I have really enjoyed these first few months of learning to use my lathe and turning a few pens. The pens are getting better but I need some micro clothes for finishing. People say they look good. That is encouraging. My son has made several now from moose horn and they do look good!
But for me, cutting up wood has become a very high point of interest. This past Saturday I found a piece of Box Elder (Manitoba Maple here on the prairies and Acer negundo botanically). This particular piece proved to have a lot of red through the centre and I had a great time cutting it up into pen blanks and a
group of 1" short slabs that might work for turning. This piece had been in a tractor garage for 5 or 6 years so was very dry and hard!
I have also cut up dried Siberian Crab (Malus baccata var. baccata) as well as green winter cut and Silver Poplar (Populus alba) which I cut off the tree about 10 days ago and still green.
So now I am on the lookout for trees which might make good sources of pen blank wood. We do not in this area have a wide selection of hardwood so I need to be on the look out for special trees and let people know that I would like a chunk if they cut anything down. Maybe I need to advertise on some of the garden forums for chunks of wood!
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