It is a really small world. I was honored to be presented a pen made with some of the wood from the Freedom Pen Project today. The explanation in the accompanying literature described the Freedom Pen Project. I related to the presenters that I knew about the Project since I was a charter member of SawMill Creek. I retired from the military in 2006 after serving 28 years in the submarine force. Those circumstance give this pen extra meaning.
The description of the pen follows:
Gulnair Pen InfoThe wood in this pen is made of White Oak that was salvaged from the three mast schooner Gulnair, which sank in Lake Erie in 1892 in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio. The w wood is dark because it was submerged for over 100 years.
Sometime in 2004 or 2005 my dad became involved with sawmillcreek.org, a national forum for woodworkers. Shortly thereafter the U.S. got involved in Iraq, the members of sawmillcreek.org got together and wanted to do something for our military who were fighting overseas. They came up with the idea of making pens and sending them to the military. The first year my dad made over 1000 pens. The local newspaper got wind of the story and they called him to ask for an interview. Dad said sure. So, a reporter came to his shop, watched him make some pens and did the interview. A few days later the story went to press. About three days after that my dad got a call from a gent who identified himself as a police diver. The gent said he had salvaged some wood from the schooner Gulnair and wanted to know if dad would like some of the wood to make pens. Dad got the wood and made many pens from it to send to the military in Iraq. He had a small piece left over and he gave it to me earlier this year. So now you know the story of the wood.
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