Leyland Cypress pen question

[Drstrangefart]

I was at work attacking some leyland cypresses with a chainsaw. I noticed a lot of branches could very well be used as blanks. Dad's worried about not seeing much personality because we'd be basically squaring some of them, then drilling and turning down the length. The branched died and dried on the tree. They are ready to go. I wanted to see if anyone else tried this, and had a possible example. I'm excited to try it out, but it will be a bit of a wait.

 

[1080Wayne]

Why bother squaring a small branch ? Drill it , tube it and turn it ! Best character will be where a side branch joins giving a bit of crotch figure or a knot , or an area where the branch has suffered some physical damage and recovered from it . Sometimes a drooping bend will give some curl , or an opportunity to get heartwood/sapwood color contrast that looks a bit different .

 

[DCBluesman]

Cypress is usually very bland. Cypress knees can have a little more color and figure.

 

[Drstrangefart]

Why bother squaring a small branch ? Drill it , tube it and turn it ! Best character will be where a side branch joins giving a bit of crotch figure or a knot , or an area where the branch has suffered some physical damage and recovered from it . Sometimes a drooping bend will give some curl , or an opportunity to get heartwood/sapwood color contrast that looks a bit different .

A lot of areas aren't quite straight. Close, but not quite. I don't intend to square anything but the largest couple of branches, and there a few damaged areas and knots and such. Hope it isn't TOO bland.

 

[srf1114]

Try it, what do you lose a couple hours work, since it is already dried.

 

[Drstrangefart]

Exactly. Probably gonna turn a chunk before we go to the effort of drilling & tubing it. Curious about how it's gonna turn out.

 

[reddwil]

I have made several pens out of leylands. Cut your blanks from the parts of the trunk where the branches come off. You can get some very nice grain and character

 

[sbwertz]

Why bother squaring a small branch ? Drill it , tube it and turn it ! Best character will be where a side branch joins giving a bit of crotch figure or a knot , or an area where the branch has suffered some physical damage and recovered from it . Sometimes a drooping bend will give some curl , or an opportunity to get heartwood/sapwood color contrast that looks a bit different .

I do this a lot with chinese elm. I use branches about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and drill them at a 15 degree angle from one side of the heartwood to the other. The heartwood in branches this small is usually only about a half inch or less. Branches this small don't have any pith to speak of and the slight angle makes the grain swirl. The edges of the heartwood come and go leaving very pretty patterns.

Sharon

 

[Drstrangefart]

Why bother squaring a small branch ? Drill it , tube it and turn it ! Best character will be where a side branch joins giving a bit of crotch figure or a knot , or an area where the branch has suffered some physical damage and recovered from it . Sometimes a drooping bend will give some curl , or an opportunity to get heartwood/sapwood color contrast that looks a bit different .

I do this a lot with chinese elm. I use branches about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and drill them at a 15 degree angle from one side of the heartwood to the other. The heartwood in branches this small is usually only about a half inch or less. Branches this small don't have any pith to speak of and the slight angle makes the grain swirl. The edges of the heartwood come and go leaving very pretty patterns.

Sharon

I see where you're going with that. I'm probably going to try that first.The cypresses I got the branches from were quite old, having reached past 3 stories tall. They do have a lot of rings, and the center is pretty well defined. I can sand a slight slant in the bottom so I can drill on a slight angle.

 

[1080Wayne]

Probably easier to cut a slight angle using the bandsaw . A good brad point drill is best for drillling when you want maximum control over entry and exit points .

 

[sbwertz]

Probably easier to cut a slight angle using the bandsaw . A good brad point drill is best for drillling when you want maximum control over entry and exit points .

I have a radial drill press so I simply swing my drill press head 15 degrees and clamp the blank vertically then position the brad point bit just to the side of the heartwood. 15 degrees will move the cut just far enough to bisect the heartwood in a 2 1/4 inch blank. You would have to adjust the angle for a longer or shorter blank. I arrived at the 15 degrees through trial and error. Since I have a 60' chinese elm in the backyard, I had plenty of practice materia l:biggrin:

With a non radial drill press, you would have to cut a 15 degree angle on the blank and clamp it tightly under the bit.

 

[Drstrangefart]

I plan on forming the angle I want on the bottom, we have a number of ways to do it. Then clamp it down tight in the drill press. I'll try 15 degrees out. See what we get.

 

[sbwertz]

I plan on forming the angle I want on the bottom, we have a number of ways to do it. Then clamp it down tight in the drill press. I'll try 15 degrees out. See what we get.

You could also probably tilt the table 15 degrees. Most drill presses have a tilt table

 

[tool-man]

I am doing more or less what you describe only with some dead cedar branches, perhaps 1" to 1.5" in diameter. The inside is a nice cedar-red in the center, with varying degrees of white sapwood on the outside. There are lots of small inclusions and dead twig nodes in my branches which provide for lots of character in the blanks. I drill them slightly off center to expose more or less of the sapwood as desired.

I noticed a lot of branches could very well be used as blanks. Dad's worried about not seeing much personality because we'd be basically squaring some of them, then drilling and turning down the length. The branched died and dried on the tree. They are ready to go. I wanted to see if anyone else tried this, and had a possible example.