What to do with hundreds of low grade ebony pen blanks?

[David King]

I "inherited" 6 large boxes of smallish ebony pen blanks. They are mostly 5/8" square x 2-5" long. They were cut up a very long time ago and got wet and muddied several times through the years so that most of them have surface checking on one side. I can't store them indefinitely. They aren't good enough for making pens due to the checking. Can anyone think of something else to do with them? I've been milling a few to glue up into larger squares to resaw into small veneer sheets but it's very time consuming and the grain doesn't match. They'd be OK for bridge pins I suppose but I doubt I could make bridge pins as cheaply as a bridge pin factory. Any other ideas?

Thanks!

[Mark Swanson]

Hmmm, they may be able to be used to make fancy purfling, such as herringbone.

[Jason Rodgers]

Lots and LOTS of ebony dust for filling around inlays!

[Simon Magennis]

ebay them`

[John Sonksen]

David, this reminded me of that paperstone that I had set aside for you. Unfortunately while I was away in Europe my boss, in his infinite wisdom, seems to have dispensed of my stash at the shop, and I have yet to find it (I hope he didn't toss it). Also wanted to thank you for the heads up on those Inca accessories you pointed to me on Craigslist, I was literally at the airport when I got your message but had enough time to get my dad to pick up some of those things for me. The book alone was well worth the total money I ended up spending and I have a better saw for it!

[David King]

Thanks John! I'd still love to get your paperstone stash if it ever turns up.
eBay actually sounds like a good way to go. I can fill a bunch of flat rate boxes full and start them at $.99. That will build my ebay cred and hopefully make a bunch of folks happy.
For a while I was thinking about mini chopsticks or really short, fat, knitting needles.

[John Sonksen]

David, couldn't you glue them up to make blanks big enough for turning knobs? Seems like if you laid up two side by side with maybe a contrasting colored wood in between you could make a 5"8 tall knob out of that, or you could glue up four in a square and turn that whole blank round? I don't know what you like to work with for turning things, maybe it's too much work. Seems like a good score anyways.

[David King]

John, I was hoping to find a use for them but the checking on a lot of them stopped me cold. Once I've filled the cracks 3 times w CA and run them through the mill to flatten them and square up the sides so I can glue them up they end up being a lot more labor than I can afford. The ebony in a knob is less than $.60 per so the savings is minimal especially if 3/4 of them can't pass quality control. I have too much wood and no room to work in. A classic case of hoarding gone wild...

[Clay Schaeffer]

Nuts and saddles, small fittings for fiddles, repair pieces for piano sharps, "noters" for dulcimers, mandolin bridges, end pins and custom bridge pins.

How Large are the boxes of blanks?

[David Bingham]

What Clay said plus tuner knobs and inlay.

[David King]

Great ideas, keep them coming. The boxes are large, I'd guess a thousand pcs total at least. Tuner knobs can't have any cracks and Schaller does such a nice job of them already.
I'll post some photos.

[Chuck Tweedy]

BBQ

[Jim McConkey]

Perfect sized blanks for dulcimer capos.

[Bryan Bear]

I was going to say nuts (possibly saddles) and inlay material but people beat me to it. So, I'll just say give me a heads up if you ebay some.

[Bob Menzel]

Make low grade pens.

[David King]

It seems like they've figured it out so you can't possibly sell a pen for what you spent on the parts because every retired gent from here to kingdom come is busy making them and meanwhile nobody uses them anymore. We don't need more pens, we need better penmanship!

[Joshua Levin-Epstein]

David,

Are they stable enough to make replacements for the walnut plugs/washers that Fender uses at the truss rod access?