I had 2 European pen kits waiting for some wood and I tried my hand at turning my first Burl woods.  The first project of the weekend was a blank called Teal Dyed Burl.  I’m not sure if this burl is stabilized with resin, but the dye was kind of messy.  I finished the pen…

A couple of weeks ago, I received from William Wood-Wright (www.penblanks.ca) an order of Artist Sketch Pencil kits.  These are mechanical pencils that use a 5.6mm lead in a Collet type holder.  One of the steps in making pens is to trim the rough blank in order to square the blank to the tube.  You…

Another colleague is leaving the section tomorrow and, like the pen I made for the chief, I thought that I would make  Pen and Pencil set.  Doug is an Air Force Warrant Officer and so I wanted a blue set.  Lee Valley had these Black and Blue Acrylic (Acetate) blanks.  I thought they were a…

I watched a really neat video the other night with Barbara Dill demonstrating a multi axis turning.  It is an incredible look, if a little scary.  To do this you chuck up the piece so it is quite crooked and then shave some of the piece away, then you rotate the piece and do the…

One of my staff members retired today and last night, I made him this pen.  This wood is called Bocote.  I’m not sure how you pronounce this word, but I sure like the grain.  The growth rings are quite dark and the wood is a kind of mustard colour.  I wouldn’t want a Dining Room…

Jennifer and her Mother gave me, in my stocking for Christmas, a few pen blanks, in anticipation of my new career starting.  One of the blanks was a piece of Dymondwood called Field and Stream.  It is basically a bunch of layers of wood laminated like plywood, but the layers are dyed and the blanks…

A colleague of mine, whose wife is a professional woodworker, brought me in some bits of nice wood last week.  Some Oak, and Cherry and, what I think is Walnut.  The strip of Walnut looked really nice so I turned this pen from some of that.  It was quite soft (in terms of hardwood) but…

This was a neat project because I had turned Purpleheart as one of my class pens in September.  I remember at the time being rather disappointed that it came out brown.  Well, in the months since, my “class” pen has turned quite purple (bottom of picture).  I gave the new purpleheart pen (top) to Mother…

I turned this pen from Tulipwood.  There are pinks and yellows in the wood and it was quite nice to turn.  I assume though that it had something to do with sharp tools though.  I will definitely try this wood again. So far I have only purchased Round-Top European Pen kits from Lee Valley.  Turning…