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Supplies

• Arizona Silhouette – www.ArizonaSilhouette.com – good prices on pen kits and blanks.  Closed end mandrels for baron/navigator/tycoon, cigar, and other pen kit styles.
• Penn State Industries – www.pennstateind.com – high end pen kits like the Majestic series, Olympian Elite, etc.  Be sure to check out their “starter kits” that include drill bits, bushings, and trimming sleeves for free.  Also good low end woodturning tools (Benjamin’s Best).
• Craft Supplies USA – www.woodturnerscatalog.com
• Woodturningz – www.woodturningz.com  – good prices on cigar and euro pen kits
• Penturner Products – www.penturnersproducts.com – bushings and 60 degree centers for turning pens between centers.  Eliminates the mandrel that can cause out of round pens.

Tips, Tricks, & Inspiration

• International Association of Penturners – www.penturners.org – forums and photo albums with lots of great advice and techniques plus many people that sell blanks & kits.
• Pen Makers Guild – www.penmakersguild.com  – photo galleries & a few tutorials
• Penturner’s Paradise – www.penturnersparadise.ca – another forum for learning about pen turning
• Making “Celtic Knot” pen blanks – http://content.penturners.org/articles/2007/celticknot.pdf
• Use aluminum roof flashing (from Lowes or Home Depot) and sheet brass from hobby shops for cool inlays in straight lines, criss-cross, or curves for different effects.  Make sure you match the saw kerf to your inlay thickness.
• Mother of Pearl & Abalone shells can be purchased in round sizes (I like the 4mm) and used for inlays.
• Try making blanks by mixing cut offs from other pens and gluing them up with ca or epoxy.   Mixing wood, acrylic, and TruStone can make some really cool pens!

CA Finish

• Sand to 600 and then clean with denatured alcohol (optional, but really needed for oily woods like Cocobolo)
• Use a paper towel (I use the white shop towels from Lowes) and put a bit of medium CA glue and wipe on to the spinning blank quickly (just one or two swipes)
• Give it a quick shot of accelerator.  I think the aerosol type of accelerator works best.
• Repeat 7 – 10 times
• Using Micromesh, wet sand through all the pads
• Finish with some plastic polish and / or Renaissance Wax

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When we create a new fountain pen we see it as a one of a kind work of art.  And it is, however your potential customer will cruise right by unless you can provide them that one of a kind art piece that actually writes well.

With the poor writing quality fountain pen nibs in many Chinese made pen kits it is very important to know how to accurately tune a nib.

Materials

• Loupe (10x or 20x will work perfectly)
• Bottled fountain pen ink
• Writing paper
• Brown paper lunch bag

Process

1.  Dissemble the section by gently pulling the nib and feed (the black piece below the nib) from the section body.  In some pens, the section is covered by a metal sleeve that can be twisted off if needed.
2. Inspect the nib with the loupe.  Correct any of the following issues you may see in the nib:
   1. Miss aligned tines: Ensure the tines are in alignment so that they are flat when presented to the paper.
   2. Slit width: Ensure that the slit that runs from the breather hole to the tip is not pressed completely closed or is spread open wide enough that you can insert a piece of paper.  The slit should fade from the widest width at the breather hole down to the tines just touching at the tip.
3. Re assemble the section by aligning the feed under the nib with the thin flat end of the feed positioned just behind the tip of the nib (make sure it is far enough back you cannot see the feed from the top of the nib.  Insert the nested nib & feed into the section.  The section has a key so it can only go back in to the section in one spot.
4. Using the loupe ensure that the breather hole is positioned over the groove in the feed.
5. Dip the nib in ink and try writing on the paper.  How does it feel?  Still a bit scratchy?  Is the ink flowing nicely?
6. If it is still scratchy, grab the brown paper bag and write do 30-40 figure eights onto the paper, re-inking as nessisary.  Try writing again and repeat until the pen floats across the paper.
7. If the ink is not flowing, ensure the groove in the feed is positioned under the slit and breather hole.  You also may need to adjust the amount of space between the tines.

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Fern Green elastic Crushed V… MagpiesShop $23	Personalized Initial Jewelry… WoodenNickelsJ… $35	Rustic herbal heart sachet r… HandyHappyHear… $7.5
Romantic Couple – Boutique V… RosiesVintageP… $10	Original Poetry Framed Print… idestudiet $48.95	Rustic Gold Leaf Wood Ampers… EdiesLab $7
LOVE monochrome black and wh… madebyaiza $9	Vintage Clock – art print , … 99heads $18	small semi-coiled pinch pot … PendulousBotan… $17
Original soft pastel drawing… hanikj $280	First Anniversary Gift – Per… PaperMemoirs $65	Box Elder Burl Fountain Pen … norskwoodshop $95
Rare 1920s first edition chi… LunchLadyVinta… $245	French Vintage Rubber Stamps… VictoriasAttic… $16	Polar bear bookmark. Bear pa… MyBookmark $25
Simply Romantic Rosebud Dres… wearlovenow $54.99

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

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I worked in the woodturning booth in the fine arts building.  The fair lets the turning clubs setup a small lathe so that fair goers can see what wonderful creations turners can make with a scrap of wood and a bit of imagination.  I turned 6 pens and a few finials for that I will use in my sea urchin ornaments for next year.

I talked to close to a hundred people (many more walked by with a smile but were too shy to stop and get a closer look).  I talked to an older gentlemen, a Vietnam War Veteran (thank you for your service sir!), who had been turning for years but just did not have the skill or drive to move up from the simple slimline pens and weed pots he had grown used to turning.  Another man just bought his first lathe last month and was so excited to meet another turner and watch (and take lots of photos) of my work.

After turning we did the normal fair thing: corn dogs, live stock, ice cream, a trip through the commercial building, more corn dogs…you get the idea!  It was a great day.

And the big bonus for the weekend was of the four items I entered into the fair this year I got a second place for the box pictured here and three honorable mentions.  Not too bad!

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The Craft Heroes are excited to announce the 20 vendors who will be part of this year’s Holizaar: Hand Made Holiday Bazaar on Saturday November 24, 2012 at The Studio@620

In no particular order they are:

The Quilting Violinist
Tortuga Tile Works
Norsk Woodshop
Art 4 Elephants
Are You A Robot
Devine Design
Eleanor Pigman
Wade Slater
Our Lady of Perpetual Pickles
M Lee Designs
Kelley Love Designs
Love Alison
Gypsy Thread Creations
Miscler
Kenbots
Zen Glass
Gingerdead / Calan Ree
Julie Dye
My Boogie Baby
The Crafty Hag / Coralette Damme

Stay tuned for details and sneak peeks prior to the show.

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This Churchill style fountain pen has been crafted with Olive wood from the city of Bethlehem in Israel. The wood has been harvested from olive trees said to be standing since the days of Christ during the yearly pruning process and sold to artisans. Writing is a dream with the medium or fine point steel German made fountain pen nib. Ink is delivered via a cartridge or converter.

Features:
- Churchill fountain pen with Platinum and black fittings
- Bethlehem Olive Wood
- Medium point semi-flex iridium tipped steel fountain pen nib
- Ues Euro style ink cartridges (ships with one) or bottled ink with the included converter
- Uses standard “Euro” sized ink cartridges
- Includes gray pen case for storage and gift presentation

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This baron style fountain pen has been handcrafted from hand poured green resin affectionately called “Wasabi Peas”. The pen is uses a cartridge / converter filling system with medium or fine point steal German made fountain pen nib.
Features:
- Baron fountain pen with gold fittings
- Handcrafted Wasabi Peas green polyester resin
- Medium point semi-flex iridium tipped steel fountain pen nib
- Ues Euro style ink cartridges (ships with one) or bottled ink with the included converter
- Uses standard “Euro” sized ink cartridges
- Includes gray pen case for storage and gift presentation

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