Thread: About Time

A smart looking pen John, and very well finished.

I have not made one of this style pen yet, not even seen one in the flesh, so undecided about it yet, though I do like the look of this one.

How do you find them received by the customers ?
I have trouble getting my customers to like anything but a Sierra ( excepting genuine bullet pens of course, which are my best seller ).

cool pen

love those blanks

Brad ! My customer base is wide and varied at the markets I attend ,these usually go as quick as I can put them on sale I get tourists, locals ,interstate travellers etc, so I have to have a wide range of kits and materials to cover as many tastes as possible Plus I enjoy variety in the pens myself as a producer, never get bored ,and always trying the next thing Look at Mik in country Vic , his blanks are special and in demand all over the place ,same with Ian and his snakes and colored blanks , I am sure others also don't stick to local markets as in time you only get odd sales here and there ( our pens last too damn well) hehe! How are your .50 cals going up there ,people at the markets love them here ,even non shooters lol.
Cheers ~ John

Beautiful craftsmanship John as usual I am not a great lover of the Phoenix but that is only my view. Bet you sell them quickly.

Originally Posted by plantagenon

Beautiful craftsmanship John as usual I am not a great lover of the Phoenix but that is only my view. Bet you sell them quickly.

Greg these don't last long But for example at one market I go to a guy has about 4 cases with all sierras in acrylics ,without a close look I think they are well enough made ,he sells them for $25 dollars ,not sure how well he does and none of my business but people walk past his stand ,and buy from me at higher prices ,but with so many more varieties to choose from hehe. So personal feelings don't come into it for me all that, much ,I try to love every pen I make and it shows on my stand Go to the WWW show and see the wooden pen displays put out by the clubs at about $15 dollars each , not knocking that at all as the first show I went to My wife bought one (and I have been on the rollercoaster ever since ) LOL. Marketing is a funny thing , put a wooden slim in a case full of acrylics and most likely that will sell first ,and vica versa, I sometimes have too many choices on display,but that allows me to ask questions and offer assistance in choosing ,so its a personal service and most folks appreciate that these days .
Cheers ~ John

Thanks John, maybe I am not offering enough range of choice .

My sales of the BMG50 have slowed down, I sell one every week or so, the 30-06 pens I sell a couple a week.
I have a small display set-up in my shop of about 25 pens, mostly Sierras and EB's.
The thing is, I dont really have the time to spend making more pens, as my business keeps me busy 12-14 hrs a day and its a 7 day a week business, I do get a short day on Sunday, but have the chores to do at home as well (and its a long list of chores with 9 acres). So basically I am happy to keep it low key.
2/3rds of my sales are to regular customers, a couple of them must have at least 50 of my pens each by now.
One Guy is collecting a 30-06 in every NRL team colours, he gets one every fortnight.

Sorry to go off track on your thread .

Brad ! I don't know where you find time to make any pens at all hehe. Making "one" blank pens can certainly save time ,and acrylics are usually much quicker than wood to finish ! without any extra time involved you can still get some variety by perhaps doing a few of the Stylus tipped kits I am retired and can spend as long as I like on stock, and I sometimes wonder how I ever found time to work at all hehe. Cheers ~ John

I tried a few stylus pens John, none have sold yet, so not in a hurry to make any more for a while.

I have just started to get into the casting side of things, so will be able to provide a bit of variety in my blanks.
I have my fist Sheoak pod blank on the lathe at the moment, almost down to size, had to stabilise with CA, will leave it harden up overnight and finish turning it tomorrow.

Nice pen John, love that blue background.

well done John, looks great, that should disappear in no "TIME" at all

both of the ones i made recently have gone and i never even got to put them into a Shop.... i do have 2 more ready to go into the mold though, cross fingers they come out

these blanks take so long to make, but well worth the "TIME" spent

i might be able to get hold of a 20 Liter drum full of watch components soon.... for the cost of ....... a PEN, it may all be junk but worth a look thats for sure

thanks for showing

MIK

Originally Posted by MBUMIK

well done John, looks great, that should disappear in no "TIME" at all

both of the ones i made recently have gone and i never even got to put them into a Shop.... i do have 2 more ready to go into the mold though, cross fingers they come out

these blanks take so long to make, but well worth the "TIME" spent

i might be able to get hold of a 20 Liter drum full of watch components soon.... for the cost of ....... a PEN, it may all be junk but worth a look thats for sure

thanks for showing

MIK

Well if that happens you need never worry about running out of "Time" pieces hehe ~ cheers ~ John

I've always been impressed by the watch parts casting pens. Yours is no exception. Nice work!

Originally Posted by gawdelpus

Well if that happens you need never worry about running out of "Time" pieces hehe ~ cheers ~ John

i hope there is a lot of those dials in the bucket as well... i only got 2 in the last package of bits that i purchased

6 more watch blanks ready for the resin.... not sure how i am going to go about this though, the damn cold is causing me all sorts of problems... top temp forecast for tomorrow is 13 makes me shiver just thinking about it... OK who up north has a spare bedroom

MIK

John, nice pen as always. A couple questions which maybe you answered already and i did not see them. But what did you do to get the blue background?? Also why is there no watch face??? Is this what people like to see more of??? Just starting to try my hand at some of these??? I am going to try to get back into the shop. Have some interesting blanks I want to make. these are on my list as well. Thanks.