In the late 1970s I was working in the greeting card industry, and like most everyone else on the fringes of the industry I paid close attention to what Hallmark Cards was doing. They introduced a new product, wood pens, and I loved them. I promptly bought one and took it apart to see how it was made. Then I bought two more to carry and use. It seemed like everyone was impressed every time I pulled out my pen.

By the middle 80s Hallmark had stopped selling wood pens, my pens had been lost somewhere over the years and I have moved on to Montblanc, Waterman, Parker, Cross and other fine pens. But I had not forgotten how natural and authentic it felt to use a pen made of wood.

Years later when I discovered that with a few tools and some specialized components I could make pens. The first pen I made was a wood pen. I was immediately hooked. I had made something that was beautiful, useful, unique and most of all it was made of wood.

From there I went on a quest to make pens out of every beautiful and exotic species of wood I could find; amboyna, cocobolo, bocote, maillee, bubengia, Bethlehem olive wood, birdseye maple, curley koa, rosewood, desert ironwood, bamboo, leopardwood, snakewood, pink ivory, saple, ipe, purpleheart and so many more.

Then there are woods with a great backstory like bog oak that has been buried in Irish bogs for thousands of years, ancient kauri which is a now extinct species but giant logs can still be found underground in New Zealand, and Lake Superior curly maple that has been pulled from the bottom of the lake where it sank more than a century ago in the glory days of logging.

Some of the favorite pens I’ve ever created were made from wood. When I pick a pen as a personal carry I always choose wood.