Blank sizes

[bluestingray]

What is the minimum size of a blank required for for a pen?

I have a bunch of 2.25" - 3".

Thanks

 

[alphageek]

Depends on the kit (assuming your looking for a 'solid' piece answer.

A Sierra can be done with a piece around 2.5" long. That the shortest that I know of.

 

[Randy_]

PSI Gemini requires a 3" blank. Some letter openers and magnifiers can be made with a 3" blank. You might be able to squeeze a necklace pen or a keychain pen pen out of a 3" blank. I've never done one; but the catalogs call for a 3-1/4" blank so it might be possible and certainly is doable if you want to glue on a small accent ring. All of the small pens if you made the upper and lower barrels out of different blanks if you could find blanks that were a good match or contrasting blanks that looked good together' You could also cut contrasting blanks in half and then glue one half from each original together to get matching upper and lower barrel patterns.

 

[simomatra]

A Sierra is probanly the shortest as quoted above but you can segment and make small off cuts into into size

 

[badger]

I've seen some really classy pens that have minor segmenting done as accents on the ends. You could conceivably extend a blank with some clever laminating of complementary or contrasting woods/pickguard material.

 

[Nolan]

Sierra is the shortest as said, I think if you are looking for a generic size that would fit "most" pen kits I would have to say about 4 1/2 inches will be enough to build most two piece pens. Keep in mind though that this wouldnt take into account cutting the center band out of the blank for grain alignment and such. Even with taking that out 4 1/2 will still work for most pen kits that I have measured.

 

[bluestingray]

Thanks for thelp, I'll go with 3" minimum.

 

[Texatdurango]

Don't pass over the short stuff if you can get it. The Sierra is a nice looking popular pen and I cut all of my Sierra blanks 2.25" long with the finished blank being 2.2" long.

 

[bluestingray]

Aaaight!
Today I milled minimum 3"