Here’s a 20-minute video of the entire pen-making process — everything from selecting the wood to preparing the blanks, through to turning the pen on the lathe, finishing it to a shine, and assembling it. Virtually none of the process has been left out of this video, so it should give you a good idea of what’s involved in the process.
There’s a scene index after the video on this page.
In the video I’m working on three different pens, but I’ve edited out the work I did on the other two pens. Here’s a picture of the pen featured in the video. I traded with a friend for some custom artwork. 🙂
- 00:03 Setup and preparing the blanks
- 00:57 Power on!
- 01:05 Drilling the blanks
- 02:35 Sanding and inserting brass tubes
- 03:36 Trimming the blanks
- 04:42 Mounting the blanks onto the lathe
- 05:15 Rough turning
- 07:25 Detail turning
- 08:28 Sanding and finish coat #1
- 10:41 Sanding and finish coat #2
- 11:56 Sanding and finish coat #3
- 13:24 Final sanding and coarse polish
- 15:30 Final polish
- 16:24 Removing the work from the lathe
- 16:57 Getting ready to assemble
- 17:30 Assembly