Hi I'm Bree.

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Bree

Bree

Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
1,736
Location
Buffalo, NY
I'm Bree from Buffalo, NY. I like woodworking and pen turning in particular. I turned a couple of Slimlines this evening... a nice birch pen with dark specks in the wood and an olivewood pen which gave me some trouble but I was able to get my mistakes fixed and produce a good looking pen which I will give away as a gift next week.

I hope to learn a lot here and improve my pens. I love exotic and rare woods and pen turning gives me a chance to work with a lot of new and interesting kinds of wood. In that respect I am accumulating a nice collection of blanks and highly figured lumber for penmaking.

I cut almost all of my own blanks on my bandsaw. I usually break them down with a 1" roughing gouge, bring them down close to my final size with a Lacer skew and then use a Spindlemaster to bring them to final size and shape. I have a lot of tools but I tend to use only a few of them.

Well that is my intro. CYA around!
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Bree
 
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leehljp

leehljp

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Tunica, Mississippi,
Bree said:
. . but I was able to get my mistakes fixed and produce a good looking pen which I will give away as a gift next week.
Click to expand...

My dad use to say that a good carpenter is one that can fix his mistakes . . . or hide them. :biggrin:

I cut almost all of my own blanks on my bandsaw. I usually break them down with a 1" roughing gouge, bring them down close to my final size with a Lacer skew and then use a Spindlemaster to bring them to final size and shape. I have a lot of tools but I tend to use only a few of them.
Click to expand...

Welcome Bree! You already know the basics and beyond. Shucks, I have been turning pens for 4 1/2 years and still can't master the skew of any kind. I try regularly though.

Although you don't need the following link (due to your experience) I am including the link below to a PDF file that goes over many aspects of pen turning from finish - to pens - to tools - to methods etc. It is not in detail but a good overview for pen turning.

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

Also included below is a link to a recent post that gives some information that people wished they had known earlier in pen turning. Some good information by those that make pens.

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


Post some picts of your work. I am sure from the way you speak of your machines that you could post some picts of other work too! We would love to see it here. :)
 
bruce119

bruce119

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Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
2,978
Location
Franklin, NC, USA.
Welcome Bree

There's lots of information here. You will get a lot of good ideas be sure to take time and explore the site. The show off your pens is a great place. And there's lots of great deals in the Buy, Sell & Swap.

:biggrin: This is more than a forum it's a community of good friends. :biggrin:


Bruce
 
Daniel

Daniel

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2004
Messages
5,921
Location
Reno, NV, USA.
Bree, Welcome from Nevada. Your list of interests look something like mine. I currently have my pen turning, am working on a really big scroll saw project, Just ordered all the stuff to make my first fishing pole, and love to start new group buys in my spare time. I would think your interest in leather work and motorcycles would match up fairly well.
We have a great bunch of folks around here. hope to see you around.
 
Bree

Bree

Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
1,736
Location
Buffalo, NY
leehljp said:
My dad use to say that a good carpenter is one that can fix his mistakes . . . or hide them. :biggrin:



Welcome Bree! You already know the basics and beyond. Shucks, I have been turning pens for 4 1/2 years and still can't master the skew of any kind. I try regularly though.

Although you don't need the following link (due to your experience) I am including the link below to a PDF file that goes over many aspects of pen turning from finish - to pens - to tools - to methods etc. It is not in detail but a good overview for pen turning.

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

Also included below is a link to a recent post that gives some information that people wished they had known earlier in pen turning. Some good information by those that make pens.

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


Post some picts of your work. I am sure from the way you speak of your machines that you could post some picts of other work too! We would love to see it here. :)
Click to expand...

Wow! Thanks everyone. What an unexpected outpouring of welcome. I won't reply to every post so I will just say, Thanks and glad to be here!

I do have a lot of different interests and I am am not far from Clarence to reply to some specific questions asked by members. I also work for IBM which means that I don't have nearly enough time for any of my interests.

Right now we are in riding season (though I ride year round) and time is really at a premium. My leather work which is time consuming is practically at a stand still. My shooting range activities are greatly reduced. But my pen turning is perfect for rainy days when I can't ride. It doesn't take all weekend to complete a project.

One thing I love to do is shop. And my favorite shopping places are Rockler and Woodcraft. I love to hunt for unusual pieces of wood. The beauty of pen turning is that I can go find a piece of wood, cut it, prep it and turn it into something nice all in the same day... or better within hours. It's hard to do that with my other activities.

I used to love shopping at the Leather Factory in Elgin, Il when I lived in Elmhurst. But alas, the nearest Tandy (Leather Factory) is in Syracuse 2 hours away. So my interest turned to wood more than leather. I still love leather and have a lot of heavy duty leather equipment for the day that IBM offshores my job and 86's me. Then I will start manufacturing double layer gunbelts and maybe gun holsters. But until then, I do those things which are doable in a short time frame... like pen turning!!

Here is a PIC of a pen I made recently from some maple that I bought over 30 years ago. It was sitting on a pile and looked really corroded and dirty. It was almost unrecognizable as valuable wood. It could easily have made its way into the fireplace. I made a slimline out of it and gave it to my bosses son who won a Watson Scholarship at IBM. I figured that it would be a nice way to get him started... keep his mind of girls and partying!!

scimg3953.jpg


Just a simple basic pen with some beautiful old wood. Maybe one day I will be able to produce the simple extraordinary work that I have alrady seen on this site. I am a novice in the midst of masters.

Thanks again!
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Bree
 
Bree

Bree

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Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
1,736
Location
Buffalo, NY
nava1uni said:
Welcome from San Francisco. This is a great site for learning and meeting people from all over the world. What kind of leather working and sewing?
Click to expand...

I have a little side business named Bree's Patch and Leather Repair. I sew patches on biker's vests and jackets. And I fix stuff. It takes my mind off of computers.

I have a Juki 1541S medium weight flatbed, a Singer 29K60 long arm patcher and two 29-4 short arm patchers for ordinary sewing. For the heavy work, I have an Artisan Toro 4000 LA-25 with a 25" cylinder arm. That is one HUGE sewing machine. It will sew through 3/4 inches of leather like a hot knife through butter and do so all day long. That is my gunleather machine.

Beautiful thing about slaving for IBM is that I can spend money on equipment for my real loves!

I also have an assortment of old sewing machines... an 1890's Singer VS2, a 19-51 Anniversary machine, a couple of White Rotaries etc. Big house needs stuff to fill it up!
:wink::wink::wink:
Bree
 
Bree

Bree

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Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
1,736
Location
Buffalo, NY
I made a couple of pens yesterday and one today. I took some PIX so I will share them. They are all slimlines since I have a bunch of slimline kits to use up. The pens yesterday included an Olivewood pen and a fairly plain birch pen.

It was hard to get the camera to take a decent PIC of the birch pen since it is so pale in color. I thought that it might have more of those little dark flecks since the board's end grain had quite a few showing. Ya never really know what you're going to get!

It will make a nice gift for someone.

scimg4089.jpg

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Pens above were finished with Hut Crystal Coat and 100% carnauba wax applied with high friction. Sanded to 12K with MM.

The pen I made today is made from walnut crotch. I bought a box of highly figured walnut shorts from Woodworker's Source and there was a lot of crotchwood in there. I wasn't sure how the crotchwood would translate into pens (think small).

It turned out pretty nicely. One side is quite dark and the other side is quite light almost as if it were sapwood which it isn't. I finished this one with Tung Oil and Crystal Coat. I have a PIC of each side.

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I made a nice Rhodium plated Cigar Pen last week from Kingwood for my gunsmith in return for his fabricating a piece to allow my Grizzly 10" Wet Grinder to use Tormek Leather Profiling Wheels. That was a nice pen BUT I forgot to take PIX!!
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
nightowl

nightowl

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Joined
Mar 2, 2008
Messages
323
Location
Lexington, Virginia, USA.
Welcome Bree!, You will learn a lot here as I have. So much knowledge in videos, written instructions and in the forums. I have yet to ask a question that someone could not help me with it.
 
Bree

Bree

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Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
1,736
Location
Buffalo, NY
Thanks again everyone. I made another pen today but it was VERY difficult to photograph in the evening light. It's a chrome Carbara made of Gaboon Ebony.

I got a bunch of 6.5" x 1" ebony rounds for a buck apiece. I can make two Carbara pens from each blank so I am real happy with the result from the point of view of economy. And I like the pen a lot. It is short and stubby but it feels very nice to write with. Fits in real well on top of my grey and black Gateway keyboard too. LOL!

Sorry for the poor quality PIX. It was hard to get even these PIX. I had to adjust the brightness in Photoshop to get anything viewable. It's funny but my flash turned all the chrome black... weird. So I had to use the natural low light which just didn't work very well on this one.

sCIMG4107.jpg

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I turned it with my big 1" roughing gouge to bring it down to size and then with the Lacer skew to final size. Sanded to 12K MM and finished with some Ren Wax. I figured it didn't need much more finishing. The ebony is harder than nails and blacker than a coal yard at midnight. You can't do much other than gloss it up and I wasn't looking for a mirror like gloss on this one. I like it and I'm keeping this one pour moi!!
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
Bree

Bree

Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
1,736
Location
Buffalo, NY
I'm afraid that I'm going to end up getting goofy over pen turning. I am already thinking about what little innovation I can add to make the next pen just a little bit more exciting than the last.

Looks like another long strange trip with pens.
:eek::eek::eek:
 
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