Pen Blanks

[lonepine]

I recentely visited an up scale woodworking store and they had blanks for pens in almost everykind of wood, starting around $4.00 up to $$$. Is this where you pen guys get your raw materials?
Bob

[William Young]

That seems like a high price for pen blanks unless they are extremely rare exotic ones.
Most of my blanks are ones I have made from wood that people have given to me.
Others I have ordered from Pens of Color (type that into google) and the prices are very reasonable.
Also, I have got some from ebay between 75¢ to $1.50.
If making your own cut them on a bias to make a nicer looking pen.
Below is a few packages that I got from ebay.
First is zebra wood cut on a 60 degree bias and second is stabilized spalted Appalation black walnut which made some real pretty pens. .
W.Y.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/WillysWoodcrafting/zebrawoodpenblanks.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/WillysWoodcrafting/b27ad750.jpg

And here are some local grown cedar ones that I stabilized under vacuum in my own shop. They were made from a board cut off that wasn't any good for much else because of knots and probably would have been burnt but I worked around them and kept the nice parts and tossed the knots. . Can't beat free for a good price :cool:

W.Y.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/WillysWoodcrafting/StabilizedCedarPenBlanks.jpg

[lonepine]

William; Yes,that store had exotic woods. I kept thinking what I could do with them other than pens...jewelery maybe, thanks for sharing, and giving me idea's.Bob

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Bob

I highly recomend reading through some of the past posts here under turning and in there you will find alot of good info about pen turning and where to get pen blanks and things to watch for. There is so much info and what happens is alot of times people answer to a question but when it is repeated not everyone replys again. It is just the nature of things. So if you only see a few answers just check back on some old posts.

There are also things to know about buying pen kits and what is need to assemble them so alot of good reading. If you still have questions please still ask away and we will get you the answers.