kyaggie
Member
Howdy all,
On some thread here on IAP, I saw a reference to ancient Kauri wood so I did some Googling and became really entranced with wood from a 1000 year old tree that has been buried for 50,000 years in a peat bog. So I ordered a board from <http://www.ancientwood.com>, a 6"x1.75"x20" that I could cut down for pen blanks or maybe a bottle stopper or two. The board arrived Friday so I made these two rollerball pens (they are sitting on the board from which they came). I figured that a pen made from 50,000 year old wood shouldn't be concerned with how long the hardware plating would last so I decided to use a Hancock kit from Woodcraft (via Laserlinez) that is solid stainless steel (and made in the USA). I'm really happy with how they turned out. The stainless hardware is very nice and the chatoyance of the wood is really amazing (as can be seen by the color variation due to the angle that the light from the flash hits the wood). It's not as much grain character as most of the wood that I use but it certainly makes up for it in its age and history. I kinda felt guilty turning a lot of the blank into chips and sawdust.
I hope you like them,
Mike
On some thread here on IAP, I saw a reference to ancient Kauri wood so I did some Googling and became really entranced with wood from a 1000 year old tree that has been buried for 50,000 years in a peat bog. So I ordered a board from <http://www.ancientwood.com>, a 6"x1.75"x20" that I could cut down for pen blanks or maybe a bottle stopper or two. The board arrived Friday so I made these two rollerball pens (they are sitting on the board from which they came). I figured that a pen made from 50,000 year old wood shouldn't be concerned with how long the hardware plating would last so I decided to use a Hancock kit from Woodcraft (via Laserlinez) that is solid stainless steel (and made in the USA). I'm really happy with how they turned out. The stainless hardware is very nice and the chatoyance of the wood is really amazing (as can be seen by the color variation due to the angle that the light from the flash hits the wood). It's not as much grain character as most of the wood that I use but it certainly makes up for it in its age and history. I kinda felt guilty turning a lot of the blank into chips and sawdust.
I hope you like them,
Mike