Pen Blanks for Wood Turning

Wood turning has become quite popular in the last few years as a distinct sub-element of wood working in general.

Most lathe turned items are bowls, vases, spindles, chair legs and table legs and such useful items, but one popular item that almost all turners produce from time to time are wooden pens. That is, the pen barrel is turned from wood (or plastic or even deer horns,) and the pen is assembled from a kit sold for this purpose.

Not much equipment is required to begin turning pens:

You need a mandrel that fits your lathe, a 7 millimeter drill, a spindle turning tool, some sand paper, and some finishing polish, such as oil and wax.

All these items (including pen blanks for wood turning) can be purchased from a number of the wood turning tool suppliers for just a few dollars.

One such company is Penn State Industries. They also provide complete instructions on how to make pens.

Even though pen blanks for wood turning are quite small, 2” long by about 3/4” square, care should be exercised in selecting sound hard wood. The barrels will be turned down to about a 3/8” diameter.

Any of the fruit woods, apple, pear, cherry, and the hard maples, walnut and hickories will make good pen blanks.

I have turned a lot of pens from pine boards left over from an old barn that had fallen down. Pen blanks that show attractive grain or color make better choices than more drab and plain wood. It should also be emphasized that the wood should be well seasoned and dry.

Drill a hole (7mm) through the blanks and glue in the brass tubes furnished. Note that you need two 2” blanks to make one pen. Mount the blanks on the mandrel on the lathe and turn them carefully down to near the desired diameter. Then sand while the lathe turns with successively finer grits to 600 grit. Apply the polish and let it dry.

Assemble the pen using the other parts as furnished (you can buy pencil kits too) using some kind of press or vise.

And that’s all there is to it.


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