Thread: Buckeye burl Emperor

Very Very nice... is the timber easy to work with Cisco?? Like the kit as well, makes an outstanding looking pen.

Jenny

Nice work Cisco and I do like the card Attachment 82084Attachment 82084

Where are you getting the blanks from?

Al, that is a well finished pen and good looking, however i liked the look of the Amboyna above the look of that blank, the swirls in the photo(this may be not true in presence) look grey and don't seem too suit, however, because you ordered more of it, I think I am missing something here,. Only my opinion and in no way degrading its beauty and your work, Amos

al, that is a stunner of a pen well done. i love the look of that buckeye burl. me wants some. please tell where you got it from.

I like it. Even the gray .. it seems to stay in the background so as not to outshine the figuring of the wood. I have a blank very similar and I don't think the color or depth will show up that well in a photograph, so I can imagine what it looks like in the hand.

ps .. is that a tiny Cisco reflected in the bottom of the pen?

Thank you all for the comments. I have purchased buckeye burl blanks so far from two sources - Arizona Silhouette and Lee Tree Woodworks, both here in the U.S. A Google search shows them to be available from others as well. The timber is fairly easy to work, Jenny. Some of the blanks I bought had been stabilized, making them a little harder and giving off that acrylic smell. The burl that I purchased in a slab form was not stabilized, was very light in weight, and turned and sanded easily.
Those colors are true, Amos. The timber from a buckeye tree is rather boring. A very pale yellow with little to no figure. It has been compared to poplar and, unless you like truly drab furniture, would be better off being used for the inside of drawers, I would assume. The burls, however, have a mixture of Army greens, greys, yellows, blacks, and occasionally blues. It sometimes looks like camoflauge. The first pen I made from this timber was mistaken for green marble by more than one person. I happen to like it, if only because it is different. I am presently going through what I will call my "burl period" and I am trying them all out. I do like amboyna - perhaps too much - and caught myself using it almost exclusively for a while. Time to make something other than an orangy-red pen I thought. Beautiful as amboyna is, customers are a fickle lot and I better have something else to catch their eye. You all will no doubt be seeing more of this particular burl from me before I tire of it.

And, yes, New London, I did make that cardinal sin of photographers. I caught myself in the reflection on that last shot. The rhodium plating on these Emperor pens is absolutely like a mirror (and will never tarnish, btw) and very reflective. So that is Cisco, wearing a green t-shirt, with a camera on a tripod for a head. My arms are at my side as I was using the timer function on my Canon 30D. I have been shooting these at f20 and using an exposure speed of about half a second lately. You have good eyes.

Thanks Cisco! for filling in on the details, sometimes the photograph does not show the beauty of the article as we would like. I can see why Burls are addictive, just love them, Amos

Originally Posted by ciscokid

And, yes, New London, I did make that cardinal sin of photographers. I caught myself in the reflection on that last shot.

Well, I'd be shocked if I bought a pen and found your face on it..

Originally Posted by NewLondon88

Well, I'd be shocked if I bought a pen and found your face on it..

Perhaps, but the ladies would pay extra for it.

Originally Posted by ciscokid

Perhaps, but the ladies would pay extra for it.

Ah.. your Mom is buying your pens now?

Looks like I walked into that one.

Cisco pays not to get into a debate with NL.