Thread: The latest member of a pen turning addicted family - My wifes first pens.

Hi All,

On the weekend, there was an unexpected addition to our pen turning addicted family.

I dropped in to see Selde on Friday afternoon and he found a couple of half pen acrylic blanks in his practice box, all tubed up, without a matching other half due to issues when turning or the like. He said I could take them to use them to practice on. We haven't turned any acrylic yet, and felt practice might be good before we wreck something that we would like to keep.

After the usual Saturday run around to shops and stuff, I got back home and had left the blanks sitting on the dining room table. My wife asked what are they for and I told her to practice on. So she asked if she could make a pen out of them. My wife in the past has generally steered clear of the shed, and left it to me and my daughter. She hasn't turned anything on a lathe in her life before, but this wasn't stopping her, with all the generosity from forum members in the last couple of weeks, she wasn't going to be left out.

As she trotted off to the shed with the blanks in hand and me in tow, I tried to explain that maybe turning a nice pretty softish bit of wood to start with might be a better thing to start with rather than a nasty smelling harder to turn acrylic. Nope, that didn't work, after all she said they are to practice on aren't they.

Eisbaer gave us a DVD on the basics of pen making, and it showed the steps on how to make up a slimline pen, we had put that on to watch the weekend before. My wife said, she had watched the DVD, and figured she could make one the same way so off she went.

So I took the time to explain that different tools are used for different things, and that the roughing gouge is the family friend at the moment because we all use it and I can sharpen it. So off she went, bits of acrylic chunks and shavings flying in all directions.

I then explained what the numbers on the back of the sandpaper meant, and to start with the small numbers and get bigger.

When she finished with 1200 grit wet, I said, hang on I have a Micromesh kit, but I haven't opened it to try yet, so we read the instructions and she worked her way through the grits and finished off with some old car polish that I've had for about 10 years.

And ta da, my wifes first pen. The two blanks, one was red with white swirls, one was black with silver swirls, but as she turned it down, the black also had red in it, that matched the red from the top part (more luck than planning really), so it looks really good together. The photos don't do it justice, in the sunlight is looks great.

And she wasn't stopping there, the question was 'OK, what can I do next, whats got tubes in it?'. I had drilled and tubed a Dymond wood blank for my daugther to try, too late, it was on the lathe and shavings going in all directions. (My daughter commented it reminded her of the termites in action on the 'V' ad on TV). So, like the last, sanded it and then finished it with my new as yet unopened bottle of Shellawax Glow which I had just bought to try for the first time that weekend.

What next she asked. The reply, let me introduce you to your two new best friends, the drill press and the glue. So I showed her how to drill and prepare the blanks. I spent the next hour or so drilling and tubing blanks, replacing the Dymond wood for my daughter to try.

As it turned out, I spent most of the weekend finishing off a bench to sit the lathe on permanently. Between my daughter and my wife I had get them to take it turns.

I didn't get close enough to the lathe to turn a pen until 8.00pm on Sunday night.

This is exciting, this is the first time that my wife has shown an interest in anything like this, and she is definitely hooked. The great part is its now something that the whole family can do together, and it was totally unexpected. I don't think I can start to explain how much of a change that this forum has made to our family in the last few weeks.

Thank you.



Pic 1. My Wifes first pens, The bottom one is her first pen. The middle one is out of Dymond wood. The top one is another Acrylic she did on Sunday.

Pic 2. My daughters collection of 'Music' pens. From the bottom, Black Heart Sassafrass, Silky Oak, Beetwood? (We think this is what was written on it, though I have no idea if this correct, otherwise its unknown). The first three are finished with Shellawax. Camphor Laurel(just noticed what look like sanding marks in the photo, but didn't see them before, maybe the flash showed them up) and Purple Gidgee. The last two are lacquer dipped. A couple of these are for orders I think.

Pic 3. My daughters Dymond wood slimlines. The difference between the candy stripe one that my wife and daughter did, is my wifes is finished with Shellawax and my daughters is lacquer dipped. The lacquer dipping has brought out deeper colours, richer reds etc.


Thanks for looking.

-Gavin