Variations on a theme

[JimGo]

Different variations on a theme. Cocobolo, Walnut, and Lignum Vitae cigar pens, each with their respective heart and sapwoods. I showed off my pens to some family members, and the loved the heart and sapwood combo's, so I've been working on these for them. The Walnut is actually from my father-in-law's backyard. He cut down a massive Walnut and I raided his fire wood supply!

As always, comments, critiques, etc. are appreciated.

Lignum Vitae:

Cocobolo:

Walnut:

 

[alamocdc]

Very nice, Jim!!! [] I love that LV! What's not to like about Coco and that Walnut is sweet! I picked up a piece of Walnut w/sapwood out of the trash bin at the wood shop a few weeks ago. There is some spalting in the sapwood. [] Too much wood, not enough time. [:0]

 

[gerryr]

Those look very nice. Great job.[]

 

[MDWine]

Nice pens all, Jim! (I'm a big fan of your work, anyway, but the HW/SW is marvelous!)

Whatcha goin' ta do when the snow starts flyin?? [] (or should I say now that the snow is flyin'!!!)[]

 

[JimGo]

Michael,
Unfortunately, because of the size of my "shop", I still have to wait for good weather so I can pull everything out of it before I can start working. However, I've started to consolidate a lot of stuff into wheeled plastic bins, which helps in the event bad weather sneaks up on me (as the snow did the other night!). If I can get the rest of my stuff into these same kinds of bins, I'll feel a lot better about working when wet stuff is coming down. As for the cold, well, that's another story. I bought a space heater, and that seems to do a good job of at least taking the chill out of the air, but since I like to leave the door open at least a crack so I can watch my stuff while it's out on my back patio, the space heater isn't able to really heat things up.

So, for now, the rain/snow will stop me from turning, but the cold won't!

Billy, I can't wait to see what you do with that spalted walnut; bet it will look REALLY cool!

 

[pastorbill1952]

WTG Jim, sorry about the snow, but better thee than me. [] You do good work. You probably will not have to worry about working in the shop when the little one arrives. Enjoy it while you can. BTW why do you have to watch stuff on your patio?

 

[JimGo]

Thanks Pastor! I have to watch the stuff because I live in a townhouse, and the back of my property is not protected by a fence. Our property backs onto a walking trail that goes throughout our town, and is pretty heavily trafficed, even in the winter. While I doubt too many people would be interested in pen kits or blanks, I do have to haul out a bunch of other, more appealing tools and things too before I can get into my shop to actually work. Here are pictures of my shop from earlier this year (tool layout and size haven't changed), and the stuff I have to pull out to actually work (which has since mushroomed in size):

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[Draken]

Hey Jim,

Since you are putting stuff into wheeled totes, why not wheel it into the living room (?) so all of your stuff is behind the sliding glass door. Then you don't need to watch it and can heat up the shop area. Also gives you a dry, temporary area to store your items in the event that wet weather sneaks up on you again, just close the shop and go inside until things clear up a bit. []

Cheers,
Draken

 

[JimGo]

Good idea James! We thought about it, but I usually have some Cocobolo dust on the stuff in the shop, and it would be my luck that I'd bring the stuff into the house and the dust would get on the carpet, then we'd somehow wind up getting that dust on the baby. It would also be my luck that the baby will be as allergic to the Cocobolo dust as some of the members here, and we'd have to deal with a very upset baby for a while!

I'm actually trying to convince Beth to let me keep all, or almost all, of the wood inside the house in one of our closets. She's concerned about the spalted stuff (since it's a fungus), but she's agreed, at least in principal, to moving it into the house if there's enough room in the closet. If we can do that, it would allow me to keep the wood in a much more temperature-controlled environment, while freeing up space in the "shop". Hopefully we'll be able to move forward on this either this weekend or next weekend.

 

[Easysport]

Really nice pens Jim. If you have trouble with storage you can send any finished pens to me and I'll take care of them for you.[][][]