I must apologize for not posting last week. It was one of those weeks from "He!!". Hopefully this week will be better.

Popular Woodworking has a new video, from Tim Yoder, on their Woodturning page-

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodturning?et_mid=670209&rid=237566791

Tim creates some door stops on the lathe.

As for me, I did get some turning done this week. Just about the time I started the bunk bed project, I also became involved with a project that will turn (no pun intended) reclaimed wood into pens.

I probably mentioned, at some point, our town has the "distinction" of being the only "northern" town burned by the Confederate Army during the Civil War. One of the few buildings to escape the burning was our "Old Jail". The Confederate Generals didn't want to unleash the prisoners on the local population. But, they did burn a home two doors down from there that was being used as a hospital- go figure.

Well, the "Old Jail" still stands. The town and historical society are doing restoration work. One of the parts to be restored is the cupola. It is original to the building. The top of the frame is covered with copper plating. The frame was mortise and tenon, pegged, hand hewn beams. These beams are the pieces to be reclaimed.

This piece is about 3' long and roughly 8" square. It is filled with old square nails that were used to attach the original "siding".

They had a professor, from Penn State University's Forestry Department, identify the wood as pine. The tree started growing sometime near 1700. When we cut into it, for pen blanks, the smell of pine was still strong!!!

We removed a small piece from the left end (in the picture above) and made enough blanks for 4 pens.

As you would expect, the pine is soft. We are experimenting on these pieces to determine if we should apply some sort of hardener to make the pens more durable. 

I rounded the blanks, using a very light touch. Then brought them to close to the final shape with a skew. Because the wood is so soft, I sanded to the final diameter/shape. 

For a finish, on the first one, I tried CA. I applied 20 applications of thin CA, using a fresh paper towel applicator for each application. I didn't have any accelerator so I waited about 15 minutes between each application, for the glue to harden. At about application number 10, my fingernail caught the surface and made a small gouge mark. That's the point when we started considering some sort of hardener. The mark sanded out, but it raised concern about durability.

The first finished pen posing on the timber where it was hiding for over 400 years. (Notice the "XV" mark on the beam. Identification mark for the workers to use during assembly.)

Safe Turning!

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

This is an excellent post, well done.

Have you ever experimented with any of the old Japanning methods?

Some of the heat or friction methods would surely give that a hard shell you could then lacquer.

That is just too cool Lew. Sorry about the town being burned, ours was burned several times by the Yankees. As a matter of fact, our town changed hands 44 times during the Civil War. One lady in her diary stated, "You have to get up every morning and look to see who's flag is flying to know who is in charge that day."

I love the pen and the look. Did you try any BLO with the CA? As I understand, the BLO sorta acts like an accelerator. I usually put a few drops of BLO on the paper towel and rub it in, then put the drops of CA on top of where the BLO was on my paper towel and rub it in, squeezing the paper towel together to create heat that will set the CA.

Anyway, you may be right in needing some type of hardener for the pine.

Just way too cool!

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John Moody
Site Administratorhttp://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com
“Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.†Shaker Saying

Thanks for the very kind words, guys. They are rally appreciated.

Mark, I hadn't even thought of the Japanning process. That might be an option!

John, since I made that pen, I purchased a can of accelerator. I had used some accelerator on another project and it left a white residue. I wasn't sure what caused it. Hope that doesn't happen with this new stuff. I've never tried BLO but I had read some place that the fibers in a paper towel accelerated the setting of CA. 

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!