# 360 Herringbone



## TribalRR (Jun 13, 2008)

Hi everyone! I had thoughts about making these blanks to sell to you all for your pens, but I not sure with all the labor if it would be worth it... Could you give me some feed back as to wether there would be an intrest and how much you would be willing to pay. Obvisouly the choice of wood/woods would effect the price, but I don't see anything short of snakewood being a problem. The blank in the picture is solid wood (Cocobolo), but the herringbone pattern would lend itself to multi wood designs. It is .75" in diameter and 3.75" long. It consist of 76 pieces, so a full 6" blank would be around 122 pieces and would require about 18 cubic inches of wood before milling. I am working on another which uses thiner material. Because of the angles, what was 3/16" thick pieces became 1/4"; though this would mean more pieces... Anyway, I welcome any and all comments. Thanks!  -Chip

FYI: I don't care for the solid cocobolo because I think the grain lines take away from the pattern but its my first attempt and I thought it would look good...


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## OldWrangler (Jun 13, 2008)

How'd you do dat?????    And why?


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## desertyellow (Jun 13, 2008)

I'm interested to see a sample with contrasting woods.
You are right, this process is labor intensive.


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## drayman (Jun 16, 2008)

tribalrr, i am afaid you will have to send it to me to see if a pen would look ok, and i will post a photo and give you feedback.


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## TribalRR (Jun 16, 2008)

OldWrangler: It was made using indentical polygons arranged in a specific pattern with additional sanding as filing as needed. I made it becuase I REALLY liked the 2008 PEN OF THE YEAR, but I could not convince myself to pay $3000 for it...

desertyellow: I am working on a second one using contrasting woods and as soon as its done I will post a picture here. This is really just a hobby for me so I am limited to the time I can devote to it right now.

drayman: LOL sorry, but the wifey has claimed this blank. I should be posting a pic of the pen in the next day or so. It would have been sooner but she wanted it on a Zen and the bushings are on back order so I have to make some..


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## TribalRR (Jun 16, 2008)

Here it is on a Zen


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## Tea Clipper (Jun 16, 2008)

That's excellent work there, Chip!  You must have a lot of patience...


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## 1JaredSchmidt (Jun 17, 2008)

Wow!


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## Blind_Squirrel (Jun 18, 2008)

I would suggest that this thread probably belongs in the individual classified section.


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## gketell (Jun 18, 2008)

Why, Scott?  He has a thread there for those he is selling.  This is definitely "advanced pen making" in my book.
GK


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## nwcatman (Jun 19, 2008)

yea, no question it belongs here


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## hebertjo (Jun 23, 2008)

Chip - 

Kudos to you for solving how it was done! I think you are right that smaller less gainy segments would look better. How long did it take you to produce this blank? Let's say it took you an hour (I suspect longer), how much do you get paid for an hour of work at your day job? Add that to the cost of the wood and you have a price for the blank. The prickly pear cactus blanks that turn tex sells are $20. For me this is getting to the upper limit on what I would pay for a blank. I see yours being far more work and therefore worth more but I am not sure I want to invest too much more in just the blank.

My 2 cents


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## VisExp (Jun 23, 2008)

> _Originally posted by hebertjo_
> 
> Chip -
> 
> Kudos to you for solving how it was done! I think you are right that smaller less gainy segments would look better. How long did it take you to produce this blank? Let's say it took you an hour (I suspect longer), how much do you get paid for an hour of work at your day job? Add that to the cost of the wood and you have a price for the blank.



You can't work out a price like that.  What if his day job is a hedge fund manager?   You need to use the hourly rate of a skilled artisan and go from there.  I would agree that there is a lot more than an hour in that blank.  

TribalRR, that is some fine segmenting work.


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## Texatdurango (Jun 23, 2008)

> _Originally posted by gketell_
> 
> Why, Scott?  He has a thread there for those he is selling.  This is definitely "advanced pen making" in my book.
> GK


Would you please explain why you think so?

TribalRR joined the forum, placed this ad to sell his blanks both here and the classifieds.

I would think one in the classifieds would be sufficient, especially since they ads are identical.  Why have two identical threads going at the same time?

To my way of thinking if Tribalrr wanted to participate in the advanced forum, sharing with others how he does his design and giving them some ideas would be more in line with what the forum is all about.

Sorry, paint it any color you want, this is just an advertisement to sell a product!

Geeze, it seems that this forum is turning into a mini-ebay lately, seems like one out of ten posts is either selling something or referring someone to someone else that is selling something![xx(]


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## TribalRR (Jun 23, 2008)

Tex, I'm sorry you feel that I am just trying to sell something, I believe that would require a price tag... This being my first post I wasn't sure where to put it, but I figured advanced pen turners would be the custom blank makers and would have insight into my questions. I also wanted to get feedback from the people who actually buy the blanks hence the second post... Chip

PS Thanks for aspiring to inspire me not post again...


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## Texatdurango (Jun 23, 2008)

> _Originally posted by TribalRR_
> 
> Tex, I'm sorry you feel that I am just trying to sell something, I believe that would require a price tag... This being my first post I wasn't sure where to put it, but I figured advanced pen turners would be the custom blank makers and would have insight into my questions. I also wanted to get feedback from the people who actually buy the blanks hence the second post... Chip
> 
> PS Thanks for aspiring to inspire me not post again...


Hey, don't take it personal, I just made a comment about the inappropriateness of your post in this forum!  But you act surprised that I thought you were here to sell something, perhaps your opening sentence sorta gave it away.... _Hi everyone! I had thoughts about making these blanks *to sell to you *all for your pens_ 

And my final thought.  When you close a post with.... "Anyway, I welcome any and all comments" Please be prepared to accept any and all comments, not just the ones you want to hear!  I was simply making a comment on your post and didn't need your cute little jab using my tagline.


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## bitshird (Jun 23, 2008)

TribalRR, There have been some wood blanks sold for 35.00 to 45.00 dollars, I think you idea is pretty neat, there is one blank maker that could probably get 3 or 4 times that amount. As was said figure the cost of the wood you cut the pieces from, and an hourly wage, and consider if you are going to do it as a hobby for a few bucks, or as a job, then things get hard to figure overhead and other nasty stuff. your pens looked pretty decent in your album.


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## GoodTurns (Jun 24, 2008)

Chip-
I am one of the "nutjobs" who pay for those $25-35 blanks, and they are raw wood.  I will also pay $54.99 for the puzzle kits.  I would guess (and be tempted to buy) that these would fall in that gap between $35 and $50.  If you can push the learning curve to where it is worth your time, that could well be your market.  Good Luck!


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## Blind_Squirrel (Jun 24, 2008)

> _Originally posted by gketell_
> 
> Why, Scott?  He has a thread there for those he is selling.  This is definitely "advanced pen making" in my book.
> GK



What is "advanced" about buying a segmented blank?


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## DocStram (Jun 25, 2008)

> _Originally posted by TribalRR_
> 
> Hi everyone! I had thoughts about making these blanks to sell to you all for your pens, but I not sure with all the labor if it would be worth it... Could you give me some feed back as to wether there would be an intrest and how much you would be willing to pay. Obvisouly the choice of wood/woods would effect the price, but I don't see anything short of snakewood being a problem. The blank in the picture is solid wood (Cocobolo), but the herringbone pattern would lend itself to multi wood designs. It is .75" in diameter and 3.75" long. It consist of 76 pieces, so a full 6" blank would be around 122 pieces and would require about 18 cubic inches of wood before milling. I am working on another which uses thiner material. Because of the angles, what was 3/16" thick pieces became 1/4"; though this would mean more pieces... Anyway, I welcome any and all comments. Thanks!  -Chip
> 
> FYI: I don't care for the solid cocobolo because I think the grain lines take away from the pattern but its my first attempt and I thought it would look good...



I'm with Scott and George on this one.  TribalRR clearly began this thread asking if there was interest in buying his blanks.  He then goes on to ask us how much we would be willing to pay. At that point his post belongs in the classified .... it's an ad. 
It isn't until later in the thread that the discussion turns to the process he followed in making them. 

I think the mission of the "Advanced Penmaking" Forum is pretty well spelled out in the introductory post to the forum:

 "Welcome to the Advanced Pen Making forum!

The purpose of this forum is to discuss design possibilities and challenges beyond those normally associated with kit pens. Making a closed end pen is a nice modification and is one step away from a total kit pen. Making a closed end pen where you make your own threads in the barrel, and do away with the brass tubes and bushings is another step. Disassembling the nib and making a custom nib holder is yet another step. Deciding to make your own center bands, accent rings and clips is really customizing your craft. The challenges and hurdles you meet along the way to reaching these milestones is what this forum is all about.

It would be beneficial and expected for those participating and posting on this forum to at least have a working knowledge of kit fabricating and finishing methods as these topics are discussed elsewhere on the forum.

This forum is not designed to discourage anyone from continuing to make kit pens but is to explore alternatives and possibilities beyond brass tubes and bushings.

Thanks to George Butcher for recommending that we create this forum, and for supplying the welcome message above. "

Just my opinion but I think it's pretty clear that TribalRR made an honest mistake.  Let's give him a little room to breathe and continue to focus the discussion on the process of making the herringbones. Not really a mystery there .... but, a good discussion nonetheless.


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