When did penturning start?

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ossaguy

ossaguy

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I was just curious,but can someone tell me how faar back this hobby goes?

I know I'm still a fairly newcomer at about 3 years,and I've seen a lot of new pen kits come out in the catalogs in just that time.It seems like it's gettin more popular by the day.

When were the first kits made,and what did guys do before that?

I've never heard how long PSI or CSUSA have been in business? Were they the first?

How about pen blanks,are the materials offered today different than say,25 years ago?

I like trivia stuff,so I've been wondering about this so I thought I'd ask you all for some history of our hobby/addiction.


Thanks for any thoughts,

Steve
Steve
 
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I may be wrong but I believe Dale Nish did the first experiments many years ago with Craft Supplies. I have an early issue of Fine Woodworking that shows some early work.
 
I saw a gent making wooden pens at the Canton Texas Trade Days, on a Sherline lathe back about 1993 or 94. I thought they were cool. If what serves me for memory is close I believe he was charging about 12.50 to15.00
 
I believe I read that it started (or at least became more popular) in the late eighties when turners used Bic refills in their truly kitless pens.

That said I think Mike (mredburn) has the best answer so far.

AK
 
Ok, since I am participating in derailing your thread:

I started in 1995. Dick Sing had just written his first book and kits were available from the fore-runner of Rockler (Woodworkers??). Our choice was 24kt gold! Also available in COMFORT PEN (different centerband).

We also had the Parker look alikes for rollerball and fountain.

CSUSA and Penn State were both selling kits, but I did not know about either one, early on. The internet was not "dumb-spit friendly".


Yes, there were a few guys that drilled real sticks and inserted BIC refills. They called them "stick pens". Much more common were diamondwood. I was one of the first to use acrylics and "gem-stone". That was about 97 or 98.
 
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I was selling stick pens at work in 1986 and 1987. One of our woodworking club members started making mandrels for using the guts of a click pen, still have it. Can't remember when I started buying kits.
 
:confused::confused: Steve; If you realy want to go back a ways, there were forms of pens found in some of the old Egyptian tombs. They were made out of turned (yes they did have hand turned lathes back then) exotic woods and Ivory. They also cast gold handles incrusted them with jewels, drilled out holes and inserted quills into them. After all, if you were the king of ancient Egypt, " The Pharaoh ", you didn't want to use a turkey feather to script an E-Scroll !! Jim S
 
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Thanks for the history lesson. I have wondered the same thing from time to time, but usually forgot to pose the question within a second or two.
 
"The Woodworkers Store" was the name of Rockler, before it became Rockler. They had a pretty good selection of pen kits.

WoodCraft came later and they had Cebloplast rods, as well as many other "plastics" you could turn. MOST were 5/8" thick though, since most of the kits were 7mm tube based.

There was also a guy out of Oklahoma, called Woodcrafters of Oklahoma (WCO). He had the first Cigar kit, which still has the product number WCO145. The gentleman's name escapes me, but he died in the early 2000's.
 
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My father and I started making custom drafting pencils from the Pentel guts in the late 1970s and early 1980's. When we started doing this, we were working vertically on a drill press and "home made" tool rest because at that time lathes and Shopsmiths were too big and cumbersome to set up for such small projects.
 
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Good information

I bought my first turned pen in 2000, found the guy selling them in 1999.

But, as indicated by others I think turning pen barrels far predates the hobby as we know it. Standard issue wood dip-pens in my first couple of years of school were probably turned and since they date back to the end of the quill era (someone posted a picture awhile back of a pen custom made for Thomas Jefferson in the late 1700s or early 1800s) I have to believe that there were craftsmen then making them out of wood. Since that predates assembly lines there was probably some hand turning involved.
 
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