Recycling

[Rodney Hoyle]

Hello,

I like to recycle where possible and over time I accumulate a lot of small drops from my projects. Recently I added a Delta Midi to my shop and have discovered pen turning. Usually all the small scraps are boxed up and saved for the fireplace. Well now I save them and use them in pen turnings. I've found pen turning to be most enjoyable and the dozen or so pens that I have completed have turned out rather good. I made each girl in the office a pen and a pen holder and they were an instant hit. WOW! With all the hugs and accolades just makes it that much more enjoyable. I also make lamps from bowling pins. The slow speed of the Midi makes removing the pin cover very safe. It's amazing the finish that is achieved on these pens with CA glue and is accomplished in just a few minutes. I currently use pine, red oak, sinker cypress, rock maple and cedar. Happy turning.

Rodney

[Lee Koepke]

One of my joys (and aches) of turning is virtually anything can be turned. Scraps and cut-offs are now considered future stock in something.....

I have even taken to using the drops when I bandsaw bowl blanks for things like small stands for wine bottle stoppers and displays for my pens!

[Brian Kent]

Very nice Rodney, and what is "sinker cypress"?

[Rodney Hoyle]

Very nice Rodney, and what is "sinker cypress"?

It's cypress that was logged out of the swamps in the late 1800 thru early 1900. They were rafted and sometimes the logs were lost and remained submerged for 70 to 120 years. The underwater tomb allowed the logs to cure and produce wood that is no longer available. It's a tough industry and if you have ever seen "Swampman" Shelby Stanga basically earns his living harvesting sunken(sinker)cypress and pine logs. The amount of sinker is finite and getting harder to harvest as each year goes by. Shelby is a customer of mine and he has some really wild tales about life in the swamp. He also lives about 5 miles from me. His buyers are continually seeking his logs and recently sold a few large logs(one 42" dia) for $14,000 dollars. Not a bad weeks work. And the logs are free-that is if you don't mind getting in the water with leaches, water moccasins and of course maybe a hungry 10-12' alligator or two. Shelby has been bitten by enough moccasins over the years that he is basically immune to the venom. A cabinet making friend gave me a piece of sinker that was between 3-400 yrs.old. The growth rings were so tight you needed a magnifier to separate them. They don't grow that kind of wood anymore. Hope this helps.

Rodney

[Brian Kent]

Very interesting Rodney. Is one of the pens in the picture sinker cypress?

[Rodney Hoyle]

Very interesting Rodney. Is one of the pens in the picture sinker cypress?

No. This piece that I have will only be used on special occassions. I am sure that my friend would give me another, but I would not want to be a hog. Besides being very expensive, Terry uses it in all his high end, and I mean high end furniture pieces. Another source for antique cypress, although not sinker, is from all the demolition of wearhouse districs where cypress and heart pine beams 18 x 24 in. x 30+ ft long were used in the old bildings built in the late 1800 through about 1925 when the cypress logs were virtually all harvested. Another of my customers is in the business of buying old timbers and milling them into more familiar sizes. He caters to people like Terry, architecs and builders interested in matching the lumber in very old houses in S/E Louisiana.

Rodney