There are soo many nice pens that are being shown. I respect the talents of the members here and appreciate all the different designs. So I will at least post my 2 pens that I finished this past week. So these are my number 6 & 7 of hopefully many more. The first one was done with Blood wood. The second was done with a spare piece of cedar I had in the shop. Always open to criticism and tips. Any compliments will always be taken graciously also! Lol
This part of the forum can be very intimidating!
- Thread starter bsshog40
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greenacres2
Member
Great looking pens--you're getting there quickly!!
earl
earl
StanBrown
Member
Great looking pens, and thanks for sharing.
I would really be interested in knowing if you had any special problems with the cedar pen. I have a few pieces of cedar from a 150 year old tree that was in my yard. Tornado knocked it down 12 yrs ago so I want to make a couple of pens out of the scraps that are left. I've been a bit nervous about doing that as the wood is absolutely irreplaceable.
I would really be interested in knowing if you had any special problems with the cedar pen. I have a few pieces of cedar from a 150 year old tree that was in my yard. Tornado knocked it down 12 yrs ago so I want to make a couple of pens out of the scraps that are left. I've been a bit nervous about doing that as the wood is absolutely irreplaceable.
No problems with it. Its a light wood so it does lathe very easy so I had to work a little slower than other wood. I left the wood a little thicker before finish because the sand paper, even 400 grit, was taking it down pretty fast. The only thing I didn't like was not getting a good red/white color out of it. I made a cedar chest about 10 yrs ago and the color was awesome. But this was just a piece of 2x2 that I had bought from home depot a while back. If I do another one with this wood, I will probably stain it. Lol
I know its not a pen but this was the chest I made and the color I was hoping for.
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Jim15
Member
They look great.
gtriever
Member
Good looking pens, Bobby. I've looked at Cedar in the big box stores in the past, and have never been satisfied with the quality. Now if I want Cedar I go to the For Sale section here at IAP or to a reputable Hardwoods supplier.
KLJ
Member
Very nice pens. I don't know what finish you put on the cedar, but might try putting some oil to bring out the color, I made a outdoor bench of cedar and the color wasn't much until I put General finishes outdoor oil on it and it turned out like your chest. I have put BLO on before CA finishing, looking forward to seeing some of the many more.
All I did was wipe it with denatured alcohol and put 4 coats of wipeon poly. I really think it was more the quality of the wood. My chest was only polyurethaned also and it came out with great color. I'm not the best with wood knowledge, but thinking there must be different kinds of cedar. The cedar I built my chest with was from my late uncles saw mill. Now that was some pretty boards right from the git go. Lol I have WTF and also some teak oil, maybe I'll experiment with both on another scrap piece.
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KLJ
Member
I still have a lot to learn about wood knowledge as well, there is different kinds of cedar, and with the type the chest is made of the white parts are the outer parts ( sap wood) what I usually hear it called but that might not be the proper name.
StanBrown
Member
Here is a lamp I made from the aforementioned tree. Both pieces came from different sections of the same branch. It is finished with several coats of polyurethane which definitely brought out the color. I'm hoping I can get the same effect in a pen. My plan is to make a Slimline pen using some of the same wood but without the clip and attach it to the lamp base with a pen funnel.
You might find the switch arrangement of interest. I had to drill two long holes which intersect inside the lamp, one all the way through top to bottom for the bulb and one through the side branch for the switch. I had to run the wiring from the bottom of the lamp post up to the top for the bulb, and run a wire up the "branch" at the same time for the switch. Then I had to make the connections inside the lamp to conceal the wires. It got a little hairy but I finally made it work.
Hutch9022
Member
I've used cedar a couple of times. It is real fiberis (if that's a word). I sand down with MM and then CA. I get my blanks from a local cigar shop for free. Cigar companies put blocks of cedar inside cigar box's to help flavor cigars. Most cigar shops throw these away once they open a new cigar box. The blocks are normally the perfect size to turn a pen and if you are lucky you will run across a few that have some spalting.
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Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
Nice job! I love the looks of cedar.
eharri446
Member
The cedar that you can buy at home depot is not the Eastern Red Cedar, or Aromatic Red Cedar that you used to build that beautiful cedar chest with. That is why you did not have the colors that you were looking for.
You can get pen blanks of that wood here: Aromatic Cedar Pen Blank - WoodTurningz
You can get pen blanks of that wood here: Aromatic Cedar Pen Blank - WoodTurningz
different cedars
There certainly are several different types of cedar. From the looks of the chest pic, you used western red cedar for that. The heartwood is where the color lies. The sapwood is very light colored and softer than the heartwood.
It looks to me that the pen may have been turned from eastern white cedar. While the eastern version has a lot of very interesting details, it does not contain the red of its western cousin. It frequently has some nice knots, though.
Also, because cedar is soft, I recommend that you do not try to turn it all the way but to finish it by sanding. The fibers get raised with the chisel and must be cut off with sand paper. I get mine close then shape it with a 220 grit and quickly go to 320. From that point on you can treat it like any other wood.
There certainly are several different types of cedar. From the looks of the chest pic, you used western red cedar for that. The heartwood is where the color lies. The sapwood is very light colored and softer than the heartwood.
It looks to me that the pen may have been turned from eastern white cedar. While the eastern version has a lot of very interesting details, it does not contain the red of its western cousin. It frequently has some nice knots, though.
Also, because cedar is soft, I recommend that you do not try to turn it all the way but to finish it by sanding. The fibers get raised with the chisel and must be cut off with sand paper. I get mine close then shape it with a 220 grit and quickly go to 320. From that point on you can treat it like any other wood.
Exactly what I did. It was real soft and I wound up finishing with 400 grit and then smoothed with 800 and 1000.
Glenn McCullough
Member
Nicely done, don't stop now! You're getting there!