Last night I tried a few things for the first time.
A beall collet chuck. Excellent piece of kit. It isnt easy to get hold of here, nor cheap but it is very well made, and so far is an excellent addition to my lathe. If anything, I can see it being more useful than the scroll chuck to me for pens. Based on last nights use, I can whole-heartedly recommend this item.
First time using ebonite. Turned very nicely, although the bevel angle on my scrapers needs sorting because I struggled with getting them to cut. One thing that I did notice very quickly is how difficult it is to see what you are doing with black material. I don't have much material, because my American supply didn't turn up whilst I was over there and it is expensive over here. I need to order some from Germany soon, which seems to be nice lookking material, and is the same as the sample that I was using last night.
First attempt at a kitless pen section. Didnt end well, because half of the feed is stuck in the hole, and the other half is no longer in the hole. I haven't got the shape right either, but it didnt use much material and I wanted to have a go.
Mark
