New Pens & Other Mundane Happenings . . .

I added four new pens to my Etsy online store this past week. Click link in left column for more details.  The pen on the left in the top pic is Amboyna Burl on 24Kt Gold plated twist pen hardware.  Amboyna burl is expensive but worth the price.  It was the first burl type wood used in Rolls-Royce automobiles.

The middle pen has stars & stripes on 30 caliber bolt action pen hardware.  It is a very popular pen!  I finished the first last Thursday PM.  I didn't photograph it or list it.  I put it in my pocket Friday AM when I went for coffee.  I saw Erica and showed it to her.  A few weeks ago, I showed her an antler pen on the same pen hardware.  She said that it was about the size of a 30 caliber shell.  Then she noticed the bolt action 'clicker' and said 'bolt action too.'  She was tellin me this stuff without any prompting from me.  She admitted that she knows a thing or two about guns and rifles.  Anyway, she was overwhelmed with the stars & stripes and bought it on the spot!  She said her wedding colors were red, white and blue.  I should have asked her if it was a shotgun wedding, but I didn't think of it untill I had left.  I'll ask her this week.

So I made up two more of these pens when I got home.  I got one listed late Friday PM.  About an hour later, I sold it and the corn cob pen on the right.  Since I had two stars & stripes made, I listed the second.  By 9 AM Saturday AM, it was gone.  I had enough material for one more .  I made it up last evening and listed it this PM.  It is still there.  I ordered more materials for this style pen this PM.

The pen on the left is a real corn cob. It is stabilized, which means a plastic material was forced into it under pressure.  This makes it stronger and a lot easier to turn to size.  That one sold Saturday AM.  I have another listed.

While I was reading up on Amboyna burl, the article said it was used on pistol grips and knife handles.  So, why not put it on a bolt action pen to go along with my rosewood bolt action pens.  Rosewood is also used on pistol grips and gun stocks.  That is the pen in the second photo. 

 

I had a lot of pen orders to fill this past week.  While I was busy, this is what Simon, my long, 13 lb., orange tabby cat did to stay out my way. . . . cept when it was time to eat . . . 

One morning this week, while I was standing in line for my coffee the guy in front of me turns around a says, 'There's a lot of quail around.'  Interesting 'icebreaker.'  Something I haven't thought about . . . if ever, so I agreed with him.  Then he tells me how he hunted them when he was a kid, and they became scarce and now they are coming back and he is lookin forward to hunting them again.  He also mention pheasants.  I was able to get away from him and left the clerk to deal with him on her own.  

This AM, I was in the Circle K.  I set my coffee on the counter and was getting my money out when the clerk, who only seems to work weekend mornings, asked me what was in my coffee.  I don't think anyone has ever asked me that before.  I ended up saying 'just cream' while wonderin if they were charging extra for cream now.  After tellin her that no one had ever asked me that before, she said she wanted to make sure I had coffee in my travel mug????

Full moon or maybe it is the weather . . . Some strange happenings  the last couple mornings . . .