Made this fancy pen box out of local woods. I work with a guy who owns a saw mill so I’m lucky and can get whatever I want. This one is pecan and mesquite. Finished in gloss tung oil. The box bottom and lid are 3D carved and used the laser for the initials. All done on the MPCNC. The pen and opener are local mesquite burl I tuned on the lathe. Kind of a thank you gift for our boss since he treats us well (not so common these days in a lot of companies).
Love that aged pecan. It has a weird 3D marbleized look that the pictures don’t do justice.
Those are both pretty cool. The grey one is aged pecan? I haven’t seen that before. It looks really cool. Is it softer after it ages like that? I would have been worried that some of the color would have moved around with the finish, but I’ve never used aged wood like that.
Cool project idea though. I see some semi-retired guys at faires sometimes selling turnings, I wonder if they could increase the appeal by having a laser cutting initials in boxes for the turnings while people were there.
The aged pecan he tells me is a rough cut log that is left outside for 6 to 18 months. The moisture and enzymes do their chemical magic and make all kinds of swirls and stuff throughout the wood. There are some parts that look figured, some purples, greens, yellows, etc in patterns that look like veins, clouds, etc. Once he’s happy with it he dries it, sometimes in the kiln, then he finishes the milling process. Normally sells for $10-12/BF. It machines really easily, kind of like cherry. It burns/blackens really quick like oak so you have to keep your movement speeds up and don’t let your cutters dwell.
The mesquite I just get from my own trees on my property. While it’s nice wood to work with those trees are awful and the thorns shred tractor tires. I hate it so it gives me some vindication to chop it up.
