Custom-made pens - costs and experience

[Empty_of_Clouds]

Hey fellow forumites.

I've been watching a quite few videos over on YouTube about how handmade pens are turned and finished. Very interesting and quite revealing! It appears that the general shaping, cutting, threading and polishing of, say, an all acrylic pen takes no more than a couple of hours. I watched one guy cut a barrel, drill the core and add internal and external threads for section and cap in under 15 minutes.

What this has made me wonder is, excepting special finishes, why are handmade ebonite, wood, acrylic, alumite (and so on) pens frequently priced anywhere from $150 to $400? The cost of the materials is generally low (roughly $15 or less for a standard alumilite, ebonite or acrylic rod). The nibs are mostly generic Jowo nib units that can be had for $10. And the pens do not take a lot of time to make.

This is for individual handmade pens. I expect that certain economies are enjoyed by those who use CnC lathes for automation.

I'm overlooking the start-up cost of equipment for two reasons. 1. Some people already have a lathe for other purposes, and a decent wood lathe is sufficient most of the time, and 2. at the speed these pens are made it wouldn't take long at the prices asked to recoup the equipment costs.

I think the same consideration applies even to pens like the Nakaya, where the additional cost would reside almost entirely in the finishing and the cost of gold nibs.

Is this a reasonable base analysis of the economics of making turned pens?