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I was spending some time making some pens. I started out showing a fellow Mason Dixon member how to make pens. He must have thought I was too expensive so he wanted to make his own.

In reality his children wanted some for their friends so he thought he'd branch out in his wood making repertoire to include pens.

So after I got my lathe all set up again. I started to go through some of the wood that I'd gotten from some fellow LumberJocks.

From Harold I received some wood from Hawaii. The pens that I made from his wood are:


The top one being Milo and the bottom one being Mango. This wood was gotten in a trade with Harold for some local hardwoods from my area.

From Gerry I got some Texas Ebony and some Mesquite.



The wood you see in the background is some Texas Ebony pieces. The mesquite and ebony were purchased.

From Jeff Jeff the woodwhacker
I got some YellowHeart and some Figured mahogany. This wood was gotten in a trade of pen blanks between the two of us.


And from a person on the web that I ran across. some Desert Ironwood.


The wood that you see in the background is Desert Iron wood pieces. This wood was traded for some Macacubbba and Chechen from Central America.

From my own supplies I made a pen from Popular that had white, green and black coloration and some curly Oak.

I had three pieces with the same coloration.


The wood under the first picture in the posting is Big Leaf Maple Burl from Oregon.

Gallery

Comments

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I agree!! Very Nice!

'The SedcoKid'
 

· In Loving Memory
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You must do a lot of letter writing or cheque signing.. LOL
Super nice pens…
 

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Karson,
These pens are truly beautiful.
I love the mango and the desert ironwood best.
Great work

Lisa
 

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MAN, They sure do look good. Beautiful wood, even the popular looks good. You did a great job making them Karson.

I want to learn how one day
 

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Super pens,What a great assortment. there beautiful.
 

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Karson,
You've got the "United Nations" pen wood collection !
They are all beautiful!
 

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wow
 

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Karson, that wood sure does have some mileage on it. All of them look great! A lot of very nice presents.
 

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Fantastic pens. You have gathered wood from all over the world and turned them into beautifull pens.

Keep it up.

Scrappy
 

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Those are some beauties. I really like the colors on the Poplar. It's definitely one I can just stare at for a long time.
 

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Hi Karson,

Looks like you're ready for a pen making marathon.

Beautiful work. Is David turning any?

Lee
 

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Hey Karson, its a Karma thing. They look great.
Thanks
 

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Lee I've tried to get David to try some, but he keeps saying no.
 

· In Loving Memory
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Karson,
Great job on the pens! I like the desert ironwood the best followed by the curly oak, it's close on those two. How do you finish your pens? I really like the natural look your pens have. Keep on keewping on!

Sincerely,
Ken McGinnis
 

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hi what a lovely bunch of pens nice idea to get wood from all over the world you are a very Lucky fellow to have so many Friends how are willing to share timber with you branch ok
 

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Karson, you should set up a pen-blank exchange! :) I have some purpleheart!
 

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That one made from desert iron wood is absolutely gorgeous!!

Lew
 

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Yep, I voted for the desert iron wood also… beautiful work Karson. I like your trading and bartering.
 

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Ken I use a Friction Polish that is sold by Penn State Industries. It's called Shellwax and is made in Australia.

It's Shellac and Carnauba wax in an emulsion, I put it on a piece of cloth and having the lathe at it's slowest speed, I drop the finish on the rag and coat the pen blank. after a few second I increase the speed and the pressure on the rag and finally work it up to the highest speed and really squeeze to rag.

The rag gets real hot. I will do that for about 3-4 minutes. Then maybe just a light drop on the rag and then spin it.

The finish is soft for a while so I leave it on the mandrel maybe an hour.

If I meed the mandrel then I'll slide it off trying not to touch the finish at all. I'll slide it on a nail or something that I can carry it using the inside of the tube I won't assemble the pen for maybe 24 hours to let the finish get really set up.

If I screw up and the finish takes a little ding. It's just a matter of putting it back on the mandrel and then doing a very light coat, and gloss it up again.

I've used the Beall wood polishing wheels to redo the shine on pens that have been used or might have a little roughness to them because of body sweating and oils.

a footnote on the Desert Ironwood it has a natural shine and I've found that it keeps the shine the longest of any woods that I've used. I might just try using it's one internal oils and shine it up that way and not use any extra finish.
 
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