WTB: Dawn redwood (flame or burl) stabilized pen blanks

Arn213

craM de la craM # RipJack City!
Full Member
Messages
2,743
Reaction score
4,589
Location
Knickerbocker, NY
First name
Arn
Good morning to everyone at WB. I am hoping someone here will have this specific wood. Father Jason at the church that I attend will be leaving his residence in Nolita, NYC as he has a higher calling in Detroit. He was a big part of the community and he always had inspiring homily that connected to what was going on or related to life in general. I can tell he was passionate about his calling- he was very inspiring and left profound homilies. He was a story teller very similar to our @Mike Hill. I would like to find the special wood I listed on my subject line and get a custom fountain pen made and gift it to him before he takes off to his new calling this July. What more fitting it is to be able to go your brothers and sisters here at Wood Barter to find the wood and someone to custom make one.

Anyhow, when I landed back in NYC back in January 2019, pre-Covid, I stumbled into this little church that I always passed by as a teenager when I attend school in the city. I was always intrigued by it, but never really went in and decided to do so after 37 years. I was rather going through some hard and difficult times. Decided to go to mass and low behold, Father Jason gave a profound homily that was memorable. I decided that I will attend his mass at every Sunday. So I did the best I can and every time he spoke during the homily, there was relevancy, it was impactful, relatable and resonated with such importance. Now you don’t have to be a church goer to relate to what I am talking about. You can got to any meeting, show, or whatever when there is a speaker- they will either bore the 💩 out of you, speak technically in ways to lose your interest, have a story that is very choreographed in a way like a calculated script (like a computer robot) and at times will put you to sleep or make you think about other things. This is not the case with Father Jason- he spoke like it came from the bottom of his heart, relatable, personal and had impactful meaning at the end that resonated within your very core.

The reason for the “Dawn Redwood”- it is his favorite and he has try planting it and from what I can recall he didn’t have much luck due because of certain challenges. This particular Dawn redwood is an important that tree was planted here in from what Father told me in the 1970’s. This specific tree was relevant to NYC and spoke about a specific location that was planted in a garden nursery at Liz Christy Community Garden here in Manhattan between Houston Street and the Bowery intersection. It actually has a symbolic meaning as it was used to “memorialize the workers that died on September 11, 2001. It does dominate the nursery landscape as it is growing really fast, really tall as it is over 100 feet now and the tallest redwood tree in Manhattan- thinking they have to know how gigantic this species get like the one’s in Oregon and California. This tree I imagined will need to be moved/replanted at some point?

Here is a link:

Here are some photo’s from the site- not mine but, from the website. I thought I took some photo’s of it when I visited it middle of last year and I remember it being shorter and it was planted in the corner- this link shows like it was moved towards the middle of the garden.

9286EA70-932B-4F49-832A-38B593D4F5DD.jpeg

2396153B-42E3-4237-B017-0547F6AE928B.jpeg

Alright, let’s start the ball rolling and I am hoping some members will come through and of course I will fund the blanks and the process build. Thank you everyone.

Arn
*last edited 06-25-2021
 
Last edited:

Nature Man

Member
Full Member
Messages
13,546
Reaction score
11,112
Location
Bulverde, TX
First name
Chuck
Never heard of Dawn Redwood, but am anxious to see if someone has some. Great background story! Chuck
 

Mike1950

Founding Member
Founding Member
Full Member
Messages
26,954
Reaction score
38,257
Location
Eastern Washington
First name
Mike
We planted a dawn redwood in 97. No figure that I know of. Might have a branch broken off last winter.
 

Arn213

craM de la craM # RipJack City!
Full Member
Messages
2,743
Reaction score
4,589
Location
Knickerbocker, NY
First name
Arn
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5
We planted a dawn redwood in 97. No figure that I know of. Might have a branch broken off last winter.
Oh cool. I don’t have to have curly or burl- plain sawn will work. The curl and burl I thought might be a nice feature element added to the pen.
 
Last edited:

Mike1950

Founding Member
Founding Member
Full Member
Messages
26,954
Reaction score
38,257
Location
Eastern Washington
First name
Mike
I will look today. It is a weird tree. Loses needles every year. Needles are soft. Had a peach tree get loaded with snow. Fell over and hit the redwood.
 

bhatleberg

Member
Full Member
Messages
1,363
Reaction score
2,205
Location
Chelsea, MA
First name
Brian
I have had this wood in the past but Aapologies- don't have any now. Because it was discovered in the 50s and lives long, very hard to get any wood cut from trunk, as none get cut down. Most wood available is from dead fall branches.

Because of the growth habit of the tree, most large branches have an oval shape that basically leads to reaction wood. Thus its reputation for cracking and splitting. Thus my complete failure to do anything interesting with it - hope you have better luck.

That said, the story of the tree is incredible. It is the plant analog of the coelacanth, the living fossil fish. A team of botanists found a monastery that had tended a grove in China...and that's all there were. The original imports to the US were planted at The College of William and Mary and at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum. So these are the most mature in the US. I have seen both - they are stunningly beautiful, with a kind of parabolic shape and beautiful buttresses spreading out at the base of the trunk. One of my favorite trees of all time.
 

Mike1950

Founding Member
Founding Member
Full Member
Messages
26,954
Reaction score
38,257
Location
Eastern Washington
First name
Mike
Just leafing out. We call this the hole. We have planted with trees and bushes. Noise and site barrier. I definitely have a couple limbs to trim. 20210522_095122.jpg
 

Arn213

craM de la craM # RipJack City!
Full Member
Messages
2,743
Reaction score
4,589
Location
Knickerbocker, NY
First name
Arn
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9
@Mike1950 - if there are dead and fallen branches, I would be happy to purchase some to go in a flat rate box and ask you for other things that you post here for sale. Just want to make sense of shipping that is all. I have air dried figured redwood and redwood burl, which I don’t have access to it as it is 800 miles from where I am now, plus this is what he would want. Now, I air dry all of my redwood, these pieces will not be dry for it to become a finish pen- I don't have access to a kiln and the kiln will take away from the color of redwood, which is why it is ideal to air dry them. So I don’t know what to do about that.

I had the opportunity to buy chunks of this awhile ago and unfortunately passed as I thought nothing of it.
 

quags37

Member
Full Member
Messages
235
Reaction score
406
Location
Wisconsin
First name
Nick
I have a dawn redwood in my backyard. It was planted back in the late 1960's by an arborist who lived here at the time. Yup, it sheds its needles every year and makes quite a mess of things. There are a few branches that need to come down, but it won't be real soon. I saw some small slabs about a year ago at a show, and regret not buying one. They were from an urban wood store in SE wisconsin.
 

Arn213

craM de la craM # RipJack City!
Full Member
Messages
2,743
Reaction score
4,589
Location
Knickerbocker, NY
First name
Arn
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12
Might be one or 2 dead limbs. I have some redwood burl. Dry. I will give you chunks of dead limbs.
Mike @Mike1950 - I don’t know what to say and that is so kind and generous of you. Thank you! Will discuss like with you via pm on redwood burl pen blanks as a backup. PM coming your way....

Thank you for everyone for the great post, great info., for the input, for chiming in and the help. Now, I have to find a lucky (or unlucky) Wood Barter pen maker here to see if they want to take on the mission. I have a couple in mind.

Arn
 

Mr. Peet

Member
Full Member
Messages
7,176
Reaction score
7,771
Location
northeastern PA
First name
Mark
I have Dawn Redwood on the porch, milled 3-5 years ago. This tree died and the sapwood went kind of gray. Growth rings were 1/2" to an inch. Soft wood. Had some samples too, from a tree off of Penn State. The wood was red centered and white sapwood, ovaled branch stock. Maybe I'll get a picture of some of it if desired.
 

Mike1950

Founding Member
Founding Member
Full Member
Messages
26,954
Reaction score
38,257
Location
Eastern Washington
First name
Mike
I have Dawn Redwood on the porch, milled 3-5 years ago. This tree died and the sapwood went kind of gray. Growth rings were 1/2" to an inch. Soft wood. Had some samples too, from a tree off of Penn State. The wood was red centered and white sapwood, ovaled branch stock. Maybe I'll get a picture of some of it if desired.
redwood is soft. I assume the dawn would be also. Great thread- found out a lot about it. we planted it cause it was pretty..
 

Arn213

craM de la craM # RipJack City!
Full Member
Messages
2,743
Reaction score
4,589
Location
Knickerbocker, NY
First name
Arn
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #16
Well our dear @Mike1950 came to the rescue and got me to “1st base” today as he quickly sent me these “FAB 4” dead branches from his property! A big thank you to you Mike for your goodwill and generosity! It is wet and that is my only concern with the time frame I have- does anyone know any tip to get this dry as quickly as possible? I did pickup a couple of dry redwood burl from Mike as a back up. Well, looking to recruit a fine pen maker here at WB and to address the feasibility of the dawn redwood as a finished pen.

B426B71F-7DA4-4309-8191-F22CA9ACAC72.jpeg

9613968E-9DCC-4714-97A3-6F9467D04F37.jpeg

6F7CC6F0-1261-463D-96C1-069B5D239BEB.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Top