Wood Info Cards

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Daniel

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one of the kit suppliers used to have info cards all set up and ready to print for a few woods. I usually find info from palces like the u.s. forest service web sight. where you can enter a common name for the wood. but to actually end up at anything for info card use could sometimes be a little tricky. I will enter te name of the wood. when the forest service page comes up it will have a google search button at the bottom of it. this button usually leads to lots of usable comments etc.
at first it was alot of searching and rewriting but now I only have to look up a new wood every once in a while. anyone got anyhting for Hawthorne. got a log today that promises to have some nice burl in it.
 

PensofColor

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Fenton, MO, USA.
Hi, Mark. I have a file that I downloaded from Penn State...I can send it to you. Or I can try to find a place here in the forum to upload it so everyone can get to it. It is a list of 12 different woods...not everything, but it will get you started.

Sheila
Pens of Color
 

Scott

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WOOD DESCRIPTION CARDS!!!

I think it would be a good project for us to develop a good set of wood description cards and post it on this site. I'm willing to put a lot of it together, but I will need help from all of you! So lets get started:

What would be the best format? I'm think of Microsoft Word format, laid out in the template for printing business cards. You can get sheets of micro-perf business cards to print in your own printer, and this seems to be a size that would allow a pretty good description. Another option is PDF format. You'll notice that we post the articles here in PDF. What do you think?

How many different species of wood should we try to have cards available for? There are a lot of different woods we make pens out of! Maybe we should start generating a list.

Is there a way you would prefer to have these written? Some people would be happy with the facts about that species of wood. Others want to include an interesting fact about the wood. What do you want?

It's about darn time somebody put together a good set of wood fact cards!

Scott.
 

jeff

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Count me in, of course. [:D] I generally prefer PDF over DOCs for the virus-proofness of the PDF, but folks would probably want to modify them, so maybe DOC is better. Perhaps even text files, or a database. I can integrate something into the forum or create a separate "wood info" area of the reading room.

I like a photo of the wood and the tree, some info about typical uses, a little "engineering data" for the geekish types, and info about the country of origin if that can be pinpointed for a specific blank.

There are dozens of wood-info sites around the net, but copyright issues should be considered. Judging by the similarity of some of the sites, they've already hijacked a lot of stuff between them, so the ownership might be fuzzy at best.

Anyone who has some data they'd like posted can email it to me at admin@penturners.org and I'll get it posted.
 

Mark Hulette

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In a brief search, I found this site but as Jeff mentioned, not sure about copyright. It's got a lot of info including the "geekish" stuff!

http://www.exotichardwoods-northamerica.com/index.htm
 

Scott

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Hey Mark,

That is a good site! But that's way too much information for a little card! There is a wood collector's association, I can contact them about wood descriptions, and make sure it is information we can use without being accused of theivery!

But we still need some opinions on the format, and what kind of information and how much we want. Like Jeff pointed out, PDF is probably safer, but Word format would be more flexible.

Scott.
 

Daniel

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I have mountains of info in a word file. 196kb
but it is mostly sstuff you need to sort throug and then write up soemthing out of it. soem has alredy been edited by me. but not all. i do it one wood at a time as i make my pens. then I print them on business size cards.
anyone interested in this file just e-mail me
 

jenamison

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It's amazing the information that you discuss on here. I was just playing around with that very thing the other night. I did look at PSI's website for the information cards that they have, but it appears that they need to update the list of information. There is a lot of woods that are more popular now that are not on there. I was trying to find a way to make it narrow enough that it could lay in the box with the pens. I thought that it would be a nice touch. However any format would be great and then I could lay it out differently if need be! That would be awesome! Please let me know if there is anyway that I can help. We are just getting started so I am thinking of every marketing idea possible.
 

Daniel

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I still think this idea needs to be followed up on. A word format works best for me wnem trying to shuffle the file around or the bits and pieces of it to actually print the cards. tech info would be first on my list with interesting info about the wood being a close second. if the tidbit is interesting enough I will forgo the tech info.
 

Scott

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OK, then lets get started on this project!

Lets start with a list of wood we want cards on. You can send those lists to me at scott@penturners.org . Think in terms of wood you have used in turning a pen in the past six months. You could also post lists here, but I will compile all the lists in a week or two, and we'll post it for everybody to check over and add to.

Next, we need to agree on a format for these info cards. I propose as one option that we format it to fit on a standard buisness card size. It is easy to find these cards to go in your printer, and the size is convenient - small enough to fit in most pen boxes, and large enough to contain a respectable amount of information. What other options do we have?

There is also the question of Word files or PDF. Word files are more flexible, and could even be edited by the individual. But I understand that Word files are more susceptable to viruses. PDF files are more secure, and look great, but are not as flexible.

Then we need to decide what information will be on the card and how it is presented. What I propose here is that we have the common name of the wood at the top, centered. Under that the scientific name, smaller and in italics. Under that facts about the wood - hard data type. On the other side we would have the same information at the top - the common and scientific name. Under that we would have interesting facts, history or a story about the wood. This way, when both sides are printed, you have the best of both worlds. But you could also choose to print just one side or the other, depending on what suits you. Is there any objection in having the name of our organization at the bottom of the card?

OK, lets get those lists coming in. And please jump in with your opinion of what you think would be nice!

Scott.
 

chgrjim

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Poway, CA, USA.
Just a thought, what about an information card with some general info about burl? A lot of people I know, who like my work, recognize the wood name but don't know what burl is. And maybe one about curl. These cards could be added to the corresponding wood card for a burl or curly wood pen.

JIM
 

Scott

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Jim,

That's a good idea! Spalting and stabilizing would be other good definitions to include. Any other suggestions, anybody?

Scott.
 

Daniel

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here is something I just found real quick. I have seen better out there though.
Burl describes the presence of dormant buds in a live tree. These dormant buds create a sunburst effect in the wood when the wood is quarter sawn, as shown in the sample to the left. The sample to the right, displays how burl appears when flat sawn. Dormant buds contain all the genetic information to grow new wood tissue. Why they are created by the tree, and remain dormant is a mystery. Some experts believe they are formed due to injury or disease, while others believe it is genetic. One thing is for certain, the effect these dormant buds have on the appearance of the wood after it has been sawn, is truly a thing of beauty. For centuries burl wood has been considered a prized possession. Trees are like oysters, not every oyster produces a pearl, not every tree produces a burl. The greatest demand for burls in the wood market today, is for use as veneer. These veneers adorn many of today's most expensive automobiles, and are also used in production of fine custom built furniture.
 
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