Several years ago my wife surprised me with a Midi lathe as a Christmas gift. The lathe went in the basement and I didn’t put it to use until our cat of 18 years passed away. I was motivated to make a fitting resting place for his ashes, so I built the lathe table and started to work with test wood to learn what I wanted it to look like. Finally I turned the mahogany block into Kirby’s final resting place.
After finishing that project, I longed for another woodworking project to develop my talents. A friend asked me to make a special pen for him made of 200 year old pine wood he had recovered from a house in Alexandria, Virginia. So I did and haven’t stopped. My friend provided me extra pine wood for me to use. (Affidavit available for review.)
The first several pens were given as gifts as I learned what worked… and didn’t work! Now I have refined the process to a science, able to create really beautiful and special pens for every occasion.