First Multiwood Piece

[Nort_13]

This is my first pen with multiple types of wood. It's finished with boiled linseed oil and contains, from top to bottom, red cedar, canary wood, zebrawood, walnut, bloodwood, maple, and purpleheart. It's my favorite pen I've ever made, and for just starting to turn things last April, I think it's not too bad. The lines are kind of crooked because I don't have anything to level the pieces with on the drill press, I just hold it and hope, but other than that, I love it.

 

[Flintski22]

This is my first pen with multiple types of wood. It's finished with boiled linseed oil and contains, from top to bottom, red cedar, canary wood, zebrawood, walnut, bloodwood, maple, and purpleheart. It's my favorite pen I've ever made, and for just starting to turn things last April, I think it's not too bad. The lines are kind of crooked because I don't have anything to level the pieces with on the drill press, I just hold it and hope, but other than that, I love it.

Looks nice! And cheers to being a new turner, I started last February.
Bloodwood is so nice to turn.

 

[Nort_13]

Looks nice! And cheers to being a new turner, I started last February.
Bloodwood is so nice to turn.

Thanks, It's my favorite wood type. How do you recommend getting wood? I used a site called Ocooch Hardwoods, and I was able to get a whole bunch of kinds of wood, but would it be better to buy boards instead and cut them?

 

[egnald]

Nice looking pen -- and what a variety of woods! - Dave

 

[Flintski22]

Thanks, It's my favorite wood type. How do you recommend getting wood? I used a site called Ocooch Hardwoods, and I was able to get a whole bunch of kinds of wood, but would it be better to buy boards instead and cut them?

I actually got a ton of wood from my grandpa who used to be a woodworker, so most of my wood came from boards from him.

But when I go to buy wood, I'd 100% recommend checking out exoticblanks.com as they have all sorts of wood at good prices. You can get a purple heart blank for under 2 bucks which is pretty wild. They also sell bloodwood and lots of other pretty wood as well as burl which is gorgeous. I got my first piece of burl from them and I'm hoping to turn it this weekend.

 

[leehljp]

Multi-wood blanks are usually called "segmented" blanks or pens. Very visual and adds distinction to otherwise plain vanilla.

If you have a chuck for you lathe, you can "chuck" your blank between the chuck and tail stock live center. If it is centered well, (takes a bit of experimenting) then turn pull back the live center and using small touches or bites on the end as it turns, that will "square up" the end with the blank. It takes a bit more time but the squared up ends and segments really jump out and scream "experienced" or "professional."