grain direction in pen blanks ?

[Ned Bulken]

Does the orientation of the grain 'matter' in a pen blank? I Have some gorgeous mahagony cutoffs, which are 'wider' than they are 'long' in regards to grain. A couple were on the order of 18" wide(cross grain) by 2" long(with grain). Would those still be decent pen turning stock, or are they exotic firewood/knob stock?

ie can I cut a blank which has the grain going this way |||||| instead of ------ ?
I still don't have a lathe, but the LOML just told me a friend is liquidating his shop and he has a lathe available. No clue as to price/model/size but might as well dream a little, no?

[Jim Becker]

Pens are spindle turning project and the grain needs to be running lengthwise...parallel to the spindle, as it were.

[Mike Wenzloff]

Pens are spindle turning project and the grain needs to be running lengthwise...parallel to the spindle, as it were.
Why? below is a slightly off cross-grain, but is mostly there. Burls as well are totally wonky grained.

http://www.wenzloffandsons.com/pens/curly_ash_0001a.jpg

Mike

[Jim Becker]

Let me rephrase...in most cases, it is desirable the the grain run with the spindle. There are always exceptions, such as burls, slightly offset grain, segmented work and then the turner takes great care with the work. Remember, in many pen designs, you are turning the wood really, really thin, and it can be easy to chunk out anything that is truly cross-grain, both due to lower strength in the wood and less-than-optimum glue adhesion to the tubes. There are no absolutes. Thanks for pointing that out...

[Mike Wenzloff]

You're welcome <g>.

[Clem Wixted]

Ned,

Maybe you could cut some of that nice wood at an angle and use the grain as a feature and have a little extra strength as opposed to only cross grain.

You will use a little extra wood by cutting at an angle but it will work.

Show us some results after you get your lathe, pen making supplies, sharpening stuff, finishing supplies, sanding system, buffing system, etc, etc, ... :-)

Clem

[Earl Reid]

Most of the time I cut the blanks with the grain lenthwise, sometimes it is cut at an angle. a few have been cut cross grain and have been the best looking pens I have made. It depends on the piece of wood.
Earl

[Pat Salter]

I tried a few cross grained for your same reason. unfortunately I didn't have a good grinding jig at the time and was having trouble getting my chisels sharp enough. it didn't work then because I kept getting catches and it would chip big chunks out. I'm hoping to do better now that I have a wolverine sharpening jig.
I would sugguest going light and slow from the very beginning. good luck.

[David Klug]

I have done it both ways with scraps of Phil Mahogany had them come out real nice.

DK

[Ned Bulken]

the pieces I was thinking of are some gorgeous chunks of 8/4 mahagony cutoffs. I'll have to see what can be done with them, one way or another. THanks for the tips though. I see I have a lot to learn :)

The really fun part about them is the source. My volunteer fire company has a chicken bbq during our field days every labor day weekend. A couple of the guys work at Stickley, and they supply several truckloads of cutoffs for the event. Last year I got to pick through the pile and I got a bunch of QS oak, white oak, cherry and the mahagony. the thinnest pieces, which are mostly oak, are too short to plane down safely, but are already at 3/4 or 4/4, so would be easy to trim into pen blanks The cherry was 4/4, but very short, and the Mahagony, well let's just say I got all I could find of that, I have enough to keep me busy for awhile when I do get my lathe. And that's BEFORE this upcoming cookout. I'm going to volunteer to help go get the scrap this year, should be fun!
:)

Oh, and here is a little project I did with one of the medium sized chunks of Mahagony:

http://www.woodworking.org/imagepost/200412/mholder.jpg

that is a quilter's rule holder with cherry legs. pardon the so so lighting, but the flash didn't go off. To put it in scale the kerfs are just a shade over 1/8, perhaps 3/16ths wide,the overall length was about 7" and the feet are 3/4 wide.

[Ed Davidson]

Some of my BEST looking pens (IMHO) came from crosscut blanks...go for it!

[Steve Roxberg]

Cross grain is fine, but probably not the number one choice. It does make some pretty patterns.

If they are small scraps, experiment.

[Ed Davidson]

And if you do make a cross-grain boo-boo, consider it a design opportunity...

[Art Ogden]

[QUOTE=Ned Bulken]the pieces I was thinking of are some gorgeous chunks of 8/4 mahagony cutoffs. I'll have to see what can be done with them, one way or another. THanks for the tips though. I see I have a lot to learn :)

The really fun part about them is the source. My volunteer fire company has a chicken bbq during our field days every labor day weekend. A couple of the guys work at Stickley, and they supply several truckloads of cutoffs for the event. Last year I got to pick through the pile and I got a bunch of QS oak, white oak, cherry and the mahagony. the thinnest pieces, which are mostly oak, are too short to plane down safely, but are already at 3/4 or 4/4, so would be easy to trim into pen blanks The cherry was 4/4, but very short, and the Mahagony, well let's just say I got all I could find of that, I have enough to keep me busy for awhile when I do get my lathe. And that's BEFORE this upcoming cookout. I'm going to volunteer to help go get the scrap this year, should be fun!
:)

I used to fill my Ranger's bed everytime I had to go to Stickley. About 6 months ago they (Stickley) decided not to let people grab to scraps anymore. At the rate I'm going through my piles of oak,cherry,mahogony & walnut I will probably run out in a couple of years. Until then I am having a ball making the chip fly.
I don't know if it's true or not but I was told that Stickley now sells their scrap to a company that makes pellets for wood pellet stoves.
The company that I work for sells Stickley their sandpaper, belts & bandsaw blades used in production.

[Ned Bulken]

I'll have to find out when the wood haul is, I think (hope) employees still can raid the bin.