Deciding on the Blank – Move 2 in My Pen Earning

Selecting the Blank

The 2nd action of the pen building method is to decide on the pen blanks. Given that I make pens in each timber and acrylic (resin) there are a lot of options. The purpose is to find blanks that match pen styles in a way that consumers like them. I also make polymer clay pens, but the approach is pretty distinctive.

To begin with, deciding upon timber blanks. My workshop has some timber blanks now created. They are pieces of wood about 18 mm x 18 mm by anything at all from 130 mm to 300 mm extensive. If I am generating a pen for stock, I may well choose a wide range of timber that I have not made use of before for that pen variety. My organized timber stock consists of about 100 Australian and global species of timber. I commenced making pens with neighborhood timbers this sort of as camphor laurel, silky oak, Queensland maple, pink cedar, rose mahogany and brush-box that I had on hand. I had gathered these timbers when I was in total-time do the job but had tiny time to change any things. Around the final several years, I have enhance inventory to numerous much more neighborhood and international timbers. As I use the stock, I mill modest logs with a bandsaw. Depending on the timber, the very first slash is possibly through the middle of the little log or diagonally by means of it. The relaxation of the log is then either quarter-sawn or half-sawn depending on which reducing method makes the most fascinating grain pattens. Parts of wooden about 18 mm x 18 mm square are the outcome. I label the parts that I do not use right away and retailer them.

Next, picking out acrylic blanks is considerably easier. The acrylic blanks I use are (15 mm x 15 mm x 130 mm). However, the time to get is when they are on sale or discounted with volume reductions. So I have a stock of blanks that range in selection. I have located that buyers have a vary of chosen hues, so I stock numerous resin blanks. For occasion, consumers like “Sweet crush” acrylic with streamline pens. Mainly having said that, I mix and match and see where by it potential customers.

The 2nd stage of the procedure may perhaps get a whilst, if I require to prepare blanks from smaller logs.

Nevertheless, I intention to find blanks that will finish well and go well with the pen type. Some pen makers get better “old” wooden by impregnating the wooden with resin. A task for the long run!

One particular of the issues in a wood-employees life is to resist some of the cut price temptations when shopping for timber.