I am retired after 21 years at British Petroleum with a maintenance engineering background which required great attention to detail and accuracy. It is this background which helps focus on minute details with the given materials with which we choose to use in our products. Sometimes I must stop and realize that wood is a natural material that contains defects which I try to use to create a unique, quality instrument for collectors and everyday users.
During our 21 years in the oilfield, we moved from the Louisiana Gulf Coast, to Alaska, back to the Gulf Coast, back to Alaska, to Idaho & commuted to Alaska and now retired on our 10 acres of heaven in North Idaho. The various wild critters that we see in the yard amaze us every year. We have deer constantly munching on anything green, elk stay a few hundred feet away, moose are seen once a year wandering down the road, turkeys can be heard in the trees behind the house. I didn't realize that a turkey could fly as well as they do until one took off from our 2nd floor deck and flew 'til it was out of sight. We've had a bear on the 2nd floor deck, coyotes are howling almost nightly and we've seen bobcat and lynx in the yard.
People ask, "The name 'RixStix' isn't what you would associate with writing instruments, where did it come from?" Well, I first started making canes and walking sticks using hardwood, winter collateral damage from our 10 acres in North Idaho. Finding straight pieces of wood, long enough for a cane or walking stick is difficult and it takes a year to season it before the wood can be made into a cane. During that year, more than 50% of the wood becomes unusable. But the name, RixStix, was originally for the cane and walking stick business. I just kept it when I added the custom writing instruments to the mix.
I use exotic, highly figured wood for pens as well as acrylic and other resins. I personally like the figured wood but quickly found that customers choose the unique acrylics more often than they choose wood. It didn't take long to realize that I need to display more acrylic than exotic wood pens. I custom build pens to customers' wishes because there are times when I have a pen in desired acrylic but in the wrong model. That's when I order the acrylic and customize it into the model that better fits the customer's hand.