Plywood Cigar

[bjbear76]

So what do you do when you have some decent 1/4" plywood laying around not making itself useful? Make a pen from it, of course! I cut 3/4" squares, glued them together and turned it into a pretty nice looking cigar pen with a CA finish. C and C welcome

 

[longbeard]

Looks pretty good.



Harry

 

[Chatham PenWorks]

Looks cool. Reminds me of the stacks leather pens.

 

[skiprat]

That looks great!!

 

[Dan26]

Pretty cool. I'll put that on my list of things to try.

 

[Sataro]

Looks good! Very unique idea... I would never have thought of trying plywood like that.

 

[Rick_G]

I had thought of doing that but decided against it. Didn't think is would look good, I was wrong. I likely would have gone with something other than gold for the fittings though, just for the contrast.

 

[Waggoner]

Pretty cool.

 

[Penl8the]

Hello Bill,

Beautiful looking pen. Do you mind posting more pictures of this pen? Specifically from the "end grain" angle. I have tried plywood before. The end grain seems to absorb the CA more than the "with the grain" side (or part) the blank. In other words, the end grain side seems to be darker.

From what I can see your pen has the same beautiful finish throughout - ie, no darker or lighter side.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bjbear76]

Brandon,

Here are shots showing 4 sides of the pen. When I glued the pieces together, I kept the grain oriented in the same direction. It probably doesn't show up in these pictures, but the end grain is slightly darker, and the opposing sides reflect more shine and depth. As far as the CA, i did not notice much difference between the end grain and the rest of the blank. One thing I did before turning was to apply a liberal coat of thin CA on all 4 sides. I figured I'd need the added support before trying to knock off the corners.

 

[lorbay]

That's pretty cool Bill.
Lin

 

[Dalepenkala]

That's pretty cool looking pen! Cool idea!

 

[Dale Allen]

Nice pen and interesting idea.
I'm assuming the obvious here in that this is not the cheap imported plywood that comes from the box stores.

 

[bjbear76]

Actually, it is Lowes plywood left over from another project

 

[johncrane]

Great looking cigar Bill.

 

[lwalper]

Same problem with some of that colored laminated stuff sold for pen blanks. Some is OK, other turned nearly black on two sides -- completely unusable. Tried different types of wet finishes -- CA, lacquer, BLO -- each with the same disappointing results. I finally trashed that particular chunk of material.

BTW, that's a good-looking pen.

 

[Band Saw Box]

That really cool. I'm going to have to give that a try.

 

[JohnU]

Definitely looks like a higher grade plywood and not as cheap as the stuff I have. Lol. Nice work! I like your choice of plating on the components. It all works very well together. A nice theme... I would think you would have no problem selling these to cabinet maker / custom wood workers and hardware stores.

 

[mredburn]

My first impression was it looked like the leather ringed knife handle. Its a nice pen.

 

[keandkafu]

Bill, great looking pen. Never tried plywood that way, I need to give it a whirl! Pun intended.

 

[vcostolo]

very nice..... I might give that a try!

 

[Marko50]

Man, I like this pen! It's definitely going on my "to-do" list!

 

[BJohn]

I have agree with the majority here. That is a great looking pen.

 

[yorkie]

Okay, that is amazing! Amazing pen from basic wood!!