Frequently Asked Questions
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I hear that you must use very dry wood to make a pen. Why? |
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The wood on a pen is very thin and if it were green
(not dry) then it would crack as it dries. Our normal
moisture is 6%. |
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What is your favorite wood to work with? |
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This is a tough one to answer because we all have our favorites. Jim’s favorite wood was Birds Eye Maple Burl. It is not only very beautiful, but it turns well and you can finished to a spectacular high shine finish. Denny’s favorite is Antler because of the smooth feel and different shades of white and gray from each piece. |
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How many different species of woods do
you carry in stock? |
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At last count, we had 80 different species of exotic
woods and 27 species of burls in stock. This might change from time to time as some woods do not
move and they are replaced with different species. |
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I see that you are turning pens using
antlers from deer, elk and moose. Are these antlers
from that have been shot? |
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The antlers I use are from animals that drop their
antlers in late winter or very early spring. None
of these animals were killed. I might add that moose
antler is my favorite because it is a much more solid
antler. |
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How long does it take you to make a pen? |
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This is a difficult question to answer. First of all, we free hand all of our turnings. That is to say that we use hand held tools while turning a pen. Generally, the softer the wood, the more time is spent making sure that there are no chips in the wood (birds eye maple burls are famous for this). At the same time, a very hard wood like black ebony is quite hard and is also very brittle. You must take your time and use small cuts on this wood to keep it from splitting. A good rule of thumb is that it will take 45 minutes to an hour from start to finish to make a pen.
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How is a pen finished to get that high
gloss (wet look)? |
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We use a total of 17 steps in finishing our pens. The final 4 steps are a hand applied lacquer. We do not use waxes because we find it tends to soften with use and age and loses its high gloss. |
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