Pen blank grades

[rincewind03060]

I see a lot of ads for wood pen blanks, both here and on other sites, which refere to the "grade" of the blank.

I've seen "grade A", "grade B", "Medium grade", "Premium grade" and "Trim grade" as well as others.

Is there really a grading system that has meaning or are these just made up on the fly?

 

[bitshird]

Nothing other than the sellers opinion, some have very exaggerated opinions of their wood, especially on eBay, most sellers here are great and stand behind their goods.

 

[RussFairfield]

These "grades" are in the eyes of the beholder. There are no rules.

 

[wdcav1952]

Bob, what Ken and Russ said!

 

[fyrcaptn]

graded blanks

Yep to what they said.
LOML bought some grade a blanks off ebay for me. What a wonderful thought!
the grade a I think must have meant they were really blanks. Sadly they were just that blank. little if any figure and most of that of course turned out by the time the blanks were sized as it ran shallow.
pictures pictures pictures.... read the small print all too many on ebay and such use generic pictures and are a lot are even marked somewhere picture shown may not be the product you will receive.
save time, trouble, aggravation and buy from reputable dealers
there are many on this site that stand behind what they sell

 

[Daniel]

I've posted the walnut burl as grade 1,2 or 3 or something like that. In my case the grading is.
1. at least some knowledge of what sort of grain would be preferable in a pen. This would not be true from the run of the mill wood seller. They are not being dishonest but grade 1 wood for a table top is not grade 1 wood for a pen.
2. a comparison of one blank to any other blanks from this same lot of wood.
so grade 1 in my case is the best of the best I have while grade three is the worst, or pieces with the least figure in the grain etc.

Finally in the real world of wood grades are specific and definable. it has more to do with moisture content, clarity of the grain and finishing of the lumber. an example is finish grade lumber or also known as clear lumber does not have any loose knots, checks, splits or other imperfections. none of this would be relative to pen blank or the grading of them. other lumber grades would be something like CDex plywood which means one side of the sheet is grade C while the other is D the (ex) means it is rated for Exterior use. Just keep in mind that any decorative wood will be graded with an end use in mind. I have wood that will make killer peppermills but would be nearly useless for pen blanks.

 

[clthayer]

I am a lumber grader. People pay me GOOD MONEY to grade their lumber. I use NHLA grading rules. These are the only hardwood lumber grading rules that I know of.

When you see people talking about grades in pen blanks they are talking about "figure,"when I say figure I mean curl, birds eye, crotch and others. I do not believe that there is any standard. Just what the seller is calling their "Grade A" or "Grade A+++++."

It all depends on how much you TRUST the seller.

 

[altaciii]

For my money, the blanks and materials bought here, from IAP members seem to be better quality but better priced. I have yet to have a problem with the stuff I purchased from my peers here on the site.

 

[tbroye]

I much prefer to buy the wooden pen blanks here instead of at Woodcraft or such. I have bought a lot of wood the past 6 months from a veriaty of people here and it has all be good and with good prices.