The Modern Quill: You can make pens out of wood?

I decided to start a blog so that I would have a place to tell how I got into pen making and things I've learned along the way. I'll share ideas of different materials that I am working with in creating new pens, as well as telling about the materials that I have used in the past.

I learned woodworking from my dad when I was in Jr. High School back in the late 60's. I have built many things over the years, but in January of 2006 I found out that people made pens out of exotic woods. Since I have always like nice pens, I thought this would be a great way to make some really sharp looking rollerball and fountain pens for myself.

I ordered everything I would need to get started from Penn State Industries. This included a lathe, chisels, pen kits and wood pen blanks. It took a couple weeks for everything to arrive, but it seemed like it was taking forever, since I was excited to get started.

I usually like to try and figure out how to do things on my own, but I thought it might be a good idea to actually read how to make a pen. I bought a couple books on pen making that I read looked at the DVD from Penn State. With that information I was off to a good start.

The first pens I made were called a Slimline, which have a twist mechanism to extend the Cross style refill. I used Bubinga, an exotic wood from West Africa. They turned out pretty nice, but I knew I had a long way to go before I could build a high quality pen that would last for many years.