Gotta Love Free Pen Blanks

[William Young]

A mystery person left a bag of pen blanks at the coffee shop a couple days ago and told the waitress to get hold of that guy that makes all those nice pens and give them to him. I am glad the guy he was referring to was me but gosh I don't know who he is so I can't even make him a few free pens to thank him or ask him what his choices of wood would be for those pens.
Every piece shown here is exotic woods and although I know what some of them are , I have no idea what some others are.
I just finished counting them and placing them in groups as to their species. There are fifty one altogether . It is evident by the smooth finish and the way they were milled that they had previously been ordered from a pen turning supplier somewhere.

My photography is amazingly close to acurate for these blanks (that doesn't happen all that much with my picture taking).

W.Y.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y231/WillysWoodcrafting/FreeBlanks.jpg

[PaulD]

Nice haul. This looks suspiciously like the Woodcraft wood pen blank assortment grab bag. I got one for Christmas from one of my daughters that looks like a similar combination of woods.

[William Young]

That very well could be Paul.
I am curious if the grab bag you are referring to were all 3/4 x3/4 ? That is the size I prefer.
Although a person should not look a gift horse in the mouth, these are all 5/8 x 5/8 . I have a very acurate drilling jig so it should not be a problem except if trying to make a pen with some of the kits with oversize tubes on a B mandrel.
W.Y.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

I am sure if you made a special pen and told the waitress to give it to the guy when he comes in again he would get it. You could make him one of your corn cob pens and make a case for it.

[William Young]

John.
Problem is the waitress had never seen the guy before. He had just heard that I am in there for coffee often and came in on a day (or time) when I wasn't there . I am still going to try to track him down because I really feel I owe him a gift.(s) I don't make my own pen cases because for me they are too time consuming and beautifull padded ones with leather covering are so inexpensive . I feel that a nice case like those manufactured ones add a lot to the appearance of my pens.
I have nothing against anyone that makes their own cases. More power to them and I have seen some beautiful ones. It's just that I enjoy making pens more than I enjoy making cases and people will pay more for a pen than for a case yet the pen takes a lot less time to make.. I tried making some cases years ago but I found it frustrating trying to get those tiny concealed hinges to work right.

I have a feeling he is a relative of a lady I sold a few pens to at a craft sale just before last Christmas. She has not been home to answer her phone but I will keep trying . When I do find him he will get at least two wood pens of his choice and a corn cob pen.
If he doesn't want pens, I have a lot of nice bowls and goblets and vases and lamps etc that I can offer to him.
W.Y.

[Gunny]

That sounds like a nice friendly coffee shop Bill...
I have to agree with you on the cases... I started out making my own and by the time I finished cutting, routing, sanding, finishing, then mortising for the hinges and assembling it turned out it was taking 6 hours and $2 to create something I could buy from the Chinese for $2.20. Then I could use the six hours to make 4-5 very nice $30-$40 pens.
Or if I were what'shisname I could use it to make 36 $70 pens...

[William Young]

I finally found out who the mystery person was that dropped the bag of blanks off at the coffee shop. It took some phoning around but I got his number and called him and thanked him for it.
He said his mother bought those blanks from him over 15 years ago and she has passed on now. He has never owned a lathe and just does a little carving so the blanks didn't fit in with his type of woodworking.
He said the original bag they came in had a Lee Valley sticker on it and only said *exotic pen blanks*
I offered him a few pens in exchange but he won't accept any gift for it. He said he was glad to give it to someone who could use it and it was just in his way.. He received one of my pens for a Christmas gift from a family member that bought it for him at a pre-Christmas craft sale. He said it is much too nice to use for daily use and he is afraid of accidentally leaving it somewhere so he just uses it when he goes out on special occasions and shows it to everyone because he is so proud of it.
Some way sooner or later I will think of a way to repay him for the wood when he least expects it.
W.Y.

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Do you remember how to make clocks??? :) Everyone needs a clock. Maybe a themed clock if you knew what he likes to do like hunt or fish.

Now I am am going to disagree with the case thing. There are so many different ways to make cases and they are not that time consuming. Yes of course you can get them cheap but remember we are woodworkers. You can make case for the more exotic ones or detailed pens. The Statesman pens or other more expensive pen sets. Give people the option. It does not have to drive the price up that much if you are making a killing on the pen itself. Just a thought. I would post some examples but do not think it is proper to copy someone elses pictures from another forum to post here. But if you are a pen turner I am sure you go to the more elaborate pen turning sites.

[PaulD]

Bill, I saw that you already tracked the haul down to Lee Valley. The Woodcraft bag was all 3/4 X 3/4 X 5 blanks. I've reached the same conclusion on the cases, I can't make them for what I can buy them, but I can make a profit on them in my pricing scheme. I've felt that sometime having a nice double pen case was the difference between a single pen sale versus sale of a pen/pencil set.

However, one of the first comments out of anyone's mouth that I have given a pen to as a gift is, "did you make the case too?" I've certainly got all the tools and wood scraps to do so and feel in my heart that I would really like to be able to answer "yes" to the above question. Maybe this is a project I can tackle when my schedule slows a bit. :rolleyes:

[William Young]

John.
I have seen hundreds of beautiful shop made cases and like I said before I have a lot more fun making pens than making cases for them. Been there . . done that. Perhaps it is the area I live in but it is easy to sell pens but really hard to add the sale of a case to it. If I put a pen in a case to be sold together like that I have to add the price of the case to the total .They will want the pen every time but not the case so they want me to discount the price of the case before they will buy that pen.

I always ask a pen purchaser if they want a case and 99 times out of 100 they don't. I always keep a nice variety of cases on display with my pens from lowest priced ones to more expensive deluxe ones .If they won't buy a case I put the pen in a 50 cent black velvet sleeve for them at no extra cost and they appreciate that little gift.

Beautiful solid wood cases like this in cherry or walnut or maple with a knock-out beautiful finish only cost $3.50 and can be easily marked up 100% for those that want a case for thier pen. But even at just $6.95 , it is hard to talk somebody into a sale of a case on top of the price of their pen but it does happen occaionally for a special gift for someone.
A set of special case hinges alone cost half as much as that entire case. Therefore it is not worth my time to get into case making
W.Y.

http://pocwoodworking.com/ProductImages/pkboxm1.jpg

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

A set of special case hinges alone cost half as much as that entire case. Therefore it is not worth my time to get into case making


Sorry to hear you use those words Bill. But to each his own. My thought there is you took the time to make the pen and now put it in a Chinese package. Why not buy a chinese pen and put it in a package and mark it up 100%. But like I said to each his own. Just my opinion.