Whiskey Barrel Pen

Keeping a little character

My friend Julie gave me a couple pen blanks from an old whiskey barrel. The idea is, after aging whiskey in a barrel (in this case, four years), they're done with the barrel, so they cut it up into pieces, and people like me make stuff out of it.

This particular pen blank had some lettering on it from the barrel, which I thought was too cool to cut off. The problem, of course, is that when you turn the blank round, it would get cut off, so I had to get the hand carving tools out and get creative.

I think it's a nice homage to the whiskey barrel it came from, and maybe to the white oak tree it came from before that.