Capul Negro

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MesquiteMan

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This is a cigar pen made from a native Texas tree/bush called Capul Negro. It is not a wood that is commercially available and to my knowledge, has not been used to make a pen before. Here is a link to a site with more information about the tree for anyone who is interested.http://uvalde.tamu.edu/herbarium/coho.htm

The blank for this pen came from a tree that we removed at a site where we are doing some amateur archaeology. The "Arrowhead" used for the prop was found at the site the tree came from!

Anyway, this particular piece was a root section that was pretty much falling apart. I let it dry and then found out that a fair amount of the black area was actually dirt! I remove the dirt and cast the blank with some resin to fill in the missing parts to end up with this pen.

Comments appreciated!

CapulNegro1.jpg


CapulNegro3.jpg
 
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I'd have said, "Wow! What a natural beauty!" But you just told us it was artificially enhanced.......[:0]

Soooooo. I guess artificial enhancement isn't so bad after all, is it?[:p][}:)]

<b>Edit:</b>
I'm also sure that you could market this enhancement with no trouble at all! (Hint,Hint,nudge,nudge,wink,wink!)[;)][8D]
 

redfishsc

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Pretty freakin cool stuff! Excellent work!

But what else did you find? I love archaeology, though I'm not all that knowledgeable in it (other than some shark tooth and other local fossils).
 

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Curtis, as an aside, what do you do with your archaeological "finds"? That is a very nice arrowhead, or is it a spear point? I thought it was a bit big for an arrowhead compared to what is normally found around here. But then considering you'd probably need a heavier "caliber" arrow for bison which weren't ever very numerous here compared to the midwest. I guessed it might have been used for a javelin with an atlatal. [?] Neat, too!
 

wdcav1952

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Nice work, Curtis. Really some bright colors there. It is fun to be first to try something. As far as I know, I was the first to make pens with cypress knees, although Lou very quickly did far better work with them.

For what it is worth, be careful with amateur archaeology. In some areas it is considered grave robbing. One of my patients in Louisiana got a very stiff fine for his digging. I don't know the details, just that it was not on his personal property.
 

ctEaglesc

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That blanks puts the stabilized dyed blanks to shame.
You are fortunate to have gooten it.I hope you have more.
AS for me, I might go dig up some scrub bushes around here to see what I can find.
 

MesquiteMan

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Thanks William for the kind concern regarding arch. We do this regularily and are completely within the law. We aren't digging anywhere near burial grounds but rather encampments near streams. We are on private property with the full permission of the land owner which is what is required in Texas.

It is pretty neat what all we find. The camp we are digging is pretty old and we find all kinds of stuff relating to life back then. We have found numerous manos (grinding stones) burned animal bones including bison teeth, as well as all kinds of "arrowheads".

The piece shown is actually a knife know as a Kinney knife. It is 2,000-5,000 years old according to archaeological references! Here is a better picture of it...

KInney.jpg


It is 4" long and about 1/8" thick at the thickest part.

Oh yeah, thanks everyone for the comments on the pen! This thread mixes my 2 most favorite past times...penturning and arrowheads!
 

wdcav1952

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Curtis,

Thanks for taking the time to reply with respect to my post. I'm glad you have all your bases covered. The more I think about it, I seem to remember that the guy I mentioned was on federal land.

Anyway, great find, both on the knife and that truly awesome pen!!!
 

emackrell

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Curtis, that's a beautiful pen! It's great to see something completely unique and hear the story behind it. Well done!

cheers Eileen [8D]
 
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