Thread: Grevillea custom stylus

Brad I admire the inventive centre band,useful and very decorative pen mate. PS I hope to shed my bandages shortly and will join you in making some pens,keep them coming.

Cheers Peter.

.... The timber is a piece of Grevillea that I collected from some small trees that were cleared to widen the road up on Cape York. I call it Pascoe Grevillea, because it was near the Pascoe River that I collected the timber, not sure of its real name.

Lovely work Ironwood! Again showing the beauty of the wood to great effect. Well done!
The wood to me looks more like a casuarina but if you say it was a grvevillea I accept that. (Both have medullary rays like that.)

Originally Posted by Penpal

Brad I admire the inventive centre band,useful and very decorative pen mate. PS I hope to shed my bandages shortly and will join you in making some pens,keep them coming.

Cheers Peter.

Thanks Peter, the centreband was an afterthought when the first one broke, but I am happy with it, and will be making some more.
Good to hear that you will be able to get yourself back mobile again soon mate.
I could do with some help, I feel a bit like a “one man band”.

Originally Posted by Euge

Lovely work Ironwood! Again showing the beauty of the wood to great effect. Well done!
The wood to me looks more like a casuarina but if you say it was a grvevillea I accept that. (Both have medullary rays like that.)

Thanks Euge.
I just assumed the were Grevillea at the time, because the ones that were still standing had orange flowers that looked very similar to Silky Oak. These ones only grew to about 3 meters tall, and had a trunk about 100-120mm. That was about 20 years ago, so the details are a bit sketchy.
I think I still have one of the log sections cut down the centre if you want a photo or 2.

Thanks for more background Ironwood, I don't wish to spoil or hijack this thread. Just help with id where I can

The nature of the medullary rays is are more like those of a Casuarina / Allocasuarina than Grevillia sp. The bark is likely not distinctive iike that of hairy oak which this is clearly not. Of course Casuarina dont have flowers as you describe .. but male trees produce a rusty red tassels for pollination of nearby female trees. Grevilleas do as you say have bright showy flowers.

Enough from me, I would invite others to comment as well. Euge

Cheers Euge. I found a few pieces of this timber in the shed this arvo, 2 short halves with the bark still on, and a small slabbed piece. I didn’t take the camera down because of the rain. I will start a new thread in the timber section with photos tomorrow, we can discuss the ID over there.
Please keep any discussion on the pen going here in this thread though.

Good one, Brad. Just shows how a small change can make a big difference to the appearance. Good to see a different approach to the same ol', same ol' Slimline. Nice timber, good shape and great photos - as usual.

Cheers Gary. Plenty of things we can do to change the look and feel of the humble Slimline.

Maybe we should have a Slimline challenge ? I think we had one many years ago, could be time to have another one.

The tree that has the common name of Silky Oak is Grevillea robusta because of its robust nature. Most Grevillea species are shrubs with the exception of Grevillea pteridifolia which is a large tree with orange to golden flowers in the Northern Territory. The same species occurs in Queensland as a quite often spindly shrub with fine fern like leaves and beautiful golden waxy flowers 8 to 15 centemetres long. The bark is dark, hard and furrowed. �� It's my opinion that the beautiful pen �� is made from Grevillea pteridifolia. I haven't turned this timber but I have grown plenty of the shrubs at Rasmussen Townsville when I had a revegetation nursery. I have also been a member of three different Society for Growing Australian Plants groups. �� I think �� that I have solved the timber species mystery. ��

Originally Posted by Ironwood

Cheers Euge. I found a few pieces of this timber in the shed this arvo, 2 short halves with the bark still on, and a small slabbed piece. I didn’t take the camera down because of the rain. I will start a new thread in the timber section with photos tomorrow, we can discuss the ID over there.
Please keep any discussion on the pen going here in this thread though.

Sorry it's very difficult for me to see exactly what is on the thread because I only have an Android phone. The description of the shrub matches exactly how Grevillea pteridifolia is. This shrub occurs in the wild in Far North Queensland right up to the Eastern side of Cape York and out past Charters Towers to a Creek in the White Mountain National Park. Grevillea pteridifolia also grows around Rollingstone north of Townsville on the side of the Bruce Highway or is that Holeway? I haven't turned the timber but I have grown plenty of the shrubs when I conducted my revegetation nursery at Rasmussen Townsville. The Northern Territory Grevillea pteridifolia is a fairly large tree which I saw at Lichfield National Park South West of Darwin.

Thanks for your input Penqueen.
I googled your verdict, it certainly sounds like it could be the one going by the descriptions, and it confirms my memories of the trees. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any photos of the timber which would help confirm it.
The area where they were, is towards the Eastern side of the Cape where the water runoff would flow towards the east. This area is probably at the very north of the Great Divide, and although the highest point wouldn’t be much above sea level , there is a point that would determine whether the runoff went east or west.

No worries Ironwood. I have also been a member of three different Society for Growing Australian Plants and that's what I know what this particular Grevillea species looks like.

No worries Ironwood. I have been a member of three different Society for Growing Australian Plants including Townsville which is where Grevillea pteridifolia grown, north and west of the city of Townsville.

Originally Posted by Ironwood

I started off with a chrome slimline stylus kit, I wanted a thicker pen so I made the centerband out of 316 stainless, it is 11mm diameter, this is the second attempt, the first one was laminated from Hairy Oak and brass, it ended up breaking up into about 6 pieces when I got it down close to size.
The timber is a piece of Grevillea that I collected from some small trees that were cleared to widen the road up on Cape York. I call it Pascoe Grevillea, because it was near the Pascoe River that I collected the timber, not sure of its real name.

I gave it 2 coats of CA to seal the wood, then some Hut wax to give it a nice sheen.

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Ironwood that's one beautiful pen you have made. Now that I know what the timber looks like and not just the slender tree that the timber came from I will have to see if I can find some myself.