How Handmade Wood Pens Are Made

By Erin | Jun 20, 2007

Recently I acquired a handcrafted wood pen. If you have never owned or seen a wooden pen you really don’t know what you are missing. Wood pens are definitely the most elegant writing utensils one can own. But what goes into making a handcrafted wood pen?

Considering the fact that a wooden pen starts from just a block of wood, called a pen blank, and turns out to be an elegant and unique writing utensil…this is no small feat. More than just know how, it takes an artist’s eye to ensure the perfect wood pen upon completion.

The blank is drilled out, turned on a lathe while being hand chiseled and then sanded down to perfection. After that the pen hardware is installed by hand into the wood pen casing. Depending on what type of wood is being used to create the wooden pen this process can be quite painstaking.

A few of the nicer exotic materials that I have seen handcrafted are made out of include Rosewood, Olivewood and Thuya Burl. Once the wood is sanded down and shined up you get rich grain patterns that truly make every wood pen unique. There really are no two wooden pens that are exactly alike.

One of the most unique handcrafted pens that I have ever seen is one that was created out of corncob. Yes, corncob. When I heard about it I couldn’t really envision the finished product but upon seeing it I was truly amazed. See some other exotic materials used for making handcrafted pens.

If you are looking for an elegant writing utensil or are trying to find a unique gift for someone you should definitely consider a handcrafted wood pen. As I had mentioned before, you can be sure that your wooden pen will different from any other wooden pen ever created. If that is not a unique gift idea, I don’t know what is.