First of Many Spalted Maple Burl Pieces

Thanks to a Christmas bandsaw gift from my bride, this is the first pen I've made going from raw domestic wood to finished product. The start-to-finish process is so much more gratifying! I hunted down a burly maple tree at my father-in-law's (I'll include some pictures of the tree--> and the burl piece he retrieved from the top that had fallen out of the tree--> then the blanks--> all the way up to the pen). You all know how it goes, you never know what the wood looks like until you crack that piece of open. And even then, you don't know what the blank looks like until you turn it down. Needless to say, I picked what I thought was the ugliest in the blank bunch to see how the wood would hold up and I was shocked at the beauty of this wood and its character. Normally I like bouncing around different woods but I would happily turn all this wood consecutively because each one will be noticeably unique!

At first glance, I would have thought that was olive wood. The spalting and character is wonderful. Can't wait to see the rest of those turned.

That tree has a lot of burls. Bet there's a lot of character to reveal. By the time you get to some of the lower burls, you'll probably be casting them into hybrids, too.

Free wood!!!! You can't beat it with a big stick.

That is a beautiful pen. Well done!

NICE! It is always interesting what we might find in our own back yard.

Here is the second in the series of spalted maple burls.
Believe it or not, this one was not stabilized and I only had one blowout (while barrel trimming). Otherwise thin CA did the trick at "poor man's stabilizing" since I'm impatient about getting to the rest of this wood. The second pen I ever made (a cherry rollerball like this one) is my "every day driver"...but since I recently dismantled it to try and redo it, I might claim this one as my new carry-on.

Great looking pen.

Like it great piece of wood and it looks fantastic

Here's another, this one with a "kiss" of blue, courtesy of Kevin (@KMCloonan)