A question on some wood species.

[pshrynk]

My wife owns a local art gallery, where she wants me to sell pens. She also belongs to the local Chamber. One of the things they do is promote the local parks, where there is an historic tree walk that one of the city arborists takes people on several times a month in the summer. She "volunteered" me to make pens out of wood from trees (not necessarily the exact trees) that are on the walk. I looked at them and can't say that I have seen most of these in any list available. Does anyone know if these woods are 1) any good for pens, and 2) available? (I may need to do some midnight requisitioning if everyone really insists.)

Cottonwood
Ginkgo
Douglas Fir
White Pine
Norway Pine
European Larch (The Larch... :biggrin: )
Burr Oak
Crabapple
Kentucky Coffeetree

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm not entirely sure that coniferous wood would be a grand idea, given the softness...

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

Pine can be a pain... It's beautiful when prepared properly but getting the sap out, etc takes time. One trick I've done with norfolk pine in the past is put it in a vacuum jar with a modified tung oil. Kinda stabilized it a bit.

Cottonwood is fairly plain but can be curly. It takes dye VERY well so you can use transtint, etc after turning to make very colorful pens. Or you could stabilize with dye.

Oak works... though the grain can be pretty boring. The crabapple can sometimes have some neat coloring in it. The others, not sure.

 

[Edgar]

All of those are pretty plain woods & can get rather boring to turn after a while.

You can sometimes find oak with some nice grain patterns & I do like turning it occasionally. It usually has a somewhat open pore surface that can take extra time & effort to get a nice smooth finish. I don't have any experience with Burr Oak though.

Cottonwood has already been addressed - also if you can find some spalted CW, that can be nice. It does turn easily.

Ginkgo is a light colored wood, similar to maple in appearance, but very soft. I don't think it's readily available because it's not in high demand for wood working.

Kentucky Coffee Tree might be the most interesting of your list. It can sometimes have nice light/dark brown contrasting colors, but usually not highly figured. It has similar sanding & finishing challenges to oak.

Small limbs from your local trees can be a good source of wood, but they will mostly be rather plain sap wood. Still, if you use limbs about 3/4" to 1" in diameter with some side twig knots, that can add character to your final turned blank.

 

[Dehn0045]

Cross-cut or angle-cut can give plain looking wood some character.

 

[pshrynk]

This would be more of a display of Slimlines with appropriate labels, rather than an ongoing sales item, so boring would be minimalized. Thanks for the advice!

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

You spelled Sirocco wrong in that last post... because that'd be a nicer pen to display...

 

[1080Wayne]

Talk to the arborist . Ask for dead limbs/branches that have been pruned off . All of those woods can give nice pens if you find the proper piece . Look for crotches , knots , insect damage , areas where one branch may have rubbed against another for several years . What you want is a part of the tree that has been under some form of stress for some time .

 

[Wildman]

I would like as much of those wood as can get, agree with others some might seem boring but like already mention cutting blanks on diagonal seems to add some interest. Also coment on reaction-compression wood might hold some interesting figure or grain.

Only thing not mentioned so far is interest in local woods with a story. You some what about species & know where it came from. Another thing is the challenge some of those woods will provide drying and turning without cracking,

Good luck with it!

 

[Marc]

I have dyed and stabilized some cottonwood burls. They look great.

From my prespective, unless the cottonwood is a burl or some other character driven grain, I would not waste time on it.

 

[whegge]

Douglas Fir is surprisingly a beautiful wood to turn. It is very plain from a distance but up close the tight grain pattern is beautiful. Agree with others to try and find a section of crotch or a branch, that will help with the grain pattern.

A few years back the IAP had a pen swap where the pens had to be made out of Pine. Was not an easy job, I picked a Spruce Pine that just flaked apart on me. Alot of CA on the fourth attempt kept it together. I received a fountain pen made out of Douglas Fir. I don't remember who made it but he did and excellent job. I have included 2 pictures. One is a close up of the subtle grain.

 

[pshrynk]

Nice! I like the design, too.