First Acceptable Pen

[BKind2Anmls]

Hi all,
I bought a midi-lathe about a month ago because I wanted to try wood turning (aka "The Dark Side). I thought pens would be the easiest thing to start with so I bought some kits and books. I watched a friend turn a single-wood pen and then tried it myself a couple of times on my lathe. This is the fifth pen I attempted and the first time I tried a CA finish. I'm use to doing laminations so that wasn't the difficult part. What I have the most trouble with is the shape of the pen from tip to top. Especially with laminations, it is hard for me to get a smooth curve because the laminations, being glue saturated, are much harder than the solid wood. It helped when I saturated the remaining wood with thin CA while turning but didn't eliminate the difficulty.

The wood is spalted white oak (I think) with walnut and aspen accents. I would appreciate any criticism or suggestions.

Thanks

---Susan

 

[FredP]

looks like the hard work payed off.:icon_thum nice lookin pen you got there. it gets easier each time.

fred

 

[nelsone]

Cool Susan! Jumping right in with the laminated pens! I like it!:icon_thum

 

[DaveO]

Susan, that is more than acceptable, it is excellent :eusa_clap:eusa_clap I like your laminations, and they are well balanced. The spalted White Oak is the show stopper.
Next time you might consider either doing the laminations on a more plain wood, so they will really shine, or turning the already spectacular wood without any adornments so it's not upstaged.

Dave

 

[cskipper]

I'm glad you started with something simple - NOT! You did a great job on that. I'd suggest turning some plain blanks until you are more comfortable with getting the shape you want. Cool lamination though.

 

[BKind2Anmls]

Thanks, Dave. That's an excellent point. It would be a much classier pen with either of your suggestions. I'll keep that in mind in the future. I also had trouble with the concentricity (is that a word?) of my pens until I started turning one barrel at a time. I guess my mandrel wasn't perfectly straight and it's just a lot easier for me to switch out the barrels instead of fussing with the mandrel.

 

[BKind2Anmls]

Thanks all for the compliments and thanks for the suggestion Cathy. I think I need to look at some professional pen sites and see what shapes people are creating. I'm not crazy about the look of a wasp-waist pen myself, but I see a lot of them around. Since I will be making them as gifts, I guess I better try to learn to shape them the way others like to see them.

 

[ScottM]

Susan, great looking pen. :icon_thum

 

[TracyP]

Great looking pen. It is obvious that you have quite a bit of time in that one.

 

[skeeter]

It is more than "acceptable", that's a great looking pen. Very nice laminations and the finish is awesome.

 

[Bas]

Wow Susan, that looks great. If this was the first "acceptable" pen, can I have the discards?

 

[James Davis]

Susan,

That is one beautiful pen. Wow! I am nowhere near the expert, but when I was learning I was told that if you turned one blank to finish size before the other there was a chaqnce that the unturned blank could cause the mandrel to wobble and that would lead to eccentricity problems like you describe. So maybe if you try both blanks again you may want to round them both at the samr time.

James

 

[MikeH]

Susan that is a gorgeous pen. I love the spalting and the contrast in the other woods. VERY WELL DONE!!! :icon_thum:eusa_clap:icon_thum

 

[BKind2Anmls]

Thanks all. I appreciate the compliments and gratefully accept the criticisms. Now I have to get back to the "light side" and get five antique ship display cases made!

 

[DonEve]

Wow!! And I thought my beginner slimlines were tough!! Really, really nice job! I think you have skipped "newbie" and "intermediate" and jumped to craftsman, uh, craftslady, uh craftsperson, I mean! :embaresse

Keep it up! :eusa_clap

Don :icon_thum

 

[Robert Arrowood]

I'm with Don on this one.Thats one great looking pen:icon_thum.If those will be "GIFTS" put me on your list:gar-La;.