With this tutorial I will try to give you an overview on how I make a common “Slim-Line” pen kit. There are many tutorials available on the Web as well as videos, books and demonstrations in other medias. I would like to focus more on the preparation and assembly of the product because I think that is probably overlooked somewhat. It seems as though everyone does things a bit different than everyone else and I guess I am no exception to that. I hope you find something that I do when I make a pen to be of value to you.

These are most of the tools that I use when making a pen. I have my sanding paddle, skew chisel, parting tool, roughing gouge, spindle gouge with fingernail grind, tube insertion tool, six inch square, clamp and thick CA glue. Of course, I have the blank and the pen kit also or I would not be making much. The blank I am going to use is a piece of Canary wood that I sliced off and saved due to the veins it had.

I probably seem like I am harping on it if you read anything else I have written but it is very important that you align your tail stock to your head stock before doing any kind of spindle work.

You will need a mandrel with the appropriate size taper for your lathe. Mine is a #2 with a replaceable shank. You will also need 7mm bushings. It is nice to have some extra bushings to use as spacers and you will find that you need them.

The first thing to do is to deal with the wood blank. As you can see, the pen kit brass tubes are approximately 2-1/4” long so two of them together would be 4-1/2”. I will mark the blank at 5” so I have some room for error.

Once the blank is cut to size, I mark the center and the length of the tubes from center. I am trying to match my grain as closely as possible so I work from the center of the blank.

To help keep me from making a mistake later, I go ahead and mark arrows on the blank to remind me of the orientation.

I now need to mark the center of the blanks for drilling. Notice the small cut in the square. This is a speed aid and allows me to find center on something square relatively quick.

The blanks are now prepared and ready for drilling.