USTRANSCOM staffer's craft is pen-making Published March 24, 2010 By Bob Fehringer U.S. Transportation Command SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Ask the average person if they have a pen you can borrow, and chances are they'll hand you one of those 50-to-a-pack, see-thru-plastic-jobs that turn your pocket into a blue map of Antarctica. Ask Steve Engler the same question and he'll probably hand you a two ounce, cigar shaped hunk of polished stone, cocobolo wood or dazzling, multi-colored acrylic appointed with precious metal-plated clips and decorative parts. Talk about good penmanship. Engler, a program analyst at the U.S. Transportation Command, says he uses pens like most people use jewelry, as accessories. The pens he uses are not only unique, they are hand crafted--by him. "I have several hobbies," Engler said. "But the main one is woodworking and everything else I do is part of woodworking. This year, I'm starting a program out of Indiana to get my master craftsman certificate." Like many dedicated hobbyists, Engler's 20-year sideline outgrew his house, so he moved his woodworking shop to his two-car garage. "But the problem is that in the winter it gets a little cold," Engler said. "I have a heater, but I can't do larger pieces because you want the wood to be somewhere around 50 or 60 degrees to work it. So I had to find something to do during the winter to keep me into my hobby. "I found pens about 10 or 15 years ago when a co-worker at AMC, also a woodworker, showed me a pen made out of wood," Mr. Engler continued. "It just fascinated me. And from that time on I progressed to making my own with all different kinds of kits and materials. Essentially if you can cut it and drill it, you can make a pen out of it." According to Mr. Engler, making a pen can take anywhere from an hour and a half to eight hours for the more intricate designs. "You have to have a miniature wood lathe, the pen kit and whatever material you want, either plastic acrylic, wood or stone," Mr. Engler said. "I have to drill the material to fit brass tubes in the kit almost exactly. There can't be a lot of wiggle room. "Then, I lathe the material down to the pen size, and start sanding," Mr. Engler continued. "Depending on the material I can go anywhere from 12 sanding steps and then a polish, up to 18 sanding steps, and then three polishes to get the final gloss glass look." Mr. Engler says he has made approximately 1,000 pens and no two are alike. While he does not sell his creations commercially, he is often asked to produce one or two for retirement gifts or for other special occasions. "If someone is interested in having one, I don't mind making one," Mr. Engler said. "I don't sell them. Essentially what I do, as long as they pay for the pen kit and the material, I'll make it for them." Engler's co-worker Frank Tempia, recently approached him with just such a request, to give as a retirement gift. "The pens are one of a kind, and we want to mark the retirement of this person," Mr. Tempia said. "He's been here a long time, and I want him to remember his time in the command and his time in my division." Mr. Engler's pens are not only in demand locally, he has provided examples of his work to a few influential people around the world. "When I attended the JPME 2 warfighters course, my roommate was a Jordanian brigadier general," Mr. Engler said. "He had contact with the Jordanian ambassador. We worked out an exchange for some Jordanian currency, and I made a really nice pen for the Jordanian ambassador." Mr. Engler also made a pen for the mayor of O'Fallon which was given to Gen. Norton Schwartz when he became the Air Force Chief of Staff. In an age of laptop computers, smart phones, digital cameras, magazines and books, is something as ancient as a hand-held, manual, writing implement destined for obscurity? Engler is pensive. "Everyone needs a pen at some point in time, especially if you work for the government," Mr. Engler said. "There is always a form that needs a signature or a staff summary that needs to be coordinated on or signed."