To Everything, Turn…Turn…Turn

One of my staff members retired today and last night, I made him this pen.  This wood is called Bocote.  I’m not sure how you pronounce this word, but I sure like the grain.  The growth rings are quite dark and the wood is a kind of mustard colour.  I wouldn’t want a Dining Room table made of this kind of wood, but it sure makes a nice pen.  I hope you agree.

Jennifer and her Mother gave me, in my stocking for Christmas, a few pen blanks, in anticipation of my new career starting.  One of the blanks was a piece of Dymondwood called Field and Stream.  It is basically a bunch of layers of wood laminated like plywood, but the layers are dyed and the blanks have been stabilized with resin (acrylic?).  Because of the angle of the lamination, I was squaring the blank and was a little too aggressive and the blank broke.  I had to try turning Dymondwood so I used this as an excuse to spend more money at Lee Valley.  I think I should get a part time job there just so I can feed this habit.  At any rate, I was more gentle with this blank and it turned into a pen quite nicely.  Because of the resin, it does smell a bit when turning and it doesn’t seem to come of in shavings like solid wood does (unless I wasn’t turning fast enough?).  It basically chips off, but the finishing is nice and easy because of the resins.  I think I will try my Micro-mesh pads to finish the next one I do.

A colleague of mine, whose wife is a professional woodworker, brought me in some bits of nice wood last week.  Some Oak, and Cherry and, what I think is Walnut.  The strip of Walnut looked really nice so I turned this pen from some of that.  It was quite soft (in terms of hardwood) but turned really nicely, although finishing was kind of challenging.  It has very little figure in it and is quite plain.  I am also surprised at the light colour of the finished pen.  I’m not sure what I would call it, because there is a slight hue of purple in it.  All-in-all I am looking forward to using some of the other wood that Dean and Bonnie gave me.  Thanks guys.

This was a neat project because I had turned Purpleheart as one of my class pens in September.  I remember at the time being rather disappointed that it came out brown.  Well, in the months since, my “class” pen has turned quite purple (bottom of picture).  I gave the new purpleheart pen (top) to Mother and will be checking in with her in a few months to see if hers has turned purple as well.

I turned this pen from Tulipwood.  There are pinks and yellows in the wood and it was quite nice to turn.  I assume though that it had something to do with sharp tools though.  I will definitely try this wood again.

So far I have only purchased Round-Top European Pen kits from Lee Valley.  Turning is an expensive hobby so far.  All of the Lathe accessories are finely machined items and as a result, fetch a hefty price.  Oh well, I hope to start selling pens and such to feed my habit.