Morning Neil Peter over here like the idea of picking up timber but beware mate Desert Ironwood looks great but is a real Tiger to turn harder than and the other two Lignam and Cocobolo come with reservations for beginners. In the last while I renewed a friendship with a close mate who made woodwind and still does he taught for a long run at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music his wife also is a muso in Flute etc he lives 200 miles from me, this is awhole ball game. No musical instrument is a pushover and requires precise measurement the most careful choices in timber and turning, holding equipment to match. Pens on the other hand use very little timber and the requirement personal. My mate has what is called in the business perfect pitch so there are many attributes needed in Woodwind Instruments, maintenance and tuning, reeds etc. I note you throw in Oboe on your tag if you have mastered this instrument all of my ramblings may mean nought to you.
In the music world here in Canberra there are many makers of instruments I have talked with over the years you look like you have chosen an expensive pathway. All the best in your Quest for your Holy Grail. Keep rowing you will need a good paddle mate.
Kind regards Peter.
Hi, and thanks for the reply.
As you've gathered from my username, I'm an oboist. My eventual plan is to make my own oboe, or at least the bell section, from cocobolo, but I realise that this will be a great number of years down the line. In the meantime, I want to start practising the necessary skills, starting with pens and then moving on to slightly bigger things. The first thing I'll be doing that bears any relation to musical instruments will be a barrel section for a clarinet. The one for my clarinet has always been marginally too long, meaning that the instrument has always wanted to play slightly flat. I learned to live with it by applying more lip pressure when playing to sharpen the pitch as necessary, but whilst the instrument was in storage for about 6 months the barrel cracked, so it needs to be replaced. I've always wanted a cocobolo barrel and with the barrel being a fairly small section of the instrument and not needing any tone holes to be drilled, I had the idea of making it myself, to my own specification. When I started doing research on turning cocobolo I was led towards the pen turning forums, and I'll have to admit I'd never thought of turning pens before, but from what I've seen it looks like a really satisfying hobby, with a great online community to bounce ideas off and the possibility of selling some of the work.