Pen number Seven come to life.

I have successfully made 7 pens with my Lathe and pen making setup. I have also been able to lose about 3 or 4 of them so I guess I need to get out and make a few more. I am just kidding I think they are in the drawer.

For my sixth and seventh pens I have upgraded to Cocobolo for the wood. This is a great deep dark rich wood. Cocobolo is very dense and has an almost oily feeling to it when it is being turned. I don't know if this makes sence but the wood cleanup really well with the skew and is almost finished without sanding.

My first pen. I love it.

I got a chance to finally put all my pen making stuff together and turn a wooden pen. I have been buying and waiting for my equipment so arrive in the mail, but I finally got the last piece the Barrel trimmer and I got to work. I used a piece of white oak, and a European Stain Chrome pen kit. I was able to turn it down into a nice round shape with a bulge for your fingers to hold the tip. This kit uses a turning transmission to lower the ball, so the pen twists and the pen tip comes out. I really like the thick feel of the European kit. The band with a black strip in it adds a very nice touch to the pen. I got this pen kit at the local Woodcraft store for 4 or 5 dollars and the pen blank on ebay, the cost of the pen was 6 dollars.

Wood Turners, come one come all.

Hello Fellow Wood turners, You know who you are. If you don't know what a wood turner is then, listen and learn. A Wood turner is a person who has made the plunge into taking exotic wood and turning into something beautiful and amazing. When I use the term turning it into something amazing I mean literally hooking the wood up to a fancy contraption called a Wood Lathe and spinning the wood at a very high rate of speed and cutting the wood with sharp tools into a bowl, a pen, a toy, a goblet, a plate, or just about anything else that is round.

The art, the hobby, the obsession, the fascination, and the interest in serious wood turning just started for me. I can blame it completely on a friend at work. He has been turning for a couple of years and the more he talked about this hobby the more interested I was. I remembered how I turned a little bowl in high school shop and how much fun it was. I still have that bowl on my desk at work. So a few weeks ago I stumbled on a deal to buy a large and very old wood lathe from the local papers classified adds. Little did I know what I was really getting into, meaning the tools and the skills needed to really turn wood successfully. I will try to chronicle the journey here, as I follow all the step of beginner novice turner into full blown professional.