About Me, The Boys, and
Pen Turning at its Finest!
About me and my site . . . The name for this site came from my grandsons Wesley and Slayde . . . they call me "Papa", an honor I cherish every day. Plus, they are my two fantastic helpers in my shop. My oldest grandson, Wesley, is almost 11 years old and Slayde is now 20 months old.
I know they'll make Papa proud as they continue the woodworking and pen turning tradition of our family. Slayde's dad, my son, Michael, is a talented woodworker as well.
Here are some pictures of Slayde "helping" out in the shop . . .
below, Wesley helps turn a new pen from wood he chose, and he helps me in lots of other ways in the shop, too . . .
Now, let's get back to facts about me and how I got into this exciting hobby.
My father had a 24' by 20' woodworking shop. He enjoyed making things like lawn furniture, flower boxes, and custom cypress clocks. He also made a black walnut kitchen table 41 years ago that we are using in our dining room today (see picture below).
My brother and I were given the task of cleaning up the shop after one of dad's projects. It seemed like a humongous job when we were young. But being around the smell of wood, and holding wood shavings in our hand, gave both me and my brother a love for making things from scratch.
Dad patiently taught us how to safely use the tools and how to start and finish a project. I'm sure many times we wore on his patience. Our attention spans were not all that great at that age.
More about me . . . In high school, I took Shop (a class about woodworking and tools). Our teacher wouldn't let us kid around - it was all serious stuff.
We had to pick from a list of potential projects that we would work on individually for the year. Every six weeks we were given a grade on the project and how well we were doing. I always made straight "A's" on my projects. (My parents wished I would only do as well in other subjects.)
This was my first project . . . a metal dust pan (see picture below). I didn't realize at the time how useful this dust pan would become; I use it in my shop even today.
For my second project, which was for a majority of the grade, I chose to make a table for my room at home. The completed table (see picture below) is now in our "Grandsons' room" for the times they visit. They keep things on it similar to what I did back then, such as books, model cars, and toys of all types.
These projects were the foundation of my deep love for the feel, look, and pride at how beautiful wood could be made to look with a little patience and a lot of hard work. Over the years, I always had a small garage or barn spaces set aside for my tools and projects.
Due to a business lifestyle including traveling for business 10 months out of the year, my woodworking slowed and stopped until I became disabled a few years ago. So I went back to wood working, a little at the time.
About 7 years ago, I became disabled from severe osteoporosis and other things. My life changed dramatically, due to not being able to walk over 75 feet or stand up for over 2-3 minutes. It was looking as if I'd be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my life.
But I've been blessed to stay away from that so far.
My wife has an Internet business, so I helped as much as I could with it. Then, as many people in my position will do, I explored the Internet world.
Recently, my doctor said I needed to get away from my computer and move around more. It was hurting my health in that I wasn't getting any exercise or sunshine. She suggested very strongly that I should find a "hobby" to occupy my time and mind--and to begin thinking about ME.
After some extensive research I stumbled on "wood turning," which is "turning" pens and pencils from wood and some other materials. However I had given most of my wood working tools to our son and daughter. So, I had to start reconstructing and reassembling my own wood working equipment.
I went head over heels, my wife says, in setting up the special equipment for doing this type of . . . "hobby." I have a small wood lathe, bench top drill press, miter saw, dust collection system, workbench designed for a disabled individual, and various smaller tools needed for this hobby to work (see pictures below).
I found a great company that had starter packages made up of almost everything I needed to learn and practice the process of making custom handcrafted wood pens and pencils.
Turning pens became an addiction the first time I took a chunk of wood (called a "pen blank") and started making my first pen. Now, I am repeatedly amazed by how beautiful handcrafted writing instruments can be. That's why I'll never tire of this hobby.
It's my hope that you'll like my work as much as I get joy and happiness from doing it. I'm still striving for an "A" grade, just like in high school shop, but now from you, my customer.
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