SteveAxelrod
Member
It's a chilly 64 degrees here in Oldsmar Florida and for the life of me I can't imagine how I didn't freeze to death when I lived in Buffalo New York forty years ago. I've had the ceramic heater running in my garage/shop for days now...how do you turn pens if you can't feel the tips of your fingers?
I've been turning pens for about 3 months now and each of the 12 pens I've made so far has been a fun time in the making with a prize at the end!
So read this if you have too much time on your hands, it's how I got into turning. Last November I retired after paying my dues for 38 years managing a water testing laboratory for the County. A few months before retiring I bought a potters wheel and took some throwing lessons with the plan of being a potter when I retired. At my retirement party I linked up with my old boss of 30 years and he invited me to go the archery range with him and try his compound bow. I hadn't shot a bow in 45 years and we had a great time. During lunch afterwards I asked him what else he was doing to keep himself entertained during retirement and he said he just bought a knife blank and was going to try knife making. I asked him to order me one too and in the process of making that first knife decided that I needed a drill press to drill the pin holes and a bandsaw to cut the blanks and a belt sander to sand the blanks and some drum sanders for the drill press to sand the handle contours...and then I needed a new bench for all my new tools, so I had to get a table saw to make the bench and part of that bench had to have a built in router (because a lot of the workbench designs had one...surely a router would come in handy for something) and a bench polisher to polish my knives. I won't even mention all the leather working tools needed to make sheaths. So having all those woodworking tools I decided to take a wood working class at the local community college where I met Rick who offered to give me a lesson making pens. I haven't touched my potters wheel yet! ;o)
I've been turning pens for about 3 months now and each of the 12 pens I've made so far has been a fun time in the making with a prize at the end!
So read this if you have too much time on your hands, it's how I got into turning. Last November I retired after paying my dues for 38 years managing a water testing laboratory for the County. A few months before retiring I bought a potters wheel and took some throwing lessons with the plan of being a potter when I retired. At my retirement party I linked up with my old boss of 30 years and he invited me to go the archery range with him and try his compound bow. I hadn't shot a bow in 45 years and we had a great time. During lunch afterwards I asked him what else he was doing to keep himself entertained during retirement and he said he just bought a knife blank and was going to try knife making. I asked him to order me one too and in the process of making that first knife decided that I needed a drill press to drill the pin holes and a bandsaw to cut the blanks and a belt sander to sand the blanks and some drum sanders for the drill press to sand the handle contours...and then I needed a new bench for all my new tools, so I had to get a table saw to make the bench and part of that bench had to have a built in router (because a lot of the workbench designs had one...surely a router would come in handy for something) and a bench polisher to polish my knives. I won't even mention all the leather working tools needed to make sheaths. So having all those woodworking tools I decided to take a wood working class at the local community college where I met Rick who offered to give me a lesson making pens. I haven't touched my potters wheel yet! ;o)
