mark@clevedonwoodenpens.com
I thought I would do a little write up on some locally grown/found wood I have aquired and will be turning them into pens.
Holly (Ilex aquifolium)
This is a new type of pen I have started to make. It is called a Gentlemans pen. This is a classic fine desk pen and although it is big, it is not uncomfortable to use, it feels nicely balanced. It has 22k gold/cobalt accents on a brilliant Rhodium finish.
This pen will be available as a fountain pen or a roller pen.
The fountain pen features a top quality German-made two-tone nib with Iridium point while the rollerball includes a ceramic tipped Scmidt cartridge for smooth effortless writing. The worlds Premier pen makers plate their finest pens with Rhodium which can sell for as much as £700 per ounce.
The pen you are looking at is made from Holly, from a house called the Hollies in Chew Magna near
This was made from a small log that had been left lying in the garden and to be honest I did not think I could do anything with it as it looked like it was split all the way through, but I managed to get a few pen blanks out of it.
As a point of interest (according to my herb book) Holly leaves used to be used to cure gout, stones, urinary problems, bronchitis, rheumatism and arthritis.
The preparation is to boil 1 to 2 tbsp of dried leaves in 1 cup of water. Take 1 cup a day.
CAUTION: The berries are mildly poisonous and are dangerous to small children
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Oak (Quercus)
These pens were commissioned for a gentleman who has retired from Airbus in Filton,
The Oak interestingly came from the flooring of the directors dining room of Pegasus House also known as New Filton House which was designed by Austen Hall and built next to the Old Filton House in 1936. There are some lovely stained glass windows to be seen in this building which were created by the Artist Jan Juta born in 1895 and died in
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Rhodesian teak (Baikiaea plurijuga)
I had the good fortune to work at British Aerospace at Filton;
This floor was laid down in 1938 and survived through the war years. My grandfather was working at this airfield during the infamous daytime bombings of World War Two, when I pick a block of this up, I never fail to remember him and the gorgeous sunny summer day I picked it up with the smell of the tar (used to glue the blocks down) wafting strongly through the car. If I couldnt bring myself to burn this lovely bit of wood because of a few sentimental reasons and the fact that beneath the grime I could see the rich colourings, it must hold a greater value for somebody who worked or works at BAC.
The blocks look well worn by foot traffic and are covered in tar underneath but when cut, turned and polished as a pen look really impressive, the quality as you can imagine was still easily available in the 1930s, not like today.
I think I have enough for around 100 -150 pens I havent worked it out yet.
As a point of interest the London Corn Exchange had a Rhodesian teak parquet floor installed during its 1952 rebuilding.
Rhodesian teak (Baikiaea plurijuga)
The Genus name is in honour of Dr William Balfour Baikie, a West African traveller and Royal Navy surgeon on the Niger Expedition of 1854 to 1857.
Colouring
The heart wood is an attractive reddish brown with irregular black streaks and flecks. While the sapwood tends to be a pale, pinkish, brown.
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Norway Maple (Acer platanoides)
This is the wood Sam Harris found for me, and the pens at the bottom and around the edges of the home page are made from this wood.
This particular tree had been dead, still standing on an Estate driveway in Wraxall, near
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I like this wood a lot, in fact my own pens are made from this tree, you see many different patterns in the wood as you turn the pen around in you hand. To think I must have driven past this tree a hundred or more times and did not give it a second glance when it was alive!
An extra point of interest the species Latin name, meaning "like Platanus," indicates the similarity of the leaves to those of Sycamore and Planetree, to which it is not related.
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Oak American (Quercus)
Did you know?
A mature oak tree can draw up to 50 or more gallons of water per day. Trees take up water through their root system. Some of the water evaporates from the leaves in a process called transpiration.