Pen Smoking?

No, I do not have a proclivity to light up a pen and smoke it but an idea came to me this evening. There is a cigar store a couple blocks from home and I was in need of a couple of empty cigar boxes as they make great storage containers. Every cigar store I have come across has empty boxes for sale and they all seem to be priced the same--$1 a box. I found this box tonight and when I opened it I saw the cigar holder tray and it did not take long to see what a great fountain pen storage box it would make. The box is made of Cedrela odorata (Spanish cedar) or at least it appears to be that genus/species. The aroma is C. odorata is quite nice. By the way, the guy in the photo is Sabicas, the great, if not the greatest, flamenco guitarist.

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What a great idea. I must check out my local cigar vendor. If that was a buck, all I can say is good score.

Same at a local place here in San Diego. The nice thing is that all the money goes to a local veterans group.

I can't remember if there are dedicated threads here on FPG, but there was a long-running thread on converting cigar boxes, making custom tray liners, at FPN. Also, most boxes won't have those inserts, but you can purchase larger ones meant to be trimmed to size at Gary Lerher's gopens.com.

I've admired many cigar boxes converted to pen boxes.
It's a shame we don't have a Gary Lehrer's gopens.com. :(
As a purely personal preference, the price label would have had to go. :)

This was one of my early boxes, using a pre-made pen tray liner (though this was from a supplier no longer in business), cut to fit.

https://i.imgur.com/cxoHf2x.jpg

It's very attractive. :) Given a choice I prefer black pen tray liner. :)

Might want to identify what's inside so when you are gone your family and friends don't throw out the old cigar box....LOL!!

One of my law partners is a cigar guy, so I get the boxes from him. I make my own "trays" out of dowels and felt (and sometimes a cushion if it needs to fill the box).

The only thing that has me worried is the relative lack of air circulation in the boxes. The conventional wisdom for storing celluloid pens is that there needs to be ample air circulation in the even that one or more of the pens begins to degrade and vent nitric acid (potentially contaminating the other pens in the box). This is a problem if there's not enough air circulation and the "good" pens become isolated in the box with the "bad" one. Has anyone had a celluloid degradation problem in a cigar pen box?

Don Fluckinger used to make these years ago. Gary Lehrer at gopens.com has the slotter trays for sale at a reasonable price.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ray-VIgo

One of my law partners is a cigar guy, so I get the boxes from him. I make my own "trays" out of dowels and felt (and sometimes a cushion if it needs to fill the box).

The only thing that has me worried is the relative lack of air circulation in the boxes. The conventional wisdom for storing celluloid pens is that there needs to be ample air circulation in the even that one or more of the pens begins to degrade and vent nitric acid (potentially contaminating the other pens in the box). This is a problem if there's not enough air circulation and the "good" pens become isolated in the box with the "bad" one. Has anyone had a celluloid degradation problem in a cigar pen box?

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Using dowels is a good idea, I have just found that I can buy triangular dowels in balsa wood, wood glued into place in a cigar box and then a coat of walnut varnish.

Here's a thread full of Geek efforts to smoke their pens: https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread...ighlight=cigar