Sumac pens

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jimr

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Clarksville, Arkansas.
William, here are a couple of pens out of sumac. As I said before I screwed the one on bottom by using the wrong tip bushing. Bet I will never do that again. Sumac is pretty nice wood. I particularly like the little knots in the top one. I try to find trunks with those in it now. I have a few small trunks drying and they should be about ready, although these pens were done with pretty green wood and no cracks after several months.

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tipusnr

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Nice pens. I see what your talking about on the lower pen however I think that the fact that none of the metal pieces meeting wood on the same level makes it look like a design feature and not a mistake. I'd use it!
 

William Young

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jimr;
Thanks for posting that.
Sure is nice looking grain. For the cut in rings design on the bottom one , is that done just with a parting tool? and how do you make them black like that?

I just cut some smaller branches and then cut them down to 6" lengths. The ones I cut yesterday had too big a pith area in them.
The ones I just cut are oozing white sap out of the ends already. Guess I better wait and check them month to month to see how they are drying.
W.Y.
 

jimr

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William, the black lines are wire burns. It is really a very simple addition. I like to cut a small groove with the point of a skew. Then burn the lines black. I ordered a set of three steel wires with large wooden balls attached to allow a good grip. Each wire is a different diameter. Turn the lathe on very fast and hold the wire in the cut groove. I have to wrap the wire around the pen as much as possible. You will see it start smoking and learn very quickly how much pressure to apply on the wire and how long to let it burn. It takes some pressure but different woods burn very differently. Very simple but a nice design trick. Any steel wire would do but they do get VERY HOT, so be careful.
 

William Young

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Thanks for that information.
I am an acoustic guitar player, and I always have some used strings that I save for spares but never seem to get used before I buy new ones.
I could practice with different guages on different scrap woods before trying it on a real pen. I could wrap the ends around the centre of 4" or 5" pieces of dowel at each end and twist up with pliers to make a handle to hold it with.
Great tip.
Thanks a bunch.
W.Y.
 

daledut

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Mar 17, 2004
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Swanton, Ohio, USA.
Very nice looking wood. I am going to have to head to my back 40 and get some sumac to try.

For burning I use what we used to call bailing wire. I cut a couple of pieces of 1" dowel to make handles.
 

pen-turners

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Quick Question:

Are the sumac trunks pulpy inside or are they pretty solid??? My parents have about a million of these that take over the yard every year.

Chris
 

William Young

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Chris;
They are fairly solid inside except for a very soft brown colored pith in the centre which gets bigger in diameter in proportion to the outside diameter of the piece. For pens, I beleive the best choice is branches of about 3/4" in diameter. For 10 MM pens, you could go larger and still be able to remove the pith.
On the other hand, sumacs do grow into very large trees around here if left long eneough so I cant say what the "lumber" aspect of them would be from cutting a mature one.

I know what you mean about them wanting to take over the yard. I have a hedge of them a couple hundred feet long just over a bank on the hillside and I keep trimming the tops off but the roots spread into my lawn 20 feet away and new shoots keep popping up only to get mowed down with the lawn mower. They grow like bad weeds where I lie.
W.Y.
 

ilikewood

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Maybe I'm a little ignorant here...is the sumac the same species as the "poison sumac" that can cause rashes when handled? I don't live in that part of the country, so I would be interested to find out.
 

William Young

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Bill;
Poison sumac has red berries that stand upright in the fall. Poison sumac are a greenish white color and hang down. I have never seen the poison species but here is some info on the difference.
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/landscapecolor/a/sumac_2.htm
Sumacs have wonderfull red coloring in the fall .

If you are in Idaho, you are fairly close to where I live. I am just 6 miles north of the Idaho panhandle USA/Canada border.
W.Y.
 

ilikewood

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Unfortunately, I live on the absolute opposite side of the state (more than 600 miles away I believe). We don't have sumac right where I am at. This area is the high desert plains with nothing but sagebrush, russian thistle (tumbleweed), and Koshia weed. [:(]
 
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