This one came out a lot better and was a lot more fun. This might even get addictive.

Looks absolutely beautiful. Well done.

You must try to do a fountain pen soon.

Regards

Richard.

Wow! Impressive.

This one was a lot more fun, actually.

Since the other fellow student is a fountain pen person, we're probably going to do a fountain pen class together as well.

There were a couple of scratches I didn't get out (I realized they were there a bit late in the process and decided not to go back down on grits to get them out because of limited class time), but one of them I hid under the clip. The other one I can't find, so I might have finally reduced it to something you can't see in average light.

My mom was very impressed -- she whimpered at me until I finally gave it to her.

Nice work Deirdre. You are correct about the addictiveness - it is FAR worse than pen collecting

Enjoy,
Ruaidhrí

I spoke with the couple who's behind Dragon Pens -- omg they spent a lot on equipment. So yeah, I could see that it'd be a lot.

Actually this is one of my hobby horses

Newcomers, and I do not mean offence to anyone here, are bombarded with gadgets, tools etc. etc., most of which cost an arm and a leg.
Very many of our tools can easily be made in our own workshops with very little skill or training - but a bit of practice

I would strongly advise, and I'm sure experienced turners will back me up on this, looking around before buying anything and asking "can I make this myself?"

A typical example is the bedan which retails at around $35 - just a piece of HSS bar ground at a 70deg angle and bunged into a handle
Faceplates can be made for nothing - my Record uses a 3/4" 16tpi spindle and the base of a discarded oil filter from most Fords fits perfectly. This allows me to have dozens of faceplates dedicated to various fittings so it's well worth having a poke around.

I'll get off my soap-box now

Have fun,
Ruaidhrí

Yeah, but if you have limited shop time (as I do), then it's about whether you want to make pens or lathe tools, right?

In the case of Dragon Pens, they bought CNC equipment and jewelry-making equipment, so it's not like it was lathe tools or something.

I figure that I could get by with a midi lathe, a lathe stand (which I could make), and two good tools (roughing gauge and skew) plus sandpaper, the appropriate drill bits. I know better than to buy cheap lathe tools. Better steel means a lot.

Brian Boggs started his chairmaking shop for $500. He bought used and vintage tools, fixed them up, and made a pole lathe for rungs.