Best wood to start turning pens

Hi, can someone advise which is the best wood to start with for a beginner.

Evening Brian,

Simply put, the cheapest blanks you can find paired with the least expensive pen kits. More specifically, Stiles and Bates (Homegrown Wood Pen Blanks AHGPB_MST from Stiles and Bates) sell 5 beech blanks for £1.80, and pen kits direct (see sellers forum below) sell slimline kits for £2.75 or else look on eBay and you may find offers for 5 kits for not very much.

Of course you need all the other bits - mandrel and 7mm bushes et al.

But beware that once started on the road of pen turning ...... there is no stopping!

Regards,

Chriscb

Hi Brian....pm me an address.....i have some oak, beech, apple and pear blanks that i could send on if you would like....
I started with beech and oak blanks.....something of medium density that takes shape well......

Living on the outskirts of Manchester look for woodturning groups in and around where you live, kick this subject around,learn where the timber mills etc are located. Councils Annual Shows,week end markets etc.

Peter.

Nice gesture by Mark.

If you have a method of cutting blanks yourself you could also visit some of your flooring suppliers locally as the showrooms usually have reasonably sized samples of hardwood flooring FOC if they think you're wanting to buy.
They are usually 18mm thick and look for full widths of anything from 100 - 200mm and a length of 120mm+ if you can. Smaller lengths are ok if you think you are able to turn crosscut blanks. most common are oak, maple, walnut, beech but there are others. You can get samples from companies on line as well.

Other sources of free or very cheap hardwood is old furniture from freecycle or gumtree and don't neglect the odd skip or two. Look also for thick cutting boards in the supermarkets or TK Max etc you can get a number of blanks out of a £5 board.

Once you start looking, you will be finding wood every where and bringing it home,
Then the missus will start getting cranky.