# my gift to Dcbluesman



## pete00 (Feb 22, 2006)

â€œA Touch of New Englandâ€


This is the first in a series of gifts entitled A Touch of New England.

This pen and holder were made in February 2006 from a piece of drift wood found on the shore at Hampton Beach NH on November 2005.

One day my wife and I were walking along the shore line. We came upon this 4 foot long silver gray piece of wood lying on the sand. This wood seemed to cry out â€œIâ€™m too good to be just drift woodâ€ so we picked it up and put it into the Jeep to take home.

How did this piece of wood end up on the beach?
How long had it been drifting in the ocean? 
If it could talk what stories would it tell of its adventure?

Did it gracefully grow old and fall into the sea? 
Perhaps a storm came along and ripped it from the shore.
Is this the only piece of the mighty tree left? 

Where is the rest, a house, a fine piece of furniture or unthinkably used as fire wood. This was a noble and proud tree in the beginning, but now a piece of drift wood.

So this is a story about a piece of wood that refused to give up and just disappear. It swam aimlessly around in the sea hoping to find land again and once more be a proud mighty tree.

Although not as big as it once was in size, it still stands tall and proud.

I present to you                       â€The Mighty Oakâ€ 











The piece of drift wood. The pen base came from the left end.







Top







Bottom





The other side







The Making of 
This was my first attempt at, a closed end pen, a tapered end, and custom center bands.
I failed on the center bands. The kit was a slim line from rockler with 2 gold center bands instead of one (extra part from my â€œoopsâ€ supply).

Drift wood cutting
I think this is a piece of oak, it weighed a ton. I thought it was because it was wet, but after drying a while it was still is heavy. I didnâ€™t see any difference in cutting drift wood versus regular wood. I had no problems with sand, seaweed or mermaids. 

 The only problem that came back to haunt me was it was still wet. I didnâ€™t take this into account when turning and measuring. As the wood was drying it keep changing shape. On one of the colder days as I was using the belt sander steam would come from the bottom of the wood. It smelled just like seaweed, nice smell. You would have to know what this smells like to appreciate it.

Failed at making separate custom center bands, nothing fit or looked right. A few times I almost had an intergraded center band looking good, but back to the changing shape problem.

 While I was trying different approaches I â€œinvented the wheelâ€ and found an easy way to make the top part on the pen fit over the bottom. Like a mortise and tenon. Soon as I get a few pics ill post a note about that. I only had to help the knot hole accept the pen, but I was ready with the drill, coffee grinds, old bark and ca to touch up incase I needed it.

Tapered end
I had problems working the tapered end. Tried to turn details and center band. Made home made mandrel out of a Â¼ rod to hold the stock. It turned ok but it always seemed to be out of round. It took me a while and a few pieces of wood to figure out the problem. I would turn the taper and add a few details. Then go back to it a couple days later and it was out of round. Reason wet wood was drying and changing shape in between turnings. All the details from the last turning went away trying to straighten things out. 

Surprisingly as it dried the wood was really dry. As I was turning a bunch of small cracks came out, so I hit it ca a few times. Once I thought id stabilize the hole so I cut a 6 inch piece, drilled it 4 inches down, and poured thin ca in. Thinking well this wont crack, the ca came out the bottom and glued my finger to block, another scar to brag about.

Finishing the base was the hardest. I wanted to keep the silver gray look, but it didnâ€™t look right along side of the finished pen.  Tried a few oils and polish but nothing seemed to be right.  To get a fresh view of the base I decided to take a few pictures to see what it looks like.  Iâ€™ve been using this trick for a long time to see what my projects looks like. It lets you look at it through different eyes. The lighting I used gave the picture a golden darker tone. It looked better than the original color, so I tried to make the real piece look like the picture. 

After experimenting a while, I ended up using Old English lemon oil for golden color and some Hut friction polish (without the friction), just buffed it with old shoe brush. Then I sanded away darker spots to bring out the golden tone. I repeated this process a few times. Next I added a small touch of Deft spray and more buffing on drill press. I did this a few times as well.  I have four more pieces that have knot holes, so weâ€™ll do a few more and try again.  This was actually fun, looking forward to making another one.

So if you find a stranded piece of wood somewhere yelling out for help, bring it home.
You could have your own Mighty Oak.

thanks for taking the time to read this, comments and suggestions welcome........pete


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## Ron Mc (Feb 22, 2006)

!!WOW!!


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## DCBluesman (Feb 22, 2006)

Pete - this makes the desk set even more meaningful.  It's worthy of being printed (Done!) and saved in my file (Also done!) with warranties and other important documents related to my pen collection.  Thanks, again!


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## ryannmphs (Feb 22, 2006)

WOW, is a very big understatement!!!!

Great job

Ryan


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## gerryr (Feb 22, 2006)

Extremely nice work and very artful in presentation.  It just proves that not all good wood is purchased from a supplier.


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## its_virgil (Feb 22, 2006)

WOW is right. Quite a story and desk set. Lou is one lucky guy! Great job and thanks for sharing the whole story....the story often makes the pen even more special.
Do a good turn daily!
Don


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## terrymiller (Feb 22, 2006)

That is a very nice desk set that I'm sure will be displayed proudly.


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## penhead (Feb 22, 2006)

Great job on the pen and holder....!....and, I will never look at another piece of driftwood the same ever again []


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## pete00 (Feb 22, 2006)

now its my turn to say wow
lost for words....thank you [:I][:I]


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## DWK5150 (Feb 22, 2006)

Very impressive.  Never thought of using driftwood at all.  Did you have any problems when turning with sand or anything being imbedded in it?


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## Dario (Feb 22, 2006)

The story behind the pen made it so much more special.  Way to go Pete!!!


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## PenWorks (Feb 22, 2006)

Very special , very nice. 
In Arizona, drift wood is illegal to take from the lakes, 
but it is okay to burn it in a camp fire, while at the lake.


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## pete00 (Feb 22, 2006)

> _Originally posted by PenWorks_
> <br />Very special , very nice.
> In Arizona, drift wood is illegal to take from the lakes,
> but it is okay to burn it in a camp fire, while at the lake.



Im sure theres a logical reason but why would it be illegal...


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## pete00 (Feb 22, 2006)

> _Originally posted by DWK5150_
> <br />Very impressive.  Never thought of using driftwood at all.  Did you have any problems when turning with sand or anything being imbedded in it?



not any problems at all, most of the sand was on top of the piece. 
A few hits with a brush and some water it all came off.


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## Dario (Feb 22, 2006)

> _Originally posted by pete00_
> <br />
> 
> 
> ...



You're lucky then.  I turned a driftwood manzanita root burl and it was filled with sand on all crevices (which is a lot).  I also found a few stones about 1/2" dia inside...talk about gouge killers. [B)]  

There is a photo of it in my album...taken before I gave it away.


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## JimGo (Feb 22, 2006)

Pete, they both turned out BEAUTIFUL!  Great job!


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## Tangboy5000 (Feb 22, 2006)

That is too cool!  Lou is a very lucky man.


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## Johnathan (Feb 22, 2006)

Amazing job. What a natural beauty and very classy![]


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## Darley (Feb 22, 2006)

Very nice set and good work Peter, sure that Lou is proud of it


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## woodpens (Feb 22, 2006)

Very nice, Pete. I need you to write the descriptions for all of the pens on my website. We could double the asking price! [] I just don't take the time I should for this.


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## Glenn McCullough (Feb 23, 2006)

Pete,
   These are the stories you dont hear from a store bought pen...just terrific!
Glenn


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## pete00 (Feb 23, 2006)

> _Originally posted by woodpens_
> <br />Very nice, Pete. I need you to write the descriptions for all of the pens on my website. We could double the asking price! [] I just don't take the time I should for this.




Jim
i dont have enough time left on this earth to name all your pens.[]


Thanks again for all the nice words. I actually had fun doing this.
I got to thinking that everyone has "a touch of" there local area.

Not sure what your state tree is, or if you can make a pen from a coconut, cactus, lava ?, iceberg [](for our nothern friends).

Mabey we can all come up with a state pen and sell them at shows for each other. (that came out as a joke but i wonder if it would work.)



thanks......pete


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## Jim15 (Feb 23, 2006)

Pete, that is a beautiful pen and holder, Amazing

jim


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## ed4copies (Feb 23, 2006)

Pete,

The main reason I did not take part in the pen exchange was fear of getting someone of Lou's caliber as my "pen partner".  I know nothing I make is on a par with his work, so why would he want it.  CONGRATULATIONS, that was a daunting task, you rose to the occasion well!!![][]


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## pete00 (Feb 23, 2006)

ed

That was my first concern, but as it turns out I had nothing to worry about, it was all in my head. Every pen that i have seen and have heard talked about all had the same thing in common. It was done to give as a gift from a fellow turner. Every message ive seen had
excitement, fear of not being good enough and more importantly, they all had someone say proudly "i made this for you"

We all know what it takes to make something. Doesnt matter if we made 1 or 1000, or skill level(whatever that means).
The same effort and pride goes into it, and we all appriciate that.

This was so much fun I would do it again in a second, next time we do a swap, i encourage everyone to join in the fun.

pete


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## Dario (Feb 23, 2006)

> _Originally posted by ed4copies_
> <br />Pete,
> 
> The main reason I did not take part in the pen exchange was fear of getting someone of Lou's caliber as my "pen partner".  I know nothing I make is on a par with his work, so why would he want it.  CONGRATULATIONS, that was a daunting task, you rose to the occasion well!!![][]



I don't know Ed.  As far as I am concerned your work is up there with the best too.

I do agree with Pete...everyone I know feel great with what they received, whether it is better than theirs or not.

I almost didn't join because of time constraints but my wife encouraged me to...I'm glad I did []


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## UKpenmaker (Feb 24, 2006)

Excellent work Pete, truly stunning.[]
Just goes to show that you can't dismiss any pieces of wood.


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## BigRob777 (Feb 24, 2006)

Pete,
Very nice.  I've got a lot of driftwood that my wife and I saved for making projects, like lamps and such.  I haven't a clue what type of wood it is though.  The planks make great bases for lamps.  I really want to come up with a completely unique odd pen, made from something bizarre.  I'll know it when I find it.  I wonder how a fish spine would turn, if it were stabilized...hmmmm....(I have some from the beach)
Rob
Rob


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## pete00 (Feb 24, 2006)

> _Originally posted by BigRob777_
> <br />Pete,
> I wonder how a fish spine would turn, )
> Rob
> Rob



[][][][]  rob please let me send you some of my mediacation,

no charge.....before you start stealing dinosaur bones from your local  museum.....


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## elody21 (Feb 24, 2006)

A totally beautiful peice of ART!


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