Hidden Cocobolo Surprise

[Bree]

I was over at the wood store a few weeks ago and they had some short turning blocks they were trying to sell off. They thought they were all walnut and similar woods. One block was very dark and heavily waxed. They thought it was some Claro Walnut.

I picked up the piece and knew in an instant that this wasn't Claro. It was just too heavy to be Claro. I have a bunch of Claro and I know how it feels and looks. This was something else... hard to tell what under all that dark wax.

So I bought it and then I stripped off the wax and milled it. Low and behold the wood was orange and black! COCOBOLO!! Yeah!! Good purchase! I had suspected it was Coco but wasn't sure until I stripped the wax.

So I turned a Sierra out of it yesterday and here is the result.

You can always count on Cocobolo to kick things up a notch!!
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[cnirenberg]

Terrific looking pen, and what a great find. Do they have any more "Claro-bolo"?

 

[Bree]

Terrific looking pen, and what a great find. Do they have any more "Claro-bolo"?

Claro-bolo... That's great! I love it. Actually they might. But I recently picked up 4 good sized cocobolo boards with a lot of action in them. I haven't milled them yet because I might want to use them for other projects. Plus I have so many blanks milled that I am running out of storage space for them!!

I bought 30 plastic shoeboxes to hold blanks and I have filled up half of them.

 

[Roy_Quast]

That is one SWEET looking pen. I doubt it will stay in your inventory very long, weather it is sold or it sprouts legs and walks off.
Roy

 

[jkeithrussell]

I don't get the cost of cocobolo blanks. I have purchased a few boards and shorts to mill my own blanks. The wood is expensive. But the blanks only sell for about $1/each. You can buy a plank of curly maple for $8 or $10 and sell the blanks for $1/per or you can buy the same size plank of cocobolo for $35 and sell the blanks for $1/per. I'm not in the blank selling business -- just an observation.

 

[desertyellow]

Great find!
Great pen

 

[papaturner]

Great find,put to a great use.

 

[rlofton]

Okay, Bree. You need to go back and ask for a refund because it's not claro walnut.

Nice looking pen!

 

[Bree]

I don't get the cost of cocobolo blanks. I have purchased a few boards and shorts to mill my own blanks. The wood is expensive. But the blanks only sell for about $1/each. You can buy a plank of curly maple for $8 or $10 and sell the blanks for $1/per or you can buy the same size plank of cocobolo for $35 and sell the blanks for $1/per. I'm not in the blank selling business -- just an observation.

I too don't sell my blanks... or my pens. But I can tell you that I wouldn't sell any of my Cocobolo blanks for a buck. Heck... I would keep them for myself if that was all that I could get for them. Cost is close to or equal to a buck a blank. There is no profit to selling them for that price.
:frown::frown::frown:

 

[rjwolfe3]

Looks very nice!