Pen Videos

If you would like to see an overview of the steps that we use in making our wooden pens, feel free to look at our videos. Each one shows a brief overview of how the individual steps are applied when making a wooden pen. The videos show a walnut wood pen being made with a friction finish, so some steps are not included which would apply to a pen being made with a high loss finish, or acrylic pen. Enjoy.

Preparing the Wooden Blank (Step 1)

One of the first steps in creating a custom handcrafted wooden pen is to select the wood and cut the 'blank' to length.

Drilling the Wooden Blanks (Step 2)

The walnut wood blank is now mounted on a lathe and the center of the blank is drilled out to accomodate a metal insert.

Inserting the Metal Tubes (Step 3)

Glue or epoxy is used to secure the metal tube in the wood blank. The metal must be roughed up with sand paper prior to gluing.

Cleaning Up Inserts (Step 4)

After inserting the metal tubes, you must clean up the inside of the tubes to remove any adhesive residue.

Squaring Up the Wooden Blanks (Step 5)

After the tubes have been secured, the ends of the blanks need to be made square to the tubes. This can be done either with a drill or via a sanding stations.

Assembling the Pen on the Mandrel (Step 6)

Once the tubes are inserted into the wooden blanks, the pen must be assembled on a mandrel prior to mounting on the lathe.

Rough Shaping Pen Blank (Step 7)

The pen blanks (mounted on the mandrel) can now be turned to their rough shape on the lathe.

Turning the Designer Pen Tenon (Step 8)

The Designer pens have a wooden tenon that need to be turned to a smaller diameter that the center band will slip over.

Final Shaping of the Pen (Step 9)

The final shaping of the pen is performed with a skew. Care must be taken to ensure that the diameter of the pen matches the diameter of the bushings.

Sanding the Pen through Successive Grits (Step 10)

Once the final shape has been completed, the pen must then be sanded through a series of progressive grits. Typically, this means sanding with grits 180, 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1200 dry grits.

Cross Sanding the Pen (Step 11)

For each grit of sandpaper, cross sanding must be perfomed. After sanding on the lathe with a speciific grit, the lathe is stopped and then sanding with the grain is performed to help remove sanding marks.

Removing Sanding Dust (Step 12)

After each cross-sanding task and between each successively finer grit of sanding paper, you must remove the saw dust / fine dust that the sanding process generates.

Applying Sanding Sealer (Step 13)

After the dust has been removed, a sanding sealer is applied to help fill in the pores of the wood. This helps subsequent sanding easier and helps to create a very smooth finish.

Applying Finishing Paste (Step 14)

After the sanding through all the grits has been completed (180, 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1200), the final finish coats can be applied.

Applying Liquid Polish (Step 15)

The last step in finishing the pen is in applying a liquid finish polish. The polish is applied to the pen while it is not turning.

Pen Videos

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Pen Videos