The Making of Tom's Pen

[David Walser]

As you know, Tom Henry set up the recent pen exchange and had the wisdom and insight to select me as his trading partner. If UPS does its thing, tomorrow Tom should be receiving his pen, so I thought it might be appropriate for me a post a mini-tutorial on how I made Tom's pen. WARNING: THIS TUTORIAL CONTAINS SOME HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED TECHNIQUES. THEY SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED BY A NEWBIE!

Here goes:

Step 1: Select the blank. Tom is a manly man who says he likes wood, rather than plastic, for pen blanks. So, I got out some of my finest samples of wooden pen blanks and lined them up on my lathe side by side. Here's a photo:



Here's a close up of the blanks:



The question, of course, is which blank to choose. As I said, Tom's a manly man and wouldn't go for any of that sissy colored wood or that curly burly stuff. I figure he'd like something strong. Something you could make a house or a four-plex out of. I think the choice is obvious.

Step two: Select the pen kit. I don't have a wide selection of pen kits. Fortunately, all of them are high quality. Here's a picture of the options:



There, with the selected blank, are the Jr. Gents II, Apprentice slimline, and Elegant Beauty Sierra Pen kits we have to choose from. Here I had to guess. Tom doesn't look like a junior to me. He's from the East, so he may not know too much about the High Sierras (a mountain range, for those of you who failed high school geography). So, the slimline pen it is.

Step three: Turn it round. Having selected both blank and kit, it's now time to mount the blank between centers and to start turning! Here's a picture of the blank ready to be turned round:



The blue line is to help with grain alignment.

Continued in the next post.

[David Walser]

To turn the blank round, I'm using my spindle roughing gouge:



Notice the fine shavings I'm getting. To get such fine shavings, it's important to ride the bevel. The next picture shows the proper approach to using this gouge. With the gouge oriented this way, it's easier to see the bevel rub and the tool is lest apt to rotate on the tool rest.



The gouge is much more stable in this postition than it is in the photo immediately above. Again, the blue line is to aid in grain matching.

Step Three.5: Continue turning it round. Once the blank is round, it's necessary to turn it rounder. That is, turn it to a smaller and smaller diameter until it's just the right size. To know how small to turn it to, the kits come with these handy drill bushings. (More on drilling the blank, and using these bushings, later.) Here's a picture of one of these bushings and a "sizer" that's used to measure the proper size of the blank:



Here I've already turned one end down to the proper size using one of my favorite tools, the Hamlet "diamond diameter reducer". (Which is really a dumb name, because, don't all turning tools reduce the diameter of the blank?) The blue line is to help with grain alignment.



Here's a picture of the blank turned down to size before sanding. Note the fine finish left by the diamond diameter reducer. The blue line is to aid in grain alignment.



Step Three.75: Apply the finish. I really like the smell of lacquer, don't you? Here's the pen blank after it's been sanded and the first coat of lacquer has been applied:



Several more coats are to follow. No pictures, sorry. The blue line is to aid in grain alignment.

Continued in the next post.

[David Walser]

Step four: Drill the blank. Now that the blank has been turned round and is nice and shinny, it has to be hollowed out so it can accept the pen mechanism. Some turners use miniature hollowing tools for this step. That's not really necessary. I don't think it cheapens the end product at all to use a drill to hollow out the blank. (Please, no flame wars! I offer this as my opinion, only. YMMV.)

Here's where the drill bushings, mentioned above in step three.something, come into play. By holding the bushing to the end of the blank, it's possible to guide the electric drill bit into the center of the blank. (Always hold the bushing with pliers! Never hold the bushing with your fingers -- even if you're wearing gloves. Safety first!) However, I think it's easier to use a drill press (assuming you have one) and a drill vise (assuming you have one). If you don't have one of these things, then use the bushing. That's what they're for. Here's a picture of the blank set up for drilling:



Another approach would be to drill the blank on the lathe, but that's just stupid so I won't go into it. The blue line is to aid in grain alignment.

Step five: Cut the blank to length. After you've drilled the blank, the next step is to cut the blank to length. As you can imagine, there are many ways of doing this. Here's a picture of my set up:



The blue line is to aid in grain alignment. The two pencil lines mark where to cut. (Just cut between the lines.) Be sure to keep your fingers well away from the blade.

That's it. It's not the end of making the pen -- it still has to be assembled, but I don't want to ruin Tom's surprise by showing what the final pen looks like. Maybe he can post a picture of the finished product after he opens his package tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I did in bringing it to you. If you have any doubts about whether you should follow any of these tips, DON'T.

[Ron Williams]

I needed a good laugh

[Mike Golka]

Best tutorial I've seen yet! Going out to shop to try a pen right now. One question though, I don't have access to any of that fancy drilling stuff. Could I just drive the appropriate size nail through the blank to make it hollow before turning?

[Maria Alvarado]

If only this tutorial had been around when I got started! My only question is: how do you keep the grain aligned?
Tom, you're a lucky guy, getting that pen. I'm sure I'm not the only one suffering from Pinus envy

[curtis rosche]

why does the grain need to be aligned?

[David Walser]

Thanks for getting the joke. After the tutorial went up, it clocked 29 views without a single comment. I was afraid everyone thought I was being serious.

[David Walser]

Best tutorial I've seen yet! Going out to shop to try a pen right now. One question though, I don't have access to any of that fancy drilling stuff. Could I just drive the appropriate size nail through the blank to make it hollow before turning?

Glad I could help. I thought about driving a nail through to leave a hole and I've serious reservations about this approach. The problem, it seems to me, would be the same problem faced when drilling the hole before turning the blank: The walls of the pen tube are very thin. Pre-drilling (or pre-nailing) might leave the blank too weak to be able to turn between centers. But, if you don't have access to a drill, maybe you should give it a try. Be sure to report back to us!

[David Walser]

...
Tom, you're a lucky guy, getting that pen. I'm sure I'm not the only one suffering from Pinus envy

Maria, I bow before the master. Nice pun.

I feel very sorry for you. Your sense of humor is too much like my own.

[David Walser]

why does the grain need to be aligned?

Curtis, I'm not sure why the grain needs to be aligned. All I know is every article or video on pen turning I've every read or watched says you need to align the grain. Several suggest drawing a line (as I did in my tutorial) to assist with grain matching. (You didn't think I came up with that idea on my own, did you?) The problem with drawing a line is the line disappears as soon as you start turning. So, you have to keep re-drawing the line as you go. It's really quite a pain. Worse, when you're done you have this ugly line on the finished pen. (I try to put it on the back of the pen so it's not as noticeable.) Which is why I use blue for the line. Blue's my favorite color.

Thanks for asking an excellent question. You've helped millions learn more about the fine art of pen turning.

Shouldn't you be in school?

[jason lambert]

Wow, better you try that than me.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Now that's funny!!! Each photo just kept getting better! LOL

Hope Tom appreciates all the trouble you went through to turn his pen!

Now I know why I stick with hollow forms!

[Rick Gifford]

I read this right after you posted and was going to comment you have to be joking... then decided I wanted to see all the steps as you continue. Didnt want to ruin a good thing with a comment.

Hope no one does a google search on pen making and finds this thread and tries it.

Then again who knows, you may have discovered a whole new method!

The only thing better is if you started with a seedling and a pen insert so the pen would grow inside the blank. Just add water and harvest in 10 years.

I do want to see the youtube video of the drilling process on the turned down wood! lol Especially if you use the miniature hollowing tools... and dont forget the mini steady rest

[Brian Brown]

The problem with drawing a line is the line disappears as soon as you start turning. So, you have to keep re-drawing the line as you go. It's really quite a pain. Worse, when you're done you have this ugly line on the finished pen. (I try to put it on the back of the pen so it's not as noticeable.)

Can't you just put the lie on the inside of the pen???