GALION – Leo Burlingame has a “pen-chant” for pens.
Not ordinary Bic or Paper Mate pens, but the one-of-a-kind ball point pens he creates in the basement workshop of his Galion home. Colorful acrylic pens, some carved of burled wood and Corian, others made of intricate inlay and even deer antler.
“It was a hobby that went awry,” said Burlingame, who has been making high-quality writing instruments since the winter of 2012-13.
“The first few pens I made weren’t very nice, but I finally figured out how to do it,” he said.
Burlingame, 81, got hooked on “turning” – the art of chiseling away a square piece of pen material called a “blank” on a lathe with a rotary mechanism – when he was recovering from open heart surgery that year. To him, the joy of turning was therapeutic.
He ordered a few pen kits, complete with cast components and bolt-action mechanisms. His first pen was made from a twig on a maple tree in the back yard of his Winchester Road home. Soon he had churned out 100 pens, most of which he gave away to friends and relatives.
In 2013, a nephew gave him a few sets of deer antlers, then a friend gave him another 15 pounds of antlers, which presented a greater challenge to the pen maker.
“On the deer antler, I get a whole antler and then have to figure out how to cut them up,” he said.
Now Burlingame is a pro. He crafts about 50 different styles of high-end pens, including a military line. All of them start, of course, with the blank, which is drilled in the center and then turned for 20 to 30 minutes. Each tube is buffed and polished to perfection before the components are pressed inside.
While some of his pens are roller ball, the majority are ball point with twist or click mechanisms and even custom clips. From top to tip, they are brimming with beautiful grains and swirls. Special custom and inlay designs like the patriotic bald eagle are pieced together with the point of an Exacto knife or fine-tipped tweezers.
“The plastics, you have to be very careful because they chip or break on you. You have to take a light bite on those,” he said. “Drilling them is really where I have the problem, so if I blow a hole through them, I just walk away for a month and maybe not do any.”
Burlingame, who retired in 2001, has traded in his Shop Smith for a special Pen Pal lathe, and orders supplies regularly from companies like Penn State Industries in his home state of Pennsylvania. His workshop is stacked with countertop scraps, as well as ancient olive wood, curly maple and walnut.
Because pen turning is his passion. And he has turned 1,821, to be exact.
“I have more material to make pens out of than I’ll ever use,” he said. “When you think of that many pens, I made too many. But I just enjoy being able to turn them and be successful at it.”
