I forgot to tell the turners here that my trip up to the mountains the other day netted me zero pine cones.  I was up at my dads place all day, so we didn't get a chance to get higher up where the pines reside.  We are heading up there in a week or so and I will get to be closer to the pines this next trip.  Sorry pen makers, you'll have to wait just a bit longer! Thanks for your patience.

Tell me a little about pine cone turning. Do they need to be a certain size? I got a ton of the things around my house but the pretty small.

Joshua D. Rollins said:

I was wondering, but beggars can't be choosers. No big hurry John, just a thought, whenever you do get some all we need is the core or pith so you could probably get several in an envelope or one of the flat rate boxes.

As Josh said, we are begging so we can wait.

The ones I have here are all pretty small. There are four pine trees between me and my neighbor, but the cones that come off those trees are at best 5 inches long and not big enough to drill out the center.

We only need the center to be about 1" in diameter I think.