Zitan Wood Baron

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Mac In Oak Ridge

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Joined
Aug 19, 2004
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549
Location
Oak Ridge, NC.
It took me four months to get the wood. The piece you see is one of three piece that I had imported from China. Each piece has enough to make two pens and leave a 3/8" wide strip left over.

The wood works and turns quite easily. Takes a great shine right off the tool. Micro Mesh just makes it better. No wonder the Chinese have been using it for centuries as their premier carving wood.

If you figure I can get 6 pen blanks out of the wood that I imported each blank cost me $18.00. Needless to say these blanks will be reserved for some very special pens.

200551518497_Zitan-0013.jpg
 
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Originally posted by penhead
<br />Very nicly turned pen Mac..looks fantastic from here...and the wood is beautiful...

..how close to the color of the wood does the photo show.
Click to expand...

John,
I would say this photo is about as close as possible to the correct color. On my monitor anyway.

I'll make a photo of all three pieces of wood alone and post it here in a little while. Take it outside and use natural light, what litte there is in Oak Ridge today.
Mac

2005515195355_Zitan-0011.jpg
 
Originally posted by penhead
<br />Very nicly turned pen Mac..looks fantastic from here...and the wood is beautiful...

..how close to the color of the wood does the photo show.
Click to expand...

This is the three pieces of wood. The pen is laying on the piece that the blank was cut from. The lower peice has the nicest color but also has some drying cracks in it. I hope I can cut around them and still get two pens. I hate to CA cracks unless there is no other choice, that may be the case with the two pens that will eventually come out of that piece.
Mac

20055152056_Zitan-0015.jpg
 
I can add that the colors that I am seeing are almost identical to what the real wood looks like. Your monitor may not reproduce the color the same way mine does.
 
Sound like alot of work went into this pen before it even got to the mandrel. great presistance, and really makes you think twice before committing any to a project. Nice choice for the one you did.
 
Great job Mac! I'd say that was worth the wait. Is the wood oily or really hard? Just trying to figure how it gets it's natural shine. Generally it is one or the other. How did you come about this wood, or should I say, how would a person come about getting some of this wood? [^]
 
Originally posted by melogic
<br />Great job Mac! I'd say that was worth the wait. Is the wood oily or really hard? Just trying to figure how it gets it's natural shine. Generally it is one or the other. How did you come about this wood, or should I say, how would a person come about getting some of this wood? [^]
Click to expand...

Hard. One of the properties of Zitan is that it will not float in water. This stuff sinks like a rock. No gently floating partialy submerged, just straight down.
 
Your pens are excellent and the zitan looks nice. However, for me, the wood is no more a 'stopper' than many others in appearance. Unless it is really stunning in person it is not something that automatically goes on my personal 'must have' list. As for obtaining it at a reasonable price, I see items, including chairs on eBay that can be purchased for $200.00 to $250.00. It seems a chair could be cut up into a hundred or more pen blanks, bringing the cost per way down.
 
Frank--read the fine print on those chairs on eBay. They are miniatures...dollhouse sized. Typically, chairs of zitan run in the thousands (and sometimes tens of thousands) of dollars. As for the price of the raw material, and thus the pen, it's really a matter of rarity more than beauty, not withstanding that Mac's pen is beautiful.

Check out http://www.zitantique.com/about.html
 
Originally posted by DCBluesman
<br />Frank--read the fine print on those chairs on eBay. They are miniatures...dollhouse sized. Typically, chairs of zitan run in the thousands (and sometimes tens of thousands) of dollars. As for the price of the raw material, and thus the pen, it's really a matter of rarity more than beauty, not withstanding that Mac's pen is beautiful.

Check out http://www.zitantique.com/about.html
Click to expand...

Miniatures? [:I] Well, actually, I was planning on making some real tiny pens. [;)]
 
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