The Pen Makers Boat: #443 Now Sold

NB Birchills Oak and 24ct Gold Plated Ballpoint Twist Pen

(£2.50 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.

Leaving the marina at Hawne Basin on new year's eve we moored up at the Black Country Living Museum and headed into Tipton to meet up with some friends for a bit of a doo. We had just about recovered from our excesses and on a very gusty January the 2nd we headed the ten miles and three locks into central Birmingham where we will hide away from the worst of the weather in the BCN’s basins and loops.

We were feeling a little guilty a week later as we had been enjoying catching up with more friends in the restaurants and bars in the city centre so I started to make a rough plan for the next pens to be made. First a day or two of cutting, drilling and gluing brass tubes into various pieces of wood and colourful acrylics.

Another fortnight of the delights of all that Birmingham has to offer went by rather quickly and after a short day cruise we moored up within sight of the Sealife Centre and the Barclaycard Arena on this very modern part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations.

Pen #443 was turned on January 29th outside the entrance ramp to the Barclaycard Arena in central Birmingham.