Lucky Find in Lowes

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JohnGreco

JohnGreco

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Joined
Dec 9, 2011
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740
Location
Sewell, NJ 08080
While in Lowes one day I was cutting through the aisle with their wood. I looked up and saw this beauty just sitting there waiting to be found! Curly Oak with pith running the length, I fumed it for ~24 hours after turning it. Put it on a gun metal slimline and am pretty happy with the result. I have some more, would love to hear suggestions on what kit you think it would look good on.

Thanks for looking, feel free to C&C.
 

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Your Lowe's must be better then mine....the only way I'm going to find anything OAK in there is if I bring it in with me, or rip a corner off a pallet stacked with cement!


Nice shape on the body of the pen, it's shape still lets us see the 'curly' but not overly so.







Scott (lucky find) B
 
John, it is ironic that you mentioned finding that at Lowes. I scored a great find of oak dowel rod that was figured much like your piece. Since then, no matter what else I went in for, I always make time to browse the dowel rod bins. The two best sections are oak and walnut in 3/4" diameters.
 
Nice find, made a beautiful pen. Great curl and the 2 tones adds great contrast.
I find the big box dowel racks are full of unknow woods from the far east most often now, occasionally I find a nice piece of wood, but not very often. I have had better luck at small hardware and lumber stores.
 
The interesting thing is, that kind of wood is generally not high on the list of people shopping at Lowes, because they're normally looking for straight-grained lumber rather than stuff with curls and knots, which makes better turning wood.
 
Lowes seems to have plenty of curved and knotted wood even their first choice stuff!!! Thats why they keep it banded so it looks straight but when the bands are cut look out!!!
 
MAXX said:
JohnGreco said:
I fumed it for ~24 hours after turning it.
Click to expand...
Pardon my ignorance, but I am just starting out. What does the comment "fumed it" mean?

Thanks - MAXX
Click to expand...

Fuming is a simple process used to darken oak and other woods with high tannic acids. The completed piece is placed in a chamber with strong ammonia, and left for some time until the ammonia fumes react with the tannic acid. The longer the wood is exposed the darker it will get, to a point. The same applies to the strength of the ammonia. In the case of oak there is little tannic acid in the sapwood and that is why John's pen has a high contrast between the two. Many of the old oak Mission, Craftsman, Stickly pieces of furniture were fumed to stain them. When fumed, the oak looks grey but when a varnish, shellac, or other yellowish finish is applied the wood looks a dark brown.
 
That is a nice find. I never thought about that either. Next time I stop in I am going to have to look. I think the pen turned out nice. I bet it would look real nice on a roller ball.
 
I used to think that buying wood was like dating the fat girl in High School. You settled because you had a need but don't want to tell anyone about it. :)

You pen defies that rule. Nice job!
 
Curly said:
MAXX said:
JohnGreco said:
I fumed it for ~24 hours after turning it.
Click to expand...
Pardon my ignorance, but I am just starting out. What does the comment "fumed it" mean?

Thanks - MAXX
Click to expand...

Fuming is a simple process used to darken oak and other woods with high tannic acids. The completed piece is placed in a chamber with strong ammonia, and left for some time until the ammonia fumes react with the tannic acid. The longer the wood is exposed the darker it will get, to a point. The same applies to the strength of the ammonia. In the case of oak there is little tannic acid in the sapwood and that is why John's pen has a high contrast between the two. Many of the old oak Mission, Craftsman, Stickly pieces of furniture were fumed to stain them. When fumed, the oak looks grey but when a varnish, shellac, or other yellowish finish is applied the wood looks a dark brown.
Click to expand...

How strong of ammonia? The 5% stuff you get at the grocery store, or Anhydrous, or somewhere in between?
 
Thanks folks :)

GoatRider- I used simple store-bought ammonia, but gave it the 24 hour soak because it is only the store bought stuff. I've seen people get equally good results from 4 hours of more potent ammonia.
 
GoatRider said:
How strong of ammonia? The 5% stuff you get at the grocery store, or Anhydrous, or somewhere in between?
Click to expand...

The household ammonia can work, it will just take a lot longer.
(days, weeks?) depending on the wood. You can order ammonium
hydroxide and use that (usually 28-30% ammonia). The ammonia
gas will escape from it and fume the wood.
You can usually find stronger ammonias from chemical suppliers.
If you can find anyone who has a blueprint copier, they'll likely
have some around (and since they probably don't use them
anymore, they might beg you to take it away since they won't
have to pay to dispose of it)

If you do use household ammonia, some people will wipe it onto
the wood and cover it overnight, repeating 2-3 time depending on
the results. If you do it this way, you will raise the grain.. so some
of the effect may be lost when you do your final sanding. With the
fuming method, final sanding is done before the fuming, since it
doesn't raise the grain.
 
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