Thread: Rip penturners here

Are you lamenting the drift away from traditional forums to FB groups etc??

I think Bruce has them all busy making pens for the troops.

Pete

Yes, it’s a sad thing to see the Penturners forum dwindle away to nothing.
it used to be such a busy and vibrant forum.

Yes Peter, it is disappointing to see this lack of interest by pen turners in this specialised skill. As a wood lover, I just enjoy the finished result. Its a great way of showing skill & design, with the beauty of wood, because the most figured and rare wood are usually small in dimensions suiting pens and jewellery. Lets hope there is a resurgence soon.

Euge

In my case it is just a matter of not turning pens very often nowadays. The sales of handmade pens has dropped to almost nothing whereas it use to be quite lucrative. In my early days of penmaking the kits were almost 1/3 the price they are now and it was something new for the public to see nice handmade pens.
I find myself doing other forms of woodwork now but haven't left wwf to move on to other platforms as I enjoy the comradery here.

Yes so true. I haven't made one for ages. I didn't do the market circuit much but used to sell mainly to customers from Gov Departments/Engineering/Construction/Lawyers etc I used to deal with through my work. Now retired all those have basically dried up. Mind you I got sick of making pens anyway, I stopped counting after I hit 10,000, and that was quite a few years before I stopped. These days I only made those special one-off pens people were willing to really pay for ($200-$2500).

I think it is more that it’s hard to sell them now. Everything is online, you can’t pick something up and go ohhhhhhh online.

I, too, remember when this was a hopping place on the forum. I greatly enjoyed turning pens and looked forward to seeing what new ideas you guys were always coming up with. Here in the U.S., quality pen kits first became outrageously expensive. Then, they pretty much dried up. I still receive the PSI catalog regularly, but am not intrigued with any of their designs. I still have a handful of Statesman, Emperor, and Majestic kits gathering dust in my shop and one day will get around to using them. My CA has dried up solid in the bottle.

I'm still reasonably active on the site, however, and can usually be found over in the box making section. I learned to cut dovetails by hand and found that I get great enjoyment from making boxes. Such useful things - boxes. Perhaps I will make a box to hold all my old pen making supplies.

Good to see you still posting, Peter. I still think of Amos often.

Just ordered a new bottle of CA. When it arrives I will fire up the old lathe and see if I can remember how to do this. I'm glad that I saw this thread.