what you can do with leftovers. I have made a couple (didn't take pictures) with the celtic knots (i think that's what they are called), where you put a different colored wood in layers on an angle and turn it down from there. Those were fun.

A buddy of mine claimed the first scrap pen. It had about 8 or 9 different woods in it. Just therapy for me, and I enjoy it.

Thanks for the compliments.
 


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