Chit's letterwood

[Woodnknots]

Here is a pen made from chit's letterwood. I blew one blank drilling it, and decided that I would drill a long blank not quite all the way through, then cut to length. that works better. I also used water to cool the bit/blank while drilling. That also seemed to help. This stuff finished beautifully!! I MM'd to 12k twice, then beall buffed it. That's it, nothing else. So far, no cracks, but I thought I might have heard something while I pressed in the clip. Not sure, could just be my paranoid imagination! Either way, can't beat the blanks for $5!! Thanks, Chit!
Comments/critiques welcome!

 

[chitswood]

Nice to see the wood being put to good use[]
Glad it worked out, I'm afraid the only snakewood I have access to now would cost you guys 30 a lb, if your interested - I'd have to pull in another whole stock though, and were already full up to our necks in the ebony (which we need to make $6,000 in 15 days to pay off!)
I can get tons of letterwood blanks if there is a demand for them - just let me know guys, I can pull wood from out of my ears when there is a demand![)][][]

I still got Jim boyds snakewood baron pens, they haven't cracked yet[] Thanks Jim!

Beautiful pen! letterwood doesn't get proper credit because of snakewood[}]

 

[chitswood]

BTW if you didn't get extra blanks in that order I made a mistake, I'll add the substitute free blanks in the next order. -Darick

 

[thetalbott4]

Dave - What did you think of the color and figure of the material? It looks good from the pic, but whats your impression in person? Is it nice enough to warrent the extra time you spend being careful not to crack it?

 

[Woodnknots]

Originally posted by thetalbott4
<br />Dave - What did you think of the color and figure of the material? It looks good from the pic, but whats your impression in person? Is it nice enough to warrent the extra time you spend being careful not to crack it?

Absolutely! It's very pretty wood, in fact, in some ways I like it better than snakewood.

 

[chitswood]

Its certainly more affordable, which makes mistakes easier to bear.

 

[JimGo]

The mottled look to the wood is pretty neat! I love woods that you don't really need to finish, too! I may have to go back and get some more Letterwood; I only hope my pens look even half as good!

 

[Pipes]

Originally posted by daveturns05
<br />Here is a pen made from chit's letterwood. I blew one blank drilling it, and decided that I would drill a long blank not quite all the way through, then cut to length. that works better. I also used water to cool the bit/blank while drilling. That also seemed to help. This stuff finished beautifully!! I MM'd to 12k twice, then beall buffed it. That's it, nothing else. So far, no cracks, but I thought I might have heard something while I pressed in the clip. Not sure, could just be my paranoid imagination! Either way, can't beat the blanks for $5!! Thanks, Chit!
Comments/critiques welcome!


I see Beal buffed a LOT on sites ! Now today alone I spent 8 Hours buffing wood briar pipes and plastic lucite and rubber stems so I think I know a thing or 2 about buffing ! well maybe not BUT what is Beal buffing ?? is that a thing from the company ?? I only got about 10 or 12 buffing wheels going in my shop depending on the day and what Iam doing ! I never did any beal buffing ! What is it ???
By the way very nice pen looks a LOT like snake wood to me ....






http://affordablepipes.com/

 

[JimGo]

Try here Pipes:
http://www.woodcraft.com/search/search.aspx?query=beall+buff

 

[Pipes]

ahh I see said the blind man ! a little kit thing for a lathe !! looks decent IMO I see were someone making pens would LOVE it !! PITA for me ! But I do production buffing big diffrence ! Thou I think I could dig around and put it all in a pile just as good for about 45 bucks maybe less !!wheels and all ... I do buff a LOT thou I went thru 10 or 15 lb's a just white diamond last yr I use it and green the most never RED trip to nasty and don't cut fast enough for me ! But most guys would lose control a green and make a BIG flat spot quick []

 

[alamocdc]

Looks good, Dave. Keep us posted on the cracking. I got some that I haven't had time to get to just yet.

 

[OSCAR15]

LOOKING GOOD ![)]

 

[jdavis]

super job

 

[Woodnknots]

There is a very small hairline crack about 1/8" long at the very top of the cap. I think that it may be from the sound I heard when putting it together. I found it today when looking at the pen under a really good light. You can't see it unless you REALLY look hard, and you get the light to reflect JUST so... So far, the rest of the pen is very stable, which in itself is unusual for me with snakewood. By now I'd usually have several hairline cracks, and within about a week, I'd see much larger cracks forming. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated.