#383

A Commissioned Pen

Ollie O'Leary - 50th Birthday Pen

Lignum Vitae and Gun Metal Rollerball Pen

LIGNUM VITAE - Guaiacum officinale

Heartwood colour can range from a olive to a dark greenish brown to almost black, sometimes with a reddish hue. The colour tends to darken with age, especially upon exposure to light.

Lignum Vitae is regarded by most to be both the heaviest and hardest wood in the world. Its durability in submerged or ground-contact applications is also exceptional. Lignum Vitae has been used for propeller shaft bearings on ships, and its natural oils provide self-lubrication that gives the wood excellent wear resistance.

Unfortunately, Lignum Vitae has been exploited to the brink of extinction, and is now an endangered species. The name Lignum Vitae is Latin, and means tree of life, or wood of life, which is derived from the tree’s many medicinal uses.

This wood has a profoundly positive energy. The overall energy of the wood can be summed up as "the power and strength of goodness." The energy of the wood is considered very healing, in both physical and spiritual matters. The energies within the wood would also be excellent for divining information from far away as well as close to home.

This wood represents the end of strife and the beginning of a new, positive, cycle.

I started work on pen #383 back when we arrived in Birmingham to visit friends trading at the floating market. We had a great time in Birmingham as ever and were treated to some spectacular entertainment at the arts fest which was a relaxing way to spend some time after a long hard day helping fellow traders Dan and Keri up two long lock flights with their boat and new (to them) 1930's butty boat Lyra (see Keri in the tunnel below). 

Next mooring was a few hours away in Tipton, the canal was clearer than I've seen for a long time with some quite large shoals of fish swimming through the ribbon like weeds but we were only here for a short while and we were expecting visits from friends, customers and the lovely couple we had Dudley Dawg from. Our next planned mooring was after a few hard days taking the boat through industrial Wolverhampton and down through the 21 locks and up onto the Shropshire Union Canal but, just as you approach Wolverhampton there is a junction off to the right and a canal we've not been on yet the Wyrley and Essington - known as the curly Wurly.

We turned right and headed through industrial Walsall and out into open countryside towards the edge of Cannock Chase. In Pelsall the sun came out and the wind finally dropped so I could carry on making pens.

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