corn cob pen #2

[low_48]

Well the second one only took 20 minutes. Now I don't have to worry about getting enough for my brothers by Thanksgiving. I'm 2/3 there. This was a different variety corn. The cob was white, but the center was red. In fact, it has more red than the other one. This one actually looks abit like fish scales. Let's see, I've got at least 5000 board feet of lumber around here, and now I love turning corn cobs!!!! Oh the irony of it all. Now if I start selling these cobs for blanks, I might make more money on the cobs than my younger brother does on the corn! He might not see the humor of that.

Rich


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[its_virgil]

I've made quite a few of the corn cob pens. Each one seems to be unique. Same corn species and the cobs differ. But, they are cheap enough that if one doesn't look good, part it off and try another. I have people guess what it is and I get a lot of "snake skin". Very unique and fun pens.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by low_48
<br />
Well the second one only took 20 minutes. Now I don't have to worry about getting enough for my brothers by Thanksgiving. I'm 2/3 there. This was a different variety corn. The cob was white, but the center was red. In fact, it has more red than the other one. This one actually looks abit like fish scales. Let's see, I've got at least 5000 board feet of lumber around here, and now I love turning corn cobs!!!! Oh the irony of it all. Now if I start selling these cobs for blanks, I might make more money on the cobs than my younger brother does on the corn! He might not see the humor of that.

Rich


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[WoodChucker]

Rich, the pen looks great. I'm curious as to how old the cob needs to be in order for it to be stable enough to turn? Also, is one type of corn better then another or will any kind work? Thanks for sharing the pic of your pen and keep up the good work.

R.T.

 

[low_48]

R.T.
I just starting walking the commercial corn fields around the edge of the city. I know I went through at least 4 different varieties. My first objective is to find the "runts" and small diameter cobs. If I couldn't find an entire small cob, I picked up two of them so I could use the small end of two different cobbs. You want to find cobs that have a small soft center that is the size of the brass tube. I also broke them open to look for color. I found some that were completely white near the soft center. I thought they would be boring. Others had a lot of color (pinks and reds of course) around the soft center. One variety did suprise me. The cob was completely white on the outside fuzz, but had nice red color around the center. Today they suprised me. I had them dead smooth yesterday, but today both of them have a little texture. WEREN'T DRY ENOUGH!!!! No cracking yet, and I like the texture. I thought they were a little too plastic looking before. I took them right from the field and turned them. They were dry feeling and hard, but I should have put a moisture meter on them. Tonight they will go on top of the furnace duct for a little slow drying. In fact, I'll stick a couple to get a data point on how wet they are. I sure had a lot of fun with these, and they were a big hit at work. The best part? It's sooo easy to drill the center!
Have fun,
Rich

 

[WoodChucker]

Rich, thanks for the explanation! I've been a woodworker for a long time, but I'm new to turning and pen making. Before joining the forum a few weeks ago I had never even heard of a corn cob pen before. There's just something about them that really catches the eye and makes ya look at the detail. Anyway, thanks for sharing not only the pic, but your experience with it as well.

R.T.

 

[Efletche]

I've purchased the 'squirrel' feed corn at Lowes. It works great. I also just purchased a bunch of the colored corns from the grocery stores. After the holidays, I'll take this stuff and turn it. I am curious what the color of the cobs will be when the corn kernals are black, red, and multi-colored. Nice pens there Rich. I also picked up lots of unopened pine cones after the hurricanes. I am curious how the will turn as well.
Just curious though (and I hope I am not being too picky or upsetting anyone by asking) but isn't the grain pattern of the upper half of the pen going in the opposite direction of the bottom half?

 

[low_48]

Edward,
You rat fink. Good eye!!!!!!!!!! You know I didn't even think of looking for that. Can you tell before you turn off the chaff? At first I felt really good about just getting a pen out of the cobs, now I have to look for grain too. I'm not sure I can handle this extra pressure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![]

 

[Efletche]

I did that with my first corn cob pen too. For the second, I marked the cobbs so I knew how to align them, just like my regular pen blanks. I used a fat permanent marker if that helps.