A Pen for a Retired Marine

[Tullyamo]

Hello,

I have an upcoming patient that will be passing through my operating room that has faithfully served the country his term in the Marines and now is a paramedic. Several of my co-workers in the OR wish to give him a get well gift. The man has passed the master hunter course for Washington state. Having mentioned Marines and Hunter got me to thinking of the perfect gift.

So, this is where you all come in.^* I am wanting to do a bullet pen, with antler, and on the pen have the Marine logo with his name laser engraved into the antler blank. How much of this is possible? I would love to order from PSI for the cartridge set, but they will have it delivered to me when I'm 40... I'm 31 now. If there is a better alternative type kit that displays the both the shell and the antler in near equal part allowing the logo *if it can be done, then I am ready for opinions and advice.

Thanks in advance

Jeremy

 

[Phunky_2003]

I think the choice of kit is ok. I've done kits from vendors here, you can look in the classified section, quite a few sell them. Sylvanite is who I got mine from I believe. I would speak to ken at kallenshaan woods for the engraving. You will be extremely pleased with results and service.

I also believe Ken can do the marine logo along with the name engraving.

 

[mick]

I'll second what James says.....Sylvanite (Eric)is a great source for either 30-06 or 308's ready to go. They come powder coated and transmission in place. All you need do is turn the antler top and have it engraved.

 

[jbostian]

If you really like the PSI kit you could order it from Woodturingz. They are a PSI reseller. They have great service and ship out orders very quickly. I placed an order with them today around noon and got an email saying it was shipped out today.
http://woodturningz.com/Bullet_Pen_Kits.aspx

 

[yost69]

I order all of my psi stuff from woodturningz. They ship very fast and have had no problems so far with them. PSI has ticked me off with their lack of customer support and slowness. Have been waiting 2 weeks for them to look at my variable speed unit that was sent in for service. Will say they lost me as a direct customer.

Ben

 

[BigRob777]

As a former Marine and hunter, the best thing you could do for him, if it's possible is to get an M-16 shell, or something else military. The logo and name sound good and I know that Ken Nelson could pull it off. Keep in mind that the Marine Corps colors are scarlet and gold, but red and dark yellow will usually suffice.

On the hunter side of things, you can't go wrong with antler.

I'd love to see a 50 cal. shell pen, but it would be too big for even my clumsy mitts.
Rob

 

[Sylvanite]

It is certainly all doable. I don't care for the PSI rifle cartridge lookalike kits - I prefer the real thing. If you don't want to assemble a cartridge yourself, there are several of us who make and sell kits using real reloading components.

How about something along the lines of this?

Regards,
Eric

 

[juteck]

Paul Sherman (IAP screen name pssherman) is another IAP member who carries the military casings with steel lined bullets. This is what I made from one of his casings.

More details are at this thread:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=55239

 

[Tullyamo]

How about if we were to find an M-16 shell... if not the pen in the middle on your pic Sylvanite is the one to go with. I will talk to his wife today. Another idea is to have his name on one side of the cartridge and Marine on the other with his rank. Then on the antler have one of the deer pictures. Maybe getting a rifle clip to match the bullet would tie it all together nicely. His wife is just excited for this to even be a possiblity. He is getting a 3 level posterior interbody fusion S1-L3 (PLIF) and will be down for a bit.

 

[jskeen]

Whatever you do, don't powder coat it. We all know how much Gyrene's love to polish brightwork

 

[Sylvanite]

How about if we were to find an M-16 shell... if not the pen in the middle on your pic Sylvanite is the one to go with.

The M16 shoots 5.56x45mm (a.k.a. 5.56 NATO and 223 Remington). The M14 shoots 7.62x51mm (a.k.a. 7.62 NATO and 308 Winchester). The M1 shoots 30-06 Springfield.

This picture may help:

The pen on the far left is 5.56x45mm. You can see that it is a small cartridge. The second one is 7.62x51mm. The two in the middle are 30-06 Springfield.

5.56x45mm is too small to laser-mark with the Marine Corps emblem (Eagle, Globe, and Anchor), but does have room for short lines of text. 7.62x51mm and 30-06 are both big enough for a logo. My previous picture was of the EGA emblem on 30-06 cartridges, but I've marked it on 308 Win as well.

I hope that helps,
Eric