Write Away! Wooden Pens turned on a lathe.

One of the items that we make is wooden pens. They are great fun to make. From the beginning when they are blocks of wood, to their turning and the trials and tribulations of working with wood. They crack and pop and sometimes the blanks (hunks of wood)dry and distort especially those made of fruit woods like pistachio and apple. It is a whole new ball game. . This is a blank of laminated woods which gives us stripes in the end product. These on still on the mandrel (metal rod) fresh from the lathe. . Here these are the pieces drying on paper plates, we use a nail to support them vertically. Best way to dry round things. If you have noticed, I write on the plates where the pieces are in the finishing process. It really helped when we were working on a large order for the Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin. . Here is the striped pen as a result of the blank from the first picture. We also make fountain pens but that's a topic for another day. To see more, visit our Etsy Shop: Lovgren & Daughter. Nice to visit with you today!

First Finish Layer - How does it look?

Here is the sanded piece with 1 coat of thinned shellac.

The exposure (brightness) is really turned up.  In person, the void looks simply like a dark spot.  This is our goal :).

Why choose shellac for the first finish coats?  That's easy.  It adds to the depth of the color of the finish layers.  Layers?  Why Layers?  Funny you should ask.  Layers are the part of the finish that 1) protects the wood from the environment 2) Enhances the color of the piece. 3) Increases the light that is bounced along the surface of the piece which enhances the color.

After the shellac comes the Poly finish.  Poly being the hardest and durable finish there is.  But poly can yellow after 50 years.  So it's a trade off.  In a Chair poly would keep everything very nicely.  Realistically  will you have your pen?  I hope so.  I believe in keeping things.  Passing them along for your children to sort out.  So, questions? Comments? Snarky rhetoric?  Let me know in comments.  Thanks Kristin

Here is the actual blank we saw in http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5277249808446304421#editor/target=post;postID=2348605354702953844

Turned and Finished in Letter Opener form. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LovgrenandDaughter

Laminates Glueing up and Yipes! Stripes!

Some of the items we make are from laminate wood.  Laminating is process in which you take several layers of thinly cut wood.  Each piece of wood is then coated with glue and compressed until the glue is dry.  We call this laminate the “bendel’s” after retailer whose signature logo is brown and white stripes.



 You can see on the end grain how the glue squishes out.  This edge is later cut off to make it square (give it a flat surface)

On the long end you can see how it will look after it is cut.

This is how it looks after finishing and assembling the pen parts.