Desert Ironwood Pen in Platinum and Black Titanium

I love this pen, and I love this wood. The grain is simply amazing.

Desert Ironwood is a protected species, no living trees can be harvested. It grows in the Sonoran Desert in Southwest USA and Mexico, and you need a federal or state permit to be able to collect the dead trees from the desert. It’s very slow growing shrub to small gnarly tree, with lots of splits and cracks and very tight growth rings. The sapwood is light yellow, the heartwood is brown with black streaks. When it is sanded it shines like no other wood I’ve ever seen and hard as a rock and heavy, It sinks in water.

The twist pen (Wall Street II) is platinum and black titanium (also called gunmetal) Both are the most durable finishes you can get for a pen. Between the wood and hardware, this pen will last a lifetime, or several.

The wood turns so nicely, so clean and smooth, I almost didn’t even need to sand it, in fact starting at 220 was like going backwards, so I took it up to 2000 grit buffed, and then finished with boiled linseed oil and several layers of high gloss friction polish – shellac and carnauba wax.

I was a little sad to have sold the bottle stopper I made with a blank of this wood, so I might not let this one go. Did I say I love it? My wife does too.

This is the 22nd project in my 30 projects in 30 days challenge

cross posted on Facebook: B C Woodworking
this? and other projects, for sale on Etsy: B C Woodworking

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/