Anyone else into pen turning? Had a lathe for a few years, but never turned anything with it. Picked up a few pen kits today from Woodcraft and gonna turn them over the weekend.

Which kits do you like the best? Looking for suggestions for both cheaper pens as well as really high quality kits. Cost isnt an issue. Willing to pay for a nice kit.

What finishes do you prefer?

Show off your work!

[Edited on May 22, 2015 at 5:49 PM. Reason : .]

5/22/2015 5:37:37 PM

I turn pens all the time.
Mostly high school and college graduation gifts, and a few business desk sets.
My best sellers are the firearm related sets, and anything made with the coffee bean blanks.







I order everything from Pennstateind.com. or PA state industries. I've probably got 200 pen kits and 20lbs of blanks in my garage.

[Edited on May 22, 2015 at 9:33 PM. Reason : I had a bunch linked but the page refreshed and it erased them]

[Edited on May 22, 2015 at 9:40 PM. Reason : .]

5/22/2015 9:23:35 PM

5/23/2015 11:04:35 PM

Sweet! Great looking penis!

I didnt get around to turning any this past weekend like I had hoped, but maybe this week sometime.

I have a metric fuckton of scraps from beer tap handles that I make and sell, and this will be the perfect project to use those scraps/offcuts up. I have about 7 five gallon buckets full of Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba) blanks, so will practice on those before I try any others.

I picked up 5 red heart blanks for $1 each at Woodcraft. I plan on slicing one into strips so I can laminate a red stripe into the center of some of these darker brazilian cherry blanks. Should look pretty good I think.

5/27/2015 10:10:24 AM

My first time ever using a lathe. Turned a jatoba (Brazilian Cherry) pen. Sanded to 600, finished with 5 coats of Boiled Linseed oil and 2 coats of Johnson's paste wax. Not nearly as shiny a few hours later as it was when I first finished it on the lathe. I still like it though. (I personally prefer non-shiny finishes).

Picking up some Mylands Friction Polish today to see how that does. Also want to experiment with CA finishing for a super glossy/plastic feel finish.



Made a pencil to go with it.



Great projects. Take less than an hour each and I can do them 5 minutes at a time in between baby duties. I have about 1000 blanks cut from scraps I had laying around the house, and about 30 pen kits on hand. Gonna make some for Fathers day, etc.

[Edited on June 1, 2015 at 11:32 AM. Reason : .]

6/1/2015 11:27:47 AM

Looks good. I use 600-840, 00 steel wool, 0000 steel wool, then polishing compound.
I leave pens bare, lacquered, or occasionally CA.

6/1/2015 12:18:03 PM

my girlfriend got me a nice hand turned pen while we were on vacation. it's got a great weight, nice opal and wood. Only downside is that it's basic ballpoint, not roller ball or gel. I'd like to replace that but i can't seem to figure out how to get the ink cartridge out. any tips?

11/23/2015 2:48:00 PM

Most pens I've seen/made just press together. You should be able to just pull the top and bottom parts apart

11/24/2015 12:04:09 PM

large image, but here is the pen ink cartridge. There are no markings on it whatsoever. Anyone know if there is a rollerball or gel alternative that would match this size?

11/25/2015 11:01:26 AM

one of you interested in turning an old hammer handle into an ink pen for me?

2/5/2017 7:33:38 PM

How do you get started with pen turning???

2/5/2017 8:11:14 PM

i think you just get a little hobby grade lathe and buy some hardware kits

2/5/2017 8:24:49 PM

Oh awesome, challenge accepted

2/5/2017 8:30:13 PM

get good at it and i'll pay you to make me a pen

2/5/2017 8:38:15 PM

Lol deal.... a few years s in the making.

2/5/2017 8:57:45 PM

7^, 99% of all pen kits are either Cross or Parker style refills if they aren't a fountain pen.

2/6/2017 5:46:25 AM

Hey, y'all know BIC sells these at the store, right?



In all honesty, looks like an interesting hobby. Some of those above look fantastic. Problem is I'd have lake 10,000 pens lying around if I got into it

2/6/2017 9:23:42 PM