Curly maple slim

[Rick_G]

I managed to liberate 3 chunks of curly maple from the BIL's firewood pile. The center band, finial and accents are all Ziricote and the white band is a piece of old credit card. The first two chunks yielded 57 blanks like this. One more chunk I haven't cut up yet. Black Ti. slim kit from Wm. Woodwrite. This is the first pen out of it.

 

[toolcrazy]

Very nice. Good work.

 

[hilltopper46]

Very nice. Blanks found by yourself are the best - especially when they look this nice!

 

[simomatra]

As I said on the other forum nice pen Rick.

 

[bitshird]

hard to beat a nice pen with liberated wood.

 

[timberbits]

Nice pen and congratulations on the rescue.

Its always great finding a great piece of timber in the firewood pile. It feels better than winning the lottery, not that I have ever won the lottery.

I once did the same thing, but the find was from timber that was ear-marked for fence posts.

David

 

[Ligget]

Great save!

 

[TAFFJ]

Nice pen! Best place for a credit card!!

 

[desertyellow]

It looks like this pen has earned it's stripe.
Looks great.

 

[Hosspen]

Very nice curl and stripe! That gives me a great idea for my wife's credit card! Ha ha! I've yet to use the Zircote wood, How does it turn? Is it very stable? Thanks for sharing your fine skills.

 

[Rick_G]

I've yet to use the Zircote wood, How does it turn? Is it very stable? Thanks for sharing your fine skills.

It turns ok, I get a lot of fine checks in it and if your tools are not really sharp you will tear out small chunks. If you get a piece with both heartwood and sapwood you need to be very careful. The sapwood appears much softer and it's very easy to go out of round when sanding.

I've made a few pens with it and it appears to be oily. If I don't wipe it down well with alcohol before I start finishing it is hard to get a good finish.