Finally, the dry Almond Burl wood...!

[robutacion]

Hi peoples,

I finally got to work on the Almond Burl blanks I cut, treated and put to dry in September 2010.

This wood and the story behind it can be seen here and just in case someone wondered what happened to it, it has been drying all this time under my digital scales table...!

The pen I'm showing here, is the fulfilment of my promise to the old fellow that made the wood available to us, I didn't say what I was going to make out of it when dry and bring it to him as a gift but, yesterday I made the pen (with a few visitors as witnesses and to day the wife and I had the pleasure of presenting it to the old fellow that is getting pretty close to the end...!

He was pleased, and a rare smile come out of this face, something that made the effort all worth while...!

I explain a little bit more about the wood on this pen, on the thread link provided so, if you are interested or you have followed mu original thread, is a good time to visit it again...!

Hope you folks like it...!

Cheers
George

 

[brownsfn2]

really like the figure in that wood. You turned it very nicely as well. Good kit, nice color! Congrats on a great job!

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

Nicely done, George. See my comment on the other post!

 

[Drstrangefart]

That is some impressive stuff! Worth the wait!

 

[sumterdad]

Very nice color on the wood. Goes good with the pen

 

[DMGill]

The pen turned out beautiful.

After the old man's initial reaction to you asking about his wood, his smile certainly would be a great reward. I'd say you got some great wood and a friend, too. At least your wife did.:smile-big:

 

[Mather323]

Looks great!

 

[Rangertrek]

George, nice work! Grain almost looks like finger prints!

 

[robutacion]

Thanks guys,

Finger prints was exactly my first thoughts when I saw the zoomed pic...!

Cheers
George

 

[markgum]

impressive work.

 

[Toni]

George what a great story!! Love the pen, you made him very happy I am sure

 

[robutacion]

George what a great story!! Love the pen, you made him very happy I am sure

Hi Toni,

Well, I should have because, he offered us last week 3 old stumps from some of the oldest Almond trees his father planted in that yard and, after we got the old stumps in the trailer, we were given another Almond tree that is alive an from the first lot planted but, is full of disease (burls) and I big mess at the boundary fence, which he is happy for us to have, cleaning also a little that part of the yard that he no longer has the strength to handle.

Now, this tree which has been "decapitated" at the same time as the old butts we were removing, has re-shoot and nothing was done to it since, allowing the trunk to grow a huge at the low half end, the biggest I ever had to cut and do something with, full of burls and still alive so that means that the wood would be a lot softer to work with and possibly allow us to slab the main trunk for some Almond slabs, something I din't though possible, due to the normal size trees I know off.

The wife took a long shot (attached) at this tree when she realise that you could have it and something that you had to return for, some day but, if all this was a bit overwhelming to us, the old fellow took us to the back yard, something we couldn't see from the house front and pointed to another large tree that didn't look like an Almond tree but walking closer, I nearly got my eyes coming out of my eye sockets...!

What an humongous Almond tree that is/was, I say was I half of it is dead and makes it look half of the size it would be if had the full canopy but still, looking up I could see that, this tree has had a long and well "feeding" life, as no other Almond tree could match that...!

Looking closer I could see 2 things that made a lot of sense, first was the reason why this particular tree as develop in such a monster, and that was due to the old fellow love for pigeons breeding and pigeon flying competitions, of which is is no longer active at but, pigeons being pigeons, they kept breeding and replenishment by their own means and ways, without so much the human contact and they once had.

This main pigeon shed was built under that Almond tree for shed and something where the animals could use as a land marker in their flights, and while has been nearly an years since he last had anything to do with pigeon racing, the shed is full of birds still...!
The yard has a slight slope and the shed is built just on the higher side of the tree so, it gets all the nutrients from the pigeon manure and other stuff that gets mixed up with the water and soaks on the ground.

I've got the impression that the old fellow, would be happy to have the pigeons "cleaned up" yummy, and the tree lo longer would have any use apart from the fact that, is dropping large dead branches all the time, as he doesn't really want to "go" by being smacked in the head by one of these...!

Now, If I get this tree, that would be something, even tough I know that I will have a hell of a time just to cut it down into manageable handling sizes for us and the fact that I could see, lots of metal things hanging from its trunk, meaning that the tree is full of large nails/screws and pieces of metal of all kinds, mostly embedded fully in the wood, decades ago so, good-by chainsaw chains and bandsaw blades...!:frown:

So yeah Toni, I reckon the old fellow like us, now...!:wink::biggrin:

Cheers
George