December 2023: Pen Blanks
The following images show the pen blanks given to a close friend for Christmas.
There is a note for each describing the given wood and its characteristics.
A highly sought after, figured form of sugar maple speckled with distinctive eye-like markings, pale golden-yellow in color with patches of reddish-brown heartwood. Despite its swirling figure, this dense, hard wood turns beautifully.
With a waxy texture, it works easily and takes a high polish. Best glued with epoxy or polyurethane. Its heartwood is tobacco- to reddish-brown with a variegated appearance, while the sapwood is grayish-yellow.
Black-brown to jet-black in color, this wood is extremely dense and hard. It has a very smooth texture and polishes to a glossy luster, but is hard on tool edges.
Tan to golden in color with distinctive dark brown grain patterns, this fragrant medium-hard wood turns and carves well, and polishes to a smooth, high finish.
Typically an extraordinary deep pink hue, the color ranges from brownish peach to deep red. A very hard, fine-textured wood that finishes to a high polish.
Deep purple to dark brown with lighter sapwood. With a medium to high luster, it turns, glues and finishes well, but is hard on tool edges.
Takes its name from its striking striped appearance. Lustrous, but open-grained with a medium to coarse texture.
Dark brown to reddish-brown with distinctive irregular darker brown or black streaks, this hard, medium-textured wood turns and finishes well.