Thread: Pen swap 2008 International photographs

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

WOW, Matt! That combo would look really good on my deak... .

Oklahoma Oak Burl, eh? As has been oft said: "You sure got nice woods over that side of the pond..."

I know, you guys do have some nice woods on that side of the pond.

lol, I think we all envy the strange and exotic woods we see members in other countries post. Although this was a nice piece of oak, oak in itself is very common around here, it's used for all manner of things from pallets to flooring, nothing special and in times past I've actual disliked working with oak, its painfully hard, it smells like cat wee wee when you work with it, did I mention its hard as all get out? Very resilient wood. Now that I've been playing with some of the more burly bits though, I'm growing to really like it, it can have some outstanding depth, color, and pattern to it.

Some of this can probably be blamed on Oklahoma's bizarre weather. Just as of late we've had weather in the 70's, the next day 6" of snow, ice, day or two later, weather is in the 60's, stays there for a few days, bam, ice storm, then back to the 70's, then down into the 20's for a couple weeks. Poor trees.

Thanks munruben, but I envy all those guys who can turn great pens too, I'm not quite one of them yet.

Originally Posted by Matt88s

oak, its painfully hard, it smells like cat wee wee when you work with it, did I mention its hard as all get out?

You haven't used Ironbark or gidgee

Originally Posted by funkychicken

You haven't used Ironbark or gidgee

Just finished a jarrah pen for the swap, does that count?

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Just finished a jarrah pen for the swap, does that count?

Shhh... it's supposed to be a suprise for your partner

Matt,
great Idea to give a local wood on a pen. I really like oak burl, many dont. Theres a happy recipient, I can tell.

Received my pen from austin on Saturday, and a great pen it is

It is a Chrome Americana in Claro Walnut, a timber I had neither seen before or heard of.

It makes beautiful combination and I reckon ausitn has done a great job, particularly as he is, like me, a rank beginner.

Very happy with the pen austin, thanks

Will put up some pictures of the pen I made for ausitn when he has received, it will be leaving on Tuesday.

Cigar Man's camera is on the sick list, so he asked me to post both pics when the pens were received. I made him the Cigar from Beefwood (no pun intended there - it was a kit I had that I had not tried) and the one he made me is a Baron from Camphor Burl. We are both pleased with our efforts, and I know I am looking forward to another swap.

Couple of nice pens there Mrs W... nice swap

Wow!
The standard is very good of all pens so far

Thanks for posting the pics Mrs Woodpecker. I was very happy with the pen I received except that now I have to order some of those kits to work with . The pen had a great finish and fit. It will be displayed with my other pen swap pens in a very promanate place.

Attachment 68954

Attachment 68955

OK, here are the pens I sent for Louisbry and Mrs Louisbry.

They are Jarrah Burl (WA) and Red River Gum burl (VIC) - one from where I was born and one from where I live now.

To make up for the fact that the kits used (although I like them a lot) are NOT as flash as those I have seen others using , I also sent a dozen other bits of local timber.

I have heard today that they have all arrived safely.

JD

Huzzah! The package arrived!

Among the little fluffy packing things I found 2 cigar pens(1 wood, 1 acrylic), Alot of pen blanks etc. (I was expecting only a few) and to my suprise; A Rockler 4-in-1 Screwdriver Turning Kit


Many Thanks to Newlondon88


A very happy,
Funky C

Looking good Funky C, you should be happy with that

have I got a story, good and bad.

First the good NeWS.
My pen arrived from ken in the States. Boy, what a pen. It is a Stirling silver Churchill dressed in American Smoketree, a absolutely beautiful pen. I believe that you can see right through the grain and as you turn the pen the grain seems to move. The finish is CA ,and as you can guess ,it is brilliant. I have used CA but cannot get a finish like ken has done.
Ken,also included a Smoketree blank for me to try along with other blanks.
ken stated that the Smoketree only grows in two places it America,Alabana and Arkansas.
have a look at this.

Will start another thread for the bad news.

terry