# Looking at trees diferently



## leenollie (May 3, 2004)

Good morning all, 

I have noticed recently that I am looking at trees diferently. It used to be that, while walking, I hardly ever looked at them before. Now, I am looking at them with an artistic eye (I wonder what that wood would look like as a pen?) I am also taken to picking up old pieces of wood from the ground and studying them closely. Has this happened to other people, or have I just gone around the bend with pen turning?

Lee Biggers
The ever curious pen turner


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## kennosborne (May 3, 2004)

Been there!!!!!! just wait till you start looking at stranger things, like dog bones, old tires, kids toys ... it gets crazy ... I oncewanted to make a Lego pen ...


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## Rick Prevett (May 3, 2004)

Lee, there you are!  All the rest of us were already around the bend, we're just waiting for you to catch up!

No wood is off limits, no matter the size or shape.


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## wdcav1952 (May 3, 2004)

I feel like someone just stood up at the meeting and said "My name is Lee and I'm a woodaholic."  Amen, brother,  I feel your pain for woodgrain.
William


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## Daniel (May 3, 2004)

You aren't really sick until you can't take out the garbage without sorting through it first.


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## Kurt Aebi (May 4, 2004)

No Kidding, it really makes you look at trees, branches and shrubs differently.  

I have to trim up the lilacs and hydrangeas and I keep checking to see if the branches are big enough to turn into pens and such - what a lovely addiction!  I am even considering trying some turning with the, up until now junk wood, Sumac.


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## txbob (May 4, 2004)

It's good to know I'm not the only one!!!!

Anybody else ever bought an old oak chair and made pens from the arms, legs, and seat?

No, probably not. (One good chair makes at least 30 big pen blanks)

txbob


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## Daniel (May 5, 2004)

I havn't actually bought anything to cut up, but I did set and calculate the number of blanks I could cut from an oak bench one day. I figured it to be 511. now calculating it in the first place is not so odd. remembering the number after all this time is.


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## paleydp (May 6, 2004)

So buying old shuffleboard discs because they look big enough to cut into blanks isn't really as twisted as my family seems to think?
-Denise


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## PensofColor (May 6, 2004)

You are not alone, Lee.  We have a park near our home where we can drive through and see Elk and Deer and Buffalo.  It takes us an hour to drive through all of it if the animals are out because we are too busy rubbernecking the elk antlers, the deer antlers, the buffalo horn, the burls, the trees.....We gotta stop going there!


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## leenollie (May 13, 2004)

Good day all,

I have really got the penturning bug bad. On Mother's Day, we were at a friend of our's house having a barbecue. I was talking to the cook when I looked down at his pile of Mesquite wood that he was using for firewood. One piece caught my attention and when I picked it up, I asked if I could have the piece in question. He asked me what I was going to do with it, and when I told him I was going to make pens out of it, he looked at me as if I had grown another head. After I showed him some of my work (which I just happened to have in the car,) he said it was OK, but with the proviso that I make him a pen. Am I incurable, or what? 

Lee Biggers
The ever curious (and incurable) pen turner []


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## ilikewood (May 13, 2004)

Hi Lee,

I get a great amount of wood that way!!  Just last week I stopped at some guys house and asked if I could dig through his woodpile for his woodstove.  Found a fantastic piece of wormy black locust.  I guess you could call it "dumpster diving for wood".  Most people just don't realize the art in the wood they are throwing away or burning.

Bill  (also nuts about wood)


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## fmunday (May 14, 2004)

I think that its safe to say that if you are a member of this group then you have been bitten by the bug.  You do strange things like going to a Chinese Restaurant and wonder if there is some way that you could make a pen or two out of the chop sticks or if your wife would miss the small Weeping Cherry tree in the front yard or you make sure you carry a buck saw with you when you go to visit the in-laws because you might see an interesting piece of wood along the way.  I think we all look at trees and wood products (or maybe I should say turnable items) differently.  The only thing is this isn't limited just to turning pens.  Because of the size the prospects are a little more restricted but this also is true for bowls, etc.  It is amazing what you can see in a dead limb that most people that don't turn can't see.


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## Bethlehem Olive Wood (May 15, 2004)

Been there also!!  

Best Regards,
Ghasan and Diane Darwesh


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## tipusnr (May 16, 2004)

As you can see from my gallery, I even find turnable wood in my compost!  I'm looking to even make more of the pen out of wood though certain metal items are irreplaceable.  I can see making hardwood tips but currently turn my pens on a mandrel and the logistics keep spinning in my head.  I separately turned tip would be easier but a one piece design would be cooler.


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## Daniel (May 16, 2004)

I had to chop up a small tree, about two inches in diameter, for my mother yesterday. ass she started to cart off the small pieces I said. Hey wait a minute I get the bigger pieces for my pens. she just shook her head and replied. Oh forgive me for forgetting, you can't throw anything out without passing it by you first.


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## leenollie (May 17, 2004)

Good afternoon all,

"Dumpster Diving" for wood can be potentially hazardous to one's health, as I found out yesterday afternoon. I was driving home when I saw this neatly piled stack of wood someone had cut down. I stopped and looked over the pile and found a piece that suited my needs. Careful not to make a big mess (etiquette is a must, you know,) when this BIG Boston Terrier came around the house and started after me. Luckily, I was close to my car and was able to get into it before the dog got to me. I guess that is one the occupational hazards for our "addiction."

Lee Biggers
The ever curious (and almost chewed up) pen turner [B)]


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## tipusnr (May 17, 2004)

So THAT's why they make steel-toed tennis shoes!![]


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## ilikewood (May 17, 2004)

Maybe we should rename it "stumpster diving"...that way we at least would not be completely associated with the true dumpster divers []
By the way...sounds like we need to be in shape for this kind of hobby.


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## Daniel (May 17, 2004)

Well did you get the Wood?
I think a nip or two might be worth it It is free wood after all 
al kidding aside. my worst fear about finding limbs etc. is getting it cut into blanks. trying to cut a log up with the tools I have is fairly on the risky side. I need a beefier band saw. so just be careful all that free wood could end up being the most expensive.


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## leenollie (May 18, 2004)

> _Originally posted by ilikewood_
> <br />Maybe we should rename it "stumpster diving"...that way we at least would not be completely associated with the true dumpster divers []



"Stumpster diving"...I like that.

Lee Biggers
The ever curious pen turner []


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## Rick Prevett (May 21, 2004)

I just found this quote on another site and thought it appropriate.

'A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees - William Blake'

rick


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## Paul Downes (May 21, 2004)

Yah, well after working as a logger it's hard to walk through the woods without seeing veneer, #1,#2 and #3 sawlogs. Whenever we get together with the inlaws at a park the brother-in-laws are always drooling over the veneers growing around. The pen turning disease only makes it worse because now every stick and species looks promising!


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## ilikewood (May 25, 2004)

I just found out how contagious this disease is...a customer of mine in another state wanted to have pens made of woods from his friends property.  After seeing the end result pens, he is now looking at wood "in a new way" and actually has his family out looking for unique woods for new items.  We have to be very careful and quarantine these people right away!![]


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## fmunday (May 26, 2004)

We had a miserable little little Weeping Cherry in a flower bed in the front yard that my wife wanted rid of.  I used my Honda to pull it out of the ground.  It is now in the back yard drying.  Gonna be some interesting pens in the future. []  No problems with the little Cherry tree but I did get in trouble with my wife for eye balling her Red Japanese Maple a little too hard the last time we mowed the yard.  She knew what I was thinking. []


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## daledut (May 26, 2004)

Last week I was cleaning out a section of woods. I ran across a small round chunck of half rotten wood that was half burried in the ground. I snatched it up and told my wife I did not want it on the burn pile. She thought I was crazy but I wanted to see what was inside. 

Well after killing a few creepy crawlers I knocked the mud off and cut it in half. It looks like Oak burl to me. I got enough pieces to get maybe 1 and 1/2 pens out of it. I am drying it now. Will post photos if it turns into something.

I used to look for long straight grain to make tables and shelves, now I snatch up the nastiest lookin wood I can find... makes beautiful pens.


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## tipusnr (Jun 9, 2004)

Thought this was worthy of reviving (even though it not really looking a trees).  Monday night I was cleaning the garage.  I had put in a couple of hardwood laminate floors recently and had the old baseboard molding in the garage for disposal.  It needs to be cut into 4' pieces and bundled for the trash to take it and I stacked it over by the table saw to get to it tonight (Tuesday is golf though I should have stayed and cleaned the garage the way I played).

Looking at the pile I remembered the base wood is hardwood and wondered what it looked like under the paint and if I could salvage pieces large enough for pen blanks.  I know that it is usually odds and ends joined with finger joints but orientated correctly the joints might be a neat detail.  I could also use the wood to test making other woodworking joints (maybe in miniature) to add detail to less attractive woods.

I think I've had a relapse! Who cares? Hand me my dust mask this paint is gonna be nasty!!


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## leenollie (Jun 9, 2004)

William,

That would be an interesting detail, especially if you were to get a part of one of the fingers. Also, a laminate of the wood may be interesting as well. You could try and place the finger joints at different levels for a truly unusual pattern.

Lee Biggers
The ever curious pen turner []


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## Crashresq (Jun 9, 2004)

We had some severe storms here in Green Country (Northeastern Oklahoma) last week.  I lost two large Bradford Pear trees (which are currently cut up and drying) and a lot of my neighbors lost trees and limbs of interesting varieties.  The guys at work started calling me a "Wood Wh*re" 'cause I run around the end of last week asking if they had any interesting trees blown down or limbs they needed to get rid of... oh well, we all gotta feed our addictions!

Bill


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## pecartus (Jun 16, 2004)

Next door neighbor lost one of their trees this past Saturday due to a bad storm that came through, Has anyone worked with Sugar Gum? to be honest, I never have heard of it before. Has the worst darn seed pods I have ever seen.


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## ilikewood (Jun 16, 2004)

Hey Patrick, I wish a good storm would come through for me!!  I just have to drool over my neighbors trees and dream that one day they just might accidently fall down.[]

PS - I don't have any night vision goggles []


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## tipusnr (Jun 16, 2004)

Well the reclaiming of the molding didn't quite work as planned.  The finger joints are gapped and run the wrong way plus the wood is uniformly bland.

Do have some nice stock for drawer runners out of it!


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## pecartus (Jun 16, 2004)

Bill, I know what you mean, there is a cherry tree sitting pretty close by that I wish would have an "accident" and dynamite is a little too noisy for our neighborhood [], and a car would only mangle it[]. I am still thinking on it, too bad the storm didnt have an effect on it.


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## tipusnr (Jun 25, 2004)

I'm getting so I can't remember what I read in which forum (or which website) so here goes.

I have been reading about people reclaiming turning wood from old furniture and yesterday was trash day.  The neighbor put out an old diningroom chair that was missing a leg.

Last night I took it apart and salvaged most of the hardware and one good looking cabriole leg to use as a pattern.  The wood itself was a little disappointing.  It looks to be glued up maple and by the time I ran it through the table saw to get straight lengths and take the finish off (I still need to get a planer/joiner and a thickness planer) I had approximately 10 unremarkable blanks that should be thick enough to make slimline pens and a few larger turning blanks.

Nothing to crow about but a couple of hours on the table saw and time cleaning up sawdust was all it cost me.

Who knows...the next time may be golden!!


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## melchioe (Jun 25, 2004)

Y'know, my wife pointed out to me the other day that I may look too hard for dramatic figures in the wood.  I had taken a 30-year old log that came from her grandfather's maple tree, and milled out a blank for a pen for her mother (so the pen made from Grandpa's tree went to his daughter).  After I had completed the pen I thought it looked bland.  However, wife like it and MIL loved it too.  Wife pointed out that it's nice wood, and who cares if it doesn't have prominent grain lines....  I was ready to stain it lightly to help bring out the patterns, and she stopped me.  After I put the CA finish on it, I looked at it again, carefully, and saw all sorts of subtle patterns and very cool figures.  They just didn't jump out at me like a zebra wood would do.

So I guess the lesson for me is (in keeping with the subject of this thread) that I need to continue to look at wood carefully.  Even a "bland" piece of wood has lessons in it, and can still make a wonderful pen.


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## Andy Ryan (Jul 12, 2004)

I was working on a construction site a month or so ago, found a 2x4 that had some spalting in it and brought it home.  after I started milling it up I came to relize it was maple and hard stuff to boot.  Well tuned it today and it certanaly is looking like a winner.  I cant wait to get it finished to share with IAP.


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## melogic (Jul 12, 2004)

I was at my mother-in-laws in Virginia over the weekend. Her boy friend had cut a couple of limbs up that fell from a Peach tree in the front yard. I took an axe and split the logs to see what the inside looked like. I will be turning a few pens from this tree. It is about 30 years old or so. The wood looks fabulous!


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