Eagle blanks and Pens

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brookswife803

brookswife803

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Joined
Sep 12, 2009
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Location
Aiken, SC.
Many of you on here got to talking about a pen maker named Eagle recently. I had heard about this fellow and Carl at Woodzone had shown me the blanks that are now in Hans' capable hands. I'm now curious to see more of what he did. Someone said that the blanks Hans has are actually some of his more basic designs and I was wondering if anyone had anything of his that was complex or just special to them. If you would please post photos of either blanks he made for you or finished pens. I'd love to see what this fellow could do and I think you all might enjoy the reverie. Think of it as a sort of dedication to a legend. :)
 
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I just tried the link from Paul in OKC,

It takes a little while to load, but it's a great slideshow of many of Eagle's pens.

I did not get a "deleted" message.
 
When it came to making blanks, he was infinitely patient. AND open to any method.

Just a "regular guy", who would not give up.
 
Elizabeth,
this is some of Eagle's fine "art".
 

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And no special tools! Matter of fact I would venture to say that most of us have much better tools than he had, it's all in how he used them.
 
Beautiful work...
Are these all wood...?
Did he have an apprentice...?
Any craftsman left who are privy to his techniques...?
Ed
 
gketell said:
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to help much any more. Most of the pictures are "deleted by the admin". I wonder why?

Elizabeth, Send me your email and I'll send you photos of his work that I have collected.

GK
Click to expand...

I just visited http://photos.eagleswoodworking.com/
and there are 82 photos there. As far as I know, none have ever been deleted. And I should know, it's my site!

There are a few more photos here.
 
Last in line:
Eagle's apprentices were and are those who were willing to learn using the TBF (trial by fire) method.
Eagle hated tutorials.
In part, he disdained those who weren't willing to learn for themselves by experimenting to see what happens.
In part, he had a very deep, real and sincere concern for others' safety AND he was always concerned someone would try to emulate something based on a tutorial and they'd get injured because a specific, critical detail as to how to make a component safely was omitted.
Eagle was an extraordinary penblank maker.
Eagle was an above average woodworker.
Eagle was perhaps one of the top 1 or 2 percentile master craftsmen in making custom ductwork for commercial and custom A/C systems.
Eagle was, above all else, a great and loyal friend to those who took the time to get to know him.
Eagle is sorely missed by those whose lives he touched -- mine included.
 
Eagle Pens

I never met Eagle or read any of his posts first hand. He had passed before I became a member. From the posts I have seen in the IAP his works were light years ahead of anything I can think of doing.
Perhaps the powers that be on IAP can set up a tribute page in the photo gallery as some of the sites listed here no longer have pictures of his work.
I am not asking how he did the works of art he made. I would like to look at more of his work and dream that in a hundred years I might, just might make something half as great as Eagles
Mark
 
Mark,
Eagle's work is not `out of reach' to you. One needs to study the images and glean
what can be learned from them, thinking outside the box.
Eagle often said "Build your pen blank from the inside out."
There's a lot can be learned by analyzing the blank Peter (wood-of-1 kind) posted.
Much of the fun is in the journey toward the knowledge :wink:

Cheers,
G
 
GaryMGg said:
Much of the fun is in the journey toward the knowledge :wink:

Cheers,
G
Click to expand...

Eagle's belief as I learned it from talking with him: if someone is at level 'A' in their abilities and you tell them how to do 'Q', they now know 'A' and 'Q'. If, instead, you help them to learn the skills on their own by encouraging self discovery then when they get to 'Q' they have learned 'B'-'P' as well so when they take on a new project 'Z' they have a lot more knowledge to use to help them succeed in their new endeavor.

Kinda like our educators today who are being forced to teach to "the official testing requirements" and our kids' standing in the world is going down.

The nation's need, and Eagle's method, was to teach for understanding, not for the task.

GK
 
gketell said:
Eagle's belief as I learned it from talking with him: if someone is at level 'A' in their abilities and you tell them how to do 'Q', they now know 'A' and 'Q'. If, instead, you help them to learn the skills on their own by encouraging self discovery then when they get to 'Q' they have learned 'B'-'P' as well so when they take on a new project 'Z' they have a lot more knowledge to use to help them succeed in their new endeavor.

Kinda like our educators today who are being forced to teach to "the official testing requirements" and our kids' standing in the world is going down.

The nation's need, and Eagle's method, was to teach for understanding, not for the task.

GK
Click to expand...

One of the times I spoke with him on the phone, I was wanting to learn more about his process. I clearly remember him telling me that anyone could do it if they were patient and weren't afraid to make mistakes. When I asked what special tools he used, he said, "All you need is a **** table saw and some patience!"
 
The thing about Eagle that always annoyed me and made me admire him at the same time was how he talked about how simple it was. Like blowing up 10 blanks you had 400 hours into was no big deal! Or getting slices down to microscopic thickness to look like blades of grass on a pen blank was so easy an anyone could do it.

My kind of patience and his kind of patience always differed, but man did I respect his work.
 
OKLAHOMAN said:
And no special tools! Matter of fact I would venture to say that most of us have much better tools than he had, it's all in how he used them.
Click to expand...

I agree. He phoned me often and talked about his techniques. The verbal instructions meant almost nothing to me. He was able to visualize techniques and finished products in ways that are (were) not possible for most folks.
He used a table saw with an inexpensive blade to cut impossibly thin strips for his blanks.
We had personal differences but losing his talent was a loss to all of us.
 
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