Wood Roller Ball Pen - Dyed Box Elder Burl

This pen was a bit of a departure from tradition for me - so far all my pens had been only from natural woods, finished to their natural color. The Box Elder tree is a variety of maple tree, also known as Boxelder Maple and Maple Ash. A small, fast-growing, and short-lived tree, it has generally weak wood with little use commercially, except for the burls, which have beautiful coloring and grain patterns. This pen is from a dyed box elder burl where they impregnate it with a colored dye. The dye didn't completely permeate the wood, though, which led to striking contrasts and a dramatic, beautiful pen. In addition to green, the dyed box elder burls are available in yellow, red, black, blue, purple, brown, and magenta.

The pen components are durable 10-k gold plated, Artisan brand roller ball. These are cool pens - there's a spring inside to keep the writing pressure on the tip optimized for comfort and clean writing. This pen, or one like it, is available for $45.00, $55.00 for the same thing with fountain pen components instead of rollerball.