Cwalker935
Member
So it's not always about turning the best looking pen, in this case it's about turning a very difficult material for a special reason. Here's the story, last year before his stroke Dad conspired with his preacher's wife to steal the preacher's hiking stick. He cut 6" off of it and asked me to make a pen. The preacher was mystified as to how his stick suddenly got shorter. The stick was prickly ash or "Devil's Walking Stick" and has a large very pithy center. I told Dad that I couldn't make a pen from that. In cleaning up my shop this past weekend I found the cut off piece in a bucket of end cuts. I decided to try to stabilize it and turn it. Dad has been down lately and really perked up when I told him that I was going to give it a try. That really put the pressure on me to make it work. I drilled a hole in it in the hope that I could stabilize the center. Even after stabilization it was still very soft in the center. I managed to get one turned on my second attempt. I left the contour a little fat because I was so afraid of getting into the pithy center. Dad is going to be thrilled to give to the preacher.