studioso
Member
Hi all!
first of all, this is a great site! there is so much to learn from you members and so much I'm looking forward to match up to.
about 2 years ago I was perusing around a craft show here next to Montreal, and stumbled upon a penturner's booth. I fell in love with a pen that I purchased and gifted to my dad, who actually uses it more often that any of his expensive mont blanc and visconti's from his extensive collection.
After letting this "crazy" idea of making my own pens brewing in my mind for a few years, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a lathe. So I purchased an excelsior lathe from rockler (199$ on sale with bed extension) and here I am!
I've done so far 12 pens, and I decided to post them in order of completion, along with what I discovered along the way.
Why? not so much to show off my "skills" (after all this is not the "show off your pens" forum) but rather to perhaps help other new turners in the future, and also because I was wondering if other members might have gone through the same mistakes as I did.
so here we go!
BTW, I also have a photo studio in my house, and it was already set up for some other objects, so these pics were taken on the fly.
This is a stabilized maple burl on a gold european fron lee valley.
My thoughs and discoveries:
1. It took me 3 pens to realize that my cheap lathe was wobbling off center! I eventually -after lots of testing and trying- realized that the taper was not parallel to the shaft, and had a friend redo the taper ( I should have probably just return or exchange the machine, but I wanted to turn pens that night!). but until I fixed it, all my pens were a bit off.
2. hut wax is quick and looks great, but it darkens the wood considerably, and it doesn't leave a "plastic" look. and stabilized wood's sheen isn't that pretty: it doesn't look like wood, it just looks like it's rough and unfinished.
3.it's not a good idea to handhold the blank when trimming the edges!
I'll get back soon with my second pen!
first of all, this is a great site! there is so much to learn from you members and so much I'm looking forward to match up to.
about 2 years ago I was perusing around a craft show here next to Montreal, and stumbled upon a penturner's booth. I fell in love with a pen that I purchased and gifted to my dad, who actually uses it more often that any of his expensive mont blanc and visconti's from his extensive collection.
After letting this "crazy" idea of making my own pens brewing in my mind for a few years, I decided to bite the bullet and buy a lathe. So I purchased an excelsior lathe from rockler (199$ on sale with bed extension) and here I am!
I've done so far 12 pens, and I decided to post them in order of completion, along with what I discovered along the way.
Why? not so much to show off my "skills" (after all this is not the "show off your pens" forum) but rather to perhaps help other new turners in the future, and also because I was wondering if other members might have gone through the same mistakes as I did.
so here we go!
BTW, I also have a photo studio in my house, and it was already set up for some other objects, so these pics were taken on the fly.
This is a stabilized maple burl on a gold european fron lee valley.
My thoughs and discoveries:
1. It took me 3 pens to realize that my cheap lathe was wobbling off center! I eventually -after lots of testing and trying- realized that the taper was not parallel to the shaft, and had a friend redo the taper ( I should have probably just return or exchange the machine, but I wanted to turn pens that night!). but until I fixed it, all my pens were a bit off.
2. hut wax is quick and looks great, but it darkens the wood considerably, and it doesn't leave a "plastic" look. and stabilized wood's sheen isn't that pretty: it doesn't look like wood, it just looks like it's rough and unfinished.
3.it's not a good idea to handhold the blank when trimming the edges!
I'll get back soon with my second pen!
