How Long Have You Been Crafting Pens

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Randy_

Randy_

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I don't recall that I have ever seen this information discussed before.

What I am really interested in is when Berea, CSUSA and PSI started selling pen kits? Anybody have any idea??

In addition, I'm guessing there are folks out there who were crafting pens before kits were even available. I suspect there are some who took parts from commercially manufactured pens or made their own parts well before kit pens were available. Lets see if we can find out which IAP member has been crafting pens for the longest period of time.

Just to get things started, I have been crafting pens for about 3-1/2 years. My first lathe was the little JET Pen Lathe which I sold after only a few months and moved up to the JET mini non-VS. I still have the first pen I turned on that JPL......a slimline made out of Mesquite, of course!!
 
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Well, I'm sure I fall directly in the 'Rookie' category...

Got a lathe as an engagement gift last December, but didn't have a place to set it up until this summer...

Been turning for a few months, and started turning pen kits themselves last week...

[:D]
 
Randy,
You and I have a lot in common. I have been at it a little less time than you, about 2 1/2 years, but I also started off on the pen lathe. I picked up my 1014VS about a year ago and traded the pen lathe to a member that wanted it for a traveling lathe. Actually, my second lathe is an old Craftsman full size lathe I picked up at a garage sale for $40. Use it for larger stuff.
 
I started turning pens when the freedom pen protject started in 2004.
Outher than that it is slimlines to give away to family and friends, I don't sell pens.
Bob
 
About a year and a half and I don't SELL pens either. However, after giving away almost all I have made so far I find people coming to me wanting to BUY my pens. What started as a very relaxing hobby is starting to feel more and more like a job. I only play in my shop on weekends and it's getting rare when I can have the whole weekend to myself.
 
Hi All,
I have been turning pens for about 7 years now.
I started using a Black & Decker drill powered lathe to turn wooden pens to hold the refills from "BIC" pens.[;)]
I am still learning an awfull lot about penmaking from this site though [8D][:D][:p]
 
Hi,

Been turning pens by myself for about 4 years, but i was an occasionnal turner with my father for 10 years before that. He did'nt turn pen.

I bet that Russ started all this pen turning thing.[:D][}:)]
Just refering to your experience Russ, not your age[8D][}:)]

Alred
 
I started making pens in about 1993 or early 94---so, about 13 years. As I recall I purchased kits when I started from CSUSA and Hut mostly---another I bought supplies from when I started was Bonham's of Texas (not sure if they're still around?)
 
I bought my first lathe at a Wood show in November of '06 but didn't start using it until February of '07 so put me down for 9 months!

I ordered my first turning supplies from Craft Supply way back then so can vouch for them being in business at least that long! [:D]
 
Wow, maybe 9 or 10 yrs now. Wanted to get into wood work, but my machinist brain said 'You can't cut wood to plus or minus a couple of thousandths'. Went to an open house for a craft business and saw about a 10-12 yo kid turning a pen. My first expenses were a used drill press with a 2" stroke, a mandrel and a couple of kits. I made a fisture for the drill press for the end of the mandrel, and laid it over on its side and clamped a piece of angle iron to the bench. I ground and angle on an old file to use as a tool. Decided I could do this kind of wood work, so got some real tools since, and.......
 
Hi Randy, been turning for over a year now. For the second part of your question, sorry, can't help you. Maybe you could call one of the companies and find out.
 
I've only been turning pens since December 2006.
I'm still a neophyte and learning something about this craft nearly every day.

I had the good fortune to have a long conversation with Jim at Berea Hardwoods http://www.bereahardwoods.com. You might give him a call; he's got a long, rich knowledge in this arena and can share lots of the history going back to the early days.


Edited because I can't tell time.
 
Originally posted by DCBluesman
... PLEASE show me how to go back to the future!
Click to expand...

Well, there's these little blotter paper things that say Owsley on 'em and if you eat one and wait a while, you may go back to the future. Or, so I've read. [}:)] [:0]
 
Originally posted by arioux
<br />.....I bet that Russ started all this pen turning thing.....
Click to expand...

It wouldn't surprise me if there were others who turned pens before Russ got involved; but you never know.

I'll bet guys like Dale Nish, Dick Sing, Kip Christensen and Rex Burningham have had their fingers in the pie for quite a while also.
 
I think I remember seeing ads for Berea back into the mid 80's. Craft Supplies somewhere about the same time.

I have talked with turners who were making pens back in the early 70's or better by using parts from commercial pens. Actually, a popular way to make pens before the advent of pen kits was to make stick pens using the guts from a Bic. Check out my article in the American Woodturner (http://content.penturners.org/articles/2004/aaw-winter03-36-41pens.pdf) and look for the pen made by Wally Dickerman. Wally says he was making these things as Christmas presents for friends and family for years before kits came out.

Personally, I have been turning pens about ten years or so. As far as "Crafting" pens, well, I may have to try that someday! [8D]

Scott.
 
I`ve been woodworking about 30 years. I started turning pens 3 years ago this month,made 35 pens as gifts for the folk in my Sunday School class. I always give them something I made by hand,this year the ladies get the bracelet hold the guys get a pen light.My that`s probably more than you wanted to know.lol

Perry
 
As Scott and Rudy both noted - I have seen ads - and the idea of personally pen turning has been in my mind since the mid to late '80s. I have been reading woodworking mags all the way back to the 60's and 70's. Pen turning cropped up in there somewhere, and time has been compressed so much that I can't really remember when I saw the first articles or ads. I do remember thinking of it when I got my first two piece sears lathe in the late 80's and hardly ever used. I offered pen turning as a suggestion to a friend who had limited space in Tokyo but wanted to do something with wood. I lived there from '86 - '91, so it was that far back that I noticed pen turning.

Nothing you can "document" from my account except my memories - and that is getting undependable . [:D]

I have been pen turning since January 05.
 
I’ve been turning pens since August, so about 3 or 4 months, and some day I may buy a wood lathe! if I do it will be a Jet, I currently have a Jet BD 920N metal lathe, which hasn’t seen many metal chips since August.
I started turning pens on a 16†Clausing metal lathe, made my mandrels, knurled brass thumb nuts and a lot os slimline bushings, I have nearly 30 pens in inventory, sold 4 and given away 5 or 6.
I get retired next April and hope to make it a full time thing
Ken Ferrell
 
woodworker as long as I can remember (Dad's fault ;) )

Got a lathe last year to turn chessmen on.

Decide I should practice and found penturning in March.

Still haven't turned a chessman. :(
 
I started working with wood just before I got married 33 + years ago when the LOML to be gave me a tablesaw for Christmas. That took a back seat to my family and kids growing up and after 13 years in Scouts with my son I deceide I needed something to take up that extra "hour a week". I guess it was in Feb of 2004 when Amazon sent me the lathe tools and a coupla pen kit with my new Jet 1236 lathe that I became addicted to pen turning.
 
I usually give credit to a 1989 article in Wood Magazine as being my start into making pens. I had made my first pens before that in 1985 or 1986 but had not actively pursued them because the kits were too difficult to find. The only kit available was a Cross (now called the SlimLine) style from Craft Supplies and they were always out of stock every time I tried to order them. By 1989 the SlimLine kit was available from the Woodcraft catalog and they were a reliable supplier. I added pens to my other woodturnings for the Christmas show season in 1989.
 
I contacted Eric Dorman at CSUSA and asked him to see what he could discover. He told me Darrel Nish offered the information that the slimline kit was their original kit and it was first available in 1985. No doubt, folks were turning round wood tubes and sticking BIC refills in them long before that; but that means we have at least a 22 year history of crafting wooden pens.....WOW!!! We sure have come a long way since then.
 
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