Pen Reference? Another thought

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ilikewood

ilikewood

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May 11, 2004
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Location
Twin Falls, ID, USA.
I like Randy's idea of a pen reference chart, but what I REALLY NEED is a complete history/description of all woods that we use.

I try to look up each wood that I sell, but sometimes it is very tedious. I have found several sites that list a bunch, but I know there is a wealth of info bouncing around in alot of the guys' heads here that would be of great use.

I would be willing to compile it, but I would need help from everyone in the forum.

Things of interest:
Species name
Family name
Location grown
Characteristics
Rarity
Dangers/cautions (I know there are guys here including myself that have been bit by certain woods)
Illegal/legal
Etc.

Any thoughts?
 
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I like that idea Bill. The Dangers and Legal/Illegal sections might be a bit problematic, but I'd love to at least know Species, Family, Common Names, Locations Grown, Characteristics, Rarity, and "Misc. Facts" (like the fact that Pink Ivory is reported to have been a favored wood of Zulu kings, in part because of its rarity)
 
Bill,

I get most of my info on various websites...it will be nice to have one central place but it can get really huge! You might want to start with the most commonly used woods for penturning...say 100 of them.

I you are serious on undertaking this...may I suggest you start off from a few good reference sites to collect the basic info, then add more to it rather than re-inveting the wheel.

"Build it and they will come..."

After the foundation is done...we all can add info/tid bits we have that makes the wood special.

What do you think?
 
Sounds good! I already keep a pretty good database, but I sure could use a bunch of other info [;)]

eg. Zulu kings not only favored it, but considered it sacred!
 
Jeff, if we sent you a Excel spreadsheet or word doc, could you incorporate it fairly easily, and then we could send in updates every week or two?

If we can't do that, do we need to Adobe it?
 
Great idea. I would like to see listed in the characteristics section, or maybe a separate category, the conditions that affect pen turning. Things like degree of difficulty to turn, how oily is it, other factors like brittle, cracks easily (snakewood), finishes to avoid (or best finishes to use). I hesitate with some woods because I don't know these things yet.

This would be very helpful to us newer turners.
 
Some place I have run across such a thing and though I had it in marked but can’t find it. I will look but am thinking it was on wood magazine, woodonline or one of those.
Bob
 
As a beginning pen turner a few shavings ago I requesteds a forum of location that would show me what a particular wood migh look like after it was turned.
That would be kind of neat on something like this.
 
Bob (loglugger), I have run into several too, but not to the extent I am looking for. Most had to do with woods for building small projects or some other type of larger projects.

Here at the IAP, we turn the most exotic of all woods because we are able to obtain very small amounts of them, and we are always looking for something new. When was the last time you couldn't find info on a wood? Five years ago, I did some extensive research on Chechen only to find one small reference to its toxic bark....now there is much more, but too late in my case (as a severe reaction was already in full swing). There are other woods too that I have never heard of (eg MesquiteMan and his root from some weird tree he just posted). I am an info freak I guess.
 
Bill,
There is a disk out there, Woods of the World.. rockler has it, but I think I picked up mine at a wood store in Houston.. might be handy .. it's a little cumbersome to navigate, but lots of information.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=1466&gcid=c11135x002-15272&keyword=woods+of+the+world+cd+rom&cookietest=1
 
Thanks Chuck. I did look into that and really considered it, but some info is definitely not there. There are woods being used to make pens here that are not used anywhere else (who else uses sagebrush, corncobs, tabunoki, etc., etc.). I can't believe how creative some guys are now....cactus????

I also have the problem of putting the copyrighted info out there for people to use. Not everyone is willing to put up the money for that disk (especially me...six teenage kids are draining my wallet[:(])
 
Havent tried sage brush yet.. not too much grows in TN.. I'm working on a corn cob and will finish it in a couple of weeks... heading out on road trip for Tgivings and won't be home for while.. I did look seriously at the stems from my pepper plants yesterday.... considering whether I can harden them enough to turn... Jalapeno pens[?][}:)][:p][:p]
 
Originally posted by ilikewood
<br />Jeff, would this be possible? You didn't answer the first time, so I thought I would bring this one back to the top.
Click to expand...
Sorry! I missed this one...

Yes. I'd be happy to post that kind of info.
 
Thats a pretty good one....now if we could just add turning characteristics, health risks, pictures, etc we've got it made!!!

I haven't seen that site before, but it looks like a fairly good initial database.
 
I have a list of about 200 woods that I have used over the years, not all for pens. Just names. It would be quite an undertaking to compile a database like you talk about. You would have no time to turn. It would be nice to have the info in one place if possible. If I need to research wood characteristics I use the books I have plus any website I can find.
 
Russ, go ahead and send that to me. I have several other databases and we are looking to get as many as possible to merge together.

Don't worry, we'll give everyone their credit.[;)]
 
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