Acknowledging this is an old thread, but responding to
@Bob Roehrig
As some background to my comment - I am both a long time pen maker (kit and kit less) and member of the AAW. I have served as an executive of a local AAW chapter as well as run for a board member position of the AAW. I have also taught literally thousands of mostly young people at the now defunct woodworking shows through many years at their 'learn to turn' demo's at the shows. I mentioned this only because the opinion of penmaking from the AAW is fairly reflective of the general population of the AAW membership.
The making of a pen is principally a spindle turning project. In AAW speak, spindle turning is taught to new turners as the 'entry level' skill builder, as it is considered easier to grasp and develop skills on. 'Advanced' turners move to the believed more complex and difficult skill of bowl turning. Agree or not, I've talked to many turners who have expressed this in many different ways. So, by association a pen is a spindle, often delivered as a planned piece in a kit, therefore minimal skill is required to turn said object. The 'design component' is built into the kit, so therefore the turner only needs to get the wood to the right dimension of the design. Sand and finish. Low skill.
I've argued in defense of pen makers many, many times. The task is simplified in the above description, but it's pretty common belief from the many people I've had this chat with. I've also had a good number of turners of skill tell me and I quote - ' pen turning is something you do until you really learn to turn, and then you move on'. Ah well.
Mark, John, Ed and a good number of others have worked to help move the needle on this opinion, and I greatly applaud them. The AAW for its part is suffering from a very large problem - the vast majority of their members are old and aging out - so they need to widen their scope to attract new, younger members to replace the 'old guys'. The other side of this is they also need to acknowledge that pen making is very varied, it's just not simple spindle turning - especially if you are making your own designs and product from scratch.
The AAW is also having to realize that their name 'Woodturners' is also limiting. Lots of us turn, but never touch a piece of wood, instead turning lots of different medias and materials. They are getting to this faster, because of the belief that this requires more inherent 'design' skills to create the media.
I think if we continue to talk about what we do, show the amazing results we get, and be willing to teach others how to develop this skill, the AAW will come along for the ride. With good folks like John and Mark helping to push it along, we might actually get some acknowledgement.
Kevin
