Bree
Member
A friend and I hopped on our motorcycles and rode down through the mountains to the little town of Olean, NY. That is the home of West Penn Hardwoods... Rocky Mehta's wood paradise. We got there at 1:00 PM which is exactly when they close on Saturday. I must have looked so forlorn riding all the way from Buffalo that the gal from the office decided to let us browse their new warehouse for some cocobolo.
We didn't have much time and they have a new huge warehouse and I guarantee you that I am taking one full day to go down there during my next vacation! And bringing a lot of $$$ cuz their stuff isn't cheap but they have awesome wood.
So in a very brief visit I scored some pretty nice cocobolo which is destined to make many pens!! I had them cut the boards into 18" lengths which fit nicely in my round biker bag. So here is the Coco porn for your titilation and pre-pen excitement.
The bottom piece was one of their highly figured boards and cost a good piece of change. But it was so wild that I just had to have it no matter what the cost. I was able to score the top 2 at regular price which still isn't cheap but is a little more than 1/2 the cost of the highly figured.
Anyway... they are thick and usable for a pen as large as a Lotus or even a Panache. It's too bad that they have to be cut into blanks because they will never look as dramatic as they do now.
The top one looks even better in person... the darn board looks like Maccassar Ebony with orange bands instead of tan. There's is even more black on the other side of the boards. With that orange and black, it's gonna make some Harley Davidson pens for my biker friends.
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
We didn't have much time and they have a new huge warehouse and I guarantee you that I am taking one full day to go down there during my next vacation! And bringing a lot of $$$ cuz their stuff isn't cheap but they have awesome wood.
So in a very brief visit I scored some pretty nice cocobolo which is destined to make many pens!! I had them cut the boards into 18" lengths which fit nicely in my round biker bag. So here is the Coco porn for your titilation and pre-pen excitement.
The bottom piece was one of their highly figured boards and cost a good piece of change. But it was so wild that I just had to have it no matter what the cost. I was able to score the top 2 at regular price which still isn't cheap but is a little more than 1/2 the cost of the highly figured.
Anyway... they are thick and usable for a pen as large as a Lotus or even a Panache. It's too bad that they have to be cut into blanks because they will never look as dramatic as they do now.
The top one looks even better in person... the darn board looks like Maccassar Ebony with orange bands instead of tan. There's is even more black on the other side of the boards. With that orange and black, it's gonna make some Harley Davidson pens for my biker friends.
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
