Historic Wood From My Old Ship

[cwolfs69]

This is a piece of Teak taken from the main deck of the USS Vulcan AR5 during her decommissioning in the 1990's. She was commissioned in January 1941 and served continuously until her demise. Lead ship in the Vulcan Class Repair ships. Quite a record in WWII. I had the distinct pleasure of serving on her from March 1975 until May 1979. A friend of mine worked on her in 1992 and knowing my history removed a piece of the deck for me. She was the 3rd ship in the US Navy to bear that name. Well i started cutting some of it up today to make some special pens. hope they turn out okay. I think im going to try to stabilize some of it and seeif it makes a difference. the center was pretty solid but the edges and almost powdery in places.
i may have a few extra blanks after if anyone is interested. I would be glad to make a COA if needed. ill let you know.

 

[StephenM]

Wish I could get a piece of the Missouri. My dad served on her just before Korea (Marine).

 

[Justturnin]

Wow that is great. I really hope that works out for you. The wood looks solid. If you look to get rid of any I would be proud to have one of those in my personal collection. Some of those parts look like they would make a great "worthless wood" canidate to minimize loss. Congrats on that and I cant wait to see the pen that comes from that.

 

[jasontg99]

Charley,

I may just take you up on that and stop by and grab a blank or two. Who knows, we may be neighbors!

Jason

 

[cwolfs69]

Wow that is great. I really hope that works out for you. The wood looks solid. If you look to get rid of any I would be proud to have one of those in my personal collection. Some of those parts look like they would make a great "worthless wood" canidate to minimize loss. Congrats on that and I cant wait to see the pen that comes from that.

ive got a small bucket full of the edges and such to use as worthless wood when im done.

 

[paintspill]

cool. i made a couple of fountain pens from a piece of the bluenose II the woods not fancy. but of course thats not the point.

 

[Crashmph]

Serving in the Navy for 10 years... I would love to get a blank or few. Even the worthless ones. Love the heritage pen blanks like that.

 

[tjseagrove]

Our ship has an association and I bet yours does too...maybe sell a few pens through the association.

Tom

 

[cwolfs69]

FIRST TURNINGS FROM TEAK WOOD

well here is the first turning from the Vulcan Teak wood. Man, 50 years out in the weather on an ocean going ship, that stuff is hard as H*** to turn. Like cutting glass. Had to sharpen the tool about every 5 minutes. Almost decided to only put light coat of wax on pen due to its inherent durability, but went with CA finish in the end. Very dark when turned. Beautiful graining but hard to capture with camera. Its even hard to see in person. But any way, here are the pics of the first one on a Jr Gent II fountain pen. Looks good to me, how bout some comments.

 

[Justturnin]

Who would have thought? What a beautiful pen. You did an amazing job on that and the finish is tops.

 

[Jon-wx5nco]

You did good! I thought as old as that wood was and with its exposure to the elements (salt water) that it would be brittle. Now you will always have a piece of your ship with you
Jon

 

[Rick_G]

That turned out great. Gotta love wood with history behind it. Teak is one of those woods you need sharp tools to start and have to sharpen often while working with it. I was given some from a Norwegian sailing ship and found it much like you described, yet my father gave me some he had been carrying around for 50 years (an extra set of table legs) and when I turned it, no shavings just powder. Both finished nicely though.

That one's a keeper for sure.

 

[Mariner1]

I love the pen. I have been trying to find a way to get a piece of wood from a submarine, but keep hitting a brick wall. Tried to contact puget sound naval ship yard where they scrap them, but am still hitting a wall. Wish i still knew some of the guys on the boats, but they have either retired or just got out. Oh well, keep on trying.

Karl

 

[randyrls]

I found these ship patches near the bottom of the page.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/25/2505.htm

I believe that HUT has logo pens, I don't know if they sell blank ones, a pen with the ship's patch on the clip would be treasured by anyone that served aboard.