Bolt Action Pen and Presentation Casing

[Jerry Lawrence]

A friend of mine asked if I would make his son a bolt action bullet pen for a birthday present. After making the pen, using the antler he supplied, I started trying to think up a unique presentation and storage case. Suddenly, about half past midnight the night before his birthday, it came to me! I had a shell casing sitting around for a couple years that I had been using as a pencil holder, not sure what caliber it was, but it was long enough for the pen to disappear inside. So I turned a top for the casing to represent the bullet part, leaving it long enough to go down into the casing, and for me to cut an inch or so off the bottom. I drilled three holes in the underside of that bullet shaped piece, one for the point of the pen to go into, and two for a couple brass tubes to be glued into. The brass tubes connected down to the inch long piece I had cut off, in which I had also drilled three holes. Again, one for the pen to sit in and two for the tubes. Why brass tubes? Because I wanted something fairly thin that wouldn't break and that's what I had handy. Anyway, after gluing the wood and tubes all together, I put a piece of foam up into the hole that the pen tip goes into. I used a cut off piece of pipe insulation because it is dense, and mostly because that's what I had on hand (which is important when you're working at that time of night!). The foam provides enough resistance to push the pen snugly down into the hole in the base, but compresses enough so the pen can be lifted up into the hole enough to release it from the base so it can be easily removed. The whole contraption slides right down inside the shell casing with the top fitting in like a cork. Confused yet? I know I am! Maybe these crummy cell phone pics will clear things up.
Thanks for looking, and as always c and c welcomed and encouraged.
P.S..these pics were taken before final finishing and gluing. The wood had a much nicer finish when I was done than these pics show..honest!
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[Thom Sturgill]

I'd hate to give up that pencil holder! Great job I'm sure the friends and son loved them.

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is a great looking pen and love the case. I am sure they will love it.

[Peter Fabricius]

HI Jerry;
Beautiful work.
I too would hate to give up the casing, But there is a solution, should you want to repeat the performance.
Make a replica Shell Casing in Walnut and you can do this again.
To get the Casing back would probably not go over too well, but you can easily reproduce the casing is Walnut.
Nicely done.
Peter F.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Very nice looking pen! Unique idea for a presentation case! Hard to tell without being there... but is that a 20mm case? Really cool idea and I am sure your friend and his son appreciate all the imagination you put into this!!

[Jim Burr]

That's crazy Jerry!!! Big high 5 for your imagination!!