#399

Now Sold

NB Birchills Oak and Chrome Ballpoint Twist Pen

(25% of the profits will be gifted to the Black Country Living Museum, the custodians of NB Birchills)

EUROPEAN OAK - Quercus robur

Usually straight-grained, the heartwood of European Oak varies in colour from light tan to brown. Quarter-sawn pieces show attractive flame figuring. The wood is fairly hard, heavy and dense, clean but with the occasional knot. European Oak is a beautiful timber and with an oil finish, the grain will turn a deep golden brown.

This particular piece of oak (probably English rather than European) is just a little bit special though. It comes from the rear cabin side gunwales and roof hatch of Narrowboat Birchills. I was given a few off cuts by the superb craftsmen who were carrying out a little light refurbishment to this historic boat, in fact the guys had cut the whole back cabin off!

Birchills is an historic, ‘Joey’ boat with a small day cabin, built in 1953 by Ernest Thomas of Walsall, ‘Birchills’ it is one of the last wooden day boats made and was used to carry coal to Wolverhampton Power Station. This boat is double-ended and the mast and rudder could be changed from one end to the other. This enabled its use in narrow canals or basins where there was no room to turn the boat around.

The rotten parts of these rebuilt boats are usually used to stoke the fires that steam the new planks for bending to the hulls shape so half a day later this flaky gunwale would have been burned. I wasn't sure how deep the rot would have gone and how deep I would have to delve into this piece to find stable wood. The pens I make from historic boat materials have been thoroughly tested by me to make sure that they will give pleasurable daily use.

That old flaky gunwale went on to make a few very nice pens and I was lucky enough to be given some more wood by Ade at A P Boat Building in Alvecote. This time a piece that appears to be from the old red cabin hatch surround.

It was only a short cruise north from one of our favourite moorings at the bottom of Audlem to one of our favourite towns, Nantwich. Although it's only a little over two hours journey it was the stillest most foggy trip we have ever had. Luckily the Shroppie is fairly straight but trees and bridges still leapt out of the murk. I even missed all the massive canal side signs giving directions to Hack Green 'Secret' Nuclear Bunker!

The trip to Nantwich was predominantly to have our rear end measured up for a pram cover that will enclose the open rear deck from the elements and give me some shelter from the summer sun (yeah right!) and the rest of the weather from our unpredictable seasons. Unfortunately the weather was so bad on the appointed day that Hazel and Tim from Cratch covers and Canopies were unable to carry out the pattern making and measuring so after waiting for a couple of days we decided to head up to Chester and arranged that the guys would drice up to us in dryer and less windy weather.

We were lucky enough to spend a few hours en-route in the company of Martin on fuel boat Halsall, a proper working boat. Martin delivers coal and diesel in a continuous loop around the four counties ring getting up as far as Ellesmere Port on the banks of the Mersey. The plan was to end our day a few hours south of Chester but in the warm afternoon sunshine we decided to stop early away from houses and roads with the backdrop of Beeston Castle, which dates back to the Bronze age but more recently has the ruins of Ranaulf de Blondeville's castle dating from 1220. What a magic place to make some special pens!