Tree limbs as pen blanks

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Doug Jones

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Jan 9, 2004
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27
Location
Crawfordsville, Indiana, USA.
I have a willow tree and one of the limbs (about 1" diam.) hung low and was a real pain to mow around so I cut it off. I threw the limb in my little brush burn pile. It sat there for a day or two then I thought that it might make a decent pen. So I cut about a 12" long piece off the limb and its now sitting in the shop.

Can I (or anyone) cut off a limb of a tree and use it as a pen blank?

Thanks for any info, Doug
 

Daniel

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Joined
Jan 1, 2004
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5,921
Location
Reno, NV, USA.
As long as it is large enough I would not see why it could not be used.
a couple of experience and learned things though.
I read it is not good to turn wood from the center of the log or limb. i had done this once before and was having all sorts of problems withthe grain peeling oof the turning. don't know if that was any part of the problem but when I read the info about not turning from the center of a log it brought this to mind. also the wood will need to dry and will crack on te ends. coating the ends will help stop the cracking.
 

tipusnr

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Joined
May 15, 2004
Messages
1,692
Location
Reynoldsburg, OH, USA.
I did some limbs from my peach tree. I let them sit in the brush pile for 6-9 months before cutting and them just used my band saw to cut them down the middle and, again, set them aside for a month then turned them for pens. The blanks twisted a little during the final drying but otherwise had no problems.
 
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