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It's been way too cold to do any real woodworking lately, so I figured I would get to turning. It only takes me about a half hour to make a simple lathe project, which is about the same amount of time it takes for my toes to go numb in a 20 degree garage.

I've done a ton of stuff recently and we've all seen a million pens before, but these came out pretty nice

The first one is a cigar pen with a Camel Thorn blank. I have never heard of or seen camel thorn before. I can't say that I will ever be working with it again though. This was like turning rocks. I could actually see the bevel on my gouge blunting. To make it through this pen took 4 sharpenings. It doesn't like to be drilled or reamed either. It sure is beautiful though:


The second picture is a rifle cartridge pen. I am not a fan of these but a lot of other people are. I think this one came out really cool. I decided to play with the beading parting tool a bit. The wood used is Katalox.

I tried turning a few razors. I really like the Bocote on this one:


The fourth image is of a teachers pen. The center is a Satine (boodwood) off cut from some cutting boards. It had a small knot so I cut around it. I wanted to see what it would look like turned. Personally this is the nicest piece of turned bloodwood I have seen. The ends are Mahogany. These are a nightmare to assemble.



The fifth image is a bolt action pen. The customer wanted an interesting, but traditional gunstock material for the blank. I decided to go with some marbled English walnut from Oregon Burls. I was not disappointed. Amazing stuff

The last picture is a slimline. I am generally not a big fan of slimlines, but for some reason I love the way this one came out. I think I got the tapers perfect (for my taste anyway). The stylus tip is cool, and I sure do love Chechen:

Gallery

Comments

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WTF camel thorn oô that thing caught my eye instantly, but I was more into "mahogany" than thorn!

At some time a few years ago I was considering the idea of turning a pen out of a chunk of petrified wood. After all, maybe it was clever to set that idea aside and never actually do it ^^'
 

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The pictures washed it out a lot. The wood is more red than brown. I had to do some digging to find out what Camel Thorn is. It's a small tree (more like a large bush) that grows in southern Africa. It doens't grow in forests or groves and apparently you have to go hunting to find one. Once one is harvested, just about EVERYTHING is used - even branches. The piece I had was just about U shaped. It was a decent thickness though (about 1") so I squared it a bit before drilling and turning.

Also it looks porous, but it's not at all. It's about as tight grained as maple.
 

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Great job on the turnings Joe! Thanks for sharing.
Rick
 

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I am very impressed with your project and workmanship.

www.bandsawparts.com
 

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Beautiful set of pens! You really know how to accept challenges and comes out a winner.

-www.sawblade.com
 
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