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[Canuck]

I've finally got around to turning my 'Panache pen kit' and decided to use some of my newly acquired 'bowling ball' blanks

[Robert Yarger]

How you get a pen that looks like that out of the "bowling ball wood" you have pictured behind it, I will never know.
 

[Canuck]

That's a trade secret

[Scott Peterson]

Sweet pen, John!  You'll never cease to amaze me with the materials you use for pens.

I think bowling balls have unlimited uses - other than bowling, that is.  I went whitewater rafting on the Salmon River in Idaho when I was in grad school.  The little town of Riggins has a special tradition for the Forth of July each year.  There is a steel pipe embedded into the concrete boat launch pavement.  They pack the pipe full of gunpowder, drop in a bowling ball, and touch it off to launch the ball over the mountainside across from the river. 

This is cooler than you might first think - since the Salmon river is actually the 2nd deepest canyon in the USA.  The Hell's River Canyon is the deepest (from mountain top to river), and the Grand Canyon is actually the 3rd deepest - but much wider and more famous.

I'm not sure if I could kick the topic more off course than that!   

[Mark McCallum]

Very nice looking pen you have there...now gimme.  Just kidding...now gimmie.

Turned with much panache, no doubt. Did you use your now famous "parting technique" on that one???

[RKB]

Here's a link to my supplier of Titebond glue (as far as I know the only one in Belgium)... It's a highly specialised retail shop for woodturners and wood artists.

http://www.willyvanhoutte.be

Have a look in the section "Wood, acryl, polyester" to find more of these 'bowling ball blanks'. I always thought that they could be very nice to add some accents to an asembly puzzle as well.

[Canuck]

Funny you should mention that, years ago I made some 'Altekruse'  and 'six piece burr' puzzles out of plastic(I even tried making 'cube packing' puzzles as well but could never find a glue to work) and I thought they looked cool but nobody I showed them to liked them?   It seems plastic is often 'frowned upon' when compared to wood?