Grape Vines

[winterwood]

Has any one turned a pen from a grape vine? I found a couple large vines out back so I cut them down and am letting them dry down in the shop. I am thinking they may be rather stringy, probably like palm.
Thanks
Dennis

 

[MarkD]

Several have been posted here. This is the first that my search found:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f13/grapevine-zen-120802/

 

[Cmiles1985]

Hereis a thread with a Grapevine Zen. Try searching "grape" and I think there are one or two around.

 

[bjbear76]

I received a pen in a pen swap made from grapevine, along with a grapevine blank which I haven't found the project to use it for yet.

 

[scotian12]

I have made pens from the root and stem portion of the grape vine as it was larger than the vine. These were roots that had died after 15-20 years. They wee twisted and split and about 3 inch in diameter. There was a bit of light and brown shading to the wood and it looked fairly good in a pen form but not spectacular. I had to use a lot of ca on the splits. Turned like normally wood.

 

[avbill]

yes and the growers in Napa love them!

 

[winterwood]

Thanks Bill

Believe it or not this area of Northern NY along Lake Champlain is becoming a popular area for growing grapes and wine making. So with this being said I am going to target wine making craft with pens, bottle stoppers and cork screws.

 

[Jolly Red]

Haven't turned grape vines, but have turned muscadine vines, which is also known as wild grape. Turned a lot like regular wood, with no great problem.

 

[robutacion]

G'day,

Well, there are many types of grape vines, they can look slightly different inside but, you have nothing to fear about working with them, after dry they work like wood and look like wood but, they are not.

The best vine pieces to use are from the very old vines, they are bigger in diameter and have developed lots of "dead wood" which is a normal phenomenon of the vines as they grow. The older fibers die off after a certain amount of time supplying the nutrients to the vine top and new growth surrounds the dead fibers and replace the dead one so, the brown colours that you are after from a vine are all dead wood/fibers the rest is all live fibers that grow in layers.

I got a big bunch of vines a few years back from a very famous local wine producer, there story is here

Enjoy...!

Cheers
George

 

[mark james]

And here is some of George's (Robutacion) Shiraz Vine Cast Blanks!

 

[SDB777]

Be sure to cut them much larger then you think you will need....they shrink up quite a lot due to the amount of 'sap' in them. I still have a bunch I'm saving away for some 'special' pens....

I did not find the blanks to be stringy, just very tight grained awesomeness! The tones and hues are great.





Scott (Arkansas, the home of the grape) B

 

[papaturner]

I`m a bit late Dennis but I have turned pens from Muscadine vines which is a wild grape. I would think it would turn about the same as a grape.
Hope this helps.

 

[winterwood]

Thanks to everyone for your input. I have not turned the vines yet they are still drying down in the shop. I am getting very anxious, I may cut them to pen length today just to speed the drying process.
Thanks Again
Dennis