Knurl GT with Pommelle Sapele, Rollester with Curly Mango, and a Stratus Click with Blue Mahoe. These are my first pens with any of these kits and I'm really happy with the results. The Sapele and Mango both have a lot of curl, which my photos don't do justice. And the Blue Mahoe has an interesting green color that is both unique and very pretty. All of the wood is from a guy in Puerto Rico, I'm not positive but I think that it was all harvested there or nearby as well. I spent a lot of time checking with calipers to get them turned the best I could. I'm a little disappointed that the Knurl GT has a haze in the finish on the clip that I didn't notice until after assembling. Other than that I am really happy with the kits, all were easy to turn and assemble.
Woods from Puerto Rico
- Thread starter Dehn0045
- Start date
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Herb G
Member
Pomelle Sapele comes from Africa, AFAIK.
Nice pens my friend.
Nice pens my friend.
Jim15
Member
Great looking group of pens.
Thanks Herb, I still have a lot to learn when it comes to lumber. I do know that the forest of Puerto Rico was nearly completely wiped out by the early 1900s (down to about 5%). It has since recovered, but has done so with a large number of non-native species. This article talks a little bit about the history of the islands forests and the species present. I am pretty certain that Blue Mahoe (native to Jamaica and Cuba) is cultivated commercially on the island, so the blank I got was probably from the island. It looks like mango grows on the island too, so that one possibly as well. As for the Sapele, I think you might be right, in my limited searching I couldn't find any evidence of it growing in the carribean.
keithncsu
Member
While there on a cruise back in January I decided to make a pen for our awesome head waiter who said Puerto Rico was his favorite port. Knowing that I would not be able to bring back a raw block of wood on the boat, we started looking for wooden items we could buy. Ended up finding a large pestal and mortar set made out of Cedar from the island. The shop keeper confirmed that it was local vs the other one we were looking at that was imported. I bought only the pestal (if that's the mallet portion) and was able to bring it back with no issues. Then cut it up into a pen blank size, made his pen, and shipped it to him on the boat.