WHO DO YOU USE

[khallpens]

I have been doing pens for about three years and have only done kits fom Woodcraft I would like to know were you get your kits and blanks from. Who had the best mid to high end kits. Who has the best blanks. Who can get some of the rarest woods.

Thanks for your in put

Keith

 

[redbulldog]

Exotic Blanks gets most of my money. I am just a small purchaser yet Dawn and Ed treat me more than fair.

 

[kovalcik]

Pen Kits (in no particular order): PSI, Woodturningz, Smitty's Pen Works, Exotic Blanks, CSUSA

Wood Blanks (I turn 90% wood): From the classifieds here at IAP, Woodturningz, Woodcraft, and the most popular, FOG (Found on ground).

PR Blanks: Woodcraft, Exotic Blanks, Woodturningz

 

[Jim Burr]

Kits are spread between CSUSA and Berea. As it happens, I just ordered from Ed 30 minutes ago. Blanks are from all over and anywhere..eBay, fools4peppers, Issac, LouCee, Larry, firewood places, my resin castings...dozens of other turners. That's why pens are so cool!

 

[Andrew_K99]

Kits/Blanks/misc: Exotics, Indy Pen Dance, CSUSA, Bear Tooth Woods and William Wood-Write
Blanks: mrburls and elmostro (on IAP)

AK

 

[reiddog1]

I feel that Dawn and Ed from exotics sell the top kits from all the other vendors, so for me, it's almost like one stop shopping with great prices. Plus, you can't beat the customer service. They also have a great selection of blanks of the resin persuasion.

 

[SCR0LL3R]

Beartoothwoods.com is also great and hasn't been mentioned yet.

I use Beartoothwoods, Exoticblanks, CSUSA, Penblanks.ca (since I'm in Canada), and Timberbits for most of my kits and some blanks. The rest of my blanks come from the IAP classifieds

 

[GrantH]

I usually go up to my address bar and type in www.exoticblanks.com

I wait 3 days or so and not only do I have my order...I have Yippie Freebies! Dawn and Ed get my money because they take time to write a personal note on the invoice.

 

[PenMan1]

Of the vendors that support the IAP, the harder question is who NOT to use.

We all have finite resources and ALL OF THE IAP VENDORS go above and beyond with customer service and excellent pricing. I can't think of one single vendor here that I would hesitate to do repeat business with.

We are indeed fortunate to have such a competent and knowledgable group of vendors.

 

[avbill]

i use Ed & Dawn; Exoticblanks, then mike & linda; Indy Pen Dance then Lau Lau

 

[ghostrider]

Of the vendors that support the IAP, the harder question is who NOT to use.

We all have finite resources and ALL OF THE IAP VENDORS go above and beyond with customer service and excellent pricing. I can't think of one single vendor here that I would hesitate to do repeat business with.

We are indeed fortunate to have such a competent and knowledgable group of vendors.

QFT.

I use kits from Exotics, Wood N Whimsies, Woodturningz, Smitty's, Timberbits, Wood Pen Pro, Woodcraft, and have even ordered from Berea once.

For blanks, I've bought a lot of wood from Woodcraft, and Johnson's Work Bench. I've also got some wood from a friends farm.

For acrylic blanks, I've ordered the grab bag of trustone from RnB, and have gone through a few of the Freebie Yippie's from Ed and Dawn, but my main supplier is Eric (BUZZZZ4). I've bought some from him, enjoying the knowledge that I'm helping a good cause, and at the same time his blanks always turn out awesome, but he's given me so many blanks off of his reject pile that he can rib me about not turning the woods that I like so much (of course, he just turned two woods:biggrin. I also have a small collection of acrylics that I bought from Woodcraft when they had them on sale. I've also bought a couple Inlace Acrylester from Woodturningz a while back just to see what all the hype was about.

Of all the acrylics I've used so far, I think that I like Eric's the best, with the Rino Plastic "Drippings" from exotics coming in second. However, this past week, Eric finally talked me into pouring some of my own, so who knows where it will lead.

 

[Ambidex]

Of the vendors that support the IAP, the harder question is who NOT to use.

We all have finite resources and ALL OF THE IAP VENDORS go above and beyond with customer service and excellent pricing. I can't think of one single vendor here that I would hesitate to do repeat business with.

We are indeed fortunate to have such a competent and knowledgable group of vendors.

+1..would add a couple that haven't been mentioned though..robuticon(Jorge) from Australia and Onur for Turkish walnut from Istanbul, both for really cool blanks!

 

[rich gubbin]

Timberbits are pretty reasonable

 

[BassBlaster]

I have been doing pens for about three years and have only done kits fom Woodcraft I would like to know were you get your kits and blanks from. Who had the best mid to high end kits. Who has the best blanks. Who can get some of the rarest woods.

Thanks for your in put

Keith

Just FYI, Woodcraft gets thier kits from Berea Hardwoods and there is a huge markup on some of them. The Bl/Ti Ti/Gl Elegant Sierra for example is 11 bucks at Berea but its 21.50 through Woodcraft. I recently placed a large order through Berea but at the same time Woodcraft was having a 20% off sale on all pen making supplies. I went to thier site and put the same stuff in my cart before making a purchase and even with thier sale prices it was cheaper to order directly from Berea. I'm not saying Woodcraft is a bad place, I'm just saying, dont buy pen kits there. I only get them from Woodcraft if I have to have something right away. I can run up the street to the store. Otherwise, its cheaper at Berea even with shipping and they usually get my order to me in 2 or 3 days.

 

[PenMan1]

I know that Classic Nibs is the new guy, but I can't believe that no one has mentioned them. I made an order Saturday that arrived Tuesday. Of course it arrived with a hand written thank you and a gift.

The only way this service could get faster or better is if Roy and Dee lived next door!

 

[joefrog]

All of this is new to me, as new as I am! Thanks, this thread has been bookmarked! Looking forward to trying some new sources!

 

[Rob73]

I don't do pens often anymore, but when I do -- I check exoticblanks first for kits and any blanks I may need. Then I move on to cusa or berea. If there is a PSI product I want I'll look for it on woodturningz.com first as I loath dealing with PSI direct.

 

[joefrog]

Just put in an order to woodturningz. First order from them, so we'll see!

 

[76winger]

So far, the lions share of the pen components I've used have been from PSI. Beyond them I've gotten good kits from Berea, Exoticblanks and Woodturningz and Craft Supplies. Many other vendors have good products as well, but I haven't had the blessing of working with them yet.

For blanks, I started with PSI and Rockler, but most now come from Exoticblanks, Indy-Pen-Dance, Woodturningz and some self-collected stuff. I've also bought some blanks off eBay on occasion. Again, many other great vendors that I just haven't worked with yet, and absolutely nothing wrong with the ones I have.

 

[ren-lathe]

Berea, Arizona Silhouette, Craft USA, Wood Turningz, PSI, Wood N whimsies
For stone & M3 blanks R&B crafts

 

[LeeR]

I have ordered from exoticblanks.com, IndyPenDance, and Smitty. All provided great service. I have a Woodcraft near me, but they've raised their prices in the past year, so even on sale, they seem pretty pricey to me.

I'll go to one of the vendor's here, unless I am in a huge hurry, or maybe just want to buy one of something. Same is true for blanks. I can almost always wait to order online, plus I'd rather just not support the big box stores over the folks here.

 

[jjjaworski]

I've used CSUSA initially but have since switched to getting blanks from Ernie at BearToothWoods. I like his selection and the service is topnotch. He also has the kits I like so I have been also getting them there as well.

I just ordered some nibs and a few Timberbits kits from Roy at ClassicNib and am very pleased with the service and quality.

I've looked at all the other sources posted and I don't doubt they provide good service as well. It just depends what one is looking for since not everyone carries all the possible choices.

 

[OOPS]

I have gotten several wooden blanks from IAP members, but nothing beats walking the aisles in the Wood Department at Woodcraft. They often have sales on "remnants" which can make excellent pens. For acrylic blanks, I really like Exoticblanks. They are fun people to deal with, and the selection is incredible. I used to purchase my kits from Woodcraft, but their prices just became unreasonable. I get the same quality kits now from Bear Tooth Woods.

 

[Joe Burns]

I get most of my pens from Craft USA and Berea. For cartridge pens I get them from Eric at Little River Crafts.

Blanks I usually get from exotic blanks.

Joe