JonathanF1968
Member
Hello everyone! Long time no see.
So, in 2020, I moved, on relatively short notice, and have been essentially without a functioning shop since then. (An oversimplification, but it will do for now.) Finally, a few weeks ago, I got a space together where I can turn again.
I'm back at it.
In my life, I've turned perhaps 30 pens. Not an expert, but not a total newbie. Few enough that taking a three-year break set me back a bit. Over the past few days, I've turned my first three pens in the new place, trying to remember how I used to do it. Some techniques come back fast, some are more elusive. I have found many but not all of my old tools and supplies. It takes me a minute to remember what many of them are for, such as my brass bottle brushes. (Oh yeah, cleaning glue drips out of copper tubes....)
My interest in turning has always been related to sentimental wood: limbs pruned from favorite trees, replaced thresholds from renovated doorways, scraps of wood from my travels all around the world. I was in Thailand this past year and brought back some ebony. Years ago, I was in Brazil and made friends with a luthier who gave me a few selections from his astonishing scrap bin.
What I'm starting with now, though, is leftovers from the renovation of my new old house. Primarily, this is oak cutoffs from my writing studio floor. Yikes, that's tough wood to turn! I thought it was just me, forgetting how to do it, until I turned a pen using instead walnut leftover from our kitchen counter, which went lickety split (5 minutes compared to 30 minutes). I do think that I'm not remembering how to sharpen my tools well, though. This oak is really heating up, so there's too much friction....
Anyhow, it's good to be back. Photo attached of a couple Professors made from my flooring cutoffs. I guess they finished the floor with some tinted poly or something. I'm using some bottles of mystery finish that I had, labeled 1 and 2 with a Sharpie, and a lump of carnauba wax.
Fun! My skills aren't what they were, but each pen is getting better than its predecessor.
So, in 2020, I moved, on relatively short notice, and have been essentially without a functioning shop since then. (An oversimplification, but it will do for now.) Finally, a few weeks ago, I got a space together where I can turn again.
I'm back at it.
In my life, I've turned perhaps 30 pens. Not an expert, but not a total newbie. Few enough that taking a three-year break set me back a bit. Over the past few days, I've turned my first three pens in the new place, trying to remember how I used to do it. Some techniques come back fast, some are more elusive. I have found many but not all of my old tools and supplies. It takes me a minute to remember what many of them are for, such as my brass bottle brushes. (Oh yeah, cleaning glue drips out of copper tubes....)
My interest in turning has always been related to sentimental wood: limbs pruned from favorite trees, replaced thresholds from renovated doorways, scraps of wood from my travels all around the world. I was in Thailand this past year and brought back some ebony. Years ago, I was in Brazil and made friends with a luthier who gave me a few selections from his astonishing scrap bin.
What I'm starting with now, though, is leftovers from the renovation of my new old house. Primarily, this is oak cutoffs from my writing studio floor. Yikes, that's tough wood to turn! I thought it was just me, forgetting how to do it, until I turned a pen using instead walnut leftover from our kitchen counter, which went lickety split (5 minutes compared to 30 minutes). I do think that I'm not remembering how to sharpen my tools well, though. This oak is really heating up, so there's too much friction....
Anyhow, it's good to be back. Photo attached of a couple Professors made from my flooring cutoffs. I guess they finished the floor with some tinted poly or something. I'm using some bottles of mystery finish that I had, labeled 1 and 2 with a Sharpie, and a lump of carnauba wax.
Fun! My skills aren't what they were, but each pen is getting better than its predecessor.
