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Birdseye Pine? - Tiny Wood Gloat & Project

Recently I made a trip to see my brother over in Nevada. On his counter was a piece of "scrap" pine that he saved for me because it looked "weird". The scrap was about 9" long, 12" wide and 1" thick. (See the picture)

Turns out that what he thought was "weird" is a piece of common Pine with a heavy Birdseye figure. Yep, weird. I have only seen this in person once before but not with the degree of figure in this specimen. Now for the sad part. It came from one of two identical 1"x12"x6' boards picked up at Home Depot…CHEAP! The other 63" of it was used to build chicken coop boxes and are painted gray.

A moment of silence please for the dearly departed… then pooped on by chickens…

OK you can wipe your tears because on the flip side, with a piece this small I will find something creative to use it in to show off the grain pattern. Not every day you see "Birdseye Pine". The first thing I did was slice off a 1" strip and turned out a fountain pen. It came out really great! Matched with a Titanium Jr. Gentlemen's Fountain Pen Kit from Craft Supplies and finished by encasing the blank in acrylic and polishing to a high gloss. ("Encasing in Acrylic" is fancy talk for many coats of CA glue. As put by Mary Anne, another LumberJock, "It is much more appealing and professional sounding than 'coated with super glue.' LOL"

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19,753 Posts
In this case considering it's use, the woods name should have been much lower than "Birds EYE" part of the chickens anatomy.
Oh the pens wow "eye" popping they came out great.
 

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Great little score and the pens are gorgeous. Well done!
Looking forward to seeing what you do with the rest of it. Any ideas?
 

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very nice, and Iv'e never seen birdseye pine before, looks very similiar to birdseye maple. Good job on the fountain pen, wish I had good enough hand writing to use such a nice pen, but my penmenship is probably only good enough for a carpenters pencil.
 

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Just to clarify. That is just ONE pen that I turned out. The last picture is a colage of the three sides of the same pen.
 

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Yeah the HD thing doesnt surprise me I heard of this stuff popping up Lowes as well. I always check for it at both stores when I go. You never know.

If they only knew the value of the wood on the chicken coop
 

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WOW - I've never seen birdseye pine before.

Seems to me like it's time to disassemble some chicken coop boxes and run the boards through a planner.
 

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It might be worthwhile to bring a chicken coop poop scoop next time you visit your brother and claim the rest of this wood for yourself. That figure would be beautiful on a piece of furniture. And you would have a great story to go with it! :)
 

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I never heard of birdseye pine, but I'll be keeping my eye out for it at the local HD & Lowes. To bad about the rest of it. Nice work on the Pen
 

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The lady that built our house used pine for the built-in's in the den and in the master closet, and its filled with Birdseye pine boards. I have thought, many times, about pulling it all out and rebuilding everything with regular pine. Very nice score!
 

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I just saw some at my local HD last week. If I would have know how beautiful it is as a pen, I would have grabbed it.

They look great!
 

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Very nice, won't see much wood like that! Good gloat!
 

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Go back to your brother and take a replacement board along and switch the wood he used. Plane the paint off and you have the rest of the board to play with. Seriously, that is what I would do! This wood is worth doing that and while you are there, give your bro a smack backside of the head. ;-) LOL

Erwin, Jacksonville, FL
 

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Gorgeous wood!!!
 

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Very unique as well as nice looking wood. Great job on the pen.
 

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Wow, my chickens only get construction grade douglas fur to poop on. Don't let this get out, or they will probably go on strike to get their own fancy wood coop. LOL. That is some very interesting figuring. I have not seen it like that on pine before…does the wood have a lot of pitch? Would love to find a nice supply of this…love the price of pine…

It is amazing sometimes the gems you can find at the box and hardware stores. I always look at the wood bins (drives my better half nuts…LOL) I found the most beatifully crotch figured walnut at my local Ace last week and promptly bought it for cutting into vaneer - The guy at the counter saw it and asked if I wanted another board as this one had "imperfections." He then offered and took 10% off….I was just about to explain that the "imperfections" made it much more valuable to me - or to any woodworker for that matter…so I bit my tongue and took my prize home for resawing….some of that wood is now gracing a bathroom vanity I built for one of my neighbors….and I am waiting for something to use the rest on.
 

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Wow, your pens look great.
 

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I've processed a lot of red and white pine here in the U.P. but I've never seen a grain pattern like that.
 

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I've seen it a few times. It is very beautiful wood to work with. Here is a stool I made for my kids out of "Birdseye Pine". Nice pens too, BTW!!!!

 

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Wow! That pen came out beautiful. Good wood/component match. You should post pics over at penturners.org.
 
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