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Your Source for Affordable Quality Pen Kits, Project Kits, Dymondwood & Exotic Wood, Acrylic Blanks, Adhesives, Micromesh, and so much more!!
We Can Laser Engrave Your Pens
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| What's On Sale This Month |
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For our newsletter subscribers only.
Place ONE10
in the coupon code space at check out and get
20% off
of
One Step Polish
Don't forget to press the
"apply coupon"
button
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All offers in this letter expire on
30 APR 2010
Items on sale include:
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Custom Pen Engraving Special. Click Here For Details
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Our brand 3D Deer & Bass Clips
(Not PSI)
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Back In Stock Our GEL "Click" Pen Kits
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1-9 |
10-49 |
50+ |
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$3.60
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$3.40
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$3.20 |
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Our Brand
Teacher Pen Kits Only $2.95each. Any Qty.
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Acrylic Bottle Stopper Blanks are still buy 3 Get 1 Free
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Back In Stock Monet Kits:
Buy 10+ and Get A Free Set Of Bushings, Buy 30+ & Get A Free Set Of Bushings AND A Free 27/64" Drill Bit
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Please Note: The sale items are Our Brand and we do not substitute PSI Equivalent Kits.
Click "here" To Link To Our Specials Page
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| Click The Link Below To Join Our Mailing List |
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Greetings!
The spring meeting of the Southwest Missouri Chapter of the International Assn of Pen Turners (IAP) was held on March 20th. Lots of meeting and greeting, swapping wood stories and exchanging of ideas went on.
Some Instructional/Show & Tell subjects covered were: How to apply a CA finish, turning a pen between centers, drilling on the lathe, making professional darts, using a skew in the traditional manner, and turning a natural edge bowl. I picked up a some good hints and tips as I am sure did everyone else.
Our next get together will be in September and we would be happy to see you there. Larry Randolph has made some really terrific bar-b-que for the last two years at the fall meeting and everyone has had a great time. There is a small charge for the cost of the food and the use of the pavilion but it is certainly not intrusive, just covering the out of pocket expenses.
Click "Here" to Join IAP, Its free and I guarantee you'll have access to all the information you ever wanted.
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Feedback |
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When are you guys going to start making laser cut inlay pen blanks? ... We have been doing the R & D and experimenting with this and have made the special tools necessary to hold the blanks steady in the rotary attachment for the laser engraver. It is just a matter of time now to put everything together and perfect the designs. The process is very time consuming and I now know personally why the blanks are so expensive. When we think we have a good product to put out, we will have it on our website at a competitive price. For now I recommend purchasing these blanks from Kallenshaan Woods, their contact information is:
http://www.kallenshaanwoods.com/servlet/StoreFront
Kallenshaan Woods
940 Crazyhorse Way
Las
Vegas, NV 89110
US
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| Phone |
(702) 523-9236
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| Fax |
(702) 898-9236
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| E-Mail Address |
kallenshaan@cox.net |
Please send your hot topics, complaints, concerns and your newsletter ideas to: tim.nicholas@woodnwhimsies.com. Use "news letter idea" as the subject. Please provide your name with the idea or information so we can give credit where it's due. If it is not your idea then please do not take credit for it. Please give us the source so we can reference it in the article. It is OK to pass information and ideas on. The deadline for inclusion into the next newsletter is the third Friday of the month.
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| Tech Talk |
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Why are the colors so much more vibrant in one blank from another of the same species?
We have been asked this question over and over. I am not an expert on drying out wood nor do I know a whole lot about color vibrance or natural variance within a species. For that information you would have to ask Pam. However, I do know how to read and there is a lot of information out on the Internet about this topic. "Which is better, kiln dried or air dried wood?" I think the jury is still out and this will have to be something you will have to decide for yourself. I believe it has a lot to do with the environmental conditions endured by the tree such as weather and parasitic exposure which makes the real difference. Ambrosia beetles are bad for the lumber industry but great for us turners.
I recently acquired some Osage Orange (known here in SW Missouri as Hedge Apple or Bodark) which is as bright and vibrant as any of this species I have ever seen. The yellow is very bright and the orange streaks in it look like flickering flames.
The logs, three of them, were cut from the trees by one of my cousins about eighteen years ago and were intended to become corner posts for a fence. Well, he never did quite get around to using them and they have been laying on the ground since. They are about twelve inches in diameter and almost ten feet long. Hedge is very resistant to termite and other insect invasion so it can be left for very long periods of time without worry about it being eaten up by the tiny critters. This is why it makes such good fence post material.
This wood is very hard and very dry and makes some absolutely beautiful turned pieces. So far most everything I have turned with it has had a curly effect when moved in the light. I am quarter sawing and cutting it on an angle to the grain to give the blanks more character.
I have never seen any Osage which has been kiln dried from South America ever look as nice as this. For my money I will take air dried, time seasoned wood over quick kiln dried any day. I know that there are a lot of so-called experts on this subject but I honestly believe that it is just simply a matter of opinion and personal preference. Let's all just agree to disagree and get back to turning.Oops, What happened to my Magnetic Necklace Pen?
The instructions for the Magnetic Necklace Pen (PKMAGNEC), sold by PSI, instructs you to use a sizing sleeve (included in the bushing set) to show you where to remove the exposed wood to accommodate the decorative centerband. I had a lengthy discussion with PSI and they agreed with me that there is an issue.
The sizing sleeve is in fact too short and if you cut the wood all the way back to the sizing sleeve then you will have removed too much wood and you will have made the finished kit worthless.
Now when you assemble your pen, there will not be a 1/8" gap between the back of the centerband and the edge of the wood on the barrel. PSI will be removing the sizing sleeves from the kits and revising the instructions soon. We have created an insert that we include with the ones we sell to prevent you from having an issue as long as you read and follow what we've instructed you to do.
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| What's New |
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We just got in a shipment of some really great deer antler. These have had the outer tips and the lower shank cut off and only the best middle part of the antler is in the one pound package. The cost is $16.95 for one pound. If you purchase two or more pounds the cost is $15.95 for each pound. Each pound should yield five to six nice pens and oodles of pieces left over for other decorative touches to your pens. Although not new, the Monet and Gel Click pen kits are back in stock. The Monet kit has been changed slightly. Outwardly the pen is the same but the internal parts have been improved on over the older model. You will no longer have to worry about losing the twist mechanism inside of it when you switch out the refill.
The black suede and velveteen pouches are back. These seem to be much more popular than we ever expected. We ordered a woodsman's bunch so hopefully we will be stocked for a while.
If you have not done so yet be sure to check out our New Acrylic Colors. They have been very popular and people are also glad Fairie Garden and Camo are back in stock. We were also able to get our hands on a small supply of Jade Silk. Get them while you can!
Prefer Exotic Wood? We've added several new Blanks in this category too.
Another great item is our Coffee Bean blanks. We have them available in two color choices. They make a great conversation piece! 
Tracey is busy making changes to the website to reduce the clutter on some of the pages and let you go to your area of interest a bit easier. Keep watching for updates!
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| Coming Soon |
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We recently purchased some shreaded Canadian money blanks for resale and have also contracted with another source for some shreaded US money blanks. These blanks are NOT inlace acrylester and are very easy to turn.
Since the medium which the blanks are molded from is crystal clear, it will be important for you to know that the tube inside will be visible. To avoid this, we recommend painting your tubes to blend in so they are not noticeable in the finished pen. You can also paint the tube in another color to create a different or contrasting effect.
We should be receiving our Dyna-wood soon. It's similar to Dymondwood but wait until you see how vibrant the colors are! We will be switching colors over little by little and think you'll be very pleased with the changes.
We have ordered some more new Acrylic Colors and you'll be seeing those probably mid May.
Another item that we will be adding over the next month is Our Slimline Pencil parts. Our pen parts have been very popular and we've had many requests for pencil parts as well.
We are in the R&D phase of some more Specialty Clips, so over the next few months we hope to have them designed, created, and ready to sell. It's a very complex process for what seems like such a simple item but it adds that extra touch to your finished pen.
As you can see the warmer days of Spring and Summer aren't going to slow us down so be sure to keep and eye on our website.
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| Thank you for subscribing to our Newsletter. We would like to hear from you about any problems or successes with your pen turning and assembling experiences. If you call us, please leave a message. We WILL call you back as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Tim Nicholas
Wood-N-Whimsies
Phone: 800-820-1099
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