Retractable Wooden Ballpoint Pen

Ger Vervoort makes a unique implement completely out of wood without the need to buy a pen kit

Back in my early turning years, I was subscribing to an American magazine called Fine Woodworking. In 1988, there was an article about a wooden retractable ballpoint, turned and written by Richard Elderton. When you’re a novice woodturner, you want to turn anything, from bowls and goblets to boxes and vases – at least I did.

This article in Fine Woodworking intrigued me enormously and I started making this ballpoint pen as well. What makes this pen so special is that, at that time, there were no pen kits, and this was made entirely out of wood. The only thing you must buy is the refill, and the spring you get from an empty ballpoint. In the beginning I made this pen as it was described in the article and the closure of both parts was by means of a bayonet locking. However, the bayonet locking was a bit awkward to make, so I started puzzling over how I could make it different. Almost all ballpoint pens have a screw connection to open them for replacing the refill, so I started wondering how I could make these pens by means of a screw connection.

Nowadays, you can buy pen kits for any kind of pen you can think of, but making this pen is pure woodturning and requires some real craftsmanship. Now, I’m not a pen turner at all, but the process of making this is pure fun and I enjoy the entire process, from design to execution. I use these pens daily and this also gives a lot of satisfaction, writing with something you have made yourself. I wish everyone who is going to try to make this pen lots of fun.

Plans & equipment

Tools & equipment

  • PPE & RPE as appropriate
  • Compass and callipers
  • 6.5mm twist drill
  • 2.6mm twist drill with
  • 6.5mm extended shaft
  • 8mm brad point drill
  • 5.5mm twist drill with
  • 8mm extended shaft
  • M10 tap with wrench
  • 16tpi thread chasing tool
  • 9mm spindle gouge
  • 13mm skew chisel
  • 4mm parting tool
  • 1.5mm parting tool

Materials

  • African grenadillo 70 x 18 x 18mm
  • African grenadillo 50 x 10 x 10mm
  • Amboina burr 70 x 18 x 18mm
  • Boxwood 100 x 12 x 12mm
  • Parker refill ballpoint
  • Spring from an old pen
  • Cyanoacrylate glue

The making

1. What you need: Two pen blanks of your choice, measuring 70 x 18 x 18mm, some hardwood (10 x 10mm) for the trigger and some boxwood (12 x 12mm) for the thread. I’m using here: amboina burr, African grenadillo and boxwood
2. Turn the pen blanks between centres to fit your chuck. I turned them to 16mm to fit my collet chuck
3. After setting the diameter, turn the blank with a 13mm skew to the desired diameter
4. After fitting the blank in the collet chuck, true up the end-grain face and, with the long point of the skew, turn a dimple in the centre for guiding the drill bit
5. With an 8mm brad point drill bit, drill a hole 56mm deep. The cutting edges of the drill bit must be slightly tapered inwards to the centre, so the points are standing a little bit forwards. Here, a stop collar is glued to the drill bit
6. Drill the hole. Regularly withdraw the bit to clear the swarf

Health and safety

  • Although it is a small turning job, always wear safety glasses.
  • Supporting the pen with the fingers is safe, but if your fingers are getting hot, let go – you’re pushing too hard.
  • Don’t turn this pen in a four-jaw chuck with step jaws. Because you are working close to the chuck, it will certainly hit your knuckles, no matter how careful you are.

7. The remaining part of the blank is going to be drilled with a 5.5mm drill. Therefore, I made an extension drill from an 8mm rod with the 5.5mm drill in top of it
8. This end of the blank becomes a M10 tread, so guide the tap with the tailstock to get it straight in, leaving the tailstock unlocked, turning the tap iron and the tailstock quill simultaneously to make the thread. Withdraw the tap regularly to remove the swarf. Be careful – if the end of the blank is protruding too much, it can split easily while tapping. In this case you can wrap some tape around it to prevent the splitting
9. Checking the fit with a M10 bolt
10. Before you can go on with the second blank, you must prepare a threaded insert. This will be the most difficult part, hand-chasing the thread on a boxwood rod. I’m not a good thread chaser, but with some practice I’ll manage to make the outside thread. I’m using a 16tpi thread chaser, which isn’t quite the tool for a M10 thread, but for screwing three to four revolutions, it will do. (Alternatively, you could make the thread with a M10 die.)
11. This threaded rod has now to be drilled with a 6.5mm drill bit. To keep the drill straight, drill slowly and no deeper than two inserts at a time
12. With a 4mm-wide parting-off tool, strip the thread over about 5-6mm and turn this part to 8mm in diameter
13. Next, cut off the insert by leaving about 8-10mm of the thread. It would be wise at this stage to make some more inserts from the remaining threaded rod

14. Here you see the insert screwed into the just-prepared pen blank, with a spare insert next to it
15. Put the second blank in the chuck, clean up the face and drill a 6.5mm hole to a depth of 57mm
16. With an extended drill, 2.6mm on a 6.5mm shaft, drill the last part completely till the other end
17. For the threaded insert, drill a hole 8mm and about 10mm deep
18. Try the fit of the insert. If it fits, glue it in with some cyanoacrylate glue
19. Test fitting the other pen blank part
20. On the top part of the pen, I like to add a cap in the same wood as the lower part of the pen. So, turn a piece of the same wood to fit the collet chuck, grab it in the chuck and drill it with a 7mm drill
21. Cut off a slice 4mm wide
22. Put the upper part of the pen in the chuck and turn a tenon on the side of the 5.5mm hole, measuring 7 x 4mm wide
23. Glue the just-turned grenadillo ring to the pen body with some cyanoacrylate glue, let the glue cure and clean up the end-grain face of the pen
24. To be able to turn the pen parts into shape, you will need some chucking tools. You could suffice by turning a pin and sliding the upper pen part with the threaded side over 22 23 it. I made myself a device with a M10 treaded rod in it, which will suite my collet chuck
25. Screw the upper pen part on to this threaded chucking tool and support the other end with a revolving centre
26. With a 13mm skew chisel, turn the upper pen part in shape, which means 13mm diameter on the threaded side and about 11mm on the top side, making it slightly convex
27. For the lower pen part, you will need some other chucking tools. In the collet chuck I put an inside threaded rod and on the tailstock side I put a hollow revolving centre where I switch the centre point with a 2.6mm-thick and 6mm-long centre point
28. The lower pen part is screwed into the threaded rod and the 2.6mm centre point fits into the 2.6mm drilled hole. Shape the pen with a 9mm spindle gouge and 13mm skew chisel
29. If everything is going well, the parts should fit nicely. If they don’t, you can screw them together and adjust the pen’s shape lightly with a skew chisel
30. I recommend a freshly sharpened chisel. Here I’m supporting the pen with my fingers to prevent flexing
31. The pen is sanded from 180 to 1000 grit. I’m sanding each grit first with the lathe running, followed with the lathe stationary and sanding lengthwise, with the grain, to remove any scratches
32. I give my pens three or four coats of Shellawax, buffing with a cloth between each coat, and finish with a coat of crystalline wax

33. So far, this pen body is ready. Last thing to turn is the trigger
34. Take a blank from the same wood as the lower part of the pen, measuring about 10 x 10mm and at least 50mm long, and put this in the chuck
35. Using a 9mm spindle gouge, 13mm skew and 4mm-wide parting tool, form the trigger. Make sure the different diameters are all just a little bit smaller than the inside diameters of the upper pen part. The trigger should move freely inside the pen. The length of the thicker part should be kept a little bit longer. Check the fit and correct the length so the refill will protrude correctly
36. All the parts finished and ready to be put together
37. And here it is, a fully wooden retractable ballpoint pen
38. Upper left, a pen with a wooden clip. This clip can partly be turned, but it’s mainly hand work. I can say, it is fun to make these pens, but they are commercially not interesting because it costs too much time to make them, but they are great gift items

39. This is an early pen with a bayonet locking system. A small pin slides and turns in a groove, locking both parts. This bayonet lock is a little bit awkward to make, so I came up with another solution

Further reading

Turning a Vase


PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF GER VERVOORT

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Social Media

Instagram Facebook Youtube
Subscribe to our Newsletter

Company Info

The Woodworkers Institute

We bring you the very best of woodworking -
Projects, techniques, tools, videos, magazines and more...
"Make it with us"