Not every product I make starts with a detailed drawing, a carefully developed plan, or some completely original idea that suddenly pops into my head.
Sometimes it starts with seeing what another maker has done and thinking:
I wonder if I could do something like that—but make it my own.
That’s exactly how one of my newest BourbonSmoke products, the .45 ACP Cartridge Pen, came to life.
It Started With an Idea I Saw Online
Like a lot of woodworkers and makers, I spend plenty of time watching videos of other people building things.
Sometimes I'm looking for a specific technique. Sometimes I'm trying to solve a problem. And sometimes I'm just scrolling and seeing what other people are creating.
I had come across several makers incorporating spent ammunition casings into pens, particularly larger rifle cartridges such as .30-caliber rounds.
I liked the concept.
But rather than simply recreating what I had seen, it got me thinking about something I already had sitting in my shop.
I had saved some spent .45 ACP casings with the thought that eventually I might find a woodworking project where they would fit.
Suddenly, I had one.
Turning Inspiration Into Something Different
The challenge was obvious pretty quickly.
A .45 ACP casing is much shorter than the rifle cartridges I had seen used in other pens. I couldn't simply substitute one for the other and expect the same design to work.
That meant figuring out how the casing could become part of the pen without overwhelming the wood—or looking like it had simply been glued onto something as an afterthought.
I eventually landed on using the spent .45 ACP casing as the upper cap of a Slimline-style twist pen.
That gave me what I was looking for.
The casing was noticeable enough to make the pen unique, but the hardwood was still an important part of the design. Instead of building a pen around a piece of brass, I could use the brass as an accent to the woodworking.
And then came the part that every new product eventually reaches:
Actually trying to build it.
The Prototype Is Where You Figure Out What You Don't Know
There is a pretty significant difference between thinking something will work and actually making it work.
That's why I prototype.
Dimensions that make sense in your head don't always look right once everything is assembled. Materials behave differently than expected. Proportions can look strange. And sometimes an idea simply doesn't work.
The first .45 ACP pen was an opportunity to figure all of that out.
How would the casing fit?
Would the proportions look right?
Would the finished pen still feel comfortable in your hand?
Would it look intentional?
And, probably most importantly, would I actually be happy putting the BourbonSmoke name behind it?
Those are questions I try to answer before something ever becomes a product on my website.
Then You Start Making Changes
Once I knew the basic concept worked, I could start looking at the details.
One of those was the combination of materials.
Different hardwoods completely change the personality of the pen. A darker piece of wood can give it a completely different appearance than a lighter, more heavily figured blank.
The hardware matters too.
Chrome, gold, and gunmetal each interact differently with the brass casing and the wood surrounding it.
That's part of the fun of making something like this. The basic design can stay the same while the natural variation in the wood and the hardware selection mean no two pens have to look exactly alike.
It also gives me room to keep experimenting.
A Product Has to Be More Than an Interesting Idea
One thing I've learned through woodworking is that being able to make something doesn't necessarily mean it should become a product.
There are plenty of things I've made once and decided that was enough.
For something to make it into the BourbonSmoke lineup, I want it to check a few boxes.
It needs to be functional.
It needs to be something I can make consistently.
It needs to meet the quality standard I expect from my work.
And it needs to make sense for BourbonSmoke.
The .45 ACP pen checked those boxes.
It's still a functional everyday pen. The hardwood keeps the handcrafted element at the center of the piece. And the spent casing gives it a little extra character and a story that you aren't going to get from an ordinary pen.
From a Spent Casing to Something New
One of my favorite things about woodworking is finding another purpose for a material that might otherwise sit around unused.
In this case, it was a handful of spent .45 ACP casings I'd held onto because I thought that someday I might be able to do something interesting with them.
Eventually, the right idea came along.
And that's often how product development works in my shop.
Sometimes I start with an idea and go searching for the right material.
Sometimes I start with a piece of wood and figure out what it wants to become.
And sometimes I see another maker do something interesting, look around my shop, and start wondering how I could approach the idea differently.
Inspiration is only the beginning.
Then you have to head into the shop, make some sawdust, build the prototype, figure out what doesn't work, make some changes, and eventually create something you're willing to put your name on.
That's how an idea becomes a BourbonSmoke product.
