Here is a bottle stopper that I made. It is from a single piece of wood that has both heart wood (red) and sap wood (brown) in it. I just happened to center the turning so the color splits the wood. The wood is Australian M... I just couldn't read the writing. It tore a little when I was turning it, not a real hard wood. I turned a couple of pens as seen in the previous post with the same wood, but they were only one color.

I'm preparing some more pen blanks that will use a piece of this later. I've been refinishing a basement room for my wife's sewing, so that has taken precedence over my wood working.

Be careful of the splinters.

More Pens

It turned a batch of pens to send to the soldiers in Iraq, as part of a special project put together by the Cascade Wood Turners Association. I think this is in conjunction with a national program. I've included pictures of the set. I'll post separate pictures later.

I used a variety of woods, Cherry, Oregon Myrtal, Purple Heart, Australian M... (I couldn't read the writing), Spalted something, and a small piece of another oddball. These are all twist pens, and took about 1/2 hour each. Most of the pens were finished with super-glue and linseed oil. A couple were coated with a hard wax.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Checkerboard Pen

Well, as promised, here is the checkerboard pen. I can really see the places where I could have been more precise, but as a friend of mine said; "It is unique and one-of-a-kind. And it still works as pen." That is a key part, it still works and I've learned a little more. It's not my best job, but it was fun to try and it does look okay. I now have ideas on how I can improve the quality for the next time I try this kind of pattern on a pen.

I'm going to swing by the Pen Makers Guild web site and take a look at some other designs I can try with the equipment I currently have to see if I can make a better pen. A thickness sander would help, but I'm not ready for the stress of making one at this time.

Enjoy, and be careful of the splinters.

Todays Pen

I'm working on a new pen, made up of walnut and spalted something. I have 2 pieces of each wood glued so the corners meet, to make up a square (almost) stick. I then cut slices off of the glued stick and put it back together while rotating each piece. Kind of like a stair stepping checkerboard. It's all glued together, but I'm letting the epoxy setup some more before I do the final turning. At this point it looks pretty cool, but I only turned it enough to round it out, but not too close to the barrel.

I can see where a more precise method of sizing the strips would help, like a thickness sander. I may have to try and make one, using the shopsmith as the drive for a sanding drum. I've seen designs for a similar project, but I don't really have a place for it yet.

Enjoy, and watch for the slivers.

As promised, here are the wine bottle stoppers. I put them all in one picture for simplicity. The first one is spalted, (wood that is starting to be eaten by fungus.) The second and fourth stopper are the same wood and I don't know what kind it is, but with different finishes. The third stopper is black walnut, and the base they are sitting in is cherry.

I added a side view of the last one so you can see the type of cork I used in all of the stoppers , as well as provide a little more detail of this stopper's shape.


Enjoy, and watch out for splinters.