Corn pen

[Aaron Wingert]

I have a friend that is a die-hard Nebraska football fan and when I saw stabilized red-dyed corncobs at Woodcraft I had to give it a shot. It wasn't necessarily hard to turn but it took hundreds of repeated dabs of CA to fill all the voids. I don't know why, but the smell of this thing was awful...Not unlike cat pee. Now that I'm holding it, the corn doesn't even look real because I actually managed to fill them all...It looks printed. I'm going to take him a piece of the off-fall just to prove it isn't fake. I used BLO and CA for the finish.

My only regret is the black hardware. The corncob was much much much darker red in the package and the black looked better against the dark red.

Critiques welcome. This was a fun project that was a little different than wood or acrylic.

[alex carey]

very cool, I've definitely never seen that before.

[Horst Hohoff]

Hi Aaron,

All in all not a bad pen. The colour scheme looks OK to me.
What I'm not quite happy with is the shape of the barrels.
They look sllightly oversize to the metal parts, and IMHO
they are too convex which gives the pen a sort of a "blown up" look.

Horst

[Aaron Wingert]

Thanks Horst, agreed! I was nervous about getting it any thinner for fear of losing some of the appearance of the corn cob. Might try to go thinner on the next one.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Aaron,

Nicely done! I bought some of those and haven't had one turn out yet. I think the more bulbous shape is required because it's too easy to get down below the area that cradled the kernals of corn and then you lose everything. I know from experience and haven't got one to turn out yet.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Aaron - I like it! I understand what Horst is saying about the inflated look - but I still think it works quite well! Also like the color scheme! Bet your friend loves it!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Aaron that is a great looking pen. Color scheme looks good.

[Dave Halter]

A pen for a Nebraska fan? Will he know what it's for???

Okay...being a Mizzou grad I couldn't pass that up. Nice looking pen and I think the black looks fine. If you had gone with a different finish on the metal the red might stand out even less.

Dave

[Joe Mioux]

I saw those corn cobs at WC.

What is a "stabilized" corn cob and how do you go about sabilizing one?

The last thing I want to buy from WC is a corn cob. I can get all I want for free out on the farm.

joe

[Aaron Wingert]

I saw those corn cobs at WC.

What is a "stabilized" corn cob and how do you go about sabilizing one?

The last thing I want to buy from WC is a corn cob. I can get all I want for free out on the farm.

joe

They stabilize them just like they stabilize various burls and spalted woods before turning. It is more or less an acrylic of some sort that gets pushed into the material to toughen it up. Honestly I used so darn much CA in it due to all the voids there's a pretty good chance that it might work without being stabilized, straight from the farm. I also put a ton of thin CA in it after gluing the tubes in, just to harden it up. The one I bought was died red as well. The center of it was very soft and it drilled easily and quickly.

[Billy Tallant]

Great looking pen... I tried my first one the one the other day. The corn cob shattered nearly immediately upon drill contact. I will try another distribitor on my next one & make sure it is stabilized.

I like your color contrast. Looks good.

[Greg Just]

Your timing is great for posting this pen. I just received an e-mail ad from Rockler and they have these corncob blanks on sale and was wondering how hard it was to turn one. Are there a lot of voids to fill with CA glue?

[Aaron Wingert]

Your timing is great for posting this pen. I just received an e-mail ad from Rockler and they have these corncob blanks on sale and was wondering how hard it was to turn one. Are there a lot of voids to fill with CA glue?

It took an amazing amount of CA. I started with thin CA to saturate it after gluing the tubes in, and then went back with thick CA several times during turning. Each kernel "hole" took at least some CA. Aerosol activator is a real handy thing to have on hand!