A Premium Chrome Ballpoint Twist Pen
Dressed in Elm from NB Dane
(£5 from the sale of this pen will be gifted to The Narrowboat Heritage Foundation, the Custodians of NB Dane)
EUROPEAN ELM - Ulmus procera
European Elm has is a light to medium brown, sometimes with a hint of red. With an oil finish, it can turn a beautiful golden brown colour. Unless, of course, it's been kept at the bottom of a canal for an awfully long time.
The rotten parts of these rebuilt boats are usually used to stoke the fires that steam the new planks for bending to the hull's shape.Luckily these pieces of elm were too important to burn and have been properly stored. 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.
Narrowboat Dane was built by the Mersey Weaver and Ship Canal Carrying Company and used as part of their fleet. She was built in November 1946 and first registered on January the first 1947. Ade from A P Boatbuilding is currently restoring her on behalf of The Narrowboat Heritage Foundation, the work being done is re-bottomed with new chine planks, kelson, stem post and soon to receive two new bow planks, gunwales, decks, new back cabin and engine room. The pens that I will be making from Dane are all from a heavy lump of Elm bottom plate.
After spending a little longer than we had planned in central Birmingham we had a window in the weather for a half day cruise and rather than revisit Tipton which was the next port of call we decided on a shorter run due south to Bournville, the home of British Chocolate.
It was a pleasant enough trip down a fairly shallow canal but luckily we didn't scoop up any of the detritus from the winters depths of the water. A slow prop speed kept it all in the bottom ready for the next speeding boat or deeper drafted historic ex-working boat to pick up.
We were lucky too with the crisp clear weather for most of the week however I was glad to leave our mooring as it was about ten feet from Bournville's railway station. With the last trains stopping after midnight and the first of the days at about five thirty in the morning a short week was all that I could manage.
Pen #454 was made in the shadow of Cadburys Bournville factory on February 11th 2016.
You can follow my pen making here on this blog and our travels on another blog here
oh and please like us on Facebook too here -
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting, you can always contact me via email at thepenmakersboat@gmail.com or find The Pen Makers Boat on Facebook. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.