Hopefully, no longer a hobby!!!!

[bmac]

Last December I got a request from a local lumber company for 12 pens and boxes made from a variety of different woods, to be given to their board members. The boxes I made were the flip style and I had their logo engraved in them. They were delighted with the pens and the boxes and said they had something else in mind after the first of the year for me to consider. In March, they contacted me to make 100 pens from some of the wood from the Louisiana State Champion LobLolly Pine tree that had to be cut down. The tree was on their timber property. They wanted the company name engraved on the pens which was a challenge. Pine is not an easy wood to engrave. I delivered the pens today and again, they were very pleased with them. Hopefully, this will lead to some other orders.

I have included some pictures of the boxes from the first order, I can't locate pictures of the pens, and pictures of the order I delivered today.

 

[renowb]

Very cool! Congrats!

 

[thewishman]

WOW! Love the spalted maple(?) box! Very nice work. Easy to see why they came back with another order. Congrats!

 

[MarkD]

Beautiful work! Love the pens and the boxes.

 

[keithbyrd]

Congrats to you!
Love the boxes! Do you have/willing to share plans or point to source?

 

[boxerman]

Very nice pens and boxes. Congrats.

 

[Ruby pen turning]

Your a lucky man. Very cool collection. We to have Roy O Martin around the Alexandria area here in Louisiana.

 

[Lucky2]

Congratulations on such a large sale to one entity, and yes hopefully for you it does lead to more sales of this type and size. Way to go!
Len

 

[Dustygoose]

Very nice! Love the boxes. Ya'll are making me homesick. Originaly from New Iberia

 

[bmac]

Thanks for the comments, they are appreciated.
Keith, the boxes can be found on the internet but I prefer to make my own even though I don't make anything off of them. I'll try to put something together on how to make them and contact you. I believe there are writeups on the internet, but I don't remember where I seen them.
KnB, its the company in Alexandria that I am working with. I grew up in Alexandria many a year ago and the company was well known even then, so it was nice to work with a company from my home town and the people are super nice to do business with. The champion pine tree that the wood came from for the pens was dated back to 1779 and had to be cut down in 2010. They took a slab from the tree and had a sculpture made from it with a time line from the growth rings associated with important dates in Louisiana history and donated it to the Louisiana State Museum in Baton Rouge for the 200th Anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. It is really a nice piece of work.
The spalted wood was oak. I wasn't sure how it would look engraved, but it came out good and they loved it.
Again, thanks for the comments.

 

[flippedcracker]

I would also love to see how you made the boxes.

 

[triw51]

Awsome work love the boxes you should do a tutorial on how to make them.

 

[indianacutup]

That's great, I am new to turning but, have had some success so far. I am able to turn and sell a few here and there. I hope to get better at it and be able to turn pens like some of the great examples I have seen on here some day soon.

 

[sumterdad]

that is way cool. I hope it brings more for you.

 

[firewhatfire]

I agree, a box tutorial forthe IAP would be cool. I really like the looks of those. great work on the pens by the way.

Phil

 

[Twinturbine]

Very nice pens from a soft wood but how did you engrave them or did you outsource it? Neal

 

[Chrome]

Superb work... congratulations.

I'm assuming that all the engraving is done by laser? If you did them in-house can you let us know the equipment and process please?

Cheers, Chrome

 

[bmac]

Thanks for all of the comments. The engraving was done by a friend of mine who has a trophy business. The growth rings in the wood really presented a challenge to engrave. It took several attempts to get it right, to where it would give good depth in the growth ring and not burn all the way to the brass tubing in the softer wood. Not sure what settings she used. I will try to come up with a write up on how I make the boxes and post it.
Bobby
Louisiana