Ambrosia Maple Pen

Phil (on the mountaintop) from Western NC, an excellent and respected woodturner, sent me some of his cutoffs. Included in this was a piece of what he called "Ambrosia Maple." I think others refer to this look as "spalted."

The Ambrosia Maple will be good for a few pens. Here is the first one. It is intended to be for the wife of my neighbor. I made HIM a walnut pen earlier in the afternoon and did this one in the evening.

These are 3 pictures of the same pen.

Walnut Pen

I have lunch almost every Thursday with one of my neighbors. He is a woodworking hobbyist as well. This past week I showed him one of my pens. He was excited and said he thought it would look great in walnut.

Well, I happened to have some walnut on hand so I made up the blanks yesterday. Today he came over and we went out to the shop and made his pen. The picture does not do justice to how well it came out. It is my best pen so far. I was able to get some finer papers and a polish that has a fine grit in it. Together it made the best finish.



He LOVES his pen and was happy to be there as I turned, finished and assembled it. He's going to pay me and has already asked for one for his wife. He said that she thinks she may want to give pens as Christmas gifts. So I better start stocking up.

Pens...Christmas 2006

From left to right.
1. This pen was given to me as a Christmas gift in 2004 and inspired me to make my own, but my lathe was broken. So once I finally fixed the lathe, I was in business. This pen is made of Cocobolo.

2. My very first pen. I copied the shape of the Cocobolo gift pen, but used Cherry from my back yard. I was excited to go through all the assembly steps, so I didn't put stain and finish on it. This will be MY pen, not a gift since it is my first ever.

3-5. All straight and made of Cherry. Stained and finished with Shellawax.

6. Another curved set of barrels. I think these are nice for a woman, so I will make several more. A lady friend at work really likes the curved ones and said she would like me to make some more that she will buy and give as gifts to friends.

7. Just wanted to try slightly convex barrels.

8. Wanted to make barrels that look like "barrels". The dark rings are cut into the surface with a pointed chisel and then burned with a piece of wire while the pieces are spinning on the lathe. The fellow that old me the lathe demonstrated that technique to me.

Pens 6-8 need stain and finish, but they will be easily done tomorrow.

Remaining 8 done.

I finished the 8 frames. Now I'm going to trade them for the original 2 and make slight modifications to the first two. That will only take a night or two because all the prep work is done and the first 2 were already stained and finished.

Pics:
I mounted one of my certificates so one can see the desired result. Behind the certificate is a burgundy paper.


The back now has "turn buttons" instead of nails. Makes for easier mounting of the certificates. I also drilled a larger recess for the pennies in the sycamore. Something tells me that will allow for more freedom of movement of the wood. The eye screws, hanging wire, and a descriptive note are all attached.