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Thread: How many Pen blanks out of a 150 year old White Ash Tree?

  1. #1

    How many Pen blanks out of a 150 year old White Ash Tree?

    Anyone got a rough estimate on how many Pen blanks you might get from a 150 year old White Ash tree ?

  2. #2
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    Let' see...If a pen blank requires .04 board feet of lumber and the log is 16 feet long and 24 inches in diameter at the small end then there are about 425 board feet. This would yield about 11,350 pen blanks.

    Pen blank calculated was 1 x 1 x6 inches
    Last edited by Lee Schierer; 08-09-2021 at 4:04 PM.
    Lee Schierer
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  3. #3
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    Hmmm. Is that for a slimline (uses 2 pieces of wood)? If only 1 piece is required that could be 22,700 pens. Too early for me to calculate the BF of a pen blank.

  4. #4
    You guys need another hobby!! Too much time on your hands.

    Left click my name for homepage link.

  5. #5
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    Lee, did you account for blade kerf?
    Brian

    "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger or more complicated...it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." - E.F. Schumacher

  6. #6
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    This is a trick question, right? The answer is zero, because nobody would actually turn an entire big tree like that into pen blanks.

  7. #7
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    Out of about 400 pens made, 2 have been from common ash. Both for baseball players. At pen blank size, it’s a very uninspired wood. Burls…yes. Swamp ash…yes. Trunks & limbs…I’ll Honduran Rosewood Burl or Blonde Coolibah instead. Those Southern Hemisphere folks grow beautiful pen woods!
    earl

  8. #8
    But, there are 8 large Burls in that Ash Tree !!!

  9. #9
    In my years of selling bowls, the ones that went the fastest were ones from an old ash tree. It had a large center/heart that was the olive ash color, a very nice warm brown color with swirls. Couldn't keep them on the shelf... There could probably be a thousand or more pen blanks in off cuts...

    robo hippy

  10. #10
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    More than you could ever use and absolutely more than you could sell. Solid wood pen blanks are basically a dead commodity. If there isn't resin on the blank, no one wants it. Unless you are talking about black ash burl, then you have a good commodity.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Keeton View Post
    You guys need another hobby!! Too much time on your hands.

    ha ha ha yup....
    Randy Cox
    Lt Colonel, USAF (ret.)

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