How's this for free blanks....

[Drstrangefart]

This is a chunk of dogwood I picked up at the same time I grabbed stuff from the roots earlier. When I got it, the log looked awfully disappointing. I was expecting some real bland stuff half rotted and mostly dust from carpenter ants. This was a scrap left from cutting it into blanks. The camera for reasons beyond me is taking worse pictures than it used to, so I'm gonna try to tinker with it and clean the pictures back up.

 

[Gary Beasley]

Pretty colors, good find!

 

[leslie hines]

Nice like the color

 

[boxerman]

Nice pen and C.B.

 

[diverdad]

Beautiful pen.
I especially like really nice pens from free wood. Is there a way to predict which chunks of wood might have interesting grain? What technique would you recommend to a newbie to get some pop in my pen finish?
Andy

 

[Drstrangefart]

Beautiful pen.
I especially like really nice pens from free wood. Is there a way to predict which chunks of wood might have interesting grain? What technique would you recommend to a newbie to get some pop in my pen finish?
Andy

I PM'ed you my walkthrough for the CA finish. It's the only one I do. There are unfailingly a million ways to do it, so that's just a starting point. As far as guessing which ones will have a good grain on them, it's pretty hit or miss. If you already have a good idea what most woods look like on the inside, you can make a decent educated guess. The ONLY reason I grabbed this was because the wife wanted dogwood to make a pen or two out of. For me the rest is just in getting in there and turning it down. If the grain is really bland, then feel free to play with the shape of the pen as it's no longer a billboard for the wood.

 

[jbswearingen]

Beautiful pen.
I especially like really nice pens from free wood. Is there a way to predict which chunks of wood might have interesting grain? What technique would you recommend to a newbie to get some pop in my pen finish?
Andy

If you can look at the bark of the tree and see "waves" in it, it's a dead ringer for curly wood under. You'll often find this where roots spread from the trunk or in the trunk directly under a larger branch.

Wood from a crotch (yeah, there's no way to make that sound clean) will invariably have great grain patterns, too.