What lies below the surface?

[Ronald Fox]

I was cutting up some curly maple for light houses a few weeks back and there was some discoloration that I decided not to use. Betty wanted me to keep the sections because they looked like lightning. Well, Betty and I decided to each grab a piece and make a Zen pen out of them. I aligned the tubes to run directly under the discolored sections. I love surprises and something like this is something you don't know what it will look like until you "unwrap" it. We'll post pictures once we have completed the pens. Thanks for looking

Ron
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[charlie knighton]

Ronald, at the upcoming NC Woodturning Symposium, there is going to be a rotation titled, What's in that Screwed Up Wood, by Warren Carpenter. i do not know Warren but it sounds like an interesting rotation and i am sure i will learn something by attending.

[ray hampton]

if this is a lighting bolt then you can expect two HOT pens

[kevin loftus]

if this is a lighting bolt then you can expect two HOT pens

Said Ray, to a "Thunderous round of applause".

[Betty Fox]

This is the zen pen that I turned from the lightning blank. It's b e a utiful!!! It's got four coats of medium ca, rubbing compound, and car wax. I love when bugs give me figured wood.




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[Eric Holmquist]

I love it when one fined some bit of magic hidden in some wood. Some folks try to capture lighting in a bottle, you captured it in a pen!

[David E Keller]

That's cool!

[Jim Burr]

What a great find!! Nice job of letting the wood show off!

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is just to cool. Really nice looking pen.

[Tim Rinehart]

Very cool. How nice of that bug to do that...not that the rest of the tree appreciated it. Great job getting that down the side of the blank!!

[Prashun Patel]

Really perfect. Great find and great use.

[David Reed]

You may think I could come up with a different adjective, but that is indeed way cool. What a find - what secrets we find inside otherwise mundane appearing chunks of wood.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Ron and Betty - it is one thing to come across cool patterns in wood but quite another to have the skill to take advantage of your find! Beautiful pen!

[Betty Fox]

Thanks all. Ron lined up the pen so the 'lightning' bolt went straight down the blank. He's a wizard at that kinda thing but even he admits it was mostly luck. I'm thinking about using it for one of our Christmas auctions at the local woodturning clubs. It's a unique pen. No other one exactly like it.

[Dan Hintz]

Said Ray, to a "Thunderous round of applause".

If he keeps making stuff like that, business will be booming.