The (old) pen process.

Last Christmas I made lots of pens for people as gifts. One client in particular asked that I take pictures of the whole process from wood to pen as the person he was giving this gift to would appreciate it more with this background. I went to the trouble of photo documenting the process for him and my wife made a neat little scrapbook for him to have to show all the steps. Well I am going to go through the process with you now (with pictures) to show how I made a pen back then. I have definitely changed things but want to document how I did it for the history books.


First things first, I cut my blank into the appropriate length and drill out the correct size hole all the way through for the brass tube to glue into(not shown).


Next I take my brass tube and use Gorilla Glue to glue the tube into the pen blank. This is done to give the wood something to stick to to add support while turning (helps prevent against pieces breaking off if you catch your tool on the wood wrong) and also is the basis for most of the insides of the kit to stick to. Most kits are a pressure fit on all the parts so the metal inside gives a good fit for these parts.


After the glue cures (I give 24 hours for gorilla glue) I take a rather imprecise barrel trimmer and use it to "square" the blank to the inside of the brass tube. What I mean by square is you want the outside of each of the long ends of the barrel to be 90 degrees to the inside of the pen so all of the metal parts sit perfectly against the wood when done. Why square is in quotes is because I really hate barrel trimmers and feel they do a poor job of getting it squared properly. I do it as a first step to get it mostly square and also to remove all of the excess material quickly.


Now for the "meat" of the job. Taking off most of the material to expose the juicy underbelly of the wood. This is my favorite part because no matter what the wood looks like on the outside (with some exceptions of course) it rarely looks the same inside, most of the time looking a lot better. First I will take and mount the wood between bushings. These are made to go inside of the brass tubes and the bigger part of the bushing outside serves as a guide to how thick you need the barrel to make the wood match up nicely with the hardware upon assembly. I then mount my wood/bushings between centers. There are different ways to turn pen barrels. I used to turn with a mandrel that was basically a long rod that held the pieces together and allowed for turning multiple barrels at a time. I have since switched to turning between my 60 degree live and dead centers. By eliminating the mandrel I lose some convenience, but am able to keep my barrels more in "round". When I was using my mandrel often times I'd finish and the barrel itself would not be the same all the way around, developing sort of an oval shape. While not noticeable on the pen itself it was drastically noticeable on the ends where the hardware lined up. Anyone who knows me knows this type of imperfection WILL NOT STAND! I made the switch and have never looked back, its a great way to add more precision to my pens. Then I am using my chisel to take the bulk of the wood off and get the tube mostly round. I will do this until I get about 1/8" over my bushing.


The reason I left 1/8" in the previous step is so I can now use my handmade squaring jigger to get these barrels as square as I can. I made this to combat the not quite squaring job the barrel trimmer gave. I use little sleeves in the brass barrel and insert them onto my mandrel and square it up using the sandpaper that is taped to the jig. I have found this increases my accuracy on my barrels a considerable amount.


Now I am making my final passes on the wood with a skew (don't use the skew as much these days) to get it down to the mandrels. I can add a shape if desired, but for the most part I really hate obese looking pens, or ones that bulge out in the center.


Now comes the sanding. I usually do a good enough job cutting that I can start with my 320 grit. I always sand on the lathe, then stop the lathe and sand in the horizontal to remove any scratches made from the rotational sanding. I will typically go up to 400 or 600 on the wood itself. I've found with my typical finish, the sanding of the wood isn't as important as the sanding of the finish.


Now for the fun stuff. I am applying my Cyanacrolate (CA) finish, which is essentially super glue. I add several thin coats, sometimes sanding inbetween if a "sealer" coat needs to be applied. And once I have a few layers on there I go straight to the micromesh pads. I start with the 3rd pad in the series and go up through the 12000 pad. This produces a very nice shine that I quite enjoy, and I believe brings out alot of color and depth in the wood without altering the natural beauty. I have other more "natural" finishes that leave your hand touching wood, which I also do on occasion depending on the wood, or the customer.


Once its done I take it to assembly. Pictured here is my 3 dollar clamp from harbor frieght that is ghetto as hell, but got the job done. I now have a proper pen assembly vise that I use and enjoy alot more than this one. But the point remains, you have to apply pressure to the hardware in the tube to get them to all line up. Depending on the kit you may have to do it in an order, this Sierra on the other hand is easy peasy.


Lastly is my final product. I'm still working on the photography to get it looking like a proper product shot, but these will do for now.