Is this neat or what?

[MikefrMd]

Hi Everyone,

Today I had an older friend visit my work place and he happened to be toting a piece of lumber. Turns out the plank he had was from the wardroom of the USS Coral Sea on which he served back in 1953-1954. He acquired it when they scrapped her in Baltimore back in 90's.

He asked if I would make him 3 pens and he would give me the rest of the wood blanks....I said I would be more then happy to. It appears to be oak which was stained dark. No matter what it should make a neat pen.

I am still relatively new when it comes to pen making having only made maybe 20 or so pens but I will get a kick out of making these pens for my friend.


Mike

 

[Verne]

That's neat!!
Thank him, for us, for his service on the USS Coral Sea too.
Vern

 

[glwalker]

Yes, this is very neat. What fun that would be. Have you picked a pen kit yet? Definately needs to be one that shows off the wood. I'm guessing you will stain to match existing wood. I'd plan on making a few more as I'm sure his friends have friends and more orders will probably come in. Maybe you'll want to get a laser cut inscription put on the pens. Just a thought.

Have fun.

 

[rpearson]

Talk about nostalgia! You should look into laser engraving them to really add value to them. Ken does great work! Sounds like you'll have some fun working on these.

 

[MikefrMd]

Gary,

Thats a great idea....I know he has images and patches of the ships crest....is it possible to duplicate something like that using laser etching?

Mike

 

[ed4copies]

Take a digital picture, email to Ken (at Kalenshaan)
He'll let you know.

 

[BruceK]

That is neat.

On a related note, I got some teak decking from the battleship USS California and made my 90 year old uncle (retired Captain USN) a pen from it. He was an ensign on the California when it was attacked and sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. It was raised and finally scrapped in 1959. He was pretty amazed that anything was left of that ship.

 

[hewunch]

That is really cool. I agree on getting them engraved. That would be super!

 

[thewishman]

Sounds like a great project - have fun!

 

[MikefrMd]

Ed,

I found a Patch image online....I'm going to see if My friend likes it.

Bruce....Wood from a Battleship row Battlewagon is awesome...now that has a story behind it.

 

[broitblat]

That's pretty cool.

I'm sure he'll appreciate the pens. I spent some time on the Coral Sea in the early eighties and just visiting a sister ship (the USS Midway, now a museum in San Diego) a few years ago, was quite the weird trip for me.

I'd be interested in buying a left over blank if you're willing to part with one.

The Coral Sea (and Midway) is actually one of the smaller carriers, built on a battleship hull. Still, her full compliment of men was over 4000 I believe.

-Barry

(Edit: Just to be clear, I was a civilian contractor on board the Coral Sea. I don't want to falsely lay claim to the honor of have served active duty military)