Catalpa Click Top Sierra's

[W.Y.]

I delivered one of my catalpa 102 year old tree wood bowls to the owner of a local newspaper at noon today. He wants to bring a photographer to my shop and take pictures of me at the lathe and write up a newspaper article . I took some pen samples of previous made pens of wood and other materials and he asked if I could make one from catalpa wood. Of course I said it would be no problem .
Came home and made these two after lunch today.
He said he preferred the click top Sierra style of pen with the fatter barrels so I think he will choose the top one when I deliver them both to show him.

After seeing my work he paid for the bowl and also paid in advance for the pen he will be getting.

I have a lot irons in the fire right now but eventually I will be offering some catalpa pen blanks in the WWF Buy/Sell board.
Sanded to 600 grit then six coats of BLO/CA and polished with one One Step Plastic Polish then wax

 

[papaturner]

Congrats on your stardom:biggrin:......btw awesome pen.

 

[bitshird]

Really beautiful pens William, I tried your tutorial on You tube, and while I like the way the finish looks, I can't quite get the gloss that you do, but it certainly makes the wood look real.

 

[ngeb528]

Those are amazing, William. I've never heard of that kind of wood. Does it go by another name, that I would recognize?

Nancy

 

[Dalecamino]

Congratulations on your notoriety . Very nice pens displayed here .

 

[tim self]

I've got 3 of those trees in my yard......might be time to cut one down! Very nice pens BTW.

 

[toolcrazy]

Beautiful pair.

 

[johncrane]

Very nice work William!:biggrin:

 

[W.Y.]

Thanks for the comments.
The newspaper article will be probably two or three weeks away yet because I finally got a moisture meter and have discovered that some of the wood is up around 30% moisture. Fortunately the piece that I made the first few bowls from was down around 8% and it dried out as I was turning and sanding.
I finally got around to chainsawing the bunch that I showed earlier into usable turning blanks. Should be enough for at least a dozen bowls and maybe some small boxes and Tea light holders and a variety of other things as well as easily several hundred pen blanks .
I will be rough turning some bowls real soon and giving them the DNA treatment so they will be dry enough to finish turning in a couple weeks .
30% moisture is actually low compared to some other kinds of green wood that sprayed moisture on me while turning. There is no air borne moisture in this wood at all while turning.
Those two pens shown in this thread came out of a piece of crotch wood and I gradually nuked them down to practically zero moisture.


Nancy.

Those are amazing, William. I've never heard of that kind of wood. Does it go by another name, that I would recognize?

Nancy

.
Catalpa is the right name for the tree. You could google for some info on it. Those trees have nice blossoms in the spring and grow long bean pods during the summer.
The town has saved a bunch of the seeds from that tree.

 

[JohnU]

Very nice pen and great story. Last summer I lucked out and scored several large pieces and burl off of a catalpa that was being cut down in the middle of my town. It was the biggest tree I had ever seen and only wish I had gotten a picture of it. I think it is probably the best find I ever got.

 

[Nick]

Very nice pens and photos, Is there a way you could post the article and photos when it comes out?

 

[W.Y.]

Here is an article about the tree so far.
Local artisans were given a chance to get some of the wood. Every stick of it was gone in the first few hours . I have pictures of what I got of it in my Woodworking Friends site along with bowls etc that I have already turned. .

http://www.crestondaily.com/catalpa.html

Some of the local tree huggers wanted to chain themselves to the tree so it wouldn't get cut down but it was old and dangerous . The town didn't want to be held responsible for anyone or any property getting hit if It blew apart in a strong wind.

 

[leehljp]

Nice pens and great grain.

I have some square Japanese gallon size jars that I made into canisters by turning some tops from catalpa - about 16 - 17 years ago. That was my first foray into turning. I still get comments on the grain and the chatoyance of the Catalpa.

I have 2 or 3 six foot boards left. Looks like I need to pull them out and make some pens!

 

[Ligget]

William are you signing autographs yet or would I need to go through your manager? lol
Brilliant pens with and outstanding finish, you da man!

 

[Jim15]

Great looking pens, very nice blanks.

 

[Rangertrek]

Those are some nice looking pens, the wood is beautiful.
There is a tree at my mother-in-laws yard. I think I will be getting out the saw!!

 

[workinforwood]

They look real good Bill.

 

[Hillbilly]

William do you plan on selling any of those blanks,
If so....I CALL FIRST DIBBS!

 

[W.Y.]

Yes, I will be posting probably about 100 blanks in small batches in my Woodworking Friends buy Buy/Sell board for the benefit of my own members first and then probably in a couple other sites if I have some left over.
I expect to have at least 100 for sale after keeping my own stash of them.
I am in the process of drying some now and I am going to treat them all with wood hardner before selling them. It is one of the softer hardwoods so I feel that would help quite a bit . The ones I showed earlier in this thread were stabilized with thin CA after I turned them down close to the bushings but not everyone likes to do that so the wood hardner should help quite a bit. That wood is very light in weight when it is totally dry. About the same weight as cedar. I am out of Minwax Wood hardner at present and can only find it when I go over the border into USA . Will probably be there again some time next week.

 

[Stick Rounder]

Very nice. Beautiful pens.

 

[VisExp]

Beautiful grain and finish. I like the match to the gold hardware best.