How do you pick what material to use

[Verado]

I love turning pens and other items, but my biggest stumbling block is picking what to make a pen, bottle stopper ornament or any other project out of. Is it just a matter of time and seeing what the woods look like when finished, what you happen to have in stock or and I just over thinking this. So far I've been looking at the pictures online and trying to find a wood or other material that is along the same lines has the picture.

 

[kludge77]

When I first started I bought a grab bag of blanks from Woodcraft. Something crazy like 10 pound for 10 bucks. They had a good mix of domestics and exotics. In addition I bought a 20 pack of slimlines.

Those first 20 pens really helped me get a good feel for what I liked and what I wanted. I did a far about of glue up to boot (just to save cash). It was a good learning experience, and helped give me a handle on different woods. Differences between open grains like oak and wenge vs more closed grains like yellowheart and maple. I recommend a good grab bag.

The more you make, the more you'll know what you want.

 

[spnemo]

I usually take the kit over to my piles of blanks and decide what types of wood looks best with that kit. Then I take a good blank for the kit from each type of wood. I will compare the blanks until one stands out. Sometimes, I will turn the blanks round to get a better idea of how the finished product will look.

If I am not sure which type of kit I want to do, I will reverse the process. Find a blank that I really want to turn, then match the kit to the blank.

 

[mrcook4570]

I just grab a handful of blanks and start drilling.

 

[Boz]

I like contrast. I have been doing some carbon fiber pens and at first I made some with Black TI and gun metal. Then I put one together with a chrome pen and wow did it pop.
Same with woods. A light wood like BOW looks great with gold. Made a chrome pen with pink ivory that the lady in my life just loves. Art is in the eye of the beholder and what looks good to you is what you should do.

 

[SteveG]

I have been collecting photos from this site and saving them on my desktop in a file named "Pen Photo Ideas". I add notes to indicate any particular aspects of interest in each photo, and often include the text from the person posting. That is the extent of my organizing. So I just browse this collection of ideas when looking for inspiration. I have the aspiration to learn to make and post MY photos, so I can share my ideas; just not there yet. IAP is a GREAT source for inspiration. Thanks to all who post here.

 

[Mark]

I normally find a blank and choose the hardware I want to put it with. Or if it's a request, the work is done for you.

 

[Timbo]

I go through my boxes until I find something that interest me that day. Then I pick a kit style. Then the color. Sometimes I'll change the kit color after finishing the blank, because it turned out a little different than I thought it would.

 

[hdtran]

I love turning pens and other items, but my biggest stumbling block is picking what to make a pen, bottle stopper ornament or any other project out of. Is it just a matter of time and seeing what the woods look like when finished, what you happen to have in stock or and I just over thinking this. So far I've been looking at the pictures online and trying to find a wood or other material that is along the same lines has the picture.

If you're buying at a retail store: Use a moist paper towel (ask first!), and dampen a side with face grain (not end grain!). This will highlight the color and grain, and give you some idea as to what the finished turning should look like.

 

[aggromere]

Just me, but I would initially turn what I could get cheaply to get the hang of it. Also, if you branch out into man made materials I might be tempted to start with pre-rounded or rod type blanks. Makes it easier. Cruise the internet and this site and try to find pictures of woods that you like.

I would check out the classifieds and find people that are selling blanks you like the look of and get a couple. I never buy blanks from anyone but people on this site.

My favorite woods to turn are amboyna burl, cocobolo, african blackwood, brown mallee burl and olive wood. When I don't feel like making a pen but want to do something in my shop I pick out some wooden blanks and round them. A center marking guage from CNCcutter is just about a must for that for me. Once rounded, I might sand it a little and put some BLO on it to get an idea of what it will look like finished.

Im rambling again.

 

[Drstrangefart]

If I'm struck by sudden inspiration I'll get some experimental stuff like blue jean denim and make a blank. Or I just feel like turning a pen and grab a blank I don't have specific plans for. Sometimes a blank just needs to be turned. It varies depending on the day.

 

[IPD_Mrs]

Joe it is also a matter of learning what you like. Some people love burls, some love spalted wood, some prefer acrylic and other prefer vintage materials. Find what you like to work with and what looks good to you. When we started out we loved to turn amboyna. It most always looks great and the smell of it when turning is enjoyable. Can't say we have turned an amboyna blank in quite some time. Once you find a wood or product you love to work with you learn it's characteristics and will find inspiration as well as it and your limitations in that material. It is not an exact science but more of an art form.

 

[mredburn]

Sometimes I start with a very particular blank and build a pen around it. Other times I pick out anywhere from 4-6 blanks, some may be the same type of wood or they may all be different types. Then I eliminate the ones that dont fit the pen I want to build. I sometimes rough out the last 2 remaining choices to see if one of them inspires me more than the other. If I dont have a definite choice I make 2 pens.
You will go through phases where you have a favorite type of blank you like to make pens out of and then you will find something else. I keep a lot of blanks on hand, both wood and man made, so that when I decide to build a pen I dont have to wait to acquire a blank to make the pen.

Mike

Mike

 

[rogerpjr]

I am certainly no expert in this and some may think I was crazy in how I went about making the decisions about what you asked. My daughter and I kind of work together on some of these projects. We recently did a benefit craft fair at the vet tech school where she is an instructor where a part of the proceeds of sales were donated to an animal shelter with the maker keeping the balance. Knowing that the students could not afford very high priced pens, we selected slimlines, euro styles and comfort grips in different finishes from PSI to use as kits. I also had a decent selection of acrylics I got at a discount from HUT and natural wood blanks from an assortment from PSI. We discussed what we had and which blanks we liked/disliked but came to the realization that just because we didn't like one it didn't mean someone else wouldn't. So I just randomly picked out a number of blanks for each style pen, cut the blanks to size, glued in the tubes and then trimmed them up. Then I started turning out the pens for each style till I had them all done. We then took each pair of tubes and laid them out against the various finishes of each style, decided what looked best for that particular blank and assembled the pen. Some of the pens had identical color or wood type tubes but different finishes to the hardware of the pen.

We were really surprised at which ones sold in some cases. Although the sales weren't tremendous given our customer base, we made enough to have paid for all the materials we used, had a nice donation for the shelter and still had about half of the pens left over for another show that now were paid for in full. We didn't make a lot for our time, but the intent of this fair was to get donations for the shelter, so part of our time was also considered a donation as well in our minds. We are planning to use the same philosophy in making more stock of these kits and several higher end kit types. We will use higher quality, fancier acrylics and woods for the higher end kits of course, but we think that if the idea worked once, it should again.

 

[Polarys425]

I have to say, that one of my most favorite materials to turn is Corian. Very easy to turn, endless possibilities of what can be made from that stuff too. Burl woods look awesome, Olive wood, Cocobolo, zebrawood, and many others. Its amazing how many things can be turned into a pen.

 

[Displaced Canadian]

How I pick what materiel has a lot to do with how I feel. With wood blanks I pick out the pen first then the materiel. When I segment It works better to pick the kit then build the blank for it.

 

[azamiryou]

I usually start with the pen kit(s), and select blanks by actually holding kit parts up to the blank to see what looks best to me. Sometimes, nothing strikes my fancy - so I put the pen kit aside and select another.

I don't usually turn the blanks round first, so sometimes after I turn and finish the blanks, I find the pen finish doesn't actually work as well as I hoped. At this point, I'll change the pen fittings if I have another finish that works better.

 

[GoodTurns]

I stand in front of by blank rack (yes, it has come to that), usually with the kit I want to make in hand, and stare at the rack until something clicks. sometimes it's obvious and quick, other times my wife comes by the shop and says it's time to go to sleep.

 

[Parson]

I ask a couple of friends what their favorite color is, then use that color PR blank. This way, I'm making pens in the colors that my potential buyers will "oooh" and "ahhh" about and purchase from me.

Then I choose a kit based on the color. Deep blues and greens and reds go really well with Titanium finished pen kits. Blacks and greys go well with Rhodium plated kits.

Colorful pens are picked up and admired far more often than wood pens of any variety, even burled wood pens I've made—unless they have a segment of colored PR or acrylic in them to give them some flash.

Now take this comment with a grain of salt: I do not turn slimline kits to sell at craft shows for $20 to make a whopping $5 an hour at the lathe. That's not my gig, not that there's anything wrong with it. If I were doing that, I'd be turning tons of pens out of every kind of wood and plastic or PR material I could find and attempt to make some money on sheer numbers of pens I manufactured, and I'd be a lot less picky about the materials I turned.

 

[ctubbs]

This thread is making me feel, well, unprepared. I have no problem with material. Gold slimline and whatever blank falls out of the box. Obviously, i need to branch out.:redface::wink:
Charles