For those that make pine cone pens and pine cone bottle stoppers, what pine cones are best for use??? What do you need to look for??? Where do you get them??? I was looking on ebay and there are many people selling pine cones but I have no idea which ones would be good for either of those projects I mentioned. Thanks for the replys.
One other question would be advisable to cast these in resin before turning???
I find that the best trees that produce good closed cones (around here anyway) are Knobby Pines and Sugar Pines. The knobby pines tend to have a softer inner structure with more yellow to beige highlights, while the Sugar Pines are more woody in nature (requiring at least one tool sharpening per session) and have lovely dark brown and chestnut colors.
When you go out looking for closed cones, expect the final blank to be 3"-4" shorter than the entire cone after you cut it down.
You will find sap inside cones that have not dried for more than 2 months. If you let the cone dry thuroughly, then the sap will dry inside creating lovely amber pockets.
I've got a large batch of both types of cones ready to cut, I'll post pictures in the classifieds section when they're ready to go.
Here's an example of both types of cones and their uses:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=36932