Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
itty bitty sanding!
jim reasoner
>Now that I have gotten involved in pen turning I have discovered it requires lots of "itty bitty sanding". I see all these fantastic pens that you guys produce, with all those sharp cove shoulders and crisp edges to coves, etc, etc. How do you do it? Is it tiny pieces of sandpaper or what. Try as I might I don't seem to be able to get those tiny, crisp corners and edges. What is the answer. Is there any advice for newbies like me?
Re: itty bitty sanding!
Keith Tompkins
>HI Jim, the secret is to learn to cut beads and coves, in other words, spindle turning. There are a lot of websites and printed material out there.
I am not a pen turner, but I use the same techniques to produce intricate finials and furniture parts.
Learn to use the skew...a pen would be perfect practice.
Re: itty bitty sanding!
RonZ
>I use the method that Keith mentioned. I rough out the design that I want with a detail gouge and then finish it with a skew. I'm extremely lazy and stubborn so I took the extra effort and practice to work with a skew in order to lessen my sanding time. I recommend you start on a rolled edge 1/2" or chamfer the edges if you already have a square one. The extra weight will make it easier to learn. If you're gutsy or good with your hands already then proceed to a 1/2" oval. Depending on your work and the wood, you can start with 220 or 320. I have mine on a roll that's about 4" wide and I cut a piece around 2" long. I then fold the paper into thirds. I then take the corners and touch up the beads and grooves first, being careful not to sand down the highlights. This also gives me three clean surfaces to use.
Good luck!
Re: itty bitty sanding!
John Lucas
>I agree with Keith and Ron. I use the skew a lot but it's not necessary for many spindle designs. I good sharp spindle gouge will do the job. I think what we are trying to say is that you can't sand fine detail. By that I mean you have to create the detail with cutting tools and then sand as little as possible.
On my ornaments I freshly sharpen the tool on a regular basis. If I'm successful I can start with 220 or higher paper. I find that you can shape wood pretty easily with lower grits. With 220 or higher your mostly cleaning up the wood.
Sometimes I don't cut as accurately so the trick here is to use the sandpaper like you would a tool. Small pieces are nice. fold them so they form a stiff tool or even wrap the paper around a dowel. Then as your sanding be very careful around all sharp details. Don't just blindly sand all areas you'll dull all the sharp edges.
From a rookie...
Tony - Memphis
>I still have to sand quite a bit! While I prefer smooth body pens, I have done some spindle work where I had smallish details. I used stiff paper folds, paper wrapped around dowels as mentioned, wraped around a small thin ruler, etc. Yeah, I can't wait until I have enough experience to start at 220 instead of 150!
Tony
Re: itty bitty sanding!
Fred L. - North Carolina
>Itty bitty details require itty bitty sanding.
I use sponges a lot for pen making. Stiff sponges for the coarser grits. Sponge backed for medium grits. And micromesh from then on. Micromesh is on a resilient backing, although it is not technically a sponge. It can easily take the shape to be sanded.
Yet, there is no substitute for good turning to start with.
FredL