Legacy Woodturning, Viceroy Pen Kit, Many Finishes, Multi-Packs

I'm not sure why so many pen turners start with Slimlines instead of the Viceroy style pen. It is much easier to turn and assemble, and you can get two pens from most standard pen blanks. These were a big hit with everyone who saw them. They are now a part of my usual inventory.

The fit and finish of the pen is very nice and it uses the Sierra/Gatsby/Monarch family of bushings which I think are kind of ubiquitous anyway. On to 5 stars: I've been turning pens for awhile and in my conceit, I thought I didn't need to look at the directions. I did - it assembles a little differently from other pens in the family. I called the The Woodturning Store and got a live person on the 2nd ring who patiently walked me through the assembly without making me feel like the idiot I was.

I have purchased quite a few pen kits from Legacy and these were the first ones that disappointed. I purchased them because the price was good, but the fit between the metal components leaves much to be desired. I had enough failures that I am wary of selling these to customers. After hours of turning the blanks, the fact that the nib component would not stay securely in the tube was quite frustrating. I have turned enough pens to know that turning and finishing of the blanks was not the issue. The tolerance of in I.D. of the tube and the O.B. of the nib component is not tight enough. I would not purchase this product again. I have had only one other failure among all the other pen kits of varying styles that I have purchased in the past. The discounted price is not worth the lower quality.

These are beautiful pens that are an easy to make one tube construction. The only thing I didn't like is the odd sized drill bit. I assumed it would have metric equivalent, but alas no, you need the 27/64 bit. Good news is Legacy uses that bit on other kits.

Easy to make, and very premium feel.One thing to be careful of - if you unscrew the front to change the ink, and then push it in, instead of screwing it back together, you can push the coupling in so far that you can't screw it back together easily. Fishing the end that gets pushed in too far can be tricky.

Excellent kit, and you can turn two pens at the same time in the lathe. The bushings fit a 7 mm mandrel.

Really nice kit. Fatter wooden area allows for smaller wood grain features to stand out. Very simple kit to assemble. I would recommend this as a beginner kit that looks great!

Made nice looking pens. Some of the kits had scratches on them, but they weren't significant enough to warrant return.