US Navy Pen 1860 - 1959

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Fireengines

Fireengines

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This pen is made from two woods. The first wood is teak wood from the original deck off the Battleship USS California (BB-44) (1921-1959). The second is White Oak that was recovered from the Boston Navy Yard (circa 1860) that was use to repair Navy tall ships.

I will fully admit the segmentation of the White Oak is way to wide.
 

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Nice pen, the segmentation on the woods looks very nice. I think the combination of woods is the key and you nailed it. Don't be so hard on the pen, it's beautiful and very well
presented.
Mark
 
Very cool. This would be the same California that was sunk at Pearl Harbor, refloated and fought at, among other places, the Battle of Surigao Strait, part of the battle of Leyte Gulf.
 
Yes, the same USS California.

I was lucky enough to talk to a former USS California crew member who joined ship's company in Washington during repairs from December 7. He told me they only replaced a small part of the teak wood deck during refitting.

What a wonderful conversation we had. He was there on Jan 6, 1945, while providing shore bombardment at Lingayen Gulf, she was hit by a kamilkaze; 44 of her crew were killed and 155 were wounded.
 
Fireengines said:
Yes, the same USS California.

I was lucky enough to talk to a former USS California crew member who joined ship's company in Washington during repairs from December 7. He told me they only replaced a small part of the teak wood deck during refitting.

What a wonderful conversation we had. He was there on Jan 6, 1945, while providing shore bombardment at Lingayen Gulf, she was hit by a kamilkaze; 44 of her crew were killed and 155 were wounded.
Click to expand...

Good luck about that deck, since the California was all but completely rebuilt after Pearl Harbor. Pretty much turned it into a South Dakota class BB.
 
Here is the information I received from the Navy Historical Museum concerning the California's deck:

"It would make sense that the deck was patched and not replaced. By the time CALIFORNIA reached Bremerton for her rebuilding, the major sources of teak (Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand) were occupied by the Japanese. What stocks that were already in the supply pipeline were probably ordered for the Iowa and Alaska classes as well as for the large cruiser program prior to 1941 or came from a much smaller source in the Caribbean."
 
That is cool stuff. I love historical wood. There is a web site that sells all kinds of wood that is certifiably historic… Historical Woods of America - Our Mission. Go check it out. When you combine your skill set with wood that is historically significant, you get a masterpiece!
Great Job, beautiful pen!
 
Fireengines said:
This pen is made from two woods. The first wood is teak wood from the original deck off the Battleship USS California (BB-44) (1921-1959). The second is White Oak that was recovered from the Boston Navy Yard (circa 1860) that was use to repair Navy tall ships.

I will fully admit the segmentation of the White Oak is way to wide.
Click to expand...

This is a really cool pen. I like the history behind it. Bravo-Zulu man!
 
I keep re-looking at the pen... And I disagree :smile:! I really like the proportions of the segmentation!

Everyone likes different things, and the artist is the most critical as it "just didn't turn out exactly..."... But others look at it and have a different perspective!

It's GREAT as is!
 
Another pen using the same wood and Liberty pen kit.

This time I used "Wood Turners Finish" instead of CA.
 

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