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Nice wood pen/pencil

Joined
Jan 14, 2020
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Hi. I don't turn pens and pencils as I find them a bit, idk, no offense, but simple, that and that I find it hard to really get much character out of the wood when it's so small.. But what I like to turn and what is demanded of me rarely meet! Not true, I just wanted to say that.
In any case, my brother wants a nice mechanical pencil. I was hoping for some advice on the following,
1) I presume/hope not all pencil kits are created equal. Can someone recommend a nice high quality kit?
2) What kind of wood should I use to get a nice wood "feel". I'm not expressing this very well, but when I've done pens in the past, say I take some mesquite, I basically end up with a red pen. maybe one or two grain lines on it. I remember using some birds eye maple, but there were just little pieces of 2 maybe three birds eyes. I'd like something with a bit more "wow" to it. So any suggestions there would be great too.
Thanks!
 
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I've made only a dozen or so pens, for much the same reasons you state. The only pencil I've made was a slimline pen/pencil set, and I would call that kit adequate. Too slim for my tastes in a writing utensil.

IMO for a flashy looking pencil, you need to either get a burl (stabilized adds lots of interesting colors), or go to some exotics. One of the best I've made was from some goncalo alves. Need to look for something that has lots of color variation/ stripes in very small space. Other alternative is going for solid color woods in unusual colors. Of course, color fading over time is an issue for some woods.

Here are some pens i made for gifts this year. Left to right is Kingwood, olive, purple heart, mesquite, walnut and rosewood. The only one that is at all flashy is the olive.

pens Christmas 2020.jpeg
 
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odie

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@Raif Harik

I only do one thing, bowls......never made a pen/pencil in my life.....

But, I think I know what you're looking for. (Hmmm, maybe not!)

Suggestions:

Zebrawood

Bocote

Any nicely spalted wood without major rot

Many burls might be good

Mostly you'll just have to pick out some individual pieces. Just about any wood might have individual pieces that would be exceptional in a pen.

-----odie-----
 

odie

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s-l225.webp

How about Italian colorply?
1761 italia colorply (18).JPG
There are many different color combinations of colorply, run a search on eBay for "colorply"......

-----odie-----
 
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Minneapolis, MN
When I was making these over 20 years ago, if I was using a straight grain piece of wood that at least had nice color characteristics, I would cut the blanks off the larger board with the rip cuts right about 5 degrees off the parallel of the straight grain. This resulted in pleasing looking swooping grain patterns. Then I would carefully arrange the grain patterns when installing the metal fittings onto the turned tubes. The species didn't matter too much as long as it was dry hardwood with pleasing grain coloring/shading. Even black walnut that drifts from dark heartwood into light sapwood can look nice following that same slight angle cut from above.

And 20+ years ago, there were no decent pencil kits, they were all stinkers, in particular the lead delivery mechanism. And the hole through the writing tip was just a hair larger than the lead size and the lead would break easily. The slim 7mm tube pencils were average at best, but any of the fat ones were junk. I am clueless about the current generation of pencil mechanisms. At that time it was better to just go buy a nice $5 Pentel mechanical pencil.
 
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Windermere, British Columbia
Hi. I don't turn pens and pencils as I find them a bit, idk, no offense, but simple, that and that I find it hard to really get much character out of the wood when it's so small.. But what I like to turn and what is demanded of me rarely meet! Not true, I just wanted to say that.
In any case, my brother wants a nice mechanical pencil. I was hoping for some advice on the following,
1) I presume/hope not all pencil kits are created equal. Can someone recommend a nice high quality kit?
2) What kind of wood should I use to get a nice wood "feel". I'm not expressing this very well, but when I've done pens in the past, say I take some mesquite, I basically end up with a red pen. maybe one or two grain lines on it. I remember using some birds eye maple, but there were just little pieces of 2 maybe three birds eyes. I'd like something with a bit more "wow" to it. So any suggestions there would be great too.
Thanks!
Yellow cedar Burl. Killer Burl fiqure all over pen if you get the right piece.
6ADB7848-8047-452E-849E-765B948A4D7F.jpeg
 
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Joined
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The best pencil kit is not a kit at all. Buy a Pentel mechanical pencil and use the guts from it. It takes some step drilling, but lots of instructions on the internet. You can't buy better quality than Pentel. Wood choice is a personal choice to what looks good. DO NOT use a friction polish. It won't last a year with heavy use. Of course that last sentence will be disputed, and anecdotal stories of the years of use someone else has, but friction finish pens were the only ones ever returned to me to repair.
 
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Great advice y'all. Thank you. I was worried that all pencil kits would be crap. And it sounds like they are. But the pentel solution also sounds very promising. As for wood choice, these are great suggestions as well.
Thanks for the help
 
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You can do the same with a BIC ball point pen, take the insert of the pen and use that for an insert for a wood turned body, all you need is one long drill bit big enough
to provide clearance for the ink tube, a second drill bit drills the step for the ball point head to seat firmly in the wood body.
 
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These are all cool ideas. I just realized/remembered I don't even have a drill press! Uggghhh. I'm going to have to buy a tool to make something I don't even like making! Fine, everyone gets mechanical pencils for Christmas!!! Even the dog!
 
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You do not need a drill press, use your lathe with a drill chuck in tailstock. As to wood blank, there are some really nice blanks with wood embedded in resin that are really striking. Otherwise, if you want wood and not man made materials, burl wood is great. I do not make a lot of pens, but have used cocobola and it great even though grain does not show up on cothat much, but has a rich color. I have used friction finishes on pens which have held up well over the years, but depends on wood and finish type. Some exotics don’t like some finishes. Good luck with pen/pencil kits. If you find a really good one let us know
 
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A drill chuck and arbor that matches your lathes tailstock quill Morse Taper is a good accessory for drilling precise centered holes in your work piece.
This (1) accessory opens up the potential for turning many projects that require internal openings in turned pieces. (Pepper Grinders, Game Calls, Boxes, Ornaments, Etc. Etc.)
Once you remove the work piece from the lathe and drill a hole with a hand drill or drill press you increase the potential for off center holes.
A Drill Chuck for the lathe is one of your best investments for lathe turning wood, polymers and metals.
 
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Just want to point out that an acrylic or other plastic will “feel” the same as wood encased in plastic finish (which is what it takes if you want it to last). I mention it because there are a lot of multi colored different design pen blanks available. Lots of color ply as well, as Odie mentioned.I readily agree they may feel the same as wood but dont look the same. The advantage is much easier to finish and no stabilizing etc like a lot of wild grain wood requires.
 

hockenbery

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In any case, my brother wants a nice mechanical pencil.
2) What kind of wood should I use to get a nice wood "feel".

when I get a similar request, I consider making the pencil from something that has meaning to the recipient.
You may have wood that has meaning to the family. Or there may be a species that would have meaning. Ebony for a piano player teak for a sailor......

there may be none that come to mind

The acrylics offer the ability to mold photos or small meaningful objects into the pencil barrel

a freind used his grandson’s first baseball card ( currently in the minor leagues)
He glued parts from the card around the tube and molded clear acrylic around it.
I think he took a photo and resized it. So face, year, team name from the card captured inside the pen.
He made 4-5 nearly identical pens for family members that had his Grandson’s photo.
 
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Making pens is right up my alley and have made many over the years and love doing segmented ones and also making arylic ones. I like to make my own blanks. I believe that some of the best looking woods are burls. Mother Nature does most of the work and all we do is spin thin and add components. I am a big fan of using CA as the finish of choice because it stands the test of time. It can be tricky to apply but after a few you develop your own methods. You can cut back on the shine to give it that wood feel and look at any time.

As far as pencils go, yes Pentel guts are the way to go. https://www.pentel.com/collections/pencils/products/sharp-mechanical-drafting-pencil

A couple examples of my work.

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