100 Cocobolo pen blanks for $57.25 shipped

[final_t]

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/e-10297.html

Limited supplies. Works out obviously to 0.57 per piece. Woodcraft sells theirs for a dollar each, before taxes.

[kwgeorge]

And have you calculated how much that works out per board foot?

Ken

[final_t]

And have you calculated how much that works out per board foot?

Ken

nope, because for the people buying it, I doubt it matters. I scavenge mine from fallen timber and gifted wood chunks.

[kwgeorge]

See my point is I think they would care if they sat back a minute and realized they are paying $36.58 per board foot! A quick look around on the internet shows the going price of Cocobolo is considerably lower. Typically people buying pen blanks can find themselves paying between $20 and up per board foot for pen blanks depending on species. Man what a racket!

Now I can understand the convenience on the ones that are predrilled or even have the tube pre-glued inside of them and I can even go along with doing such if you are buying Pink Ivory, Ebony or some other really exotic wood that is hard to find and very expensive and you are buying enough to make one or two pens but 100 blanks? Never could understand that when you can just go buy a board and cut it up on the bandsaw ending up with 30% to 40% more wood for the same money but that just me.

Just my .02

Ken

[leehljp]

I agree Ken. It is a racket. I bought 3 BF feet of select bloodwood back in the Sates, and cut it to fit my suitcase. Now I don't have buy it by the blank.

Every chance I get, I buy in BF for pens. But for a few individual colors or types, I do buy individual blanks. It is hard to find my favorite in board feet - amboyna burls. And hunting amboyna burls in Japan is a hard work, so I have to resort to ordering individual blanks from the US.

[final_t]

Sigh. I think you are missing the point of the post. 100 pen blanks of this kind of wood at this price, when they are normally about 2x that, is exactly what it says - a deal.

Yes, I know it's a lot smarter to buy the board yourself and use the bandsaw to cut it down - I do that. I also buy my lumber rough from the sawmill and plane it down. I prefer to scavenge interesting fallen wood and firewood - I was given a cutup Crabapple I want to play with, and will be given two whole Cherry trees in a few weeks. But like you, I have the tools - but the bandsaw, the planer, and the jointer combined was about a cool $1,000 investment, and take up a fair amount of room.

Where this deal makes sense is for two groups of people: ones that want to turn a bunch of pens and don't have the above equipment, or someone who feels that they would rather spend the time turning and the time saved sourcing the board and cutting it down is worth the difference in money.

[leehljp]

Sigh. I think you are missing the point of the post. 100 pen blanks of this kind of wood at this price, when they are normally about 2x that, is exactly what it says - a deal.

Yes that is a deal, and I do buy special deals on occasion as well as individual blanks but it just burns me when I think of $30, $40, $50 a board foot, it drives me up the wall. Kinda of like living in Japan, When I think of prices in terms of US dollars, I won't buy anything, so I just have to think totally in yen!