Woodturning | Bamboo Pens!

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For a long time, I've really enjoyed the look of bamboo, but I've never worked with it in any capacity. The idea occurred to me a few months back that it might look pretty cool if I used some bamboo to make pens, and this is footage of my very first attempt at that. I honestly had no idea if the material would hold up to the turning process (it was explained to me by a local bamboo dealer that bamboo tends to crack with large changes in temperature), but it fortunately came out great!

To start, I cut out individual pieces of bamboo from a stalk that was 0.75 inches in diameter. As the hollow inside was just slightly too narrow for the brass pen tubes, I had to drill them slightly larger on the lathe using the chuck I typically use to drill my normal pen blanks. Once done, I glued and inserted the brass pen tubes and let cure for 24 hours. The next day, I trued up the ends to the very edge of the brass tubes, mounted the blanks on my pen mandrel, and got to turning. As usual, I turned the pieces down to about 95% of the size I wanted for the final pen shape and then began sanding. I sanded up to 600 grit first, added a CA finish, and then wet sanded the finish up to 12000 grit. Final step was to polish with a plastic polish, and that was that! Like I said, I thought bamboo could potentially look cool if made into pens, but I truly had no idea what I'd end up with. Looking back, though, I have to say that they came out better than I could have possibly hoped for. The grain looks stunning, and the parts of the pen that include the.... "joint?"... of the bamboo add a really nice feature to the overall pen. The material was also really enjoyable to turn, and I'd definitely like to do some more of these in the future.



Key equipment/products I used:

Rikon 70-220 VSR Midi Lathe: https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/...
Pen Mandrel: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B004...
Woodstock 1/2 inch bowl gouge: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005...
Ballpoint pen kits: https://www.penblanks.ca/Budget-Strea...
Pen Blank Chuck: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07C...
Pen Press: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005...
Starbond Thin Cyanoacrylate (Pen finish): https://www.penblanks.ca/Starbond-CA-...


Music provided by Epidemic Sound

Sunrise Stadium - These Old Bones
Old Pen - Cody Francis
Dreamers of the Shore - Volcan Peaks