Chancellorsville, Start to Finish, Part 1

Last year during a visit to the Chancellorsville Battlefield, I surreptitiously smuggled out a short branch of unknown, semi-rotten wood from the spot where General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson was mistakenly shot and mortally wounded by his own men.

I knew this wood was special and have been saving it for some time. Ok, actually, I'm just lazy and have finally gotten around to working it. ;)

But since the wood is in quite bad shape, having sat rotting on the ground for a long, long time, it has to be stabilized before it can be turned. I'm making one or two "clear" stabilized blanks from it which will be the normal wood color as well as some blue and red stabilized versions.

Picked up a couple of "Civil War Bullet Pens" this wood is destined for. Here are the first two steps in the process, cutting the wood to size and drilling out the spot for the brass tube. Stabilization is next.

Here's a link to Part 2.

I want to know!
Are you a history or Civili War buff? What history do you find most interesting?

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Am I the most infrequent blogger or what?

It's been two months since my last post! Been busy completing some custom orders lately. I'm also working on another "Start to Finish" photo diary, this time with stabilizing wood gathered from where Stonewall Jackson was shot! Coming soon.

 

In the meantime, I've also shared my love of pen turning with two of my Marines. When I brought pens in to work for a couple guys to look over, these Marines showed interest. But, let's face it, junior Marines don't make a lot of money. They wanted pens, but what I had was really out of their disposable income range.

I suggested they come over and make their own.

First to take me up on the offer was (then) Corporal Martinez. He wanted a bolt action bullet pen done with an American flag motif. I did the prep work on the acrylic, but he drilled, turned and mounted the pen himself. It looks great and he enjoyed doing it.

Next, Sergeant Fang came by this past weekend. He wanted wood, knowing full well that the work was more in-depth. He chose cocobolo in a magnetic vertex gun metal setting. He did the entire thing himself, from cutting to drilling to shaping, polishing, adding the cyanoacrylate and coming back the next day to polish and assemble.

I admit I did the woodburn of his family name in Chinese character on the side, but that was just a cosmetic touch. Best of all, when he assembled his pen, he was so excited, he stayed to help me work on some other orders. Now he's got a list of things he wants to make as gifts for his family.

I think he's hooked. I know the feeling.

I want to know!
What knowledge, skills and experience do you share with friends and family?

WAND-ering up some magic

Let's get one thing straight: I am a man.

Furthermore, I'm a US Marine. Implications there include toughness, brutishness, and no nonsense.

The image inspired should have nothing to do with fairies or magic.

However, I swim in a sea of estrogen. Until the recent acquisition of the guinea pig, all the members of my household were female. Waves of touchy-feely drama wash through periodically. Tears are a fairly common occurrence.

Every now and then I have to explain why there's glitter on my uniform.

Brenda and I have striven our whole stint as parents to make a home that inspires creativity, one where fantastic stories and out-of-the-box thinking are as usual as the mundane, day-to-day matters of life.

Whether it's the constant stream of Tolkien's work, indoctrination into Frank Hurbert's Dune, a steady diet of Monty Python, or eating dinner with T-Rex arms as an etiquette lesson in keeping elbows off the table, we're doing a lot to raise two creative girls.

That, or a couple of nut cases.

So when the request came in for magic wands, I was all over it. New territory for me, I plunged in and left lots of scrap on the workroom floor before coming up with something nice.

The original idea was to make something simple to keep the kids entertained while the parents perused other items at my craft fair tables. True to form, I can't do simple and my first wands featured shaping, stain and inlaid acrylic. One of them even had a chamber in the handle with "mermaid hair" inside.

I'm currently using some glow in the dark acrylic I found, which I think the kids will like, and for one I shaped acrylic into a blue talon and embedded it. Adding wood burning helps customize each wand, too.

But honestly, my favorite part is the stories that go with each wand. They're each accompanied by a unique 500-word fantasy story on how the wand came to be. We've done a gnome vs. a bear, a desert boy turned mermaid-lover, a war between goblins and fairies, a woman who turns into a fish, and a few more.

You know, I once fancied myself a writer. I've had a few things published online. Best of all, when I read the wand stories to Hope and Grace at bedtime, there's always a pause, followed by "Oh, that was great! I loved that story."

And that's why I do what I do.

What's in a name?

Thinking about changing from "Hope & Grace Pens" to "Hope & Grace Gifts."

What do you think?

When I started this little fiasco a few years ago, everyone told me, "Don't put 'pens' in the name. Keep it open in case you get tired of making pens."

Well, at least that hasn't happened. I'm still as passionate about fine writing instruments as ever. But anyone who's browsed my stores knows there are a lot more than pens there. If it's useful and beautiful, I'll try my hand at it.

But what's really driven this consideration is the survey so many of you were kind enough to fill out. The majority of you -- 66.6% as of now -- order my work as gifts for loved ones, friends and acquaintances. Hope and Grace (the real Hope and Grace) both agree that my work is more likely something you'd order as a gift than as a treat for yourself.

It's not an easy decision. I've invested a lot of time, effort and a little money into building a brand. That's not the kind of thing you abandon on a whim. Then again, it's only one word and at the tail end of the name at that. I wonder if I'd "lose" anybody who came back looking HGP and finding only HGG?

So, I'm soliciting feedback. Let me know! Should I make the leap?