Natural Box Elder?

[BobBerk]

Well, I'm taking my next step in pen turning. Going from the twist type ballpoints to some nicer roller balls, Starting with the Jr. Gent II.
While I was down at Rockler picking up the stuff for a Jr Gent kit, decided to get a nice blank for it as well and this piece of Box Elder caught my eye. The blank was labeled as "Box Elder Natural" so I don't believe that it's dyed. but the blank has a lot of red in it(as you can see below). Is that normal for Box Elder? and anyone know what causes it?
Either way, the blank and finish turned out wonderfully, and couldn't be happier with the grain of this blank. Well worth the $7.

Thanks,
-Bob

 

[hunter-27]

It appears to be an exceptional piece of "natural" box elder burl. I assume it was labeled as "natural" to seperate it from the "stabilized" burls they might have. Great looking blank. Here is a pen I did from a "similar" blank.

 

[TellicoTurning]

Bob,
Box Elder will get a fungus that causes the red stain... called a flame..
sometimes the flame will be extreme, like yours, and will start at the core of the wood (the pith) and flare out from there through the wood... sometimes it will be just spots and streaks through the wood.... You may also have gotten a piece of box elder burl with the flame... kinda what it looks like.

I have a 10 or 12 ft log that I picked up off a brush pile where the road crew had cleared some wood... my log was about 2 ft diameter at the base and only tapered to about 16 inches at the other end... I thought I was getting a piece of maple until I cut the first cut and realized I had a whole log of flame box elder....

BTW, I hope I didn't hijack your thread... I like what you did with that pen... great looking pen.

I used some of the wood for bowls, a bottle stopper and a slimline pen... I've attached a couple of pictures to show off...

 

[mrcook4570]

Based on the price and the yellowish tint, I am fairly certain that it is a stabilized blank. If so, it will have smelled like acrylic when you were turning it. The natural term means there were no dyes added to the blank during the stabilizing process.

The red color is somewhat common in box elder. Unfortunately, the red will eventually fade to brown in unstabilized wood. However, I do not know how well the color will hold in stabilized wood.

 

[BobBerk]

Thanks for the quick replies. Yeah, I'm pretty certain it is stabilized. I have turned a few stabilized burls before, and the way they cut and smell its very different than the regular wood.

Chuck:I see no thread jacking, more pics always welcome. And I really like that 3rd bowl.:good:

Thanks all for chiming in with your knowledge. Just the info I was looking for. Whole new outlook on fungus ever since I got into woodworking :tongue:

Assembled the pen just now, and I'm VERY happy with it. This will be my personal/advertising pen that I'm gonna be carrying around with me. Heres just a cellphone shot for now, didn't have time to get the photo booth out today.

 

[nava1uni]

Very nice looking pen. Looks like Flame box elder to me.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I'm fairly certain that is a burl piece... I've done some box elder burl and the grain patterns are amazing... I did a couple that were dyed a black over green and the finished pen looked like a monet painting.. (or at least my wife's interpretation).. another with lots of greys in it looked like a thunderstorm.. both almost stopped moving on the table before they were grabbed by customers... The grain pattern in yours looks a lot like the grain pattern in those I did... and at $7 for the blank, I'm sure it was stabilized.

 

[hunter-27]

It appears to be an exceptional piece of "natural" box elder burl. I assume it was labeled as "natural" to seperate it from the "stabilized" burls they might have. Great looking blank. Here is a pen I did from a "similar" blank.

To clarify, what I should have said was it was clear stabilized(natural color) as opposed to color stabilized(dyed).

 

[JohnU]

Thats one of the nicest box elder flamed pens I have ever seen. Great character in that piece. I'd have a hard time parting with it myself. Nice!

 

[BobBerk]

Thats one of the nicest box elder flamed pens I have ever seen. Great character in that piece. I'd have a hard time parting with it myself. Nice!

Well I had planned on keeping it before I turned it. But then when it was all finished, it sealed the deal.