Editing The Pen Addict 253/transcript (section)

== Pen Making ==


'''Ana Reinert:''' I don't know if you're aware, Brad, but that's the product name now. Yeah, I'm aware. I'm aware. So, many people know that you make your own pens, right? Yes. This is what you do. And I wanted to kind of find out how and why. Like, how did you start making your own pens? Why did you start making your own pens? How did this become a thing?

'''Speaker 01:''' Well, without going too far back, I pretty much started when I was a young kid growing up with my grandfather. He used to be a woodworker and such. I was too young to do anything as far as working with the tools. But, you know, just working with your hands, working with wood, he would turn on a lathe. He would make, you know, spindles for chairs and tables and such. And he passed it when I was very young, so I never got to learn much from him. But, you know, 20 years later, I get a bug to, you know, try my hand at it. And I wanted to, you know, during my researching and things like that, pens was never an option. It was, well, I want to look into bowl turning, you know, as an option. And I found a local store that was teaching classes, called them up. They said, well, that's not for another three months. But this weekend, we have a pen making class doing the component style pens. So my wife and I said, you know, okay, we'll try it out. And kind of got the bug from it, bought the lathe, bought just about everything needed.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Is that like off the one session?

'''Speaker 01:''' Oh, five minutes after walking out of it, yeah. Really? Yes. Oh, yeah, right there, right there. And because it's addicting. It really is. I mean, just working with your hands and making something, regardless of what it is, you know, it's rewarding. And, you know, I've never made a bowl. So I never got that far. And so I started in the component pens and quickly got bored. There's not a whole lot of variety, especially with, you know, the components themselves. Materials, the wood is always fun to work with. But the commercial acrylics, not so much. Everybody has it. Everybody can use it. So I started getting into making my own materials. And when I made my own materials, I said, well, I want to start making pens from scratch. You know, so I do fully custom made, cut all the threads, do everything myself. And it just kind of snowballed from there about nine years ago now.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So when you say you make your own materials, are you talking about, like, making your own resins?

'''Speaker 01:''' Exactly, yes. I started again with the components. And I'm self-taught with everything I do. Yes, I did take the pen making class. That was one, I think it was about an hour-long session. And after that, it was.

'''Ana Reinert:''' That's all it takes, folks.

'''Speaker 01:''' Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. That's all there is to it. One hour with a bunch of material spinning 2,000 RPM in your face. That's all there is to it. Stick it with a sharp object, and you've got a pen. That's all there is to it. And so, you know, after months and months and months of practice and learning how to, teaching myself how to make the resin materials, I would post some of that work online and just get some feedback from other pen makers. And it was, hey, do you have any more of that material? Where can I get it? And it quickly snowballed into a full-time job. And I did that for many years, just making the material. And it was just for pen makers, doing the components and stuff like that. And when I started getting into the custom work, I really started to focus on designing resin specifically for that application. So the resin, it's machinable. You can thread it, everything like that. And, you know, over time, I just developed my own techniques and my own style. And that, again, snowballed into Carolina Pen Company and everything I do now.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Can you give us, as someone who is very familiar with your work and sees, like, the amazing materials you create, it still doesn't work in my brain. I'm a very simple man.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' How these materials start from liquids or powders or whatever. Do they even? Yeah. Or magic, in your case, a lot.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you bring them down from Mordor? Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. Like, can I get, like, a technical 101 without, you know, you don't have to go into all the secrets. You don't have to, yeah, don't get all your secrets. But I don't know how you go from, I need materials, and here's a primary manipulation.

'''Speaker 01:''' The simplest way to put it is the resin, it's a polyurethane blend. You mix it one, it's a part A and a part B. You mix it one-to-one ratio by weight and only by weight. And once you mix the A and B together, the clock starts. You have about seven minutes before it turns solid. So once you mix your, and it's clear, it's a clear base to start with, and there are so many different types of pigments you can do. My favorite one to let everybody know about that I'm almost ashamed to admit is I use women's makeup.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Huh.

'''Speaker 01:''' Wow. Very funny. Yes, yes. That's amazing, isn't it? I have a giant collection of women's makeup. I buy it by the pound. Yes.

'''Speaker 01:''' If you need some eye shadow, I can hook you up.

'''Ana Reinert:''' I would have never, you could have had me sit here all day and guess I would like food coloring.

'''Speaker 01:''' I never would have guessed. Women's makeup. It's a mica powder. And there are different vendors. You can buy it in all different.

'''Ana Reinert:''' Every color under the rainbow.

'''Speaker 01:''' All the different colors. Also, all different micron size. So you can have it very fine, which will give you more of a mother of pearl look. Or you can have it in large flakes, which will give it more of a, like a custom car paint job flair.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But you're probably buying it from a commercial vendor. You're not going to the Five and Dime. No, I'm not going to Mac or anything like that.

'''Speaker 01:''' Yet. No, not yet.

'''Ana Reinert:''' He's like, I just run out. I'm going to go to the school.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm envisioning you like scraping it out of those little dishes. You're not doing that. You're like getting in by the pound.