Robust Lathe Review - More Woodturning

The Penturner’s Cornerby Don WardPersonal comments: My wife,daughter and I spent the ChristmasHolidays in New York City visitingour son. He is a surgery resident atNew York University Medical Center.I tell you that to tell you this:New York City is a fun place to visitbut I would not want to live there.But, since this is the Penturner’sCorner and not the Traveler’s cornerI’ll stick to pens. I really like pensand not just the ones we make. I likeall pens, especially the commercialones that I’ll never be able to afford.I subscribe to Stylus and PenWorldmagazines so I keep up with thenewest designs from the world’sbest penmakers. I saw several examplesof those pens at a pen storein New York City. The store is Joonsand they have 4 locations in Manhattanand I made two of them. Wow!What gorgeous pens. Along with theinexpensive pens that sell for under$50 I saw pens that ranged in priceall the way to $14,000 and one intheir catalog that sells for $250,000.Of course the pens themselves aren’tworth that kind of money I supposethe gold, platinum, diamonds, rubies,and sapphires that adorn themmay be. I remembered a sign in thelocal Ben Franklin 5 & dime storethat read: Nice to look at and prettyto hold; drop and break it and markit sold! So I didn’t actually handleany of them...actually they didn’toffer to let me. So, if you like pensthen I would encourage you to visita pen store...a stationary store...onyour next visit to a larger city. Mostlarger metropolitan areas have them.Do some research and find a store toPage 12 More Woodturning February 2010visit. WOW! What beautiful pens. Ihad a great time.Pen news: Penn State Industrieshas introduced some new kits.They are once again designed byDavid Broadwell (http://www.david.broadwell.com) who makesart and collectible knives and pens.These new Broadwell designs areart deco motifs. Although Davidlives less than 2 miles from me Ihave only seen them in the catalog.I don’t thinkDavid has seen the final productas of this writing. I will have afew of the new kits to try out andreview as soon as David has them.One of these new Art Deco kitsis based on the PSI Gatsby (sierra)style pen kit. The Gatsby pen hasbecome a popular kit. Other pensclose to the Gatsby in design are thesierra sold by Berea Hardwoods, thesienna sold by Craft supplies, theWall Street II sold by Woodcraft.The PSI number is for this new artdeco Gatsby style pen is #PKART5Band has a two tone plating of titaniumgold and chrome and sells for$12.95. Another is #PKART6Band is also a two tone plated kit withgold titanium and black titanium. Itis also based on the Gatsby styleand sells for $12.95.The art deco fountain penmade by David Broadwell is the$PKART3F and is available in Rhodiumand 22kt gold and is priced at$31.95. The #PKART4F is a fountainpen with black titanium and22kt gold and sells for $31.95.The art deco rollerball #PKAR-T1R is available in Rhodium and22kt gold and sells for $27.95. Theother plating combination is blacktitanium and 22kt gold and sportsthe product number #PKART2R andalso sells for $27.95.These new art deco pens fromPenn State Industries and DavidBroadwell were not available whenthis article was written but hopefullythey will be available soon.I checked the websites of thethree major suppliers of pen kitsto see what is new that I’ve notreported on previously. These threesuppliers are Berea Hardwoods,Penn State Industries and CraftSupplies. All who sell pen kits sellthe kits provided by either BereaHardwoods or Penn State Industries.Craft Supplies has no resellers oftheir kits. There are a few retailers,who import some of the same kitsas these three suppliers, but thereare not many since the minimumorder is several thousand dollars ofthe same kit. Anyway, here is whatI found at the websites of thesethree.Berea Hardwoods: Bereaseems to have several new offerings.I’m not sure how new but I’ve notlooked in a few months. One is TheCartridge Bullet Twist Pen kit whichreplicates a 30.06 rifle cartridge.This is an extremely easy kit tomake using a single tube. This kituses a Parker style ball point refillor gel refill and uses the high gradedouble twist mechanism. This kitalso comes with the premium rifleclip. Available in 24k Upgrade goldplating and in Chrome plating.The ever popular Sierra ComputerCircuit Board Ballpoint penkit is now available in an orangecircuit board along with the original[Continued on Next Page]