Pen Blank Swap: LAP I Completed!

Ned Bulken

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Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
I just participated in a Pen blank/kit swap over on Lumberjocks, got a few fun new blanks and a couple of kits.

Anyone interested in a blank swap? I'll start it, post here if you'd like in on this, it will be a 'large' flat rate box, so figure $10-$12 plus your blanks to contribute. We'll need photos of what you put in and take out (if possible, but if you don't have a digi camera, that's fine too, just take some out, put some in and send it on)
 
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Just a suggestion but it might be a good idea to give a little bit better description of how this kind of thing works, for those of us who don't know... and maybe how long it takes, or how long a person is allowed to keep the box before passing it on (which is, I am guessing) what you do.
 
Kalea,
we need a list of participants. I'll start with a selection of blanks and send it on to the 2nd person, who has his/her pick of the blanks in there, they take some out, and put some in and ship it on to the next person after say... 2 or three days, each one adding a little, taking some out and then shipping it on. Eventually the box contents look something like this:

boxcontents.jpg

that was the Lumberjocks pen swap when it was at my place. That 'box' has been around the country twice at that point, and they just wrapped up round three.

here's what I pulled out of that pile:
myselections.jpg


and what I put in:
mycontributions.jpg



they had 18 participants this last round. It can take awhile, but that's ok, you just have something to look forward to. Each blank should be labeled with species, the norm are 5 to 6" long by 3/4 to 1" square blanks.
 
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OK, so far we have

  1. Ned Bulken
  2. Jim Burr
  3. Ozmandus (Chuck Ellis)
  4. Doug Miller
  5. Paul Downes
  6. Dale Johnson
  7. Frank Fusco
  8. John Daugherty
  9. Mark Kosmowski (whoops, forgot to add you yesterday)
  10. Kevin Brown
  11. Jonathan Shively
  12. Chris Inch
  13. Royall Clark
  14. Alan Trout
  15. Phil StGermain *brand new member* Woohoo!
  16. Jeff Brocket*brand new member* Woohoo
  17. Al 'one wing' Killian
  18. _________ (I can add as many as who want to join up, so don't think this is a limited list)
and see the attached, that was the completed 'route' that the Lumberjocks swap took on round 3.
 

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the summary for the Lumberjocks swap can be seen in its entirety here some interesting stats I pulled out of it are:
We’ve been all over the United States – DE, VA, FL, GA, KY, IL, MD, PA, NY, NH (whew!), MN, WA, CA and TN! Plus… a trip into Canada with a stop in Ontario.
- We’ve been in the hands of 17 Lumberjocks.
- WOW! Our goodies box has traveled over 8,600 miles!
- The pen box was ‘on tour’ for 165 days in Round 3. (as of 03/28/09)
- What started as 5 blanks, 5 pens and 5 kits brought us…
—140 miscellaneous blanks including wood from around the continent, antler, shell casings, corian
—13 finished pens
—17 pen kits

Which means it does take awhile to make a lap, but it should be fun for all who participate. Obviously the more we get signed up the longer it will take, but the end results are more than worth it.
 
Ned, I think I understand that this will be a Family Woodworking Forum pen blank swap. If this is correct add me to the list. I literally have probably 1000's of pen blanks so I can part with a few.:D I shouldn't have any problem adding something unusual. (I just cut and am preparing some wild grape vine blanks.) Sounds like fun. It would be neat to get some things from areas of the country that I don't get too that often. Hey, think we can recruit someone from the southwestern desert? I'm thinking desert ironwood country. :wave:
 
Ned, I think I understand that this will be a Family Woodworking Forum pen blank swap. If this is correct add me to the list. I literally have probably 1000's of pen blanks so I can part with a few.:D I shouldn't have any problem adding something unusual. (I just cut and am preparing some wild grape vine blanks.) Sounds like fun. It would be neat to get some things from areas of the country that I don't get too that often. Hey, think we can recruit someone from the southwestern desert? I'm thinking desert ironwood country. :wave:

Paul,
It is indeed for here on Family Woodworking. I've only posted the Lumberjocks info to show folks how it worked over there. at this point I'd like to keep it primarily as a Blank Swap though if folks want to contribute kits and/or pens too, that would be quite welcome of course.

Looking forward to seeing what your vast collection holds! :thumb:

And you're on the list!
 
I'm game. It'll give me a chance to thin out the woodpile. I just liberated some curly maple from a shipping crate at work that had pen blanks written all over it. Are acrylic blanks ok?
Dale

How do you decide who gets it last?
I'll participate.


Dale,
Any and all are more than welcome so long as it fits in the box!

Frank,
The route will depend on how many sign up, I'll work that up once we get a few more folks. Just for fun I'll set the 'last day' to sign up as Next Sunday the 5th by midnight.

And I send it out first, and get it back 'last' on this lap anyway...
 
Ned, if we can split the actual shipping costs, I can toss some stuff in the box to get it going. Don't know how fancy it'll be to start, but I guess that's the point of a swap, eh? For that matter, maybe we could ship the box out to NH via the Larry express. :rofl:
 
I gleaned some premo spalted maple today. I got a call to pick up some wood I had cut last fall before another guy took it all. Some of the blocks were from a stump of a hard maple somewhere around 40". All spalted and curly. Filled my 8' pickup box to the max.

Dale I figure to put some poly blanks in the box before I ship it. I cast my own. I don't think anyone will object. If they don't want them they can leave them alone.:D
 
I gleaned some premo spalted maple today. I got a call to pick up some wood I had cut last fall before another guy took it all. Some of the blocks were from a stump of a hard maple somewhere around 40". All spalted and curly. Filled my 8' pickup box to the max.

Dale I figure to put some poly blanks in the box before I ship it. I cast my own. I don't think anyone will object. If they don't want them they can leave them alone.:D

Paul, home cast blanks are more than welcome! Can't wait to see some (in person!) And the spalted maple sounds great too!
 
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