Some of my first Pens

[Don K]

I got a new Jet mini lathe for Christmas.  ;D ;D 8) 8)  Yea, Santa came early. ;)   I'm making pens to give my workers for Christmas as well as some Spiral cut hams. They do a good job for me all year. Anyway I am through with the pens and here is a pic of some of them.



This not all of them, I will add pics to my gallery later. WDH, IL Bull, Radar67 and Daren have been kind enough to share some beautiful woods with me. The two tone pen on the right now belongs to WDH. He sent me some Walnut strips from the chest of drawers he is building. I know how much he likes Pecan ,so I glued up some sapwood and walnut blocks with some soda can strips for contrast. I mailed it off in a box that we now call the Pen Wood Express. :D   I think he had to fight his daughter for possession of the pen. :D  The box has since came back to AL filled with all manner of good woods including some Red Cedar wood with the sapwood swirling through it. This will soon be shipped out as a pen for Danny's daughter that loves cedar. He recently built her a beautiful cedar chest (in another thread) and she wanted to know why he cut all the sapwood off. :D :D

Also got to make IL Bull a pen and pencil set from some Osage Burl that he sent me. I am excited about those. The wood is beautiful.

I have found another way to feed my addiction to wood chips and now every scrap of wood is scrutinized for possibilities. :D :D :

Don

[SwampDonkey]

I have found another way to feed my addiction to wood chips and now every scrap of wood is scrutinized for possibilities. :D :D :

Well, you've just been indoctrinated into the wood workers guild. There's unknown works of art and great wealth within those scraps. Honest.  ;D :D :D

[Norm]

Those are beautiful Don! But like you I now have a hard time keeping kindling around the house.  :D

[WDH]

The pen Don made me is beautiful.  I keep it in my office, and I think about Don's kindness everytime I use it.  I also have a pen that Radar67 made for me out of pecan.  It is also beautiful, and it is the pen I take along in my computer carry-bag when I travel because he gave it to me on one of my travels (which is a lot....). 

So, one for when at home and one for when traveling.  That is bigamous, isn't it ??? ;D.

Don, sapwood is good!!

Now, I won't feel so guilty about burning strips and cut-offs that can overwhelm me because I can pick out the stuff with nice grain and color and send it off on the Pen Wood Express :D.

One more would make me trigamous .

[metalspinner]

 8) 8)  Welcome aboard the Board Hoarder's Express! :D

I can't seem to throw out those scraps either.  You know that little 1/2"-3/4" bit you cut off the pen blank?  Just wait until you start saving those.  That's when you know you have spiraled down to the deepest depths of wood hoarding and may need to get professional help. :-[

[Radar67]

I have a bag full of those little cut offs...  ;D ;D keep saying I'm gonna glue them up to make psycodelic blanks.

Hi! I'm Stew and I'm a woodaholic.  ;)

I saw Don's pens first hand before our trip to LA and they are georgeous. I knew he was hooked when he turned that sassafrass at my place a few months ago. 

[LeeB]

The pens are really beautiful. I have often wanted to try some.
How big of a spiral ham can you turn on the lathe? :D

[Burlkraft]

Don,
Them are some good lookin' pens ya made......Ya got some lucky workers   ;)  ;)  ;)

[DWM II]

Nice job Don, I'd put one of them in my pocket any day.  8)

[Don K]

By what I have heard you can peel a 10" ham on it. :D

Thanks for the compliments. I really enjoy watching that wood peel off. Chris, I am keeping the cutoffs. I am planning to try contrasting live centers on some pens or glueing up segments.

Don

[IL Bull]

Those are beautiful Don.   My Dad has always seemed interested in turning stuff on a lathe.  I told him about pen turning but he didn't express any intrest.  He is 84 and does not get around very good and I thought he would really enjoy it.  I'm going to talk to my brothers and see if they want to go together and buy him a pen lathe.  Can you give me what  startup cost would be?  He also would need a drill press from what I understand. :P  Is that true?
Thanks,
Joe

[Don K]

Joe, I have about 250. in my lathe and cheap chisel set from Sears. They had the best price on the lathe by far. About 75. on a pen turning starter set from Rockler ( Has a mandrel, glue,penkits, blanks, and such) I cut several blanks myself but have ordered a coupla hundred bucks in exotic blanks and pen kits and such. Slimline kits are reasonable and with the variety of wood you have it wouldn't be too bad to feed the habit. My cousin wants to buy four for gifts so I am turning some money back in. My wife carried my gift pens to work with her and all those women were tring to buy them. Do you how hard it is to tell a women that they can't buy something when they have money in their hand. :D  If I would have had time to make some before Christmas I could probably sell 30 to 40 just at my wife's daycare. Most of the workers wanted  5 or 6 apiece. : I need 4 lathes and 8 arms. :D

Yes you need a drill press but a cheap  benchtop from HF or anybody else will do as good a job as a high end one.

Don

[Steve]

Yes you need a drill press but a cheap  benchtop from HF or anybody else will do as good a job as a high end one.

Don

Make sure you get one that has at least a 2 1/8" higth capacity. Some of the small ones won't do that.

Steve

[Patty]

Don your pens are beautiful!   8)

Welcome to the addiction, you know now it will be hard to break this curse! Next thing you know you will be eyeing Burlcraft's Oneway....no lathe is safe around you.  :D

[WDH]

I can tell you from personal experience that this is a special place with special people. 

DonK is one of those people.  He made me a pen that my daughter admired.  Once he found out that she liked it, he made her a pen as a Christmas present from some Georgia Red cedar.  She was surprised and thrilled.  She sent Mr. Don a thank-you.

Radar67 and DonK have graciously given me beautiful pens.  The Fat Old Elf gave me a beautiful hand made flame Christmas ornament carved out of red cedar (a pic to come!).  People say that you have to watch out on the Internet about people that you interface with, and I am sure that is true, but this place is a place where I have made some fine friends, many that I have met, and more to come.   

Don's cedar pen is beautiful.

[SwampDonkey]

Yup, nice pen with the contrasting color. They sure make nice gifts. I've received a few turned pens over the years and can't find a one now. Pens seem to walk out the door.  ;)

[IL Bull]

Beautiful Don.  Can't wait to see the one made from osage burl!
I will post a picture.

[Robert Long]

Don K ;)

Nice looking pens! 8)  I too make things for people who work with me on the mill, some past years I have made as many as 30 of the same item, about every other year it's pens as they make a great Christmas gift.

Yours are sure worth a Christmas keep sake!

What type of finish have you on them and where do you get your pen parts?

Robert

[Don K]

Thanks for the kind words.

I use a 3 part finishing system from Mylands. All rub on. 1. Sealer - two coats 2. Friction Polish- 3 coats  3. Carnuba wax- 2 coats

I order all my supplies from Woodturningz.

Don

[SwampDonkey]

Robert I think another source would be Lee Valley up in Ottawa.

[IL Bull]

Don,
I received the Osage burl  pen and pencil set Sat.
They are beautiful 8).

Thanks DonK
Joe

[WDH]

They are beautiful 8).

They sure are 8).

[SwampDonkey]

That's nice stuff Don K, you have some pretty lucky buddies.  ;D 8)

[Don K]

I'm glad they made it Joe. I was starting to worry since I hadn't heard from you. Enjoy and if you find anymore burl in the firewood pile don't burn it, it looks much better as a pen instead of ashes ;D

Don

[IL Bull]

Don
I have some more cut for you.  I been waiting to find some more Ambrosia maple and other things of intrest.  If you are low I could send it now.  Do you turn bowls?  I have a few pieces that would make some nice ones from the same log.
Joe