Making Pens

Recently, I've been spending most of my shop time at my new passion - making pens. I thought I'd try this aspect of woodworking, because there's no heavy projects to move around. :-) My only previous lathe experience was way back in about 1957 in grade 7 in shop class, so I was a bit apprehensive about working with a lathe, but with some reading and practise, you learn quickly.

It requires a lathe of some sort, and a set of lathe chisels, so I got a mini-lathe on which I can do turnings up to about 12" in length.

You'll also need a decent drill press because the pen blanks have to be drilled very accurately, for the workings, "lengthwise" through the blanks.

So I got a really nice 13" drill press from Busy Bee, which is great to work with.

You also need some pen blanks which are simply pieces of wood cut to about 3/4" x 3/4" x 5 1/2". You can cut your own, or you can purchase them from many companies on the internet. But I've found the best selection and prices on eBay. The choices of beautiful pen blanks in many exotic wood varieties seems limitless there, and you can find exotic woods which are not very expensive. Including the shipping to me from wherever they come, I've found that most are usually not much more than $1.00 to $1.50 CDN funds each. Sometimes, there are real deals to be had too, and some pen blanks can cost as little as $.50CDN each including shipping costs, delivered to me in Toronto, Canada. I just got 30 Tulipwood blanks from Brazil for about $.60 each.

I'll be updating this page with a "How-To" tutorial on this subject in the next few weeks but for now, here are photos/scannings of some of the pens I've made so far. Guess what I'm giving as Christmas gifts this year? :-))

I like the look of the Montblanc style pen,
so most are of that type.

A Montblanc pen made from olive wood imported from Bethleham. I tried to use a piece which I thought might be highly figured once it was turned. Looks like I guessed correctly. ;-)

This was made as a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law who is a nun. I recently found and changed the pocket clip to a cross.

A Montblanc pen made from Ebony wood from Africa.

This Montblanc is made of Bocote wood, which is native to Central America.

This "Big Ben" style, is a larger and more impressive pen made from Bolivian Rosewood.

This Montblanc pen has a custom
"golf club" pocket clip and is,made from Chechen wood from South America.

This Montblanc pen was made for my daughter's recent birthday and was made from Cocobolo wood, native to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

This is a Montblanc pen made from a burl of the Redwood tree, native to Western North America.

This is a Slimline pen made from Canadian Maple with an upgraded centre band and treble clef music pocket clip.

This is another Slimline pen but this time, it's made from Spalted Wild Cherry which I bought from a man in Northern Ireland.

As I said above, I'll be adding more info on pen making in the weeks to come, so if you're interested in this phase of woodworking, check back here for the upcoming tutorial.

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