5 Pens and Display Stand

[arcos]

Well, I finished my first 5 pens and knocked up a quick 'display' stand from a chunk of olive laying in the barn.

Overall I am pretty pleased with the way the pens have turned out (could have been worse!).

I will definitely be making some more of these as they are pretty easy to do and good fun to mess around with the shape or the barrels.

Will definitely invest in a barrel trimmer. Tedious job trimming by hand and then sanding!

Wood used from left to right... Maple(?), Olive, Walnut(?), Oak, Acacia.

[woodndesign]

Well Arcos, 

Another string to your bow and grems of hot cakes, nice little sellers there, only thing that I've noticed an am sure a Pen Turner would comment on.. is mark the blank before you cut it in half, in order to keep grain alignment throughout the process ..  your safe as it is it's only other turners who spot these things..  ..  ... Very ingenious stand there.

Cheers  David

[Jim]

Nice lookin pens Arcos, well done. 

David is bang on with his comments, using the grain to match makes the pen just that little smarter looking. 

Another tip is to remove any debris stuck to the bottom of your tubes after you have put your finish on to it, this will help reduce the gap between the center band and the barrels. 

[arcos]

Hi David

Thanks for your comments.

I did actually mark the blank before turning and took care in 'building' them with the blanks as marked. To be fair it may be that the grain needs matching up BUT I can't really see the grain, if that makes sense? None of the pens re that highly figured with grain that I can see at least. I will certainly look at them this morning and see if I can align the grain.

Thanks Jim, great tip... I did find on one of the pens some "debris" that required my having to take the pen apart and clean the joint.

Really enjoyed making these and will be working to perfect them!!