pen turning

[Tom]

I would name that pen "The Singing Pen", after the fat lady.  :D

[JimBuis]

That's a neat pen Jim.  Is that an oak of some sort?

It is made from spalted Japanese Evergreen Oak. I know that is a contradiction in terms. It is an evergreen, but is as hard as oak and looks like oak when it is being worked. If you hold a piece of red oak in one hand and a piece of Japanese Evergreen Oak in the other, you cannot tell which is which by grain alone.

I do like a fat pen. The skinny ones just slip right through my fingertips.

Jim

[Don P]

It is listed as a red oak, Quercus Acuta and is apparently a small ornamental here.
You just never know what you'll find googling late at night 

Several species of oak have traditionally been
used as barrels for liquor maturation, particularly
for brandy and whiskey. During the
maturation process, the liquors are said to
undergo some desirable chemical changes as
they withdraw flavor and tanning substances
from the oak. This process help to enrich the
liquor quality. As a consequence of drinking
such liquors, quantities of oak extracts are
continuously being consumed, and these
extracts could seriously interfere with the
ecology of the intestinal micro flora, since there
have been some reports on the antibacterial
and antifungal activities of several species of
Quercus. The trunk of Q. acuta Thunb. (Japanese
name: Akagashi) was chipped into small pieces,
and the chips were extracted with ethanol. The
extract was then assayed against several species
of microorganisms. Our first findings confirmed
that the extract had wide antibacterial
activities.