A little history on the 1773 Tea Party Pens:
The Logan County, Ohio, courthouse, built in 1870, was damaged by a windstorm in June of 2012. The entire clocktower was removed and rebuilt. The timbers were White Pine. I was able to collect some of the wood.
In reviewing the history of white pine, I learned that the timber was most likely harvested in northeast Ohio. Trees could easily reach 200 years of age, with 40-inch diameters, and 150 feet of height. Before the Revolutionary War, the best white pine trees in New England were marked by the British and used as masts for the Royal Navy.
The beams from the courthouse clock tower were over 100 years old, and possibly 200 years. That means they were growing in 1773, the year of the Boston Tea Party. So, the 1773 Tea Party Pine Pens were designed to commemorate the Boston Tea Party and the beginning of the quest for freedom.
The pens are made with the antique wood from the Logan County courthouse timbers.
The Antique Brass kits:
The wood is stained with a dark tea-colored stain on each end, symbolizing the coming musket fire and smoke of the Revolutionary War. The center band of the barrel is painted with red acrylic symbolizing the British red coats. The pen is coated with two coats of urethane varnish for protection and to add the warm amber background, then coated with a super glue wet gloss finish. The pen is assembled in an antique brass kit. This pen takes six days to make.
The Antique Silver kits:
The wood is “white washed” (grain filled) with white acrylic, then covered with a clear polycrylic sealer. After drying, the sealer is sanded back to give the wood a weathered look. The bands are cut, burned, and painted with red and blue to create the red, white, and blue of the new flag. After drying, the pen is covered with another two coats of a thick, clear, water-based varnish, then sanded and topped with a wet-gloss super glue finish. This pen also takes six days to make.
To sign up for the drawing, simply leave a comment.
If the comment box does not appear at the bottom of the blog, click on “Leave a Comment” at the top under the title.