Before anyone says anything yes I know Zen is not spelled like that, Xen is the alien world in the computer game Half Life, yes I am a geek. Apologies if I get technical this week, I have some diagrams and photos of things too along with the usual pen images of what I am working on. * pen making Last weeks pens I managed … Continue reading Weekly update: Year 3 week 12: Xen and the art of lathe maintenance

* Pen making I had big plans today, I really did. Those plans however had a brief meeting with actual work and therefore those plans immediately fell apart like a tower of feathers in a hurricane. The plan I had was this, I was going to go down into the workshop around 10 ish and I was going to start work on shaping a pen … Continue reading Weekly update: Year 3 week 10: Baetylus and more

* Pen making Clips, I am not really a fan of fitting them, they are a bit of a pain if I am honest. The basic steps in fitting them are as follows: * drill a hole all the way through the cap and tap both ends to create the threads for the finials tenon and the normal cap threads. * put the cap in … Continue reading Weekly update: Year 3 week 10: Dupras and sleeves

* Pen making Going to jump straight into the pen making stuff this week there will be some discussion on blank making and some other things a bit later on, but I know you are mainly here for this. I have tried a few things and done an amazing rescue. So, what is new that I have done? Well I have had a commission to … Continue reading Weekly update: Year 3 week 09: Rescues

* Pen Making So I think I touched on this last week or maybe a little before and that is metal work. I started off using brass. This is a quite soft metal and it is something that its easy to work with on the lathe and I can get to a nice high shine using the equipment I have. I have wanted a silver … Continue reading Weekly update: Year 3 week 8: Heavy Metal