What is the best wood for turning pens?

[hobbymad]

Lots of options - I find stabilized woods to be better for pen making and also they finish well.

 

[Pierre]

I use a cheap pillar drill with an engineer's drill vice and a square hand held on the vice for all my 7mm - 10mm after that the lathe. Draw a cross diagonally on the end from corner to corner to get the centre then tap a nail into the centre so the drill can use it to set in. then drill slowly on the pillar drill or on the lather 900 rpm should do and as you get to the end push in slower to avoid breakout. Don't drill first then turn the blank around you will never hit dead on. Unless you are drilling for a Celtic knot or some other precise line on the pen blank it doesn't matter whether the hole is dead straight down the middle. I make many pens out of grape vine trunks all wobbly and hand held drilled, so long as the hole itself is straight through and there is enough wood to turn no-one will ever know if you drilled straight in the blank.

 

[Neiljohn]

Hi all,

A quick question and please excuse me if it’s an obvious answer that I’ve missed - newbie pen turner, it’s all still a bit of a mystery.

So I’ve had issues drilling blanks and getting a satisfactory precise hole, centred etc. with my cheap pillar & drill assembly. I then decided I’d place the blanks in the lathe and drill. This provided much better results with a far more precise hole - little or no movement of the drill bit. However I wasn’t getting as near perfectly centred holes due to my placing of the blank in the chuck.

So I’m now thinking, place the blanks in the chuck, turn the last 2.5cm or so to round, place that end in the chuck, and then drill?

Is this obvious, are there any issues I’m going to encounter or should I be doing this anyway OR do I bite the bullet and invest a few hundred ££’s in a decent pillar drill? If it’s the latter are there any recommendations on that too please?

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Colin.

I use an independent 4 jaw for drilling so I can adjust the blanks position, I drove large metal cutting lathes with them for a very long time and made my own adaptor for a suitably small chuck to fit on the wood lathe.

Re your original question, wood from hobby suppliers can be expensive, off-cuts from larger suppliers are often cheaper, my last 50x50x500mm of Zebrano cost me a tenner as it was an off-cut, cut down lengthways into four ~21x21mm lengths it's good for quite a few pens. The gifted Cherry, Holly and other timbers from an old friend who cut some of it 35 years ago are great, but take a lot more prep.

 

[sisabra]

Hi Alan,
Thanks for the response and suggestions.
I purchased a pen turning with 5 tubes, ends etc. and have had a go at my first pen (picture attached). I’ve made mistakes as I’d anticipated i.e both barrels were turned by eye, I didn’t use callipers. I used my bench vice to assemble the parts, tricky & lucky to have them assembled squarely. I used a relatively cheap pillar drill assembly which didn’t give me a 100% straight & even hole - will try with a shorter drill bit & using the lathe next time - I’m not sure if that’s the answer but plenty of practice on scrap timber bits is giving me more confidence.
However I’m definitely bitten by the turning bug and the pen was great fun to create.
I’m struggling a little with finding a local club but I have found a couple of people I know that have turned wood previously so I’m asking them lots of questions too.

I have been going to my local Men In Sheds, 3 lathes plus some experienced turners willing to share their knowledge. Brought a bargain bag of blanks from Bedford Saw (they do woodturning blanks etc, very helpful people) , made so far about 15 pens for the family. Worth checking out local MIS near you.

 

[Lancelot]

Hi Colin,
Im new to the forum too today, as people said i used a old chair that was Oak for one of my first pens wood that costs you nothing is bountiful.
I had this piece of old red wood that i wanted to try out so i cut a length square as it was about 15mm thick. started sawing it on a manual miter saw and the smell was absolutely beautiful, like cinnamon or spices ?
anyway when i finished with clearing the sawdust which looked like dried blood ?? the smell was really beautiful, but my face started to burn, lips tingling as if i just rubbed vics vaporub all over my face !!!!
a cold water wash and a google of sandal wood ?? i came across the wood database https://www.wood-database.com/ and found it to be Cocobolo, a true rosewood and a very naughty but beautiful rosewood. As a new pen maker i found this site very eye opening, woods i have and still never heard of is a must for any new turner pen or otherwise i would strongly recommend you take a look at the allergies and rosewoods infract look at all woods in general you need a respirator safety specks and i use a old leather apron too.

Also someone mentioned one or two poisonous woods these you need if you have it a vacuum cleaner on as much as possible, Yew, Laburnum, tambootie and another i cant remember ALL are toxic or a direct toxin so please look them up.
Wenge, panga panga, tanga tanga all need to use thin gloves something i wouldnt do really but if you get a splinter and these three do cause it to go septic.
look on youtube and you will find loads of clips i prefer the ones just with music no talking lol as they can get annoying ;-)
sorry its a long one but do look at the wood database and use it as a reference to any new woods you come across, it also tells you about the hardness (Janka scale) which is great to know if your going to get beaten up by African blackwood or African leadwood ( two of the hardest woods i have used)

another tip, i use a morse taper drill bit in my tailstock to drill my blanks on the lathe. if you have two morse taper dead centres, put one in the headstock and one in the tailstock and bring them together !! both points should go point to point, if one is out then you need to adjust the tailstock, that could be whats causing the drill to go out of true ?? hope it makes some sense im sure others will help out too.

all the best

L

 

[CGS01]

Hello all,
Many thanks for all the responses - hobbymad, Pierre, Neiljohn, sisabra & most recently Lancelot.
Lots of interesting points, some scary ones too but all most welcome thankyou.
Grapevine trunks - that sounds interesting.
The offcuts from larger suppliers definitely makes sense.
Men in Sheds sadly was a bit disappointing. I emailed my local group as indicated on Google but I didn’t even get a response. As an aside I was put onto MIS by a fellow & his wife we met while on holiday. He raved about it. His was well attended & situated in an old chapel in a country village & apparently they spent more time drinking tea and eating chocolate hobnobs than turning wood. My local MIS was located in a local prison! Enough said.
The wood data base is something I’d not considered. I’ll check it out. Thankfully though I am set up with a vacuum arrangement and have a good quality respirator too.
Checking the headstock and tail stock for alignment again is something I’d not thought of but so obvious once it’s pointed out - that’s tomorrow’s first task.

Last question (for the moment), how do you square your pen blanks?
A jig & sanding disc?
On the lathe & sanding disc.
Trimming tool?

Again, any assistance is much appreciated.

Regards,

Colin.

 

[Lancelot]

Hi Colin,

It's all food for thought matey, trimming is the one task I don't like. I use a barrel timing tool.
Have used it in a pillar drill but it always used to burn or darken the end, which is something you don't want to do.
I started on the lathe in a chuck on the pen jaws and had the trimmer in another chuck and used that. But that's not a good way to do it too. I have thought about sanding but again I don't have a circular sander and I'd have to fabricate a jig to ensure squaring it off.

So I'm really in the same dilemma as you matey.

Will get there I the end though ;-)

Lance

 

[CGS01]

Lance,

Yes the barrel trimmer isn’t my favourite tool either.

I found this video last night, this looks useful.

This is the link to the supplier.
https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Measurement/Punches-Scribes/Transfer-Punch-Sets
Not a huge outlay in the scheme of things. I may give it a go.

Colin.

 

[Lancelot]

Hi Colin.

I like John's videos, he's a no nonsense no faf guy. Bought a few items from him Inc byron pens. Not seen that video before but it's a good one and I'm going to give it a go. I do have transfer punches and a soft arbour. Both my lathes are Morse taper 1 and I think I might have some thing for my metals lathe ?

Pm me Colin and I will make you up a pack of blanks that I love.

Thanks too as I have found your post very informative and interesting

All the best mate

Lance

 

[alan morrison]

I use a table saw sled to get up really close and finish off on a disc sander.

 

[Curly]

I have a 12"/6"x36" disc/belt sander that I use to square the ends of blanks. Since you don't have one the easiest is to make a version of Rick's offset jig over on the IAP vender forum. https://www.penturners.org/threads/ricks-custom-made-tools-pdf-catalog.180009/#post-2239176 It lets you use your lathe with faceplate mounted sandpaper and a transfer punch in the jig held in the tailstock. If buying one is too much or politically bugs you there is no reason you can't use the design as a basis for making your own. It could be made out of wood, plywood or a Corian type material (solid surface countertop) easily if you have a table saw or a router table. Mens clubs near you have the tools and perhaps there is a forum member close to you that could help you make one.

Pete

 

[CGS01]

Morning all,

Thanks to Lance, Alan & Curly for the help - always appreciated.

So ……
I’ve ordered a transfer punch set from arceurotrade and frankly they can’t arrive soon enough. Yesterday I attempted to finish a pen with a CA coating and sanding with the micro mesh pads. I was really pleased with the finish starting with the 1500 and ending with the 12000 with a final buffing of car polish. The result was spectacular - I’ve no idea what the wood was, maybe a dark oak, I’d recycled an old writing box for several blanks. I hear that wood database calling!

However, and there’s always a “however” at my stage of turning ……. I managed to crack the CA finish at both the nib end and clip. I think that I made two basic errors. Firstly I didn’t square the ends of the blanks properly after applying the CA. I did lightly sand on a flat surface but there may have still been slight protrusions of CA (hence the arrival of the transfer punch set is eagerly awaited). Also I may have applied to much pressure when assembling the pen in the press. I also applied several layers of thick CA then two or three of thin. I think I did this in the wrong order?

Anyway, it’s all a learning curve and I’m only using cheap pen kits and recycled wood, so no real issue and the experience is useful.

As always I’m happy to get others thoughts on what I’ve done and more importantly what I should have done, so if you’ve any suggestions I’m happy to hear them.

At some point, when the competence has improved I’m looking to purchasing some better quality rollerball kits, pencil kits and of course fountain pen kits, they’re the ones that really excite me.

I’ve been retired 4yrs and 4 days and really wished I’d found this hobby then not 4 months ago - it is so therapeutic (despite being slightly heavier on the wallet than anticipated ). At least the Mrs is starting to accept the “I’m just popping in the garage for an hour” and reappear 5hrs later, dusty but happy!

Regards,

Colin.