Thread: Pen Turning Blank sizes

Hi Siegmund, I like my blanks 3/4" sq x 5.5" long, for larger pens I cut 7/8" sq x 5.5" long. Me personally, I already have a heap of Queen Ebony, beautiful stuff to use. Would like to see some pictures of the Cedar and Walnut. If it is kiln dried that would be good and all my blanks I cut are rough sawn. I wi;; wait and see what you do.
Cheers
Darren

OK oldies put those sizes into metric we have only had the metric system here since the early 70's get with it
regards Michael

Siegmund. I might be interested in some for sure. Like bdar I mainly work in the old style system allso. By the way coffenup, I thought things changed mid 60's

Hey Siegmund

I would be interested in a bit of everything and kiln dried would be awesome for me smaller kits would be 16mm x 16mm x 135mm and for the lager kits 22mm x 22mm x 135mm some pics would be awesome to

Ian

Originally Posted by coffenup

OK oldies put those sizes into metric we have only had the metric system here since the early 70's get with it
regards Michael

Hey Michael who you calling old I have to agree with Cookie48, metric came in before I was born lol. 24 x 24 x 135 for non imperial people or cut them to 150 long for closed end pens. I find imperial measurements easier to use, and with pens was the first time I had to buy a metric set of drills. I have always had imperial, letter and wire drills that covered all sizes.

Cheers
Darren

Hi Siegmund

Most timber pen blanks are cut to 20mm x 20mm x 125mm.

Blanks for the larger size pens should be 23mm x 23mm x 125mm. You will find that 20mm square will cater for about 95% of the pen kits out there.

You can leave it rough sawn because pen turner will turn and sand them down.

I don't think you need to kiln dry it. By the sounds of things their probably already sitting around as inch or 2 inch boards air-drying. Moisture content however should be below 14% for most of Australia.

Good luck with it. I always shake my head when I got to the sawmills and see the timber they have in the burn pile. Hopefully you can salvage some from it.

David

Thanks all, you wouldnt believe the amount of cubic meter wastage we go through in Port Moresby. Now that i know there is a market for this smaller stuff i can probably get about 70% recover from logs rather than 45%. Albeit i will probably have so many pen blanks (thousands) it wont be funny. But atleast they will sell 'eventually'

With the 23x23 size, if I cut 25x25 will that be troublesome for turners?

Originally Posted by siegmund

Thanks all, you wouldnt believe the amount of cubic meter wastage we go through in Port Moresby. Now that i know there is a market for this smaller stuff i can probably get about 70% recover from logs rather than 45%. Albeit i will probably have so many pen blanks (thousands) it wont be funny. But atleast they will sell 'eventually'

With the 23x23 size, if I cut 25x25 will that be troublesome for turners?

Personally if they were cut at 25x25 it would be fine, it would then cover aqll pen shapes and size
Cheers
Darren

Originally Posted by bdar

Personally if they were cut at 25x25 it would be fine, it would then cover aqll pen shapes and size
Cheers
Darren

While 25x25 will cover every size pen, you can fit more 20x20 into a box , it will work out better for postage.
I know it would be more work for you, but maybe offering 2 sizes would work out better, and cater for everyone.

Postage from PNG to Australia not an issue, we usually ship a container every few months. But maybe postage Australia wide might differ.

Ok so to finalise

to cover every pen size and what the majority of people want. What sizes should I cut in terms of length and thickness (please provide in mm as i dont usually work in 7/8 inch etcetera only really understand 1/2 inch 1 inch 1 1/2 etcetera.

Kind regards

Siegmund

Well as already posted 25x25x150 would cover almost everything.
But.... unless the timber is highly figured, or something very special, I wouldnt be making full size pens with expensive kits with it.
And then, if it is highly figured stuff, it would be a waste turning big blanks into sawdust to make smaller pens.

Maybe some photos of some of the timber would help.

cookie the money changed to decimal in 66 & i was in high school when we went metric and i was there 1971 - 1975
Regards Michael

Originally Posted by Ironwood

Well as already posted 25x25x150 would cover almost everything.
But.... unless the timber is highly figured, or something very special, I wouldnt be making full size pens with expensive kits with it.
And then, if it is highly figured stuff, it would be a waste turning big blanks into sawdust to make smaller pens.

Maybe some photos of some of the timber would help.

The timber should have nice grains, but considering the fact that im using offcut timbers of which we would normally throw away (eg boards like 200 x 50 etcetera) I will be doing a very good price. It seems that lots of 5 pen blanks go for around the 10-12 dollar mark. If thats the case I'd be selling at around 7-8 dollars for 5 + shipping maybe less if people took bulk lots of 100 blanks etcetera. I am not really sure what pen blanks sell for, but i'm willing to give it a go, ill just get one staff member to cut like 20000 blanks out of offcuts in different timber species at 25x25x150. It might take a few years to offload them but they'll eventually go, and if worst comes to worst can always give them away or sell them like 50 cents to a $1 each.

I don't think i'll be mucking around making 5 different sizes, i might be wrong but i'm guessing if I sell them cheap enough people wont mind sanding/turning them to the size they need and wasting a bit of timber.

Keep a look out over the coming months ill post some pics up as soon as I have some.

Once again, thanks for the info and I look forward to providing everyone here with some speciality timbers from PNG of which people wouldnt normally have access to.

Kind regards

Siegmund

I cant wait for the pic to come around

Ian