The Renaissance Woodworker

In the last year I have started to see some stunning in lay work coming of the lathes of craftsmen around the world. In particular there have been some amazing inlaid pens with all manner of images and exotic woods put together in an intarsia like approach and then turned round and used as a [...]

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As many of you know I have been churning out acrylic pens for the past few months for my wife’s school. I have made no secret of the fact that although I like the finished product, I do not like the turning of acrylic. The smell and the hardness of acrylic make for a less [...]

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Technically, according to olympic rules (wouldn’t it be cool to have a woodworking olympics! Tangent thought for another time) the minute you sell some of your work, you are no longer an amateur and have moved into the realm of professional. So with that in mind, I guess I can’t call myself an amateur woodworker. [...]

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This week’s episode is sponsored by Penn State Industries. I turn the new Bullet Cartridge pen and give a complete kit away at the end of the show. Also I turn this pen from acrylic and discuss how to work with this material. Finally PSI was kind enough to send two bottles of Plastics Polish [...]

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First of all if you don’t know what Lumberjocks is then stop reading this and immediately click on the link and sign up to be a member on this Facebook for woodworkers site. This is an amazing community full to inspiration and comraderie and a great addition to any woodworker’s toolbox. OK that said, the [...]

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The long awaited pen giveaway sponsored by Penn State Industries has arrived. Come along and watch me make this beautiful high end pen kit. To make your own go to www.pennstateind.com and get your Majestic Jr. kit. You will also need 10.5 mm drill bit 12.5 mm drill bit 3/4 x 3/4 x 5 pen [...]

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Today I started filming for the giveaway episode of this above Majestic Jr. pen kit. This pen is similar to Jr. Gentleman or Jr. Statesman pen that Craft Supplies offers, but I am really pleased with the lines and details on this particular kit. This is the first Majestic Jr. that I have turned and [...]

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I got an email the other day from Todd O up in Minnesota. Todd took up the challenge of my audience participation turning project put forth in episode 9 and made his very own Euro Screw Cap pen. Shannon, I finally was able to turn my pen (pictures attached). I made it out of ebony, [...]

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Ok folks, here is the long promised video of our first audience participation turning project. I pulled out all the stops on this one and chose one of my cream of the crop blanks in my stash. This is also my first attempt as compiling a complete video. I had a lot of fun making [...]

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This week we will start the first in a series of audience participation turning projects. The pen you see above is an example of the project we tackle this week. Today’s podcast discusses what you will need as well as the basic process to create this beautiful pen. Throughout the week I will release additional [...]

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