Advice to new pen turners.

Just a note to anyone new that is a silly as I am. I wanted some BOW that I called Olive Wood from Israel. (Until I got the buzz word from here it's "BOW" thanks guys)

Any way I ordered mine from Ebay and it was pre cut and bored blanks, which sounded good to me. I didn't think that if the blanks were this short that there would be no way to line up the grain. Now I think some of the wood has been stunning and a couple looked real good together(one of which I managed to blow out). I like the pens I have made but always order full length blanks so you can cut them your self and try and match the wood. Price seems to basically be the same...
Garry

Gary, there are a few woods that allow shorts to be matched up fairly well. The grain has to be crazy. I stuck some birdseye maple shorts in the pen blank swap box that were cut from the same (short) block of wood. I doubt you could tell they are not from same blank.
Otherwise I totally agree. A pen just doesn't look good when the 2 halves don't match. (in my humble opinion)
I will be finally shipping out the pen blank box tomorrow before I head up North for another round of barn building so I want to get it in the mail before I'm gone for another week+.