LV pen

Mack Cameron

In Memorium
Not Lee Valley! Lignum Vitae!

Ambassador Toni sent me a box of wood from Spain containing Spanish Olive Wood, Wenge and a piece of LV.

Toni relates this piece of LV belonged to his father who treasured it as a piece of gold. He estimates it to be 65 - 70 years old.

Nothing I could think of doing with it but turn it into a pen. I have never turned LV, and knowing how hard it is, I thought I would have difficulty turning it. It turns like butter, literally; most likely because of the oils present in the wood.

No sanding required, only a polishing with 0000 steel wool, and a buffing with Caswell's Fine & Ultra-Fine buffing compounds.
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The subtleness of the grain is apparent in this pic. A gorgeous pen to be treasured!
 
Wonderful, I bet that pen has some real heft to it :D

It must be old LV, the stuff that I was buying in the late 80's was all new stuff, and a lot of it was not of great quality, and had quite a bit of green color in it. The wood wholesaler in Vancouver told me that he has started to see the green color in wood starting around the mid 80's as the better quality wood was being over harvested, and younger trees were being felled.

You certainly got a piece of history there!
 
Wonderful, I bet that pen has some real heft to it :D

It must be old LV, the stuff that I was buying in the late 80's was all new stuff, and a lot of it was not of great quality, and had quite a bit of green color in it. The wood wholesaler in Vancouver told me that he has started to see the green color in wood starting around the mid 80's as the better quality wood was being over harvested, and younger trees were being felled.
Hi Stuart; I was at a friends on Sunday who showed me his LV pen. It very much bears up to what you are saying. Quite a lot of green in it. None in this, for sure!
 
Mack that is a beauty for sure. Nice kit against some nice looking LV. I have found that genuine LV color is pretty much the color your pen shows. The Argentine LV does show the green colors as Stu said. I bought some LV from Woodcraft and thought I was buying the real thing but it turned out to be the Argentine LV and it was loaded with green colors in it.
 
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