TerryDowning
Member
As part of my hobby, I make pens for young men earning their eagle scout.
The troop I have worked with off and on has a large oak tree as their symbol, so I make the pens out of oak. I had a stock of Oak that came from a blow down, but it finally ran out. I was made aware of an upcoming eagle scout at last minute notice. (I haven't been as active in the troop as I once was.) I realized, that not only is my stock of live oak depleted, but my selection of kits is pretty much depleted as well.
By depleted, I mean nothing left but scraps, and left overs from previous kits. Tubes from on kit, clip from another etc. etc. :frown:Also, being short of time, between short notice, and other projects, I really didn't have time to work up a componentless pen.
What to do
I start scrounging around my shop looking for something that should work. I have a couple of piles that I can search through "shorts, and off cuts" and true scrap, you never know when you need a decent piece of true scrap for making a lig, or shims or whatever. Any way in the scrap pile I find some oak that came off a piece of mid grade furniture Particle board with oak trim that was disposed of. I kept the oak and thew it in my scrap pile knowing I could use that in the future. (I never thought I'd use it on a pen.:biggrin
Anyways, here's is the finished product. Fat line made from Scrap Oak with a piece of walnut scrap for the center band.
Scrap board was cut on a 50 degree bias to give the grain more character. Finish is CA, Walnut center band was burned with wire to add some detail. Hardware is all left overs from a variety of slimlines. I did this in less than hour while the finish on a cabinet I was also working on was drying.
I finished this up, applied a second coat of finish to my cabinet, cleaned up and off to his eagle court with 5 minutes to spare.
Included in the pic is a cut off from the scrap to show where it came from.
Enjoy, I know the young man that received this pen, was very pleased based on the look on his face when I presented it to him.
Terry
The troop I have worked with off and on has a large oak tree as their symbol, so I make the pens out of oak. I had a stock of Oak that came from a blow down, but it finally ran out. I was made aware of an upcoming eagle scout at last minute notice. (I haven't been as active in the troop as I once was.) I realized, that not only is my stock of live oak depleted, but my selection of kits is pretty much depleted as well.
By depleted, I mean nothing left but scraps, and left overs from previous kits. Tubes from on kit, clip from another etc. etc. :frown:Also, being short of time, between short notice, and other projects, I really didn't have time to work up a componentless pen.What to do
I start scrounging around my shop looking for something that should work. I have a couple of piles that I can search through "shorts, and off cuts" and true scrap, you never know when you need a decent piece of true scrap for making a lig, or shims or whatever. Any way in the scrap pile I find some oak that came off a piece of mid grade furniture Particle board with oak trim that was disposed of. I kept the oak and thew it in my scrap pile knowing I could use that in the future. (I never thought I'd use it on a pen.:biggrin
Anyways, here's is the finished product. Fat line made from Scrap Oak with a piece of walnut scrap for the center band.
Scrap board was cut on a 50 degree bias to give the grain more character. Finish is CA, Walnut center band was burned with wire to add some detail. Hardware is all left overs from a variety of slimlines. I did this in less than hour while the finish on a cabinet I was also working on was drying.
I finished this up, applied a second coat of finish to my cabinet, cleaned up and off to his eagle court with 5 minutes to spare.
Included in the pic is a cut off from the scrap to show where it came from.
Enjoy, I know the young man that received this pen, was very pleased based on the look on his face when I presented it to him.
Terry
