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Pen Turning
Pen Turning
The further from centre, the more strongly this hobby leans that way. Your quiz answers are scored against exactly these fifteen.
- RestfulPhysical
- IndoorsOutdoors
- SolitarySocial
- PracticalCreative
- InstinctiveTechnical
- Hands-offHands-on
- RelaxedCompetitive
- CautiousDaring
- Quick winsPatient
- PrivatePerformer
- MinimalistCollector
- Just do itStudious
- Low-kitGear-heavy
- AnalogDigital
- ObjectsLiving things
Shaping a blank of wood, resin or acrylic on a lathe and assembling it into a working pen. One of the quickest lathe projects.
TonightTime to first win
About an hourA session
Mostly indoorsWhere
Step 1: Get a lathe, a mandrel, chisels and a respirator.
Is it you?
What you need
5 thingsThe honest floor, taking the cheapest option in each$342
How we make money: if you buy through one of these we take a small cut, and the price is the same either way. The cheapest option that works is always listed first.
The path
11 questsASetting up1 thing to sort, in any order$347
BThen the quests
- Turn a blank round without a single catch
- Turn your first pen from a blank
- Finish and assemble the pen
More on Pen Turning
Everything else we have written about it. Free to read, no account needed.
Guides
Browse all guidesWhat to buy2
Best Lathe for Pen Turning 2026: WEN vs Rikon 70-105 vs JET Mini LathesThe lathe is the heart of pen turning, and the first decision is how much to buy. Two specs decide it, electronic variable speed and weight, and they separate a lathe you'll love from one you'll fight. Here are three honest picks, from a best-selling budget mini to a cast-iron value benchmark to JET's buy-once midi.Best Pen Turning Chisels (2026): You Will Use Four of the EightAn eight-piece lathe chisel set is sold as a starter kit, and a pen turner will use about four of them. Pens are small-diameter spindle work, so the roughing gouge, the spindle gouge, the skew and the parting tool do nearly everything, and the bowl gouge stays in the box.
From the blog2
Best Hobbies for ISTJs: What Genuinely Fits the Methodical MindIf you are an ISTJ, most 'hobbies for your personality type' lists read like a checklist someone filled in without thinking: gardening, reading, done. They are not wrong, exactly, they are just shallow, and shallow is the one thing you have no patience for. So here is the considered version. The wrong hobby for you is not merely boring, it is unserious: something you are supposed to wing, that has no proven method, that leaves nothing solid behind when you are finished. You do not want to pass an afternoon. You want to do something properly, build real competence in it over years, and end up with a result you can point to and stand behind. This is a careful list of the hobbies that actually fit that mind, whether or not they are the obvious ones.Best Hobbies for ISTPs: What Actually Holds a Maker MindIf you are an ISTP, most "hobbies for your type" lists are useless to you inside the first paragraph. They read like they were written by someone who has never taken anything apart to see why it stopped working. So here is the version that respects how you actually operate. You do not want to talk about a hobby, plan a hobby, or join a club about a hobby. You want your hands on a real object, a real machine, a real problem you can figure out by doing, and you want to be left alone while you do it. The wrong hobby for you is anything abstract, anything committee-driven, anything with a script. The right one puts a physical system in front of you and lets you master it. This is the honest list of what fits that, whether or not it shows up on the usual roundups.
Hobbies like Pen Turning
Same shape of evening, different thing to hold at the end. Or follow a tag sideways.
