Since the rules of the PITH says the pen has to be made from Pine, I went and got some to play with to see how it was to work with. This is also my first attempt at a Herring Bone 360, learned a lot while building it. It is all pine except for the center band which is pick guard. It's on a CSUSA Chrome long click, and has a CA/BLO finish. The LOML saw it and it went from an experiment to a Mother's Day Gift, two birds with one stone. :biggrin:
Comments Welcome, and Thanks for looking.
What...??? I didn't even knew that this years PITH was on, or had the rules set...!
Now, to who ever though in bringing the old whole PINE as the raw material to use this years PITH, thank you very much, has been my claim always that, there are pines and there are pines, but all have a place among woodworkers and turners, even if you only make pens...!:wink:
I should be one of the luckiest persons on heart, when it comes to getting pines woods of various species. I don't have them all, and I only wish that I could get my hands on some of the most "famous" pine varieties but, nevertheless, I can say that I have some of the funkiest, colorful, weird, strange, unusual, etc., etc., bits of pine wood in the world, sort of speak...!:wink:
The 99% of it, all come from a 28 year old pine forest, that I have about 800 meters away from me. This same pine forest has been the subject of numerous threads/post on the Internet forums, including IAP but mostly prior to my IAP time.
All other pine varieties all come from this town and there are a few other that, I may need to wait a little longer as they all seemed to be quite healty and protected by their owners...!
:wink:
The plantation, started as a "Italian Radiata Pine species" but, the very loose sandy soil and extreme humidity from a few under and over ground water springs, not counting a natural swamp only a few hundred meters away, has "changed" a lot of things within the pine tree species. Walking inside this pine forest is like you are in a totally different planet, believe me...!
You find the normal giant Radiata pines but you find also lots of other things that are very strange and unique. The ground is over 1' thick of dry pine needles, absolutely nothing grows under them so, the whole ground looks like a vast brown soft carpet, perfectly leveled.
You then start to look around and you start spotting weird looking pine trees that are all curved, stuck together, and being smaller than the rest of the trees, they also have a different bark. Looking closer, you start seeing even more strange things such as small burls. The biggest I got from there was about 10" diameter, which I totally spoiled them (6 years ago) by making a bowl type container.
If fact, I wasn't into pens then and I was so concern in keeping as much of the burl surface as I could that, on the lathe I totally destroyed it. I started with the wrong shape, then I couldn't figure out which way to go due to its grain so, I kept cutting and re-shaping and more cutting until, I realized that I had reduced to chips/sawdust some of the best part of it. I wish that I left it raw and a side for now...!
Most of the other burls were very small, good for pen blanks tough but I used them for other stuff and I shouldn't have...!:frown:
At the time, I got about 10 cubic meters of pine wood out of there, all as trimmings and cleaning up the "bad stuff" as they call it, then 2 years ago, the forest have had the second main thinning up, the last one as the next the whole thing will be cut down...!
They (people that owns it), left it for too late and the company that done the job make a hell of a mess out of it. The trees were too big for what they wanted (posts) so, they kept cutting the big stuff and leaving it on the ground, to get to the ones they wanted. I never saw such destruction and waste. The 2 guys on the 2 mechanic harvesters were just tree butchers, the whole 3 pieces of machinery that they had there for 2 weeks had still treads like a bulldozer so, they simply "run" over and over on the trees that were on the ground, making a mess out of them. Now, just walking in there is a nightmare and a dangerous one as many trees were damaged from the machines and other trees being pushed by those the machine had in its arm that many have cracks that you can hear moving when is a little wind, many of those trees have already snapped in half, with bits hanging everywhere, not forgetting the ones I saw brake off in the wind when I'm close but not under anymore, damn...!
Oh yeah, I was talking about the Pine wood being the material to use on this years PITH, sorry. I always tend to go to dreamland every time I thing of that place...!:redface:
I will be looking forwards to see all those PINE pens...!
:wink::biggrin:
PS: what about a pen made out of a single pine knot...???
Good luck...!
Cheers
George
