What do penturners and banjo player have in common

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KenV

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Oct 28, 2005
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Juneau, Alaska.
Both get little respect --

and neither tend to ask for respect ---

I was at the Desert Woodturners Roundup last weekend. There were three who submitted pens to be shown in the instant gallery. Don Ward (as a presenter at the symposium) was one of those. I was one. I saw many people with display cases of pens during the proceedings, and some were very nice pens -- but they were not on display.

The gallery critique was by Christian Buchard, Betty Scarpino and John Lea. John picked one of the pens to be included in the critique (John turns pens) but the discussion by John was almost apologetic. The pen was a celtic knot Cambridge - very nicely done. It was my interpertation of the silence from Christian and Betty that pen turning was not an intererest (bastard step child metaphor perhaps).


The good news -- This was the first year to have a pen turning rotation and Don Ward did very well. I heard lots of positive comments in talking to other turners.

There was an "underorganized" gathering of penturning on Friday evening that was well attended. Don did a presentation on turning between centers and George Butcher discussed his approach to a thick CA finish on his pens. Good general discussion and opportunities to turn freedom pens for those intersted in making a lathe work.



So -- how can we better share our passion for this aspect of turning if we are not prepared to highlight and display our efforts in the wider turning community -- and move to a point where pens are seen as a vital part of the woodturning community??? What action can we each take to gain some respect and move away from being in the same group as the banjo players.....
 

BRobbins629

Passed Away Dec 28, 2021
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Mar 8, 2006
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Richmond, VA, USA.
Reminds me of the one -

What does it mean when your doorbell rings and a banjo player is on the doorstep?










Your pizza's here
 

azamiryou

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Aug 14, 2010
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Silver Spring, MD USA
So -- how can we ... move to a point where pens are seen as a vital part of the woodturning community?

I wonder... should pens be seen as a part of the woodturning community at all?


  • Many, many pens are made from things other than wood
  • Turning itself is, for many penmakers, a rather small part of the penmaking process.
  • Generally speaking, as you advance in the field of penmaking, woodturning becomes a smaller part of the process.
  • Beyond the very basics, turning skill does not align well with penmaking skill.
Is penmaking part of woodturning? Or is it a separate endeavor that happens to share some tools with woodturning?
 

David Keller

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Nov 30, 2009
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Enid,OK
I think a common misconception among non-penturners is that making pens is easy... To a degree, they're right. Turning a roundish thing that will leave ink on a piece of paper is not all that difficult.

By the same token, turning bowls and hollow forms is really not that difficult. My five year old son has successfully turned a pen and a bowl, and he's not a woodturning prodigy.

The difficult part in any of it is doing it well. That's the thing that is overlooked by many who don't make pens. Turning is fairly easy, but good turnings take a degree of skill and a fair bit of practice... It doesn't matter whether you're talking about pens or bowls.

I suppose the only way to convince the people you mentioned would be to have them turn a pen. Their first will probably be a bit nicer than the one my son made, but it wouldn't get much attention on this site I'd bet.
 
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