Prehistoric pen

[Ancientwood]

Hi all,
I've had this on the casting and stabilization forum getting advice and help from other members, but it's complete now so I thought I'd share it here. Hope it's not poor etiquette to have it on two forums...

I work at a diamond mine in Canada and from time to time we manage to recover some mummified wood from the orebody that was deposited in the forming rock mass when the diamond bearing volcanoes were erupting 55 million years ago (give or take 600,000 years) because of the unique way the ancient trees were emplaced in the craters, the wood didn't get mineralized (petrified). I managed to get permission to take a small piece home that I was able to stabilize with Cactus Juice and eventually turn into this pen. I opted not to cast it after stabilizing because the character of the wood is really in the texture and voids. To top it off, I added one of our stones to the top.

Unfortunately I'm writing from a mobile device so I can only add one picture per post, so bare with me... The first pic is of the wood after it was excavated, unfortunately, most pieces are destroyed by the blasting, but this one managed to be free dug from the weaker rock (sorry, I was holding the camera upside down)

 

[Ancientwood]

This is a pic of some wood in one of the underground tunnels. Not able to recover this piece. The reason I'm able to date the wood is because the last volcanic eruption in the area was 55 million years ago

 

[Ancientwood]

The end result

 

[Ancientwood]

Second view

 

[Ancientwood]

Last one.

 

[hornet406]

Amazing. So if it isn't petrified, does it still turn and cut like wood? or should i saw fresh wood???

 

[leaycraft]

Wonderful work. Very nicely done.

 

[wright_714]

That is pretty damn cool. Nice pen.

 

[Crashmph]

That is an awesome story with the wood. Nice work. You should try to make a another with much nicer components to match up with the awesome history of the wood.

I would love to get a blank of some wood like that.

 

[healeydays]

Hi Steve,

Nice looking wood and pen. How deep in the mine was the piece found?

Mike B

 

[Ancientwood]

Amazing. So if it isn't petrified, does it still turn and cut like wood? or should i saw fresh wood???

Before stabilization, it cuts like compressed charcoal, very fine cuttings for the most part. The few pieces I had cut weighed 198 grams before Cactus Juice, and 293 grams after coming out of the toaster oven. I only had it in the vacuum chamber for about 10 - 15 minutes before it imploded, so the porosity of the wood is very high

 

[Ancientwood]

That is an awesome story with the wood. Nice work. You should try to make a another with much nicer components to match up with the awesome history of the wood.

I would love to get a blank of some wood like that.

Yeah, I definately agree with you on the components. The truth is that I really didn't expect it to work. I like the Mont Blanc style, definately suits the diamond in the top, so if I get a chance to do more I'll get higher end hardware. Any idea what the very best European/Mont Blanc hardware is?

 

[Ancientwood]

Hi Steve,

Nice looking wood and pen. How deep in the mine was the piece found?

Mike B

This one is from around 270m below surface, but we have samples in drill core from over 600m down

 

[Katya]

Why not chat with Mike Redburn? He makes amazing silver components for pens. That material is certainly worth it!