Have a (pirate) cigar (pen)

Come in here dear boy,
have a cigar
you’re gonna go far…

So, Rob was “fishing” in the Gulf (and making his family concerned) that he was taking home a little bit of a pirate ship (or Katrina wreckage)... Most of it turned into this great bench, while this piece;

hopped on a plane, headed up north and decided to spend its next life in pen form. (note the aforementioned shark bites) A tad late for our own little family LJ Picnic... but we had ours anyway (checking out Vintage Tractors, earthmovers, and a big bandsaw mill, in Colchester CT last weekend)

This oak was a joy to turn compared to any other oak (green or dry) I’ve ever turned. I’m thinking I may start storing all my turning stock underwater – (Ok, so this did smell a bit – a little like low tide, a little like…?)

Looking at the discoloration of the woods surface, compared to the inside, and how much they finished like regular blond oak, I’d guess this wasn’t in the water for too long. The discoloration is nothing like the Bog Oak Ethan used for his projects. But It certainly was submerged long enough to make the wood so much more workable. My money is on Katrina (or similar) wreckage… but it could have come from just about anywhere… so it might as well have been from a pirate ship!

I thought I took some photos of the whole process… but I ran into trouble with my second pen – It turned perfect, and didn’t have the wormholes to fill that the first one had (epoxy/sawdust mix for the filler), but wouldn’t go together and close up tightly (and it wouldn’t come apart either)... A cursory glimpse of the remaining blanks it seems that they may all be a smidge to short. I’ve worked out a method to “lengthen” them a bit, So these should be salvageable.

I hope to fix them – hate to waste this “free wood” and the extra pen tubes I bought “just in case” (the only part of the pen kit you can buy extras of.) I’m not cheap, but I hate to be wasteful. (and I’ll spend days or weeks to salvage everything. I know Penny wise and Pound foolish, eh?) At least I could come out of this with five great – and unique Pirate Cigar Pens. I chose the Gold finish to compliment the possible “pirateness” of the woods lineage.

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