Turning Pens!

Tanith here! Sorry for the hiatus... I don't really have any good excuse for it either. But, I'm here now, and I have some pictures to show of our latest endeavor - pen making! Or turning, to be more accurate.

The first round of pens. Zebrawood, umm something and maple burl.

Colin can tell you about more of the technical aspects of it. And eventually, we will actually have some pictures of us turning the pens and putting them together. But it is still pretty cool to see the different types that you can make and what you end up with. The ones here are, I believe, all Baron Fountain pen kits. We buy the majority of our supplies through Lee Valley in Saskatoon. (Link to Lee Valley).
They have all the different kits so you can make the different types of pens.

After you pick the type of pen you want to make, you get to choose they type of wood you turn. Other than the specification that it reallllly needs to be a hardwood, there is really no other limitations. We've used maple, olive wood, zebra wood, yellow heart, purple heart, bubinga, and tulip wood. Some, of course, work better than others. The stabilized maple burl was probably the hardest to work with. Hardest in two ways. Hard as in the most dense, and hard as in it took FOREVER for it to turn. Colin had to sharpen the chisels twice while I was turning the one pen. I kid you not. The stabilized maple burl turned (ha, TURNED) out really nicely though. It's cool because they take one of those weird bulges from the side of a tree, fill all the nooks and crannies with plastic and then chop it in to smaller pieces that you can put on the lathe. Anyway.

The entire process of making a pen (providing everything goes smoothly...) can take no time at all. If you already have your pen blank drilled out, then you're pretty much golden, as that is the part that generally messes me up every time. If you're on a roll you can probably knock a pen out, start to finish, in an hour and a half. And that is assuming you take your time in sanding.

Finished fountain pens

Below I've included links to various kits and woods types on the Lee Valley site. If you are interested in pen turning, check these out - thought they are by no means the only options out there for purchasing materials.

Personally, I'm a fan of pen turning (except the drilling out the middle part...) because it is easy, and it turns out to be something extremely useful. They also make great gifts! I spent a day (cursing and swearing and) turning two fountain pens for my Mom and Dad for Christmas this year. They were quite impressed. I will try and get some pictures of those up as well, because I am quite


proud of how they look. Both were made with bubinga wood. A nice to turn hard wood with a rich red tone. Very pretty. ;)

Finished fountain pens for Mom and Papa

Useful Links:

• Ballpoint Twist pen hardware
• European Style pen hardware
• Flat Top Rollerball and Fountain pen hardware
• Streamline pen hardware
• Baron Rollerball and Fountain pen hardware
• Wood Blanks
• Stabilized Maple Burl blanks
• Complete Guide to Turning Pens