Introduction: Hand Made Pens
The next important step is to determine what kind of material will be used in the next pen that will be created. Whether wood, acrylic, marble, or other materials of similar nature will be decided now. If wood is chosen, there are hundreds if not more varieties of wood, and with those come the colors, hardness, and even scents. For example, if an African Blackwood blank is used, it will be much different from an Orange Wood blank. Many different factors play into just those two woods, like the different grain patters, which of them is a hardwood, and the fact that there could be knots in the chosen blank.
Step 1: Measure and Cut
Measuring the blank and the tubes to acquire the correct size is critical. Measure the length of the tubes and then mark the pens with the desired length. Take your blank to the saw wherever you have it located. With the measured blank proceed to cut the blank to the marked out length.
Step 2: Drill Holes/Tube Placement
Now that the hole is drilled comes the initial part of when the pen will be coming together. Gluing the tube inside of the blank drilled prior, and through. It’s very helpful to take some sand paper and sand down the tube first though, as this will create grooves and crevices on the tube for the glue to better adhere to the blank. Don’t be worried about using too much glue, just make sure that there is a sufficient amount, enough to where the tube will be stuck in place. After sanding has been completed, gluing, and placing the tube and blank together let the adhesive fully dry before continuing.
Step 3: Put on Lathe
Load the parts onto the lathe, use spacers in between the blank/blanks prepared thus far. Then with a bolt, or a nut secure them in place, this will insure that there is no wiggle room once carving the blanks down has started. Once ready turn the lathe on and bring the chisel of choosing up to the arm rest and start carving away. There are different types and sizes chisels available: like wide chisels are made for taking out big chunks of material at once, while the narrower chisels create less and less of material removal. That is also how designs are created to be just how they are desired to be.
Step 4: Construction of the Pen
The last step of the process is to getting the pen to look like the finished professional grade product they were meant to be. So, that entails sanding and a good amount of it. The smooth finish that’s being looked for comes in handy here. Start off with a lot grit number so say like 100 grit, then after that jump to about a 400grit. After the 400 grit, move to an 800, or even 1,000 grit sand paper to give the pen the smoothest finish it can hope to get. Last but not least, the polish is also very important because this is where the pen gets to flash its stuff and show off someone’s skills. There are different types, and forms of polish applicable, choosing is just on personal preference and the material type. Like wood can use a block of polish, or there are also liquid polishes. After the polish has been applied, then take a clean rag and run that along the desired pieces like with the sand paper, until the polish is evenly distributed all over the work piece.
