Winestoppers, more pen commissions, and ornaments

Well, I have started to attempt winestoppers, and I am quickly realizing that it is going to be like the pens all over again - I need to obtain the relevant knowledge, and to learn all of the tricks.

First, I learned that in addition to the "starter's kit" for the winestoppers, I needed a Morse taper and a chuck. The taper goes into the headstock of the lathe (where the pen mandrel went), and the chuck is supposed to go over the taper, and stay there. The problem is that the chuck won't do that - it keeps coming off. I need to figure that out.

Meanwhile, I am back to pens for a bit. I have been commissioned for several pens by some co-workers. I am making a bloodwood click pencil, a cocobolo fountain pen, a cocobolo Classic American pen, and a bloodwood fountain pen. I also need to order some combination pen/pencils, as I have been asked to make one of those as well. I will hopefully have them all done by the time I next go into the office. I turned and sanded and polished the first three pens yesterday, but just in case the assembly of the pens does not turn out well, I wanted to enjoy how the pieces came out on the lathe. :-)

Yesterday (Saturday) was the day when I went to see a demo of the ornament making process that got me into woodturning in the first place. Of course, at the time I took that original class, I knew nothing about woodturning at all, and was not really able to remember all that much of it by the time I had the tools to do it. So, I had been waiting for this demo for a long time. This time, I took some notes and also was able to retain a lot more of what I saw and heard. I also was able to apply some of the principles that I learned to my pen-making later that day.

In addition to the bloodwood fountain pen, I am also making a couple of olivewood click pens that, if they turn out well, could be part of a holiday present.

Last night, while I was making my pens here, my wife was at a chorus event and was then at a potluck dinner with a Yankee Swap. Her gift was the cocobolo Classic American pen that I made a while ago, that came out almost orangeish. It was well received.

My wife and I have been making our holiday wish lists, and there is going to be a lot of woodturning related stuff on mine. It is a win-win situation: I might get some useful stuff to use in woodturning, and for once, I am going to be pretty easy to shop for. :-)

More places to get pen materials, and more people to receive the pens

Let's see...a lot has happened since I wrote here last. Apparently my sister's colleagues really liked the broker pens. We went to Ottawa, specifically to a place called Lee Valley, which would be the store that I would be going to if I lived up there. I spent a bit of money there on some kits and some acrylic and dyed burl blanks that I had not seen at Woodcraft.

I also received a very nice gift from my (let's see, how would this go...) sister-in-law's father-in-law. Otherwise known as my wife's sister's husband's father. He lives in Newfoundland, and I have spoken with him about woodturning in the past. He gave us a few nicely turned lidded boxes a while back. He sent me a package of four large cylinders of dry birch that were cut about 5 years ago. He has already turned them down to cylindrical, which will make things much easier for me when I decide to turn them further.

Two of the click pens that I made from the beautiful piece of cocobolo have now become gifts. Friends of our family are going to get them. Their mother wanted to pay me for them, but these are people I grew up with. No charge for them - it would not be right.

Recent Woodcraft visits have included:
1) a donation of 4 pens that I have turned. This was supposed to be participation in the Turn-a-Thon for the Troops for Veterans' Day, but I was never told (despite asking) what time it was going to happen. It turns out that it was from noon to 2 p.m. only, and we got to the store at about 4:30. So, I donated pens I had already turned, and in return I got 4 kits and 4 blanks, so it was a great deal all around.
2) Getting a new chuck to use for winestoppers. I tried using the chuck and taper combination that I had bought at Woodcraft the last time I had been there, and they did not really fit together well. So, I brought them back and got a chuck that was a better fit. I still have not figured out the whole winestopper thing, but I made my first attempt at it last night, and I may try tonight as well.
3) Returning the large block of purpleheart that I bought a while back to (possibly) make into a lamp. Although I am figuring out, slowly, what to do with purpleheart to perhaps keep it purple, I have not had enough success with it to feel that I should be working with large blocks of it. So, I returned it and got a couple of kits for Wall Street pens (along with the bushings and the drill bit for the Wall Street style). Wall Street pens are interesting - they do not use much wood, but if you get the right wood, they can look really nice. Also, two pens can be made with one normal-sized pen blank.

I will total up the budgetary stuff later. Time to go give the winestopper another shot. At least with these, you do not have to worry about gluing tubes and such.

Just as I thought to try something other than pens...

Last week I decided to spend my gift certificate and use the "$15 off of $50" coupon, so I went to Woodcraft with the idea of getting the starter kit for winestoppers. Winestoppers start as a cube of wood, and are used to close up wine bottles that have been opened but not finished. They do not use a mandrel, and are not therefore done by spindle turning, so I thought that they might provide a bridge between the world of pens and the world of more "freehand" work such as bowls.

And lamps. Not mentioned thus far in this space is the fact that we are redecorating some of the rooms of our house (slowly). While we were discussing lighting, my wife asked me if I could turn a lamp. I had never thought about doing it, but it seemed like something that would be doable. We spoke to one of the woodturning wizards (Chris, the one who taught us in the bowl class), and he said that he had turned several lamps and that it was (relatively) simple to do.

So, I picked up a couple of practice pieces to try to make into lamps. One of the main issues is how to drill the hole for the cord through the lamp when you do not have a drill press that goes all the way through. I have been reading up on ways to do this, and it is a bit daunting, but very interesting too.

So, I came back with the starter kit for the winestoppers, and some wood to use for winestopper blanks, and some wood to use for practicing the whole lamp thing...and suddenly my sister says to me that she wants me to make several Broker-style pens for members of her team at work. This would involve 10 or 11 pens, so I ordered 15 kits (ever the optimist, I assume that 3-4 of my attempts will be wrecked somehow) from Craft Supplies USA, and they should get here in a few days. After they get here, I will concentrate mainly on the pens until they are done.

THEN I might be able to start on the winestoppers and/or lamps. At which point we'll see some more pictures here, I am pretty sure.

I did finally make a good Classic American pen out of Tulipwood, so I feel a bit better.

Budgetary considerations: Woodcraft - $63.27 ($138.78 total), of which $23.27 ($78.78 total) was out of pocket.
Online ordering of kits: $116.35
Now, I will get back $10 for each pen that I attempt for my sister's team, so that will not be all out of pocket either. So, I will not count that among the Woodcraft expenses. I'll just make a note of it.