Multiple styles with the same material?

[Dan Masshardt]

When you find some material that you really like - wood, resin or otherwise, do you frequently put it on multiple pen styles or fund one style that you feel the material is suited to?

Say you love olivewood. Would you go ahead and make a jr, a cigar, a Sierra etc with it?

I'm curious...

 

[plantman]

No Dan I would not. The reason I wouldn't is the fact that people see things with a first impression look. If you had say 5 pens from 5 different kits and they were all made from Olivewood next to each other in your display, most people would see 5 Olivewood pens, not 5 different style pens made from Olivewood. If I did have these pens made up, I would make sure they were spread around my display table, than if someone was interested in one of the pens I could say that I also had other Olivewood pens in different styles and fittings. After making pens for a while, you just get to know what kit will look the best with the blank you have. Many times I will go on the PSI site and use their design program to see what style kits, fittings, and blanks will go well together. I quess making several pens out of the same material is not a bad idea, it's more how you choose to display them. Jim S

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

Dan: +1 on Jim's comments.

 

[MarkD]

Jim has a point however if your trying to sell pens you have to make what people want and no two people want the same thing ( assuming the hardware and the blank work well together ). One of my favorite materials is Ceboplast and I frequently use it on several different components sets. Sometimes I'll display a group of pens that use the same material together with a sign saying "various pen styles using Ceboplast". I think emphasizes the material but it also shows that the material looks great on several different styles and sizes of pens to cover a wide range of people's taste.
Just my opinion. YMMV

 

[thewishman]

Some materials are just eye catchers. BOW, buckeye, malachite Tru-stone and others look good with just about any pen style. Why limit your customers' choices?

 

[BSea]

If you arrange your pens by style of pen, the same woods wouldn't be next to each other, they'd be with like pen styles. So I think the same material wouldn't be a problem as long as you had several other offerings. If you only had 20 pens, and 6 were the same material, then I'd think that might limit you a little on your sales.

But you didn't really specify that these pens were to sell in a booth or store setting. I've made several pens from DIW & Lignum Vitae because I like the wood. So in that respect, why not?

 

[Chasper]

I do make the same blanks into many different type of pens. I make 98% resin and alternate materials, almost no wood. I sell by color, so pens in the same colors but in 6-7 different styles are on the table together. The best sellers are the best sellers and color is what drives sales for us, so the top sellers are made in the 6-7 styles of ball points that I make, and the very best colors are also in the Jr. family of rollerballs and fountain pens. However, I don't carry the same colors over to the high end pens. For the high end pens, everything is unique. It works for us.

 

[plantman]

Jim has a point however if your trying to sell pens you have to make what people want and no two people want the same thing ( assuming the hardware and the blank work well together ). One of my favorite materials is Ceboplast and I frequently use it on several different components sets. Sometimes I'll display a group of pens that use the same material together with a sign saying "various pen styles using Ceboplast". I think emphasizes the material but it also shows that the material looks great on several different styles and sizes of pens to cover a wide range of people's taste.
Just my opinion. YMMV

Mark; I agree with your idea of a sign stating what you are trying to convay in your display. If you have a little sign or even a card, it stops people's eye movement long enough to read it. Once they read that your pens are made from the same material, but different styles of components, they now have to look to see what the difference is !! Any time you can stop a person from scannng a display and looking at something you are closer to a sale. Jim S

 

[WriteON]

Yes on same material. And if it does not sell now it will sell later.

 

[kovalcik]

I will use a type of blank on any type of pen. Usually the blank will only influence the finish of the pen hardware, not the style. The exception is if I have a particularly figured blank, it screams to be put on a Zen or long click to show off as much of the grain as possible.

 

[JohnGreco]

I do. And if you go to a pen show, you will see the same material used over and over on different styles of pens, except they are grouped with like-hardware, not like-material. So if somebody likes 'Style A' hardware, they may have 15 material choices lined up next to each other, and so on for the other styles.