#350

NOW SOLD

Burr Myrtle and Gun Metal Fountain Pen

BURR TASMANIAN MYRTLE (Nothofagus cunninghamii)

Myrtle is a large, spreading evergreen tree up to 40 m tall with a stem diameter between 150 and 250 cm in favourable environments, but is often a dense understorey shrub 6–18 m high in wet eucalypt forest and at higher altitudes. The trunk is slightly buttressed, fluted and often swollen at the base, with adventitious shoots. The outer bark is brown or deep red to pink, scaly and slightly fibrous and remains attached to the tree for life.

The Burr part is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from dormant buds.

It is an excellent cabinetry timber which is hard with strong, tough, close grain. It is a soft pink, often figured and can be polished to a fine sheen. Used for flooring, joinery, cogs of wheels, and furniture. It is harvested from old growth.

We didn't stay too long in Braunston, the weather wasn't good enough to open the shop but we had our promised dinner and a few drinks out at the Boathouse Pub on the canal side. We had also been trying to meet up with some boating friends who were in the area and the following day they were due to treat their daughter (over on a visit from China) to a meal out in the now reopened New Inn just past Norton Junction so we arranged an after dinner drink in the pub followed by coffee and cake back on our boat. It was a pleasant trip up the Braunston locks, through the tunnel (not one of my favourites) and past the pretty Norton Junction to moor up by the top lock of the Buckby Flight.

Whilst at our daughters house in Poole the week before I had picked up three packages delivered from the other side of the world containing pen parts, acrylic pen blanks and some rare exotic timber pen blanks that I was looking forward to turning.

Pen #350 was turned on the 27th July at Norton Junction on the Grand Union Canal.