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Turning a pen

Mark Schofield, managing editor

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The other day I received a press release announcing that Woodcraft stores had hosted their sixth Veterans Day "Turn for Troops pen turn-a-thon". Members of the public turned 12,000 wooden pens that will be sent to American service personnel serving overseas, as well as those now in rehabilitation programs.

Leaving aside the fact that today's young men and women, if they are like my two sons at college, are far more likely to send emails or text messages than put pen to paper, a handmade pen is still a nice gift to receive. It is also a nice gift for a woodworker to give as you can use the most expensive and exotic woods for little outlay as the blank required is so small, or you can choose from a range of man-made acrylic or resin/veneer materials.

A quick look through the index showed the last time FWW covered turning pens was issue #69 in 1988. Is this a subject we should revisit? Judging from the space devoted to pen-turning supplies in woodworking catalogues there must be a lot of pens being turned and the tools required aren't a huge investment. However, is there enough woodworking involved to warrent an article? Are there advanced pen-turning techniques we could cover? Let me know your thoughts one way or the other and if you'd like to write an article on this subject do say so.

Turning Projects
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Comments (3)

DonFaulk0517 writes: Yes... an article on pen turning would allow someone to see how easy it is to get into turning... with minimal costs.
Posted: 4:09 pm on March 6th

joe53016 writes: I would be very interested in an article on pen turning. If it had a video that would be great also.

In a couple of days I will be getting a lathe for christmas and the first thing I wanted to try is a pen.

I think pen turning is a great way to learn how to start using a lathe as I have never used one.

Hope to see an article sometime soon.

~Joe
Posted: 10:45 am on December 22nd

steveswhite writes: I certainly think it warrants an article devoted to it. There is as much wood selection knowledge used in selecting a pen blank as there is in furniture or box making. Sure, you can buy off the shelf blanks pre-cut that are of great visual quality, but to hand select the piece of wood, determine whether to rip, cross, or angle cut it for the best grain pattern yields a much more satisfying finished project. Plus the variety of materials available now, from Antler, wood, acrylic, Trustone, Corian, Clay and even a product that is mostly metal and turned with lathe tools. Then you can begin to combine and laminate materials for a truly unique look.
Then you have your alternate turning techniques from standard Lathe tools, to using a custom turning machine for spirals, or even turning pens with a router.
It's an excellent woodworking project because it can be done by novice or skilled alike and you get instant gratification. Usually you can turn out a finished project in about an hour.
I could put together an article.
Posted: 4:49 pm on December 3rd

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