pittswood
Fellow
As you know, I like to turn pens with history or provenance behind them. These two pens are full of history, linked to my brother and myself, never to be repeated.
The actual pen kits speak for themselves, however, the wood is the history to these pens.
We both worked at a carpet company called Woodward Grosvenor Ltd, in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, founded in 1790 and ceased trading as Grosvenor Wilton Company Ltd. My brother, left school at 16, on April 1974 and started as a floater, then qualified later as a creeler and then later became a narrow Wilton Dobcross weaver. He left in December 2019 with 45 years service.
Along the way, we both had long service awards together, the first in the history of Woodward Grosvenor. We both still have the watches!
I started at Grosvenors in as an engineer 1968 and left in July 2002 (retired), 34 years service.
The wood in question, is from the treadle stuffers, from a Dobcross loom, these lift up the cotton backing and down, to create the comb weave for the shuttle to pass through left to right.
Most of these treadles were made from English oak. The wood that these two pens were made from, came from the same loom my brother had worked on and off over 45 years. It took over four years to allow the oil to leach out from the oak wood and I would estimate the wood on the loom would be over 100 years, as these oak treadles never broke.
The irony of this story is, my brother, for all the years he worked on that loom, he was one who had to decommission it, and the loom broken up and scrapped.
A piece history gone, for both of us, as I maintained and made parts for that loom, never to be seen again.
Turning this wood was also a pain, twice it caught fire whilst turning, bound up my drill and the smell, well, less said about that the better!
The finishing these two pens, also was a test of wills, with an oil soaked grained wood, the only finish I could use was melamine, after numerous cleaning of solvent and meths.
The finished chatoyance is cracking to see, which don’t show very well on the pictures.
Kelvin
The actual pen kits speak for themselves, however, the wood is the history to these pens.
We both worked at a carpet company called Woodward Grosvenor Ltd, in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, founded in 1790 and ceased trading as Grosvenor Wilton Company Ltd. My brother, left school at 16, on April 1974 and started as a floater, then qualified later as a creeler and then later became a narrow Wilton Dobcross weaver. He left in December 2019 with 45 years service.
Along the way, we both had long service awards together, the first in the history of Woodward Grosvenor. We both still have the watches!
I started at Grosvenors in as an engineer 1968 and left in July 2002 (retired), 34 years service.
The wood in question, is from the treadle stuffers, from a Dobcross loom, these lift up the cotton backing and down, to create the comb weave for the shuttle to pass through left to right.
Most of these treadles were made from English oak. The wood that these two pens were made from, came from the same loom my brother had worked on and off over 45 years. It took over four years to allow the oil to leach out from the oak wood and I would estimate the wood on the loom would be over 100 years, as these oak treadles never broke.
The irony of this story is, my brother, for all the years he worked on that loom, he was one who had to decommission it, and the loom broken up and scrapped.
A piece history gone, for both of us, as I maintained and made parts for that loom, never to be seen again.
Turning this wood was also a pain, twice it caught fire whilst turning, bound up my drill and the smell, well, less said about that the better!
The finishing these two pens, also was a test of wills, with an oil soaked grained wood, the only finish I could use was melamine, after numerous cleaning of solvent and meths.
The finished chatoyance is cracking to see, which don’t show very well on the pictures.
Kelvin
