The Pen Makers Boat: #484 Kenny's Pen no.2

Pearlesent Blue/Pink Resin and Gun Metal Fountain Pen

Whenever I start to make a pen from an acrylic or resin blank I always remember the negative points. Acrylic turning is messy, I really try to clear every last scrap of it up; it can also be smelly; the sharp little chips get everywhere and it can blunt the turning chisels really quickly. By the time the pen shape is turned and I start the messier job of wet sanding through about fifteen different grades I'm usually trying to convince myself that maybe its better to just concentrate on turning wooden pens.

Then the final grades of sanding and polishing start to reveal something special and I really like these pens again... until the next time.

Our mooring a mile or so south of Knowle was idyllic, helped of course by beautiful spring sunshine. Not quite enough sun to run the lathe via the solar panels but we weren't too far off. Time to move on though up the hill towards the outskirts of Birmingham.

Knowle locks was the first order of the day though. These are the most northern wide locks that connects directly to the southern canals and rivers. If you have a wide beam (over 7ft 1in) boat you are really restricted to south of here or north of Manchester with no practical way of navigating between the two.

Knowle locks were one of the last to be instated on the canal system alongside the widening program of the Hatton flight to Warwick in the 1930's. As a result modern building methods were used, no craftsmen dressing local stone or pretty lock sides, just what seemed like acres of steep sided and rather bland concrete. Not that nice at all, luckily there are only five of these locks that replaced six narrow ones. I'm not sure that we'll come back this way in a hurry as there are far prettier routes.

Being new waters to us we didn't quite know what to expect up this way but it's common boater knowledge that the last reasonably safe and pleasant mooring spot this side of Birmingham was the rather posh sounding Catherine-de-Barnes. We duly did as we were advised and moored on the village visitor moorings. After taking Dudley for a good walk around some local fields (and noted some recently felled ash - we had two days coal left) we went to peruse the village. Well that didn't take long, a church, a chain pub and a spar convenience shop, oh and a very busy road.

We'd pretty well done Catherine-de-Barnes by early morning and with no more urgent pen turning to do we moved a mile or so further on to collect some of the felled ash tree and stop over night before continuing down through Camp Hill locks and Bordesley Junction and further overnight stops at Star City and Minworth.

After a few days of short hops we had a lovely warm day to tackle our last locks for a little while down from Curdworth to Kingsbury Water Park a few miles before Fazeley Junction and Tamworth. It's always a favourite stop-off of ours here, great for dog walking and such a peaceful location at least for a few more years until HS2 smashes its way right through the middle of this beauty spot.

Pen #484 was turned her at Kingsbury Water Park on 27th March 2016