Cypres Wood For Pens?

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Status
Not open for further replies.

William Young

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
447
Location
Wynndel, British Columbia, Canada.
Someone from Tenessee sent me a nice boxfull of cypress wood. Some is big enough for turned boxes and a few larger projects and some pieces are 3/4" thick and just right for turning pens. There are no cypres wood trees were I live and I have never even seen a piece of it for sale around here. It has some pretty coloring.
The grain is predominent but also faily straight . Perhaps I should cut the blanks on an angle to the grain?
Are there any surprises I should look forward to with turnig this wood? I had never seen it before this arrived let alone turned any of it.
W.Y.
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad

William Young

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
447
Location
Wynndel, British Columbia, Canada.
Here is a picture of it. The one with the coarse grain on the left , I will just cut into 3/4" x 3/4" strips and it might make some interesting looking pens if the wood will be suitable at all for turning.. For the straight grained one on the right I will try some cut straight and some on the bias. I want to send the person that donated the wood a gift made from it .
I am busy with some orders for large fretwork clocks and some large lathe turnings at the moment but I want to get around to trying this wood as soon as possible. When I do, I will post a picture of how it turned out.
Thanks rifleman for your comments. It doesn't sound too promising for this wood.
Thanks for any suggestions and/or experiences anyone here has had with this wood.
W.Y.

Cypress.jpg

W.Y.
 

wdcav1952

Activities Manager Emeritus
Joined
Mar 18, 2004
Messages
8,955
Location
Montgomery, Pennsylvania, USA.
William,
I have turned a fair amount of cypress, as well as cypress knees. The grain is rather plain, and the wood is relatively soft, but I have never had any tear-out or breakage. Cut cross grain it livens up some, and also cut at a 45 or so degree angle looks good. I turned most of mine upon request as a Louisiana souvenir. Amboyna it isn't, but it has its charm. There are a couple of cypress knee pens on page two of my album, not my best photos, I'm afraid.

Hope this helps,
 

William Young

Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
447
Location
Wynndel, British Columbia, Canada.
Mac;
Your picture taking capabilities is fantastic. Those look great. What is cypress "knee" ?

My curiosity was getting me about that cypress wood that was sent to me in the mail . I wanted to see how cypress wood turns because I had never even seen a piece before this.
It turned real good. No problems at all . I started after lunch and then part way through there was a 2 hour power outage and I went back at it after that.
The grain in those three actually shows a lot better than what it does in the picture.
Centre bands from top to bottom are pink ivory, purpleheart and aspen.
Excuse my poor picture taking, I find pens to be among the hardest things to photograph properly.
I tried scanning them and the grain pattern was stunning but they just showed dull with no gloss at all. So I went to plan B and used my camera.

W.Y.

3%20Cypress%20Pens.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom