How To Pick The Perfect Pen Kit

hi welcome to version woodcraft and today we're going to talk about pen turning the first thing I started doing on the lathe was turning pens and they turned out to be fantastic gifts and there are countless videos on YouTube on how to turn the pen and there's nothing I can add to that but what I found overwhelming was all the selection of pen kits there were so many different kinds offered by so many different manufacturers and so many of them are so similar that you find yourself getting dizzy trying to figure out which ones to do and they're very expensive to get started with a kit so I thought it might be helpful to give you a little tour some of my favorite pen kits and some of the ones I liked the least okay the thigh pens we're going to look at today are the slimline the Monet the cigar the junior gentleman's and the fountain pen this is a slim line if you took a class in pen turning if you bought a pen turning starter kit or anything like that it's always going to give you this slim line it is in my opinion the most unforgiving and difficult pen there is to turn I suspect people start with it because it's cheap the starter kits can be as little as a buck fifty and as much as maybe six dollars so it's a very inexpensive way to introduce yourself to pen turning but as I say it's a very difficult pen I'm now going to go over the kit and why is so hard the slimline pen is basically going to be two seven millimeter tubes a little tip I think these are called the pistons and there are two different types of Clips you'll find there's the euro style that gives you this a little dome which I think is more attractive or the regular clip but makes these pens so difficult to make is this part right here when you hold the pen your hand is going to sit right there on that edge right where the metal and the wood joined that's going to be the natural position if when you turn this pen you are even as Smith it's too big on the wood you're going to have this rough edge of the wood against your finger if you're a smidge too small you're going to have the rough edge of the metal against your finger you have to get it exactly right or it will not feel comfortable so with that understanding go for it enjoy it make this pen as long as you're going to go for it it's such a simple pen you can start having fun with different designs maybe some fun inlays this is a euro style here's one that I made a long time ago just trying to have fun with what would ultimately be a rather simple pen but again these edges right here have to be perfect or the user will not be happy the cigar pen was my second pen I started making and it was my favorite for a long long time first of all when you're all done you have a pen that you can feel in your hand it's got a nice girth nice weight a little bit of heft to it it is a full metal tip where your hand is not going to be at the seam you of course always want this seems to be as perfect as possible but it will not disturb the user if it's off by a smidge the hardware is very nice and it comes in all different colors the next one I want to talk about is the pen that there is the most from company to company wood in whimsy calls it the Monet pen state calls it the Gatsby woodcraft calls it the wallstreet to pen and there are many many other names there's also the Sierra which is another version and they're all very similar they might have slightly different tube sizes and require slightly different bushings but there are really beautiful panda built men and women like it has a full metal shaft there so you really don't have to worry about it being perfect I would say this is the most forgiving pen to build and because it is such a small part of wood your average would blank will support two pens which is a nice savings now there are two fundamental differences in these brands there are ones that twist in the middle here to extend the pen and the row ones that twist on the top to extend the pen this may seem like a minor difference I feel it's a significant I like the ones that turn in the middle I think it's more comfortable it's easier you can sit there with one hand and turn it turn it like this whereas the ones on the top seem to be just a little bit more awkward to retract the pen the next time we're going to talk about is the gentleman's to pen from wood Turner's catalog this is one of the more reasonable price to piece pens what I would refer to as a presentation pen and it really is a beautiful pen you can get them in the fountain tips this is the retro which is a little more expensive it's got the little bit more embellishments on it here's another retro in rhodium that was one of the most expensive kits I buy it's a whopping $27 and here's the gold these are very simple pens to turn and people are always very very impressed to receive them and obviously you get to have a lot more fun when you have this much wood to work with get to do more complicated inlays in this situation the last pen we're going to talk about is the executive fountain pen which I purchase from wooden whimsy but I believe they are reselling it from Penn State because Ava they're similar pen there are two models one that has a little bit more embellished center ring this pen right here for example is one of the first pens this style I turned 7 years ago and despite everything else I've done this is the pen I choose to use every single day this is the pen that I panic most when I don't have compared to many of the other pens it's a little bit longer it's a little bit thinner and unlike other pens that have to have this screw top in order to post the cap this one takes a little bit more skill but the cap simply tapers to fit in like a more traditional store-bought pen I'm a fan of the fountain pen once you start writing with a fountain pen every day it's hard to go back and it really just feels very comfortable in the hand both with or without the cap now since this has this tapered design it has a tapered barrel which requires you to buy a special tapered bit I don't know if you can see in the camera that it's got notches that will match the notches in here it obviously is a takes a lot more time and practice to get the holes drilled exactly the way you want them to get the ends done just the way you want them and to taper it just the right way so that the cap actually fits on comfortably not too far and not too little but I think it's a very rewarding pen and it makes a wonderful gift kind of looks like the Mont Blanc or maybe I'm just fooling myself all righty then that's a quick and easy video for a Thanksgiving Day gotta wrap things up and go inside and carve a turkey I really thank you for coming by and checking out my video don't forget to go to my website screwing with craft calm and I hope to see you again thanks

Channel: Phil Gershwin

Views: 73,173

Rating: 4.8207111 out of 5

Keywords: how to pick the perfect pen kit, How-to (Media Genre), pen, pen kits, pens, pen turning, how to make a pen, slimline, cigar, cigar pen, junior gentlemens, fountain pen, fountain pen kits, philip gerswhin, gershwinwoodcraft

Id: JOggcuQwNAI

Length: 8min 16sec (496 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 04 2013