figured pen blanks

[Stephen Hibbs]

I recently made a pen from a blank that Dennis Peacock sent me a while ago, and it has gotten an amazing number of compliments. I attribute it to the knots and swirls in the wood. I've looked around online and found some "figured" pen blanks, and I'm wondering- are they worth it? Will those blanks be full of interesting stuff?

Also, can I see some examples of pens with wood cut on diagonals, and crosscut?

[Corey Hallagan]

Burls and curly woods make beautiful pens Steven and they are expensive. They are worth it and I always buy 2 at least of a particular blanks. Just like any other blanks, problems can arise and it is hard in the pocket book to loose a nice blank, but it happens. Go to the pen turning forums in their galleries and you will se all kinds of bias, angle cut, cross cut pens.

Corey

[Dario Octaviano]

I am no snob but with pens, I almost use spalted, figured or burl woods exclusively. I do use regular grained wood if it is really exotic or rare.

Cheapest route is to buy your own block of wood and mill it yourself. A block may be expensive but look at how many pen blanks you will get out of it.

[Stephen Hibbs]

The problem I am having with buying a board of wood is that it seldom contains the character I'm looking for. I searched through my school's woodshop to no avail today. What suggestions would you have for getting around that?

[Jonathon Spafford]

Also, make sure that if you are using a quality pen blank that you use a quality pen kit as well. It would be sad to have the pen hardware finish wear off when you have such a nice piece of wood!

[John Hart]

The problem I am having with buying a board of wood is that it seldom contains the character I'm looking for. I searched through my school's woodshop to no avail today. What suggestions would you have for getting around that?

Stephen...I think what Dario is suggesting is that you go to a wood store of some kind and find a really nice hunk of burl or other figured wood and buy it. Do some calculations in your head regarding the number of blanks you can cut out of a block and then determine its "pen value". For instance, if you found a nice 10X10X6 Burl for $50, you can get 100 blanks out of that. Net "Pen Value"= $.50 per blank.:)

[Terry Quiram]

Do you have a tree removal service or arborist anywhere near you? Most would gladly help you find wood for pen blanks if you greased the skids first with a gift of a pen. Very nice figured wood can be found in the root flairs of large trees. Figure can also be found in the crotch section of a limb/trunk junction. Maple and Walnut can have spetacular figure. Cut your blanks whatever thickness you want and about 6" long. and make a stack for drying. I have a couple hundred drying in little stacks all over the shop.

[Chris Barton]

I think you have gotten some great suggestions but, I would add a few caveats. First, remember that when you buy a burl it is "green" and not dried so it will change shape and twist once cut. You can avoid this by buying "stablized" blanks or make your own by soaking the blanks in a mixture of acetone and plexiglass. I have made some very expensive and nice pen using green burls and they always distort some over time. I think the costs of a stabilzed blank from Bill B. at AS is around $5/ea. That gets you a nice burl, dyed if you want, and stabilized. For a great pen, it's worth it.

[John Hart]

....First, remember that when you buy a burl it is "green" and not dried so it will change shape and twist once cut. ...

Yup....I concur. I have tons of twisted pen blanks. Probably usable but not as easily as a stablized blank.;) :)