Fountain Pens 101
Ed Brown

If you attend a fountain pen show, and talk with several others who are attending, you will learn that every fountain pen aficionado will have a “favorite” fountain pen. You will also learn that there is not one consistent trait that determines this “favorite”.

Ed Brown (of ExoticBlanks.com) has exhibited at the Washington DC Supershow (largest fountain pen show in the USA, second largest in the world) and has gleaned a good deal of information from the experiences. Ed will be sharing some stories and relating this knowledge to the selling of hand-made fountain pens. You will come away from the session with an understanding of how fountain pens work and ideas on how to sell them at “show” venues. Join us!! .

Casting Hybrids and Embedded objects
John Underhill

One of the advantages of working with resin is being able to take objects not suitable for turning, and making them usable. In this demonstration, John will walk you through his process of resin casting to make wood/resin hybrid and embedded object blanks. He will share casting set up, mold selection, material cleaning and preparation, the proper resins to use, and how to cast that unique blank for your project needs.

Differentiating Yourself Without Casting
John Underhill

Standing out in the world of pen making is not as hard as you would think. We all began with just turning and assembling a commercial acrylic or wood blank. In this session we will look at ideas and techniques to further or “customize” our creations, like custom finials and center bands, closed ends, painting, decals, and more, making them stand among everyone else. This will include things like simple modifications to pen sets, which pen sets to modify, basic tools used and special tools on the market, and easy blank creations without resin.

Pen kit autopsy
Ed Brown

Let’s break it down to its “nuts and bolts”.

Ed will show several pen kits-ballpoints, rollerballs/fountain pens and discuss the fine points of the proper construction. As usual, Ed will be presenting this from the point of view of a retail sale as well as the “engineering” of the pen. Bring your questions—we hope to be very interactive.

The difference between “kitless” and “kit-based” will be discussed, as well.

Join us, you WILL learn something!

Necklace Pendant
Rich Coers

Wood jewelry and tapered pendant necklaces. Details on making your own fixtures for holding small parts, turning techniques, and jewelry findings..

Color Casting
Fred Wissen

Fred will take you through the world of casting. Equipment choices, material options, and step by step "how to" cast. A must see.

Fred plans to cover resins, colorants and everything needed to cast. Will be covering both color and clear casting in that period.

Wig Stand
Linda Ferber

Working with wood and a lathe is an compelling and captivating experience. I feel our dedication to community service is key to keeping the craft viable and attractive new younger members. In this demonstration I will show steps to making a personal whimsical wig stand that will bring a smile to the face of a person who is struggling.

WIG stands is a national Women in Turning initiative, in the eighteen months since started nearly 1300 wig stands have been delivered. “Our goal is to give back to our communities in this worthwhile effort, especially since cancer has likely impacted each of us, our family, and/or our friends.”

Sharpening Your Turning (and a few other) Tools
Karl Scogin

Woodturning along with other woodworking tools benefit from sharp edges. Sharp tools can give you cleaner cuts, reduce time and end up with a better finished project. Sharpening is just another skill set in a woodworker’s arsenal. I will review power and hand sharpening options, showing different techniques involved. Whether it is a turning tool or other edge tool, the concepts are the same and once learned can be a simple and quick procedure and not a dreaded process.

Understanding Kitless
Rob Nelson

This session is going to walk you thru the tools and the process of Kitless pens. Or Custom pens. Or Bespoke pens. You can call it many things in regards to making a pen from scratch. Starting with what type of Lathe to taps & dies to calipers to the type of metal for the clips. I specifically bring up clips because a lot of times clips get passed over. Clips are time consuming but well worth it. This is going to be fun.

Inside Out Ornament
Bill Witt

Besides pens, there are other small turnings you can make as gifts, one of them being Christmas tree ornaments. And, as with most items we create, there are many ways to accomplish different looks, so in this presentation, we’ll show how to use inside-out turning to create ornaments. We’ll cover the basic steps for inside-out turning with examples for each step. We’ll also provide some tips and tricks of things learned with the process of creating these Christmas ornaments.

Beginning Pen Making
Mark Dreyer

All skill levels are welcome – Everyone starts with making a traditional wooden pen. But it does not need to end there. The key to the process is challenging yourself to do something new and branch out. We will take wood to a new level.

Part 1:
Topics include the entire process from blank selection or creation, drilling, gluing, turning, finishing, and assembly. We will look at numerous finishing techniques and the challenges of each – from simple buffing to CA and many in between. Working with all the basic tools and jigs used in the process.

Part 2:
We will talking tuning and finishing on both woods and acrylics.

There are numerous steps to creating the perfect pen. Your tools and techniques are just as important as that perfect kit or piece of wood .

The Best Finish for Your Pens: Subjective Observation (Fake News) vs. Objective Data (Real Science)
Steve Wohlgemuth

How do we achieve a glass like shiny finish on our wood or acrylic pen? Ask 100 turners and you’ll get 1,000 answers, almost all of them purely subjective. I use basic controlled experimental methodology to change only one finishing variable at a time. The pen surface is then captured with macro photography with up 6X magnification. In addition to testing different types of products, I’ll also be testing steps that can be applied to your specific practices such as horizontal sanding, use of a buffing wheel, sanding speeds, sanding grits and length of time sanding.

I can guarantee that after this demo you’ll take home a technique to use as soon as you get back in the shop to produce a better finish.

Customization Options With A Laser
Dean Charlier

This talk will focus on using laser engraving to customize items for craft shows and gift-making. We'll discuss how to personalize products helping creators stand out with unique, high-quality designs. Attendees will learn about the tools and materials ideal for crafting one-of-a-kind gifts and show items. Whether you’re a seasoned maker or just starting, this session will provide practical insights for how a laser could add a personal touch to your creations.

Small Turnings For Other Parts Of The House
Mark Dreyer

This will be a fast-paced class. We are always looking for that perfect handmade gift for the holidays. In this session we will cover a series of gift ideas we can make and start now in June. These items will be mostly practical, but we may sneak in a few art ideas.

We will cover:
- An Acrylic Pen / Crochet Hook / Seem Ripper
- A Simple Peppermill
- A Bottle Stopper
- A Pizza / Ice Cream Handle
- Kitchen Items
- And A Few More