Newbie Question

[Bill Mitchell]

Hello,
I'm a new poster and turner hoping to find a little help from experienced pen turners.
I originally posted a pen question over on SMC and was kindly informed of this forum where I've been trying to absorb as much information as possible and there is a lot here. I'm afraid there may be some things only experience can teach. Such as, today I was in our local Klingspor's Woodworking Shop and while they had a pretty good selection of items for a retail store I was surprised at how cheap looking the Hut pen kits were. I realize these are not high end kits but I've never seen high end kits and I'm wondering if all kits look basically like these.
I'm not made of money but I would spend a little more for something that looks like better quality. Any suggestions?

 

[rjwolfe3]

First off, Welcome to the site!

Here are a couple of threads to read for a lot of knowledge:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=42446
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=46654

I don't know much about Hut but I would look at Penn State or Craft Supply USA for your first kits. Feel free to ask more questions!

 

[ldb2000]

Welcome to the group Bill . Just wondering , in what way do you mean the kits "looked cheap" . Was it poor plating , bad design , too few parts , etc . If I'm not mistaken Klingspor only carries a few kits in 24k plating . There are allot of kits with much better platings and better designs but knowing what you don't like might help in finding something you will .

 

[Displaced Canadian]

Welcome,
I also get my kits from Penn state and Craft supplies USA. I would recommend the slimline pro gel click pen .8 mm tubes and is easy to line up the grain. It uses different bushings than the Woodcraft pens. I also keep all my instructions in a binder and write notes on them for the next time I make that pen, and it's a great way to see if the pen works. I also put the bushings in the bag that the pen kit came out of.

 

[leehljp]

Welcome Bill. Here is a Vendor link: http://www.penturners.org/links/browselinks.php?c=3

There are quite a few vendors with different quality kits available. Beyond this, custom making of kits take quality to another realm. While less gold/silver is used, the focus is closed ends and even kitless. A search for Kitless reveals this: click here.

 

[CSue]

Welcome from sunny southern California, Bill. You've come to the right place.

One of the things that took me awhile was learning the most valuable resource to find quality resources was here at IAP. Among the others mentioned, just starting out you can get some good quality kits and more at Bear Tooth Woods. Wood-n-whimsies has some nice kits that are less expensive than PSI. I like their "St. Charles" slimline.

Browsing through Hank's link should give you enough fodder to start off with now.

 

[Jim15]

Welcome Bill.

 

[Bill Mitchell]

Welcome to the group Bill . Just wondering , in what way do you mean the kits "looked cheap" . Was it poor plating , bad design , too few parts , etc . If I'm not mistaken Klingspor only carries a few kits in 24k plating . There are allot of kits with much better platings and better designs but knowing what you don't like might help in finding something you will .

They had a couple of pens made up on display that weren't fitted correctly and that may have had something to do with my impression of the kits, but the plating did look cheap and the exterior metal parts in general looked low quality. My concern is that I won't be able to find affordable (or any) kits that have the expensive quality look and feel I want.

 

[mickr]

bill..welcome to chaos..go to Craft Supplies USA and PSI ...search their sites and see what you believe look good to your eye..a clue..better plating & better kits usually = more $

 

[Daniel]

Hello Bill, and Welcome. You are in the right place to get most any question answered. usually by multiple members.
As for Hut Kits. For me Hut is so low on my list of suppliers I don't think I have ever ordered anything from them. I have been at this so long I am not entirely sure why but it seems to me they have the highest prices and not the most impressive selection. I am not saying I would never order from them. But it would require that I could not get what I needed from a long list of suppliers or a member of this group I simply have never had to go that far down the list. my favorites for when the piggy bank is getting pretty light is CSUSA. in a moment of near bankruptcy and I just need to distract myself from the pressure by working in my shop. P.S.I. is the ticket. When I am on a splurge, well frankly only the members of this group and CSUSA have offered the trully extravigant stuff. $120 pen kits with a matching $100 blank sort of thing. Just to prove I was not crazy I got 2 of those.
But just for your sanity and ability to get a couple of companies familiar to you. I would without hesitation point you toward both P.S.I. and CSUSA. once you are fairly familiar with what they offer you shoudl start looking at others.
When you find something you want, come back here and post a question of where the best deal can be gotten. This group seems to be able to keep a minute by minute update on the best prices, any sales by anyone anywhere, or will even send you coupons and such. As an example I think the basic slimline pen kit can be gotten from no less than a dozen suppliers most of which are not commonly known about. trying to shop the web sites of 12 different supplier is time consuming and exhausting. Don't knock yourself out. THis group makes pretty much anything penturning easier, except maybe learning to use a skew.