Please help a relative newbie.....

[Mike Svoma]

I have seen a few people speak of using x-cut wood for pens lately. Wht gives with x-cut? Does that mean that the pen blank is cross cut from a board insted of ripped? Just curious.

Mike

[curtis rosche]

are you refering to the "knot" pens?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Most often, wood for pens is cut so the grain of the wood runs the length of the pen.

Cross cut would mean, IMHO, the grain runs perpendicular to the length of the pen.

You will also notice some folks making the celtic knots on pens which I would love to learn to do!

[Mike Svoma]

Nope....I know how to do the celtic knots.

[Robert McGowen]

Short answer is "Yes, you are correct." The crosscut blanks tend to be harder to turn as far as keeping the blank in one piece and not blowing up. Other than that, it is just a different way to cut the blank. It can often turn some drab wood into something nice.

[Thom Sturgill]

I also noticed some diagonal cut blanks while looking around woodcraft's site.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Is there a tutorial on how to do Celtic Knots? I've tried to search for instructions, but have a million hits to sift through.... I sure would love to learn that skill. It may even revive my interest in turning pens again.

Turning a pen cross grain should indeed look different. It would be like the difference bewteen an end grain and long grain bowl. But the difference would run the length of the pen. Never gave it a thought until this thread. It should prove difficult, and you'd have to go very slowly to avoid blowouts..... I've blown apart bowls, blowing apart a pen should be no challenge. LOL

[Rusty Smith]

Kyle,
Go here http://www.penturners.org/forum/index.php then go to "The Library" and search there. Failing that I can email you a copy of a tutorial of one of the techniques.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Mike I turned a couple of X-cut blanks and those are crosscut. I definitely will not turn anymore. I blew them both out. For me anyway extremely hard to turn.