Five new pens, including my first acrylic.

[Brandon25]

Sorry for the big pictures. I'm not the greatest yet at resizing, thumbnailing, etc.

Bloodwood. Mylands high build friction polish.

Maple Burl. CA finish. This one was a bear. The wood was so (is punky the word?). I had lots of tearout at first, so I started stablizing with medium CA every few passes. It helped, but the damage was already too deep in some spots- three spots were left without wood, showed through right to the tube. So I filled the holes with CA, then smashed some sawdust in there, and went about my merry way. I cant find the spots now, seriously.

Redwood with some sort of birdseye-ish figuring on the bottom half, and a small inclusion, which added a nice touch. Burned lines with a bread bag twisty tie. Mylands finish.

Bocote. Mylands. I didn't want the center band, so I took a half-inch drill bit and "dished out" the bottom of the top blank, then rounded over the top of the bottom blank, so they would fit nice and snug looking.

And finally, my first acrylic. Wet sanded to 2000, then Meguiars plastic polish and cleaner. That stuff rules.
I wanted a fat one, so I used the slimline kit without the band. I made the top blank the length of the tube plus the width of the band to account for the lack of a band. Dont know if it was necessary. Didn't use any bushing between the blanks.
I like that I didn't have to cinch the waist and I think it looks pretty clean.

As usual, all comments, good or bad, are welcome and appreciated. I've only done seven pens prior to these, and I can already see a vast difference.

Brandon

 

[Skye]

It's good that you're trying out new ideas. Once your turning and finishing are even better, you'll have some really cool pens.

I like the last one, although I think it's a bit fat. The center of it looks great, very flush.

If you want to try some more without a centerband, consider turning the top half a little fatter than the lower half. It's another way to go:

 

[fyrcaptn]

new pens

Pretty nice work
No idea how long you've been turning out pens but those are alright!
Pen making is a world in itself and contains many worlds within to discover.
I like the friction polish finishes. It is a quick finish. I know it isn't as durable as others and I use it less and less. You might want to look for posts on how to make your own friction polish for a lot less than the commercial ones. I really like using it on ornaments and things that aren't handled as much as pens.
CA is among my favorite ways to finish. I've read a lot of good and some not so good about it. There's a learning curve but it is working out well for me.
I'm trying to learn how to use acrylic dissolved in acetone. Well, its a work in progress still. Learned first off my choice of containers wasn't thought out well enough. The jar I used was fine. The lid however, USED to have a 'rubber' seal that I found swollen/dissolving and floating in my mix. Sheesh! always something.
Keep reading the past posts and advice on this site. There is a lot to learn and some great people on here willing to share.

 

[Brandon25]

Thank you for the responses.

"No idea how long you've been turning out pens...".
I've done seven total pens before this batch.

I like the friction polish because it still gets decently shiny, while allowing me to "feel" the wood still, unlike CA. However, if I were, say, making a pen for the president, I'd use CA. It seems more durable and shines like the dickens. I actually started out doing my very firsts with CA out of necessity. I couldn't afford anything but a $7 drill chuck from harbor freight that fit my headstock, and the replacement mandrel shaft for $3 from woodcraft, two $1.69 pen kits, and bushings, and the $8 CA bottle. Oh, and 3 $0.50 bargain bin blanks. CA was the only finishing product I had available. Later, I realized you were supposed to SAND the CA after applying. (whoops!) I then added BLO to the process, and was getting good results. But time is an issue for me still. It still takes me over an hour to do a simple pen. Part of that is because I dont have a drill press or pen mill. I drill on the lathe, and cut on a table saw. A 7mm rod slid into the blank before I cut helps me square the blank on my crosscut sled. If it ain't right, I have to hand-sand. Without exaggeration, drilling a blank, supergluing the tube in, and cutting it into two squared-end pieces takes the better part of half an hour with this process. I'm getting a pen mill next week, so that will help a LOT. I've also amassed a bank of about 20 blanks, and will be getting about ten kits with the mill. And some extra bushings. Between coating the bushings with CA accidentally, and then shaving tiny amounts of metal off of them with m skew, they're hardly precise any more. It's been a financially narrowed road for me so far, but I'm learning, and the pens mean that much more for the effort and time I've put in.

 

[Skye]

You're doing all your turning with a skew?

 

[Brandon25]

Oh, no no. I used a bowl gouge for all of these, and a skew to finish them up on some. Sorry if I misled you. I mean that I started out with not too much in the way of accessories, etc. I had a single spindle gouge and a big fat skew, and that was all. But now I have a Thompson spindle gouge, a P&N bowl gouge, a 1/8" parting tool, and the $10 harbor freight set, which are good for what they do. The skews, anyway, work fine for me, and I actually like the gouges for some applications as well, and have used the round nose scraper (which I made even more round) with some success. They are what they are, ya know? Really, the only part I do with a skew on pens, if I use it at all, is cleaning up tool marks from the gouge. You know if you're removing wood and moving the gouge side to side too quickly you get the constant spiral almost? The ridges created by that maneuver get taken off by the skew. That way I dont have to sand as much. If my skew is being good to me, I can start sanding around 320 or 400(on a really good day) instead of 240 or even (gasp) 150 as I used to.

 

[Skye]

Ok, I was about to say we had to try to hook you up. I think most every good tool I have was given to me by Charles Bryson or Dale Johnson.

Yeah, I'm partial to the scrapers myself.

 

[Brandon25]

The Thompson and the P&N were both given to me, as well as two white wheels for my grinder, a bottle stopper mandrel, steel for a 3-point tool, 3 planer blades (one of those is my awesome 1/8" parting tool) some dip pen nibs, some other stuff, and more advice than I can ever recall. All for free. The people in the woodturning world are about as generous as they come.

Thanks for caring, by the way. I continue to be impressed by you guys.

 

[papaturner]

The maple burl is awesome, but don`t care too much for the shape....The shape of the 4th. pen I like. Good job.

 

[bitshird]

Brandon, looks to me like your off to a great start, those are some respectable pens, don't feel bad about the way you started, I made my first bushings, mandrel and knurled nut, You had store bought blanks I had some old cedar from my back yard. But I had you beat on kits, I bought 10 deluxe kits from Woodnwhimsies, I think they were 1.89 I didn't even own any wood tools so I had to turn my first pen on a 15 in, Clausing metal lathe.
I pestered folks here for bushing diameters and found out this is an Awesome place with great people :wink: you young whipper snappers got it too easy :biggrin: buyin mandrels and bushings and blanks, What are you going to start buying acrylic blanks too

 

[Brandon25]

The maple burl is awesome, but don`t care too much for the shape....The shape of the 4th. pen I like. Good job.

Thanks. I dont like the shape of the burl one either. However, I've seen a lot of people do them, and a lot of people say that it would be nice to have a "knob" at the bottom for grip, so I tried it. Not my favorite at all.

 

[Brandon25]

Brandon, looks to me like your off to a great start, those are some respectable pens, don't feel bad about the way you started, I made my first bushings, mandrel and knurled nut, You had store bought blanks I had some old cedar from my back yard. But I had you beat on kits, I bought 10 deluxe kits from Woodnwhimsies, I think they were 1.89 I didn't even own any wood tools so I had to turn my first pen on a 15 in, Clausing metal lathe.
I pestered folks here for bushing diameters and found out this is an Awesome place with great people :wink: you young whipper snappers got it too easy :biggrin: buyin mandrels and bushings and blanks, What are you going to start buying acrylic blanks too

Haha, funny you mention the acrylic. I had to go back twice to muster up the courage to drop $4 on the acrylic. I know of a place I can get them cheaper though now. The maple burl was in the bargain bin for fifty cents, and the redwood was 35 cents. The other two I think were no more than a dollar fifty.

Wood n whimsies has some decent looking kits for as cheap as they are. I'll be ordering some next week actually, along with a barrel trimmer.

Thanks for the compliments.

 

[toolcrazy]

All are very nice.

 

[drayman]

brandon, well i think you did a great job

 

[Brandon25]

Thanks, all, for the compliments.

 

[rherrell]

Thank you for the responses.

"No idea how long you've been turning out pens...".
I've done seven total pens before this batch.

I like the friction polish because it still gets decently shiny, while allowing me to "feel" the wood still, unlike CA. However, if I were, say, making a pen for the president, I'd use CA. It seems more durable and shines like the dickens. I actually started out doing my very firsts with CA out of necessity. I couldn't afford anything but a $7 drill chuck from harbor freight that fit my headstock, and the replacement mandrel shaft for $3 from woodcraft, two $1.69 pen kits, and bushings, and the $8 CA bottle. Oh, and 3 $0.50 bargain bin blanks. CA was the only finishing product I had available. Later, I realized you were supposed to SAND the CA after applying. (whoops!) I then added BLO to the process, and was getting good results. But time is an issue for me still. It still takes me over an hour to do a simple pen. Part of that is because I dont have a drill press or pen mill. I drill on the lathe, and cut on a table saw. A 7mm rod slid into the blank before I cut helps me square the blank on my crosscut sled. If it ain't right, I have to hand-sand. Without exaggeration, drilling a blank, supergluing the tube in, and cutting it into two squared-end pieces takes the better part of half an hour with this process. I'm getting a pen mill next week, so that will help a LOT. I've also amassed a bank of about 20 blanks, and will be getting about ten kits with the mill. And some extra bushings. Between coating the bushings with CA accidentally, and then shaving tiny amounts of metal off of them with m skew, they're hardly precise any more. It's been a financially narrowed road for me so far, but I'm learning, and the pens mean that much more for the effort and time I've put in.

Me too. Don't be concerned with speed, that will come with experience. Strive for quality, that's most important.
You oughta be proud of all of them, they look great!