# Finally done!  33 Jr. Statesman Cactus Pens with Mesquite Boxes



## MesquiteMan

As some know, I was approached by a company in Houston, TX to make 15-18 Jr. Statesmen "Original Cactus Pens"™ with laser engraved Mesquite boxes. Well, I reluctantly accepted the commission (I hate production work!) and the order started to grow. First, they changed it to 20 sets, then 24, then 29, and finally, 33! The due date was short (6 weeks) and I am now COMPLETELY sick of making cactus pens and mesquite boxes! Anyway, I finished packing them all up today and took them to the Fedex office. I sat there and watched as they loaded my box with all my hard labor into the Fedex truck, hoping to God that they don't mess them up on their short 200 mile journey to Houston. They went out overnight for a dinner event tomorrow (Tuesday) evening.

This order was for an energy company who is having a "bond closing" dinner for some of the biggest investment guys in the US. I am hoping that this big order opens some doors into the high end corporate world.

Anyway, here are some pics of the finished order. The pens are all made with my Crystal Clear "Original Cactus Blanks"™ reverse painted black and finished with a CA finish. The kit is the Jr. Statesman platinum with black ti. The boxes are from Texas Mesquite that I salvaged from road construction sites, sawed into lumber on my sawmill, and dried. The box finish is 4 coats of Deft satin lacquer.

Thanks for looking!


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## nytefaii

That is insane.

Great job!


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## hunter-27

Nice job, hope it paid well..............:biggrin:


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## islandturner

Wow...!

Great project....!  The pens look outstanding.  The boxes look outstanding.  And the photo will serve as an important marketing tool in the years to come.

Really impressive....!

Steve


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## gvpens

What incredible work!
I'm sure all the recipients will be proud to own them.
Hopefully you will be swamped with reorders!
Nice job!


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## Jgrden

I am in awe. Those boxes look great. What are those dark areas where a hinge would normally appear? They add to the looks of the box. Do you have your own laser engraver? If not, you must have had a heck of a time coordinating this event. Kudos to you.


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## el_d

Great Job, Glad to see you survived Curtis........


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## maxman400

Those are Fantastic!!! I like the lift up box's I guess you got your monies worth out of that plan, I guess it was worth price.


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## SamThePenMan

Wow Awesome work. I love the way you displayed everything. The lift up box is a pretty neat idea I may have to look into it some time!


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## MesquiteMan

The plan was worth the price just for the concept.  I had to completely re-do it, however, since the original plan only allowed for smaller pens and would not hold Jr. Statesman pens.  I also modified the lift arms since the original plan made the slot so sloppy that there was no friction so when the lid was opened, the weight of the pen would close the box on its own!

Thanks for the nice comments!


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## MesquiteMan

Jgrden said:


> I am in awe. Those boxes look great. What are those dark areas where a hinge would normally appear? They add to the looks of the box. Do you have your own laser engraver? If not, you must have had a heck of a time coordinating this event. Kudos to you.


 
The dark areas are the lift arms that also serve as the hinge.  Pretty neat concept, actually.  I do not have a laser engraver.  My custom cabinet maker has one and did all of the laser work for me.


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## PenWorks

I think I saw you spelled David wrong on that one box  :biggrin: 

Nice sell, big project, should bring you many more future sales with that type of crowd recieving them.  Congrats


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## MesquiteMan

PenWorks said:


> I think I saw you spelled David wrong on that one box  :biggrin:


 
Scared me for a minute!  Actually, the fault would lie directly on the shoulders of the executive assistant who sent me the list.  I simply forwarded it direct to my laser engraver and he did a copy and paste into his software!


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## Texatdurango

Good grief.... just stacking the boxes for the photo would be too much work for me! Now whatcha gonna do if they call up wednesday wanting 50 more? 

I am impressed with the whole order however, they look smashing!


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## MesquiteMan

Texatdurango said:


> Now whatcha gonna do if they call up wednesday wanting 50 more?


 
I am going to tell them to call this fellow I know named George.  Then I am going to expect a finder's fee for the referral!!


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## thewishman

That is one big load of AWESOME! Great looking pens and boxes, very impressive!


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## bmac

Hey Curtis,
Great job on the pens and boxes. They look great and should be a great hit. Hope they open the door for some future work. But some times that can backfire. You might end up with way more work than you want.

Bobby
Louisiana


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## CaptG

Nice job Curtis.  Which brought the bigger smile, getting the order or finishing it?


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## MesquiteMan

CaptG said:


> Nice job Curtis. Which brought the bigger smile, getting the order or finishing it?


 
The biggest smile was without a doubt seeing that box loaded on the Fedex truck and out of my life!  What a relief!


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## Pen_Turner

WOW , show me ........ show me the way, pen master!!  LoL


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## Ligget

WOW That was a great order and well executed, looks brilliant!


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## titan2

Great looking pens and boxes!!!
 
You got plans for the boxes?  Where could I get a copy?
 
 
TIA,
 
 
Barney


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## TurnaPen

Curtis, very impressive, beautifully done, Amos


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## BigShed

Curtis, very impressive. Love the combination of box and pen, particulalry as it is all your own work.


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## dustmaker

Very Impressive.  Nice job.  They will sure to please.


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## bruce119

Curtis it's all been said can only add another

*WOW *

I've only done one other production job for a doctor and it was only 20 Sierras all the same purple acrylic. Then I had to deliver them what a P.I.A. :beat-up:

I just can't imagine 33 of those casting, painting, building, turning, the boxes OMG. :hypnotized:

It must have been grueling. Now sit back and let the complements flow in. I am sure there is a card in the bottom of each box. :wink:

I hope you get a bunch of calls. :tongue:

.


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## markgum

Great job Curtis. congrats on the order. Hope this opens the door to a grea financial reward.


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## TomW

I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy.....

Great job Curtis.

Tom


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## Chief Hill

WOW! Great job.   Now tell us Curtis was it worth all the work???  I hope you got a small fortune for that.

Custom making boxes $$$$
Laser engraving $
Cactus blanks $$$
Kits itself $$$$ 
TIME $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

LOL


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## RichB

I just made 5 of the same and that was WAY TO MANY!!!!!!


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## maxwell_smart007

Amazing work, Curtis! 


I love that your quality didn't suffer, even though you had to make 33 identical pens and boxes in a very, very short time span.  I sincerely hope that you get a bazillion calls on Wednesday for some high-end commissions! 

Andrew


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## Daniel

Curtis, IT is funny how we love to sell our pens, even hope and pray for them to sell. Until they REALLY! sell. My limit is about in the 20 pen range, It really does make you start to hate making them to do to many more than that all at once. You did good though and now go buy yourself something nice to get your excitement back up where it should be.


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## hilltopper46

Very impressive - in more than one way.  Congratulations on the completion!


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## mredburn

Designing and making the first one is a challange, making 2-3 its nice to get it right, more than that is is hard work, 30+ is damned hard work.  Nice job Curtis and as a side note, thanks for the tip on the sandpaper post its. I made up several of them. Mike


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## devowoodworking

Congrats Curtis!  I know all too well the pressure from doing a large order, although in my case it's puzzles, I'm sure you feel like a big weight is lifted off your shoulders!


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## altaciii

Curtis,
Glad to see you finished.  I'm sure you felt a bit of satisfaction watching them go away.  Hope your feeling better.  Great job on that order.


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## mbroberg

Very cool Curtis.  Even though I am sure the recipients will love them it's a shame that they won't be able to full appreciate what you put into them.  You did a awesome job!


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## stolicky

Good job.

What I think is even better about the project is that you created these blanks (and boxes), from scratch, yourself.  I think that would be even more rewarding than 'just a pen order'.


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## broitblat

Very impressive production of very impressive pens.  I have to ask -- in the process of turning 33 pens, did you have any failures (I hope not, but I expect I would have)?

  -Barry


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## jkeithrussell

I bet each person who gets one of those is going to call you asking for 33 more.


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## Verne

Good going Curtis. Excellant finished product, however, none of us would expect anything else from you!
Vern


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## jedgerton

Wow, those are spectacular!  Now I know what you've been up to for the past few weeks.  Great job all the way around!

John


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## BobBurt

WOW....GREAAAAAAAT job....


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## ngeb528

Fantastic job, Curtis!

Just out of curiosity (since you asked for input) what did you end up charging for the boxes, if you don't mind my asking?


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## GaryMGg

Wonderful production run. Lookin' good Curtis.


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## MesquiteMan

broitblat said:


> Very impressive production of very impressive pens. I have to ask -- in the process of turning 33 pens, did you have any failures (I hope not, but I expect I would have)?
> 
> -Barry


 
Barry,  Actually, there was a monumental failure in the beginning!  I had cast, drilled, and painted 20 or so blanks with cheap black fingernail polish. Lupe (El D here on the forum) graciously offered to help me with the order (at no cost, btw!) by rough turning the blanks round.  He turned them at his shop and then came over one Saturday to help me try to get it knocked out.  My original deadline was for 22 pens in 3 weeks and I was MAJ ORLY stressing on the Saturday before the Monday I was supposed to ship.  

Well, I picked up one of the blanks Lupe had turned for me and mounted it in the lathe to finish turning it.  When it got down to bushing size, I stopped the lathe and it looked TERRIBLE!  The paint had released from the inside of the blank in spots and they were blotchy as heck.  I checked the next one, and it was the same.  I ended up checking each one of the 40 halves and EVERY FREAKING ONE was the same!  Remember, this was Saturday, 2 days before my expected shipping date and I now had to start all over.  The worst part was, I did not even have any more cactus blanks cast!  I was ready to pull all my hair out!

I took a break and went inside to call my client.  Fortunately, on a Saturday afternoon, the CFO or a publicly traded energy company answered my call on his mobile phone!  I told him about the problem and he told me that the dinner had been postponed for a few weeks the day before and that they just had not had a chance to let me know yet!  Talk about a MAJOR relief!!

I ended up turning the cactus off each tube and starting over completely!  There goes $400 worth of cactus blanks!  Talk about a valuable lesson learned...don't use cheap fingernail polish for the inside of a blank!  I now use only Testors Model Masters Acryl.  It is not cheap (relatively speaking) but it also does not fail!


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## MesquiteMan

ngeb528 said:


> Fantastic job, Curtis!
> 
> Just out of curiosity (since you asked for input) what did you end up charging for the boxes, if you don't mind my asking?


 
NOT NEARLY ENOUGH!!

I charged $200 per set for one pen and one box.  That is $150 for the pen and $50 for the box.  I will not do them that cheap again!  They were fun but were also a real pain.  I ended up making 45 boxes to allow for some expected failures from working with the mesquite.  (Cracks, blowouts when cutting, etc).  I have 4 boxes left over for some special Christmas gifts!


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## fiferb

Nice job Curtis! I thought you were going to say the bigger smile was when you got the check.


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## MesquiteMan

fiferb said:


> Nice job Curtis! I thought you were going to say the bigger smile was when you got the check.


 
Being the unbelievably trusting (or stupid?) guy that I am, I shipped the order to them with an invoice due on receipt. I did not even ask for any type of deposit! I did get a message from the CFO today (they received them today) saying they were "tickled pink" and that he had already approved the invoice for payment and that my check would go out Friday!


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## greggas

Bravo Curtis.  I bet it will be a while before you make a jr. statesman !


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## Kaspar

Heckuva job!  



MesquiteMan said:


> NOT NEARLY ENOUGH!!
> 
> I charged $200 per set for one pen and one box.  That is $150 for the pen and $50 for the box.  I will not do them that cheap again!  They were fun but were also a real pain ...



Wow, really?  _That_ little?  That's a lot of work and worry for that time frame.  Seriously, you should have gotten twice that.  1.5 times, at the very least.


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## John M

Those pens are so sweet, I cant wait to get enough money to buy a couple blanks.  I might say that is the coolest blank out there.


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## Jim15

That is pretty amazing work Curtis.


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## Jgrden

What a great story.


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## Jgrden

I am still curious about those boxes. Where can I find out how the hinge is constructed? Are these hingeless?


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## MesquiteMan

Here is a link to where I got the plans for the box.  Sorry, but it is not free.  Like I said, I had to modify the box in both width and height in order for it to accept the Jr. Statesman pens.  I would be happy to share the dimensions needed as well as other modifications I made to the plans with anyone who buys the plans.  Obviously, due to copyright law, I can not make a derivative of the plan with my measurements and share it or I would!


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## Texatdurango

MesquiteMan said:


> Here is a link


Here where? 

And as far as using those leftover boxes for the special Christmas gifts... my last name is spelled Butcher! but engraving isn't really necessary! :biggrin:


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## Rollerbob

http://www.woodstore.net/flipuppenbox.html


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## Daniel

MesquiteMan said:


> I ended up turning the cactus off each tube and starting over completely!  There goes $400 worth of cactus blanks!  Talk about a valuable lesson learned...don't use cheap fingernail polish for the inside of a blank!  I now use only Testors Model Masters Acryl.  It is not cheap (relatively speaking) but it also does not fail!



This need to be in the Library of an excellent example of when lower cost does not pay. $400 would have bought an awful lot of Testors paint. Higher price is not always the way to go but at the very least think about what it might cost you if cheaper does fail.


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## Bree

Curtis...

You did a terrific job.  You showed your quality by redoing the defective ones and by the attention to detail on the box.  The pens themselves look outstanding and the whole package rocks.  

I'll take 50!  Need em all by Christmas!

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:


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## jttheclockman

Hello Curtis

First let me say congrats on the completion of such a huge task. I do know what it is like to make so many of the same item. Also they looked like you did your A++++ work on each and everyone so monotny did not affect the outcome which is sometimes hard to achieve. 

But you would be a good example to help explain some thoughts about pricing which is going on in another thread. ( great thread by the way) Thanks for revealing the price you received for a setup. With that stated you mentioned you would not do that again for that price. My question would be why and for what particular reason would you increase the price ( assuming that is what you meant)???   The reason I ask there is some production work involved with both the pens and the boxes so time can be saved using the production line methods. Maybe not so much in the pens but surely in the boxes. I assume you would sell one of these set-ups for the $200 price on a regular bases and that is how you arrived at your price???  Or did you reduce it for quantity purposes???  Would the saving on time making multiples not be enough to counteract the shear bordom of doing multiples??? Did selling the line to the company that you did play a part in your pricing and is this always a good starting point when determining the price???  I guess the bottom line ???  I am asking is how did you determine your price for such what I think all of us consider a high quality pen???  Thanks for the reply and have a great day.


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## opie

*Well Done!*

Those are awesome, boxes and pens....I hear ya on being sick of turning the same thing over and over....Well Done!


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## MesquiteMan

John,

The boxes were the killer.  There was a LITTLE economy of scale but not much.  Each lid had to be hand tuned and fitted.  The inside, which does not show up in the pic very well, is all flocked with black flocking.  That means hand painting on the flocking glue and then applying the flocking.  Then, talking about production, if you mess up, you mess up them all!  Take the tube failure example.  If I had been doing one pen at a time, I would have found the problem before I dilled, painted, glued, and rough turned 20 sets of tubes.  That would have saved me $400 and a boatload of time!  I have used nail polish MANY times in the past so I know it works fine, just not this particular brand.

I quizzed you guys on pricing for the box.  That's how I came up with my overall pricing.  I charge $150 for a cactus Jr. Statesman rollerball whether is it one or 33.  I then used advice from here on the boxes.  Some suggested $50-60 and many said said $15-20 each, max!  I knew what goes into them somewhat so I went with $50 each for a total package of $200.  The laser engraving cost me $8 each so that is a net of $42 for me.  Not nearly enough for the amount of work I put into it.  

In the future, the pens will be $150 and the boxes will be at least $75 for a total of $225 each PLUS laser engraving.  Or, if you are a cheap box kind of person, the box is $25 and the pen is $200!


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## artme

I think it has all been said but I'll say it again. Beautiful work all round!!


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## jttheclockman

MesquiteMan said:


> John,
> 
> The boxes were the killer. There was a LITTLE economy of scale but not much. Each lid had to be hand tuned and fitted. The inside, which does not show up in the pic very well, is all flocked with black flocking. That means hand painting on the flocking glue and then applying the flocking. Then, talking about production, if you mess up, you mess up them all! Take the tube failure example. If I had been doing one pen at a time, I would have found the problem before I dilled, painted, glued, and rough turned 20 sets of tubes. That would have saved me $400 and a boatload of time! I have used nail polish MANY times in the past so I know it works fine, just not this particular brand.
> 
> I quizzed you guys on pricing for the box. That's how I came up with my overall pricing. I charge $150 for a cactus Jr. Statesman rollerball whether is it one or 33. I then used advice from here on the boxes. Some suggested $50-60 and many said said $15-20 each, max! I knew what goes into them somewhat so I went with $50 each for a total package of $200. The laser engraving cost me $8 each so that is a net of $42 for me. Not nearly enough for the amount of work I put into it.
> 
> In the future, the pens will be $150 and the boxes will be at least $75 for a total of $225 each PLUS laser engraving. Or, if you are a cheap box kind of person, the box is $25 and the pen is $200!


 


Thanks for the reply Curtis. I did not know you had some failures with the blanks. Yes I can  see where getting into production mode can overlook some of the problems and you can have some losses. These are good lessons for us all to watch for. As far as the boxes go, it really has to come down to your decision because we can not see all the features and the process needed to make them. I guess the lock in point was the pen price. That is where the money needs to be made. Anyway you did a great job and those cactus blanks are the tops. Thanks for showing and sharing.


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## Ankrom Exotics

Super job, Curtis!!


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## Jim in Oakville

awesome work Curtis  Now I can ask fro an order ...


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## CSue

Curtis, if this doesn't open doors, I don't know what will.  Excellent work, display, photography.  Pens, of course, are so beautiful!  Can I say you are the "Cactus King?"


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## jeff

Looks great on the front page!


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## cnirenberg

Awesome.


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## Fishrule

Brilliant, just brilliant.  I am in awe.


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## Nowicki

Great story. Even better job. 

Larry


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## PenTurnerfromMaine

A lot of hard work, but it does look terrific.


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## Nowicki

I was wondering if you do cactus blanks in 1 1/4 " square. I think they would make a great dagger handle or something for a hidden tang knife.

Larry


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## Moosewatcher

Nice job.

Ken


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## bitshird

Curtis, that is an amazing job, I think a lot of us think we would like to get a job like that, until we actually got about half way through it. You did something bordering on spectacular with this order, having just seen and held one of your cactus blanks, I am amazed.


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## Rangertrek

*Relatives name*

I was viewing your pictures and noticed the name 'Ben Marchive' on one of the boxes.

My business partner is Lauren Marchive.  I showed him the picture and found out Ben is my partner's cousin!

I hope thay enjoy the pens.  Great work.


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## neubee

Beautiful job Curtis, the clear blanks look awesome


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## kruger

Incredible work!

i don't see my name on a box  -)


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## wudnhed

Beautiful work Curtis!!!!!!


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## sol92258

it's already been said, but WOW! those are beautiful!


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## seamus7227

*Unbelievable!!!*

Great Job Curtis! I would love to purchase a cactus blank from you, pm me when you get some time after the holidays. Thanks and once again, GREAT JOB!!!


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## Pioneerpens

absolutely beautiful! nice job!


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## HawksFeather

Beautiful work. 

Jerry


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