I think pens are great skew practice. Mind you I am not really a pen turner.
I think I did about three hundred last year? Give or take 25 anyway. Most of
those are one time orders for 50 or more pens. The trick is keeping up the
interest when people want 50 to 100 of the same pen. The first 3 or 4 are
fun, the next 20 are ok, and the last ones are work. the trick is to leave
time for a bowl or a hollow form every 25 or so pens. None of this last
minute stuff. :-)

--
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS
http://aroundthewoods.com
http://roundopinions.blogspot.com

"mac davis" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 09 Aug 2007 22:51:40 -0500, "Henry St.Pierre"
wrote:

Hi all,
This afternoon I turned my first ten pens. Six were turned from tulip and
the others from spalted maple. They came out pretty damn snazzy (if I may
be permitted to say so). I never expected nor desired to turn pens. I
don't
have anything against pens or pen turners, but I was never interested in
turning them.
A short while ago I bought another lathe (15" Craftsman w/electronic speed
control) to keep company with my Jet mini. The man I bought the lathe from
included everything one would ever need to turn pens (presses, trimmers,
mandrels, bushings, etc.) along with many, many, other turning tools
(someday I will list them). So with all this pen turning stuff, I ordered
10 pen kits from the guy in Arizona to practice with. Well, it didn't take
much practice to turn all ten pens. It took about three or so hours to
complete them and, I must admit, I enjoyed it. The next ten will probably
go a bit faster.
The turning wasn't very challenging, but it was lot of fun and very
relaxing. Don't know what to do with the pens though.

Hank

Hank.. turn another couple of dozen, then go back to your normal turning
for a
bit..

If you're like most, you'll find that the time spent turning pens has
improved
your general turning quite a bit..
For me, it was a new awareness of tool sharpness and cutting angle, light
touch,
sanding, etc... and I was amazed how much it improved my bowl turning..
YMWV


mac

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