strawberry wood pen

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MedWoodWorx

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First of all i would like to apologise for this simple pen and mediocre photos. I know its like a child's work compared to others shown here. Anyway the point is not the pen per se but the wood used. The scientific name is arbutus unedo,(in some places is also called strawberry tree, in Greece is called koumaria) is a hardy, extremely slow-growing shrub that produces small fruits. The picture is not much but you can see the subtle grain patterns. I ll be back with better pictures, promise!
 

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I had a similar issue with a pepper tree branch that broke and blew down in our backyard. I cut and turned a small piece to see what it was like, and it was beautiful. I cut the rest into pen blanks, put candle wax on the ends, and left them to dry for six months.

When I turned a pen from one of the blanks, the beautiful colors appeared. Then they turned off, leaving a mostly bland pen. I had not turned my test piece as thin as a pen, and it made a difference.

Pepper Tree Duraclick EDC Pen and Original Test Blank.JPG
 
penicillin said:
I had a similar issue with a pepper tree branch that broke and blew down in our backyard. I cut and turned a small piece to see what it was like, and it was beautiful. I cut the rest into pen blanks, put candle wax on the ends, and left them to dry for six months.

When I turned a pen from one of the blanks, the beautiful colors appeared. Then they turned off, leaving a mostly bland pen. I had not turned my test piece as thin as a pen, and it made a difference.

View attachment 322393
Click to expand...
maybe it's because i used ca glue as a finish that preserved the grain pattern (?). Sometimes you can never tell how a wood will "evolve" in time (especially with uncommon woods) but that's the beauty of it i suppose. I think (and also practice it, dunno if it's really working or if it's my idea) that using shellac, no matter what is the finish, can tone the grain of the wood. cheers
 
MedWoodWorx said:
it's a jazz bolt pen bought from ukpenblanks. it's a well made, one-piece kit that i will certainly buy again!cheers
Click to expand...

@MedWoodWorx . . . . Thanks for the info . . . I rather like that pen kit and would like to try

Here's a link to the Jazz Bolt pen kit at . . . ukpenblanks . uk . co . . . . However, I don't see an instruction sheet ( probably no big deal ! )

www.ukpenblanks.co.uk

Jazz Bolt Pen Kit - Click Action | Pen Turning UK | Pen Kits

Jazz Bolt Pen Kit, platings, gold, chrome, copper, gun metal, satin nickel. Jazz pen turning kit for pen turners, wood turners & pen makers UK
www.ukpenblanks.co.uk www.ukpenblanks.co.uk


EDIT :- I found the instructions at a separate portion of the website. . Here's the link to the instructions :

Jazz-Bolt-Click-Pen-Kits-Assembly-Instructions.pdf

drive.google.com drive.google.com
 
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MedWoodWorx said:
maybe it's because i used ca glue as a finish that preserved the grain pattern (?). Sometimes you can never tell how a wood will "evolve" in time (especially with uncommon woods) but that's the beauty of it i suppose. I think (and also practice it, dunno if it's really working or if it's my idea) that using shellac, no matter what is the finish, can tone the grain of the wood. cheers
Click to expand...
In this case, the colorful wood simply turned off the lathe, leaving the plain wood that was around the pith. The finish did not make the pretty colors in the wood go away; it was the turning tools. :-(

The pen in the photo was finished with Hut Crystal Coat, a friction polish with alcohol, shellac and carnauba wax. I do NOT recommend it.

Most of the time, I use a CA finish (GluBoost). Sometimes I choose an alternative, because I have found that CA finishes can turn very dark woods to solid black, hiding the subtleties and grain of the wood. Examples of pen blanks where CA finishes turn the pens into solid black for me include very dark rosewoods and that dark bog oak.
 
penicillin said:
Most of the time, I use a CA finish (GluBoost). Sometimes I choose an alternative, because I have found that CA finishes can turn very dark woods to solid black, hiding the subtleties and grain of the wood. Examples of pen blanks where CA finishes turn the pens into solid black for me include very dark rosewoods and that dark bog oak.
Click to expand...

Thanks for these comments, @penicillin .

I have had the same experience ( rather recently !! - I posted about this ) with a not-so dark rosewood . . . ( Honduran Rosewood, I believe )
 
penicillin said:
In this case, the colorful wood simply turned off the lathe, leaving the plain wood that was around the pith. The finish did not make the pretty colors in the wood go away; it was the turning tools. :-(

The pen in the photo was finished with Hut Crystal Coat, a friction polish with alcohol, shellac and carnauba wax. I do NOT recommend it.

Most of the time, I use a CA finish (GluBoost). Sometimes I choose an alternative, because I have found that CA finishes can turn very dark woods to solid black, hiding the subtleties and grain of the wood. Examples of pen blanks where CA finishes turn the pens into solid black for me include very dark rosewoods and that dark bog oak.
Click to expand...
did you use wood from a branch or from the trunk?
 
Very nice pen Mike. I believe most blanks have some nice qualities and can be turned into an attractive pen. This is certainly true here - subtle, but attractive; and the unique timber is an added element.

Thank you for sharing. đź‘Ź đź‘Ź
 
penicillin said:
In this case, the colorful wood simply turned off the lathe, leaving the plain wood that was around the pith. The finish did not make the pretty colors in the wood go away; it was the turning tools. :-(

The pen in the photo was finished with Hut Crystal Coat, a friction polish with alcohol, shellac and carnauba wax. I do NOT recommend it.

Most of the time, I use a CA finish (GluBoost). Sometimes I choose an alternative, because I have found that CA finishes can turn very dark woods to solid black, hiding the subtleties and grain of the wood. Examples of pen blanks where CA finishes turn the pens into solid black for me include very dark rosewoods and that dark bog oak.
Click to expand...
bog woods are tricky
https://www.wood-database.com/bog-oak/
The extremely low oxygen conditions of the bog protect the wood from normal decay, while the underlying peat provides acidic conditions where iron salts and other minerals react with the tannins in the wood, gradually giving it a distinct dark brown to almost black color.
 
MedWoodWorx said:
did you use wood from a branch or from the trunk?
Click to expand...
MedWoodWorx said:
bog woods are tricky
https://www.wood-database.com/bog-oak/
The extremely low oxygen conditions of the bog protect the wood from normal decay, while the underlying peat provides acidic conditions where iron salts and other minerals react with the tannins in the wood, gradually giving it a distinct dark brown to almost black color.
Click to expand...
It was a thin branch from a very large tree. I found it on the grass after we had high winds. See the attached photos. I can't believe that I took photos of the tree and the branch, but for some reason, I did.

Yes, bog oak is tricky. It is very dry and brittle. When you turn it, it smells like charcoal. Turning bog oak gives a kind of gritty feel like you might imagine if you tried to turn charcoal.

I like to make bog oak pens because the wood is thousands of years old and has an interesting story behind it. That makes the pen extra special for the gift recipient.

Photos:
* Brazilian Pepper Tree in Our Backyard
* Windfall branch from that same tree, which I made into pen blanks. The turned test sample also comes from the same branch. For scale, the small squares are 5-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches and the largest rectangles are 8-1/4 x 11 inches.

Brazilian Pepper Tree.JPG Brazilian Pepper Windfall Branch.JPG
 
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penicillin said:
It was a thin branch from a very large tree. I found it on the grass after we had high winds. See the attached photos. I can't believe that I took photos of the tree and the branch, but for some reason, I did.

Yes, bog oak is tricky. It is very dry and brittle. When you turn it, it smells like charcoal. Turning bog oak gives a kind of gritty feel like you might imagine if you tried to turn charcoal.

I like to make bog oak pens because the wood is thousands of years old and has an interesting story behind it. That makes the pen extra special for the gift recipient.

Photos:
* Brazilian Pepper Tree in Our Backyard
* Windfall branch from that same tree, which I made into pen blanks. The turned test sample also comes from the same branch. For scale, the small squares are 5-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches and the largest rectangles are 8-1/4 x 11 inches.

View attachment 322405 View attachment 322406
Click to expand...
that tree looks majestic!wow!, well i suppose you removed all the cambium and after that the wood was different. bog wood is not technically wood anymore, of course it's interesting cause it's really old but behaves in a totally different manner than ordinary wood.
 
magpens said:
Thanks for these comments, @penicillin .

I have had the same experience ( rather recently !! - I posted about this ) with a not-so dark rosewood . . . ( Honduran Rosewood, I believe )
Click to expand...
i hope there is a chemist among us who could answer why this happens, i mean it is because of the tannins, the oil in the wood reacting with ca or smthing else...?
 
sorcerertd said:
I like it. Simple is not a bad thing. That looks like one of those woods with some chatoyance that's hard to show in pictures and I really like that kit, too.
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if only i had polished it better..it was one of my first ca finish attempts and i sanded it to 2000 grit aprox. i didn't know about micromesh then...i have another blank of this wood which i ll use when the pen kits i ordered arrive. cheers
 
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