maple gym floor

[its_virgil]

Here are some more pens from the gym floor at my school. The one pen on the left is spalted pecan(not gyn flooring)...the others are maple. All are orders for Christmas...only 24 more. Turned this afternoon. Finish is CA/BLO.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

 

[DCBluesman]

Beautiful pens and wonderful gifts, Don. How do I get on your Christmas list?

 

[dougle40]

ME TOO !!!
Hard to beleive that a gym floor could produce such nice pen wood !

 

[its_virgil]

Thanks guys, but I'm not giving these, I'm selling them to customers for them to give as gifts. Do you still want on the list? Will cost you . Have a good week.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by dougle40
<br />ME TOO !!!
Hard to beleive that a gym floor could produce such nice pen wood !

 

[Randy_]

Did you have to glue up planks or was the flooring thick enough to use without any glue-up??

The grain in some of the pens doesn't look like what I would expect from flooring planks. Is my imagination screwed up or did you do some creative work to get those blanks??

 

[its_virgil]

No glue ups. Nothing wrong with your imagination and I did no creative photo enhancement. What you see is how it is. The flooring is a full 1" thick. Most of the flooring was straight grain but there were random boards of the tiger stripe or curly grain and the birdseye grain. I was told that at the mill when they are running flooring they don't sort out the grain patterns. They just crank out the tounge and grooved flooring. I was lucky to spot the unique boards and salvaged them before they went to the dump with the other 70,000 feet of flooring. I got maybe 400 feet and get 6 slimlines per foot. The gym was destroyed by a tornado back in March.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by Randy.
<br />Did you have to glue up planks or was the flooring thick enough to use without any glue-up??

The grain in some of the pens doesn't look like what I would expect from flooring planks. Is my imagination screwed up or did you do some creative work to get those blanks??

 

[tipusnr]

Great looking pens. I can almost cry when I think of the flooring that went to landfill when there are so many uses for it. Too much trouble to make it available for salvage I guess!

 

[Fred in NC]

Don, very nice pens, and great salvage job. You were wise to save that much flooring!

 

[its_virgil]

Thanks for the comments. The insuranced company would not let people come and salvage the flooring, but I got special permission to get some for making pens for the school and got enough for myself at the same time. The gym was built in 1960 and was our main gym until it was destroyed. I have taught here for 31 years and I have sold about 150 of the pens to x-students who played on the floor. I am giving $5 of each pen to the athletic dept. to help replace lost equipment. All of out athletic equipment was destroyed along with the gym.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by tipusnr
<br />Great looking pens. I can almost cry when I think of the flooring that went to landfill when there are so many uses for it. Too much trouble to make it available for salvage I guess!