China made wood pens.

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sanyalsoumitra

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Hi,
this is just an observation. I had taken a very strong liking in fountain pens in the very recent past. It all started off with buying pens in the e-bay when I was by chance introduced to the knowledge of making fountain pens by hand. that is when I came know about IAP and all.
What I was noticing and later confirmed by research is :
a) most pen-kits retailed in the various hobby pen-turning sites are actually made in China / Taiwan. All these manufacturers have a minimum order quantity of 1000+ pieces, but the price is very small. The MOQ restriction deters the day o day hobby or stand alone pro penturners due to the huge initial investment.
b) Pens made in metal and various plastic are the ones sold by the chinese e-bay retailers. All from the low to medium priced pens- and these pens are made in the various pen factories in south China. There are manyHigh end brands also made under official licence in China due to cost advantages etc.
However , chinese factories had so far been keeeping away from wood as a pen-making material. Till date I have only found some Jinhao 650's with rose wood barrel.
Wood pens are an area where the china like vartiety offers were not available. Most of the chinese kits were not availbe in wooden version.
Wood pens were left in the niche market of individual penturners. Today I came across a chinese kit being sold on e-bay in the wooden avatar.Pls view this link.
<< 13PENS Vintage Beijing Jinxing Fountain Pens China Famous Brand Wooden Pen | eBay >>
Looking at the price quote, these pens are definitely mass produced..
Are we heading towards a chinese invasion in the protected wood pen market?
I am curious to hear some more observations.
 
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Some of the "art" pieces that certain members here that they exhibit and produce will
NEVER, NEVER be mass produced in China or any other country. A plain "maple" or run of the mill "rosewood" is already being made and sold by the millions. I can purchase a laser engraved, rosewood pen with a wooden case for approximately $15.00 at the retail level.

I am not worried nor do I feel threatened and continue to sell my pens at a "healthy" margin.
 
Reply

I was just relating an observation. What happened to automobiles should not happen to this art-form domain of pens. however a word of caution was customary..
 
Ok a few points I would like to address:

*) The ebay link is to kits and the wood used is common wood and not protected, its like pine is here in North America or East India Rosewood, Teak in India.

*) your a) section is most likely referencing Dayacom. Many production shops like union controlled steel mills and the like want only large orders which this excludes most anyone except larger vendors.

the pen kit in question is this one from PSI.
Traditional 24kt Gold Fountain Pen Kit at Penn State Industries
 
edstreet said:
Ok a few points I would like to address:

*) The ebay link is to kits and the wood used is common wood and not protected, its like pine is here in North America or East India Rosewood, Teak in India.

*) your a) section is most likely referencing Dayacom. Many production shops like union controlled steel mills and the like want only large orders which this excludes most anyone except larger vendors.

the pen kit in question is this one from PSI.
Traditional 24kt Gold Fountain Pen Kit at Penn State Industries
Click to expand...
You can buy completed wooden pens from Rizheng for not much more than you pay for a kit (range from about $1.90 to $2.20 each in quantities of about 50. They also offer the Churchill in Acrylic for about $6.00 each for finished pens. They offer laser engraving on the wood pens as well. People selling at craft shows might see some competition from these but they will be lower end finishes and mass produced workmanship on the wood...They will also be limited in the number of woods available. They've been around for about a year or so and I don't see any impact. I think they are competing more with National Pen than with pen turners.
 
Rizheng Acrylic finished Pens ???

I have not been making many pens, or doing shows for over a year due to an injury, so I'm kind of out of touch with the state of the industry. I still get email flyers for the various pen related vendors and sometimes click on the links out of curiosity. I got one from Rizheng that advertised "finished pen barrels" for various model pens. I log onto the website and started clicking around and soon discovered they are also offering complete pens finished in acrylics. For example a cigar style pen goes from $5.05 - 6.25 depending on quantity. While I can't tell much about the finish, the profile looked pretty decent from the posted photos. The scary thing was that most of their offerings were Sold Out. Maybe I'm late to the party and you guys knew about this, but it was a surprise to me. My search of IAP only came up with this related post.

I can't help think that this is not good for pen makers who are looking for decent margins on their sale of kitted acrylic pens. I was wondering what you guys thought.
 
If it sells and the market is big enough, there are Chinese factories that can make 3 grades of anything, and that includes pens. They can be `1) sloppy, 2) good or as good as the average penmaker and 3)the very top of the line.

An unscrupulous "craftsman" could buy them and compete at craft shows against you. You probably would never know his/her source of inventory. They could also get the same general price as the true craftsman.
 
Rizheng is now operating as both a wholesaler and a retailer. The finished pens are on the retail side. If you are turning pens for craft shows bear in mind that their finished pens must be marked or tagged as "Made in China" for the seller to stay within the law. "sold out" often means that they only have these in stock after they have made a large order where they produced overruns to get optimum lot sizes.

Timbo said:
I have not been making many pens, or doing shows for over a year due to an injury, so I'm kind of out of touch with the state of the industry. I still get email flyers for the various pen related vendors and sometimes click on the links out of curiosity. I got one from Rizheng that advertised "finished pen barrels" for various model pens. I log onto the website and started clicking around and soon discovered they are also offering complete pens finished in acrylics. For example a cigar style pen goes from $5.05 - 6.25 depending on quantity. While I can't tell much about the finish, the profile looked pretty decent from the posted photos. The scary thing was that most of their offerings were Sold Out. Maybe I'm late to the party and you guys knew about this, but it was a surprise to me. My search of IAP only came up with this related post.

I can't help think that this is not good for pen makers who are looking for decent margins on their sale of kitted acrylic pens. I was wondering what you guys thought.
Click to expand...
 
Smitty37 said:
Rizheng is now operating as both a wholesaler and a retailer. The finished pens are on the retail side. If you are turning pens for craft shows bear in mind that their finished pens must be marked or tagged as "Made in China" for the seller to stay within the law. "sold out" often means that they only have these in stock after they have made a large order where they produced overruns to get optimum lot sizes.
Click to expand...

Does anyone actually believe that someone who goes through the trouble of buying these finished pens with the intention of selling them at craft shows is going to mark them "Made in China", when they can leave them unmarked and sell them at a premium. Illegal or not, I don't see that happening.
 
Gotta remember who your target market is. Who is your buyer? Surely not someone who considers that type of pen... You're not just a turner, you may even call yourself a story turner. People buy your stories, if you will. It's about the magic of a handmade pen.
 
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