# Pen for the Preacher



## rocky1 (Dec 18, 2016)

Or, things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm...

_Before embarking upon this journey guys, please understand, that while I am spiritual in nature, I'm not what one would call a real religious individual. _

Awhile back someone had remarked on having picked up an olive wood cutting board at a retail outlet and sawing it up into Pen Blanks. And, I stopped by my local TJ Maxx and scored a couple cutting boards after reading that, one made of cross cut Olive slab, the other of laminated Acacia that has 1 piece of spalted sapwood and 2 - 3 pieces with some interesting figure. Finally got the best of me, and in recent efforts to clean my shop up so it donesn't look like some guys' shops that'll remain nameless, I sawed the Olive into blanks. Kinda made up my mind to save the Acacia board, as it wasn't quite as special as I initially thought, when I unwrapped it.

Seems simple and straight forward enough up to this point, right?

Somewhere back there in time, totally unrelated and without thought of cutting boards, not even sure I had read the thread, or bought the boards at that time in fact, I was surfing the Penn State site and ran across the Cross clip in 24k Gold finish and ordered several of those to build pens for folks at the church, if the wife or mother-in-law came up with a request.

Preacher at our little country church is a nifty old guy, restores antique tractors as a hobby, has a few that are show worthy, and used to borrow our car trailer on occasion when he and his son would haul them to shows or parades. Well, I decided to turn Brother Daniels a pen for Christmas; no particular reason, just the Christmasy thing to do.

Been itching to turn one of those Olive blanks, remembered there is biblical reference to Olive Tree/Branch of significance in the Bible, although I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was at the time. So I decided to turn Brother Daniels a pen out of the olive wood.

Cut my blanks, bored them, glued tubes in... Everything went really sweet. Not a hitch or a glitch anywhere.

Little aggravation cleaning them up, to put them on the mandrel, but none of the usual "rushing things way to much" tube cleaning device glued into the blank, tube pulled out nonsense... It just didn't want to clean one tube up.

Mounted the tubes on the mandrel, got a little CA in the threads on my mandrel given the aforementioned problem, and the nut didn't want to start, but it was just little aggravatin... Not the usual make you want to cuss and swear aggravation.

Grabbed my gouge and it was a little dull, wasn't wanting to remove much material, so I touched it up quick on the belt sander... Don't know that that gouge has ever cut so sweet.

The Olive was turning really sweet! Switched over to my Skew, it was all going great, I laid my skew down a little too quick and bumped the blank... It wasn't the usual catch, big chunk knocked out, PITA to fix, blank ruined kinda catch, oh no, although it bumped pretty good, next pass it simply disappeared.

Sanded my turned blanks to finish, they polished up so nice I was almost tempted to not even finish them... But decided I better to keep it clean over time.

Applied numerous layers of CA, in my usual fashion, and while I did have a little CA soak through my paper towel and get on my finger... Not once did I glue a paper towel to my finger with exothermic reaction going on and smoke rolling off the towel stuck to the end of my finger. Not even close!

Finished them up and none of the bushings were stuck on the tubes, no tubes stuck on the mandrel... Everything slid off the mandrel cleanly and easily.

Tossed them on the buffing wheel and I buffed and buffed and buffed... And, not once did the wheel pull it's usual grab a piece, launch it, bounce it off the lathe bed, work table, wall, and floor... Oh no, never lost a piece, although I spent extra time buffing these. And, buffed them hard trying to find every ounce of shine.

One end of the pen has this really cool fade effect going on, so I elected to make that the top rather than cover any grain with the clip. There's a nice little dip in the fade on one side so I turned my clip over that... And, the base of the cross lines up perfectly with the first line of grain. The tip of the clip likewise lines up perfectly with grain line below that as well. (_I only wish I was that good all the time!_)




 




 



Came in to show the pen to the wife, sister-in-law was here, wife was busy; asked the sister-in-law what the significance of the Olive Wood was in the bible; told her that I couldn't for the life of me remember. Although there are a number of references to Olive in the Bible, she referenced Genesis 8:11

Genesis 8 - King James Version (KJV)

1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;

2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;

3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

9 But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

*11 And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.*​After considerable ooooing and aaahing and carrying on about how beautiful this pen was, my wife later tells me, "Well we have Christmas morning services, and I'm going to wait and give it to him then. Now you have to make something for his wife." So I decided to see what other "Biblical references to wood" might be found in the bible, before going out and simply turning something of the same Olive wood. And, the first result Google returns, suggests 72 references to wood in the Bible. I'm thinking that's cool I should be able to find something in the shop to keep this all holy, so I click the link and what pops up on the top of the list of 72 references to wood in the bible...

Exodus 27:1 

"And you shall make the altar of *acacia wood*, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits.

Exodus 25:10-13

"They shall construct an ark of *acacia wood* two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. "You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. "You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it.

Exodus 26:15-17

"Then you shall make the boards for the tabernacle of *acacia wood*, standing upright. "Ten cubits shall be the length of each board and one and a half cubits the width of each board. "There shall be two tenons for each board, fitted to one another; thus you shall do for all the boards of the tabernacle.

Exodus 27:6 

"You shall make poles for the altar, poles of *acacia wood*, and overlay them with bronze.​It should also be noted that references to Noah building the Ark state that he was instructed by God to build the Ark of "Gopher Wood". A species not known in that part of the world, in modern times. Biblical Scholars and Botanists have conferred on this matter at length, and many believe biblical reference to "Gopher Wood" likely infers "shittim wood" and dependent upon what PC version of the bible one references, some do in fact say God instructed Noah to build the Ark out of shittim wood. And, lo and behold, Acacia is in fact of the genus and species, atzei shittim.

If you made it this far, you can now sit around and go hmmmmmm too!

And, yes... The acacia cutting board is about to be sawed into something.

It was all simply to strange not to share.

Reactions: Like 6 | EyeCandy! 1 | Great Post 1


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## Ray D (Dec 18, 2016)

Nice story. I'm sure they will love the gifts.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Informative 1


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## Lou Currier (Dec 18, 2016)

Great story and it is sometimes truly amazing on how events are sometimes guided by something we can't explain. 

On another note...I would love to be a fly on your wall when you are turning, probably piss myself laughing.

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 3


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## rocky1 (Dec 18, 2016)

What??? You mean to tell me I'm the only one who glues his tube reamer into the tube on occasion, glues paper towels that are trying auto-combust to their finger tips, has catches, and launches bat guana out of the buffing wheel at Mach I and sends it ricocheting around the shop?

I don't think so!! 

I just ain't afraid to admit it! Sh1t happens sometimes. You oughta read my fishing stories Lou! 

Hey, I have fun anyhow!

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 1


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## Sprung (Dec 18, 2016)

Nice, Rocky! I love the wild patterns that olivewood has.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## rocky1 (Dec 18, 2016)

Sprung said:


> Nice, Rocky! I love the wild patterns that olivewood has.



It was an interesting little cutting Board Matt. Wasn't very big, sorta oval shaped slab, maybe 12 inches long, 8-9 inches wide, 7/8" thick. As best I recall I paid like $9.50 for it, got 7-8 blanks that will yield a pair of pen blanks, and a keychain, one I'm going to have to measure and see what it'll do, too short for a pen though. The two out of the middle might give up two sets of pen blanks, not sure. (_Losing an inch or more on each end, it was debarked and finished with the sloped edges common to diagonal slice of log._)

Pretty cheap blanks for that kind of stock at any rate!!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Tony (Dec 18, 2016)

Good looking pen Rocky, great story too! I'm sure they will appreciate the heck of of those gifts! Tony

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Lou Currier (Dec 19, 2016)

@rocky1 i remember a small lidded box that did not want to stay on the cole jaws...said a few words of wisdom that day


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## rocky1 (Dec 19, 2016)

I try and avoid that sh1t flying out of the lathe routine as much as possible, but yeah... I have launched a piece or two slap across one bay over to middle of the other bay in the shop, at least a time or two! Wasn't necessarily a little piece either. If I'd been younger I'd have probably run, but as it was, in my old age, I didn't even have time to crap my pants.

Spake a few words of wisdom, said, "Damn I'm glad I was standing off to the side, and not in front of that!" And, started over! Cautiously!!


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## Nature Man (Dec 19, 2016)

Great story! Thanks for taking the time to record your follies with prose -- we can all relate. And the final product of your virtuous effort looks amazing! Chuck

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## rocky1 (Dec 19, 2016)

OK... So I sawed up the Acacia Cutting Board, to turn the Preacher's Wife a bell. Not sure why but old women all think the little bells are absolutely beautiful, figured it would be a hit. Tried to sneak by with a nifty piece of spalted sapwood fading into heart wood in hopes of catching the deep dark reds in this Acacia, combined with the spalt on the flipside, but that didn't turn out so well. Heart wood turned a little thin and wound up sort of a transparent pink, that faded to pink tint when you turned it in the light. Not a bad looking bell, but not at all what I was after.

Went ahead and sawed into the heart of the cutting board and found the most interesting piece therein, a nice big knot in the middle of one piece and started over. And wound up with the bell below, for the dear lady!!

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 1


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## DKMD (Dec 19, 2016)

Nice work on both of them!

_And the Lord sayeth to Rocky, "Go unto thine local store and buyeth two boards once intended for cutting. Chopeth those boards into smaller pieces which shall be appropriate for gift making. Taketh and giveth the fruits of thy lathe to a local temple where they may be bestowed upon a man of God and his bettereth half."_

Reactions: Like 1 | Thank You! 1 | Great Post 2


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## Blueglass (Dec 19, 2016)

Grain in the Acacia reminds me of some Camphor burl I had. The Acacia in the bible I have found refernced as Shittum, what a twisted research session that is.


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## rocky1 (Dec 19, 2016)

It was interesting when I started getting into all of that Les. Actually found one Bible sight that referenced the use of Shittim wood to build the Ark is how I got off on that tangent, and stumbled upon the info on conjecture that Gopher Wood may have been Acacia and was used to build the Ark. The other references to Acacia have no doubt been translated to be more PC over time. I vaguely recall references to Shittim Wood in the King James version of the Bible in my youth, thinking it comical at the time.


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## CWS (Dec 19, 2016)

Thanks for sharing.


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## Clay3063 (Dec 22, 2016)

DKMD said:


> Nice work on both of them!
> 
> _And the Lord sayeth to Rocky, "Go unto thine local store and buyeth two boards once intended for cutting. Chopeth those boards into smaller pieces which shall be appropriate for gift making. Taketh and giveth the fruits of thy lathe to a local temple where they may be bestowed upon a man of God and his bettereth half."_


I like that Doc. I never knew anyone from Oklahoma who could speak the Queens English so well. I've known some who tried. But none like you. Bless you. And Merry Christmas!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Clay3063 (Dec 22, 2016)

Being a man of the cloth as it were, I can appreciate your story Rocky. I've heard countless similar stories where folks have shared similar happenings as they were gifting something to their minister. And I can say this, the Lord picked a fine craftsman to do His work for this Minister and his wife. Thank you for that. Seriously. Thank you. Our work oft times, more oft than not, goes unappreciated by most until we are needed at 2 am in a morning for whatever reason.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## rocky1 (Dec 22, 2016)

Not sure what guided this mission Clay, but obviously a power bigger than us all. Even the pictures of the pen turned out way better than mine normally do. It was a fun project, and one I'm sure he will appreciate and cherish for a long long time.

The work you folks of the cloth do is all too often not appreciated nearly enough.

Merry Christmas Clay!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Clay3063 (Dec 22, 2016)

Merry Christmas to you too my friend!


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