The Pen Makers Boat: #422

Now Sold

NB Birchills Oak and Chrome Ballpoint Twist Pen

(25% of the profits from the sale of this pen 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.

Well after waiting for the massive fallen ash tree to be cleared just outside Wheaton Aston on the Shropshire Union canal we really had to get a hustle on to get some of those lock miles past us and closer to Birmingham where we had a place booked on the Roving Canal Traders floating Christmas market.

With the shortest route, up the Wolverhampton 21 locks, closed for winter maintenance we would have to go the long way around. A very pretty rural route down the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal, across Stourbridge Canal, up the Dudley No1 and Dudley No2 canals and their 22 locks down and 24 locks up. We would normally take a leisurely fortnight for a journey like this - we did it in two days. Up and cruising before first light and mooring up after dark with mugs of tea and snacks as we went.

Whilst it was quite tiring we had great fun and the weather was really on our side with hardly a drop of rain and temperatures closer to what I'd have expected on a cool September rather than early December. The progress was so good that we were able to spend a couple of nights, and some busy days catching up, high on the embankment above Merry Hill Shopping Centre before an easy couple of hours cruise to the delightful Bumble Hole.

Whilst Bumble Hole is not particularly prettier than any other part of our journey it is a special little oasis just outside of Birmingham city centre. Just the 2768 metres under ground in the Netherton Tunnel and we'd be in the industrial urban sprawl of Birmingham.

Pen #422 was turned at Bumble Hole on Tuesday 8th December.