First we would like to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. Spend
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Dink says, "I've crunched the numbers and as far as I can tell, we can afford a lot more cookies."
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some time with the family, swap tales, family recipes and have a great time. Above all Dink wants me to make sure that you DO NOT miss the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. To tell you the truth, Dink and I have a nap while it's on if we watch it at all. "Act of Valor" is more our style. Yes my fellow submariner shipmates I know. Dinks are not supposed to be sitting around watching movies but this Dink is a special exception.
Tracey and I went to Atlanta (actually Lawrenceville) and saw our new Granddaughter, Madison, and she is as cute as a bug. We will be making frequent trips to Lawrenceville to visit. Our eventual goal is to move our business to the Atlanta area so we can be closer to all of our kids out in Georgia and Florida. That will be a few more years down the road though.
Our trip to Lawrenceville this month will be from Saturday November 16th until Thursday November 21st. Same as our last trip, our employees will have the deck and the conn and will be making sure that your orders get out to you in a timely manner without exception.
TECH TALK
I HAVE A PIECE OF WOOD THAT HAS A CRACK ALL THE WAY THROUGH IT AND IT'S JUST USELESS!!!
Contrary to the beliefs of some folks, those pieces of cracked wood make the very best of the best when it comes to salable pens. We have several customers who call us up and specifically want pieces with cracks and voids in them. The cracks are easily filled with colored resin or CA glue or other mediums such as turquoise stone and CA which create the most beautiful pens made.
Natural cracks look great but when you try to create your own cracks with Dremel tools or carving chisels, they do not have the same flair as the natural crack. Virtually any wood looks great with color filled cracks. Think twice before you throw that useless blank into the wood stove.
Next time you come across a pen blank with a crack in it, try filling in the crack and see what you get in the end. This will be the pen everyone wants.
MY BLANKS ARE BREAKING WHEN I DRILL THE HOLE FOR THE TUBE.
When you drill the holes for your blanks never ever drill through the bottom of the blank. This is where you will usually break the blank. As the bit goes through the bottom, the flutes of the bit will grab the edges of the opening hole and twist the blank violently resulting in a broken blank.
Leave yourself a little wood below the bottom of the hole to allow you to cut off the end of the blank on your bandsaw to expose the hole. It is as simple as that.
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WHAT'S ON SALE THIS MONTH
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For Our Newsletter Customers Only 10% Off The New MOLD-7MM. Use Coupon Code "MOLD7" In The Coupon Box At Checkout.__________ The New POLY47 Blank, Perfect Storm Is As Low As $1.99 Each __________ The Inlays On Sale This Month Are The: Frosty $18.00 Rudy $18.00 Angel $18.00 And Of Course The New Coast Guard Blank Is On Sale For Just $20.00 each. _________ The Hand Painted Cardinal And Flower Blanks Are Introductory Priced At $23.00 Each __________ Our Kaleidoscope Bottle Stopper Blanks Are $6.95, That's A $1.00 Savings Per Blank. __________ The 100 Assorted Wood Blanks Are Specially Priced At $86.00. That's Just $.86 Per Blank. These Will Not Last Long. __________ The Autumn Harvest Fiber Weave Blanks Are $7.00 For The Monet Blank And Just $8.00 For A Cigar Pen Set. __________ We Have A Few Dymondwood Grab Bags. The Are Just $16.95 Each. This Is Enough Dymondwood To Make Ten Double Barrel Kits Or Twenty Single Barrel Kits. __________ Please Click "HERE" To Go To Our Specials Page. Sale Expires On All Item On 30 November 2013.
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 WHAT'S NEW
We have been busy this month coming up with some great new items.
First let me tell you about the new Euro/Slim/7mm Resin Miser Mold. This mold is set up to pour casting for your Slimline, European pens and also a five inch long blank for any 7mm pen kit you may desire. The same as before, just set your blanks between the built in stoppers and pour your resin. You cannot put these castings into a pressure pot or vacuum chamber. The pressure/vacuum will cause the resin to be forced inside the tube of the blank and ruin your project.
These molds are not intended to make multi-colored castings where air bubbles may be a problem. These are for the crafters who want a solid color or clear blank to show off a picture or specific theme or painting. To make sure you do not get any bubbles trapped in the resin, heat your resin for a few seconds in the microwave to thin it down. All the bubbles will very quickly come to the top and your blank will be crystal clear. The normal price for this mold will be $39.95 but it will be introductory priced with a coupon code in the What's On Sale box for our newsletter readers.
 I have had several customers call me to ask my advice on how to cast painted blanks in clear resin. Well we now sell a sealer that can be painted over your painting or paper picture to prevent the resin from dissolving the paint or lifting the picture. The product is called Ultra Seal and we sell the 4 oz size. Larger sizes become dried out and useless far too soon and the last 3/4 of the container are thick clumpy  and useless unless you are using it for decoupage.
Lest we not forget the Coasties. Tracey has made a new inlay blank for the Coast Guard. Again, lots of detail and this is a very eye appealing blank. She will have it on sale this month so get them before the price goes up.
The Boxes pictured at left are hand made right here in the good ole USA by a local craftsman who lives near us. They are made from indigenous Ozark woods, Cherry and Spalted Sycamore. They will hold oversized pens up to 3/4" in diameter. I only have six in stock now but it only takes him a few days to make more if interest pe aks.
Uncle Tim has been busy in his workshop this month with a great new bottle stopper blank. He has cast fishing flies into the resin and these things are very cool. They are priced a bit higher than his other blanks but for the extra time and money involved to make them, they are worth every penny.
C urtis has a new blank for this month called Perfect Storm, It is a blend of blues, grays, silver and white to create the look of a billowing storm cloud. Pictures do not do the blank justice at all. You must see it to believe it. Our very own Pam from Wood-N-Whimsies created this gorgeous new line of Hand Painted blanks cast in clear Polyester Resin. She is so very talented and we can't wait to see all her creations. NOTE: Since each tube is hand painted the basic design will be the same but no two will be exactly alike. Currently, these are for the Celtic3, Monet, Gatsby, Sierra type of kit. Each blank is powder coated and then hand painted. Once the paint cures, each tube is individually cast in polyester resin to create a crystal clear view of the wonderful artwork.  |
COMING SOON
When we return from Atlanta, we will be launching a series of inlay blanks for the Bolt Action Pen Kits. Look for the new inlays to be available on November 22nd.
We will be featuring all of the military blanks and Tracey has not decided which of the other blanks she will make available. As always, she will be making new blanks for the inlay line each and every month. We will just have to wait and see what she comes up with.
Please check our site frequently. We have new items on a regular basis. Click the link below to go directly to our What's New Page:
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FEEDBACK
We definitely appreciate our customers checking with us first when a new item hits the street. This is what generally drives our decision to carry or not carry a new item. How many people want it? If nobody is asking for it, then it must not be very popular, so why bother investing in it.
We are a small company. We are still growing but as with anything else, to do it right takes time. If you jump in too fast you can find yourself unable to pay for the loans and out of business before you even get started.
Tracey and I have slowly put our own money into this business over the last ten years without borrowing a dime and therefore are cautious about decisions on what items to add. Decisions on what to add are sometimes difficult when you want to survive but remain competitive at the same time.
If there is something you would like to see us carry, please let us know via a phone call or by sending us an email, we will do our best to accommodate your wishes.
This is an email that I though might interest you:
Hi Tim, (and Dink), I have a little information that you might find interesting. I began using CA glue for finishing my pens about a year ago maybe a bit more. The finishes were amazing. A person I met at the Albuquerque Ballon Fest owns Exotic Woods of Albuquerque and he told me how to do it. His pens had the most amazing finish on them. I had some CA in my shop so I gave it a try. Man was the finish great. So then made CA my finish of choice. All went well until a couple of months down the road. At the time I did not understand what was happening. I was sick. Well actually I thought I had the mother of all flu bugs. But no fever, none of the usual symptoms of flu, but more like a severe head and chest cold. But it went on for almost two months. I got bad enough that I could no longer work in the shop. So it cleared up in about a week and a half. Then, because I felt better, I went back to the shop. After turning and finishing a couple of pens, that evening, the head and chest cold was back. As I thought back I realized that when the problem began was when I ran out of the CA I had and started using Stick Fast. It appears that the previous CA I was using was an Ethyl based CA, the Stick Fast is a Methyl based CA. I looked up Cyanoacrylate glue online and found an entry in Wiki.
It seems a small percentage of people have or can acquire an allergy to CA. Mine is with Methyl CA. I went and bought a bottle of the Ethyl and finished a couple of pens after my "head and chest cold" was over. I had no adverse effects. Then I played the guinea pig and tried one pen of the Methyl or Stick Fast and back came the head cold. It appears that I am mostly allergic to the dust of the CA when sanding and buffing.
I recently visited Exotic Woods of Albuquerque and met a fellow pen turner there with a bad head cold or So I thought. As we talked I found out he had had these symptoms for over three months and his doctor could do nothing for him. After I told him of my experience he suddenly realized that he too had swapped CA glues, but his was the other way, he has an allergy to the Ethyl and not the Methyl. I thought this might be something that your news letter readers might find interesting. especially if they are battling a chronic head, chest, or head and chest cold like symptoms.
By the way this no way implies that Stick Fast is a bad product. It works fantastic and produces a great finish. I can use it if I wear a respirator to keep the dust out of my lungs. I continue to use Stick Fast but I am much more cautious than I was and I vacuum up after a pen making session. Also the MSDS Sheets are available for download for any of the CA glues so you can determine what type of CA you have and by that you can determine the type you have developed an allergy to. Then try a different CA to see if you still have the allergy. It appears that some people have an allergy to all of them.
Thanks for your great newsletter each month, late or not, I continue to learn from them. Bob
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanoacrylate
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Thanks for reading and have a great day
Tim Nicholas
Wood-N-Whimsies
417-236-2814 (Local)
800-820-1099 (this 800 number will not work outside the US and Canada)
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