Chaos pen

[rfas]

I was just playing today and made a chaos pen. I took cutoff scrapps from making a cutting board and randomly glued them up. Sliced it into 1" wide strips on a 45, flipped every other piece and re-glued. Sliced again in a 45 and re-glued to make a big chaos blank. Today I cut my first pen blank out of it and turned it. Interesting effect! I will be able to get quite a few more pens out of this mess and each one will be unique. Not bad for scraps that I otherwise would have tossed! Woods are maple, cherry, walnut, and purpleheart.

 

[MRDucks2]

I actually would have expected more chaos than showed in the pen.

 

[rfas]

I actually would have expected more chaos than showed in the pen.

I'm sure It'll get more chaotic as I get further into the blank. The chaos is actually there on this one, it's just subtle between the cherry and maple. I should have a lot of fun with the rest of this blank.

 

[MRDucks2]

Keep the photos coming of them for comparison.

 

[sorcerertd]

I'm with Mike. I thought it would look more chaotic, but will definitely be on the lookout for the next pens from that glued up mess.

 

[Kcimdrib]

I made a similar chaos blank a while ago and got very interesting results I'm sure when you cut more the result will be better. But its a bit hit and miss.

 

[sorcerertd]

I made a similar chaos blank a while ago and got very interesting results I'm sure when you cut more the result will be better. But its a bit hit and miss.

For a second there, I wondered why you had it cast in clear resin like that. Then I saw it was just the stand.

 

[rfas]

I made a similar chaos blank a while ago and got very interesting results I'm sure when you cut more the result will be better. But its a bit hit and miss.

I turned one more pen today and, while it looks beautiful, it's even less "chaos" than the first one. I decided to slice the blank and shuffle one more time. A lot of the squares were too large in relation to the tube. I may even do one more pass after this one. At some point I have to worry about too many little tiny squares and glue joints that may not hold up on the lathe, but we will see. This is a lot of fun to play with though.

 

[rfas]

I made one more pass through the saw to get more "chaotic.". I think I've found the sweet spot.

 

[Kcimdrib]

I like it worth going one more time. Don't make to many cuts because as you said you finish up with to many small pieces.
Good looking Pen.