Web: woodnwhimsies.com 

 Email:sales@woodnwhimsies.com 

Phone: (800) 820-1099


This is the Awesome pen Tracey made for her son.
Wood-N-Whimsies Newsletter
WHAT'S ON SALE THIS MONTH
For Our Newsletter Customers Only:

Get 10% off all items listed on the Resin Casting Page. Enter "CAST10"
in the coupon code at checkout.
__________

#1 DAD Inlay Blanks are $12.50 each
__________

We are still closing out the Dymondwood. Several colors are already gone and others are getting in short supply.
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$1.00 Off 4 oz. Single Step Polish.
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Renaissance Wax Sample is only $1.99
__________

Intro price on the Candy Apple Red and Turquoise Stone AA Pen Blanks
1-9  $3.10 ea
10+  $3.00 ea













Join Our List
May 2012
Greetings!
     Tracey will have a long awaited surgery on her foot this coming Friday, 4 May and will be incapacitated for a week or so. Ryan, Pam and I will do our level best to keep the process flowing and to get the orders out in the same timely manner which you have come to expect. It is our goal that you do not experience any delay issues at all with your supplies while Tracey is out recuperating. If this becomes an issue, we sincerely apologize in advance for any inconvenience to you.
     We have had a lot of customer response to the South American Exotic Pen Blanks. Most of the feedback has been very positive and folks just absolutely love the wood selection and variety. We have had a few customers complain because the individual pieces of wood were not labeled for them. For what we paid for the packs and for the low price we are selling them for you will need to go on the internet and look up the species and identify them.  That can be half the fun!   There are dozens of websites with some terrific pictures and descriptions to aid in identifying the species.

http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

 The above link is a really great web page to help in the identification of your wood species. There are other helpful sites but I find that this one along with a book I have called "A Guide To Useful Woods Of The World" help me immensely. I can readily identify a lot of species but when in doubt, these are my primary resources. The book is available from  Amazon.com for $49.99.
     If an effort to supply those that can't or don't want to identify the wood, we do offer the blanks with the option of labels added to them and repackaged for an additional $25.00 service charge.   This is  for the time and materials which it takes to perform this task since there are no two packages which are exactly the same.
     Whenever I was asked at a craft show back in the day "What kind of wood is this", my response, if I did not know, would be; "it's Purdy wood" (short for pretty wood). That usually got a bit of a chuckle and did not hinder the point of sale at all.
     Most folks like what they see if they are asking about it and will buy it no matter what it's made of and don't really care what kind of wood it is. The wood species will probably be forgotten before they even get it home. They just know it is beautiful and they like it. Be friendly and talk about what they want to talk about and you'll make the sale. SOLD!
TECH TALK
     When I press the tip of my Cigar Pen into the tube, my pen press creates a score ring around the tip!

     Then don't press directly on the tip!!! The tip assembly of the Cigar Pen comes apart in three pieces. Just unscrew it and there you have it. Press in the tip coupler by itself. This is the piece with the male threads on it. Press it in and then screw on the other pieces and you have a finished pen without the tip being damaged by your pen press. To be sure you do not break off the threads, make a jig to set down over them and press on the shoulder. The jig can be made from a piece of scrap acrylic with a hole drilled into it big enough to accommodate the threaded extension. You can also use a sacrificial tip that is already damaged to use for the press in and then swap it out for the good tip. 

     Any pen piece assembly which will come apart to reveal the basic lowest level part should be disassembled and pressed in separately. This will eliminate damage to the plated parts. These parts will usually come to you already assembled to help prevent missing parts. 

     Another problem often encountered in pressing parts together is breaking the part. Such as when pressing the sleeve for a Slimline pencil into the tube, press on the shoulder of the sleeve and not the top delicate edge of it.

     Let me explain; when you press the sleeve in, instead of pressing on the top most delicate area, take a standard 7mm bushing and set it down over the top of the sleeve so it rests on the shoulder, about halfway down the part. Now, press on the bushing instead of the top of the delicate brass sleeve. What causes the breakage is pressing it in while it is cocked to the side just ever so slightly. This places undue force on one side of the part causing it to break.

     Never press on the top edge of a plastic part, always press on its shoulder. You can make jigs from acrylic or plastic/nylon rod to slide over the part to accomplish this. Just drill a hole large enough to encompass the top threaded area of the part that you don't want to damage, but small enough to rest on the shoulder.

     I sometimes use deep well sockets from my tool box to accomplish the same task. I used to use a 12mm deep well socket to press the threaded plastic couplers into the El Grande Pen. If you press on the delicate plastic threads, you will damage them.

     Your assembly instructions do not tell you any of these little hints, nor will the supplier's techie when you call to get a new part or to complain that your kit does not work properly because somehow the threads got damaged. The suppliers will sell you a whole new kit though. (Of course we at Wood-N-Whimsies will always share any hints we learn!) 

WHAT'S NEW
    We have the new Soft Touch Stylus Tips in stock. There are two pieces in the kit which will replace the cap or tip on any kit that uses a Slimline size cap/clip or tip and convert it into a stylus for an I-Pad, I-Pod, Smart Phone or any other touch screen electronic device.  You can choose to change out the cap so you can still use the ink on the other end, or you can switch out the Tip to make it just a stylus or switch out both to make it a Stylus in both ends!
     In order for the Soft Touch Stylus to work in must be pressed into a metal tube and your hand must be able to contact some metal such as the clip or center band on the pen kit or key chain. It is electrostatic energy which we all have in our bodies which makes your finger activate the response areas of your touch screen.
    This micro amount of energy must have a current path to the device for it to work effectively. Bottom line, don't try to press or glue it into a piece of wood or acrylic without using the brass tube, IT WON'T WORK!
     Tracey has created another nice inlay and has been working to finish up the final details on a couple more.
     This is the 41st Artillery shoulder sleeve insignia patch. There are plenty of Vietnam War Vets out there who would love to have one of these set into a nice pen.
     As usual the blank is made to fit your Sierra, Gatsby or Monet kit. Just trim the length to suit your needs.
     The teardrop Bottle Stoppers are back in stock. We had so many complaints about the thread size adjustment we made last time that we decided to have them made back to the original 3/8-16 thread size. We can't please everyone and the smaller threads generated way more complaints than the the original size ever did.
     We have five new Acrylic Acetate blank colors to choose from. The new colors are just stunning.
      The Turquoise Stone AA blank has returned. We sacked our last supplier of that blank for too many flubbed blanks being sent to us that we could not sell. The new supplier we have has managed to get it consistently right every time.
Autumn Harvest-Metallic Weave Pen Blanks

     We have the Autumn Harvest -Metallic Fiber Pen Blanks in. They are ever so easy to turn and look like a million bucks. Give them a try and see what you think.
COMING SOON
     Summer is coming and things slow down a bit, for now we do not have anything new planned for the  immediate future. We do often come across new products and suppliers so you never know....Keep an eye on the What's New Page and see what may pop up.
     Hopefully Tracey will come up with some great new Inlay designs.  She has several in various stages and a wish list from all of you.
FEEDBACK

Hello Tim,

 

Thank both of you for all the great info, as usual.!

 

I would like to add to your caveat about the Ancient Kauri !

 

Very much the same can be said for the so-called "Bethlehem Olive Wood".. and I speak from Experience. I have lived most of my adult life in the Middle East and North Africa as a Field Engineer.

 

There aren't enough Olive Trees in the whole Bethlehem region to supply even a fraction of what is being sold under that name. The Israelis post guards in these few Olive groves that are left to keep the Christian Tourists from slicing them up for souvenirs.  Even the local artisans have to import Olive wood from neighboring countries to make their souvenirs sold to tourists.

 

Just like the Cross would have to have been the size of the Empire State Building to supply all the "True pieces of the Cross" you can buy in the region.

 

Olive wood is beautiful, regardless of where it comes from. Unfortunately there are always a few unscrupulous operators who pray on people's faiths.

 

I really wish people here could see the circus that the Holy Land really is. How about some water which Jesus washed his Feet In ? ( from the Merchant's Tap of course)

 

Cheers,

 

Adolph

 

    In response to Adolph's email, Thank you for the information. It pretty much confirms the suspicions I have had for this wood for quite some time. I have surfed the internet and have found no less than a dozen web sites which all claim that they are the sole and only licensed resource for olive wood to make their wares which comes exclusively from Bethlehem in Israel.

    Truth is that you can put a piece of olive wood from Bethlehem down next to a piece from an orchard in Egypt, Southern California, Greece, Italy or Mexico and you will absolutely not be able to tell the difference. They all look, smell, taste and turn exactly the same.

     I have done dozens of searches through a network firm called Import Genius which documents all shipments into the United States from every country around the globe that went through US Customs and Border Protection (public record) and not one single shipment came up for importing Olive Wood from anywhere in the middle east period let alone Israel. Plenty of them came up for importing from Italy. Best guess, your olive wood, if it is imported, came from Italy. 

     We are currently out of olive wood but will be ordering another shipment soon. We have dropped the "Bethlehem" title from our site posting because I have come to an absolute conclusion through a thorough research of firm facts that vendors who sell the wood by this name can't really be sure where it's coming from and we know first hand how loose some wholesalers can be with that facts when selling to us.

     As with the Ancient Kauri wood, those smacky little "Certificates of Authenticity" are made up by the company selling you the wood. Do your own independent research and see what you find out.

  

 Tim,

 

Here's another use for the door hinge pin.

 

First not all door hinge pins are the same size,  A 3" hinge pin is thinner than an 8" hinge pin and so forth.  Now here is what I do.

 

1.  I take my various size tubes (7mm, 8mm, etc.) with me to the big box store.

2.  Find the un-packaged hinges and then a hammer and nail set

3.  Take a hinge, knock out the pin, test it for size in the tube

4.  If it fits then I buy the hinge, if not then I reassemble the hinge and return it to its bin

 

Now here is a kicker.  In the hinge area there are usually pins that have a spring on them to automatically close a door.  I will buy one of these pins and disassemble it, keeping the pin.

 

Next slide a tube over the pin (hinge side), the spring side and take it to your sander.  Turn on your sander, lay the tube up next to the sandpaper, let the tube spin a couple of seconds and voila, your tube has been sanded.  A lot easier than doing it by hand.  Key point -- point the end of the pin toward the "incoming" side of the sandpaper, otherwise the tube will fly off the pin and you have to go hunting.

 

Now the final aspect of this whole thing which is waste not the hinge flanges.  We have all probably seen the ads for those clamp blocks for clamping miter joints (eg picture frames, etc).  You know, those things that look like part of a door hinge that you clamp to each side of the miter joint and then clamp the rounded ends to hold the joint together.  You can do the same with the hinge flanges and save over $25.

 

Phil

 
      Thank you for the response Phil. This is some good information.

     I'm sure that the Feedback section this month will probably generate a regular excremental storm of opinions about the authenticity of some specialized rare woods. To us, in most cases, a "Certificate of Authenticity" is only worth the paper it is printed on and can be reproduced by anyone to say anything they want.  
     We have found that honesty is always the best policy. When things sound to good to be true,  You better do your homework before you jump in.   We'd rather just tell you what we know and not leave you feeling we were less than honest about our olive wood. 
Thank you for subscribing and reading. Have a great day and I'll write again next month.
 
Sincerely,
 
Tim Nicholas
Wood-N-Whimsies