Pen Blanks From Jerusalem - Olive Wood Burls

[Keith Outten]

Today we received a donation of pen blanks from;

Bethlehem Olive Wood Imports
P.O Box 94717
Beit Safafa
Jerusalem, Isreal

The box did not contain any note or information, it did contain 12 Olive wood blanks of which two are Burls. It also contained two blanks of very rare Carob Wood and twelve yellow stickers with the following text;

Bethlehem
Holy Land
Olive Wood

After discussing the donation with Ken Salisbury we decided that all of the blanks would be sent to Ken and the pens he makes will be designated for Army Chaplains serving in the Middle East.

We would like to thank the kind people of Bethlehem Olive Wood Imports for their donation.

[Waymon Campbell]

Beautiful wood Keith. And in the hands of the master (Ken), they should become equally beautiful pens. What an outstanding donation.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Very impressive donation and a very good decision as to the distribution of the pens!

[Stephen Lybeck]

Keith, great idea. I have turned several Olive blanks from them and they are a joy to work with. Ken is a very good choice to do the turning.

[Dave Bonde]

Cool, and thanks to Bethlehem Olive Wood Imports for the donation. I agree, Ken is the right choice to turn the blanks, he will do a great job. Dave

[Jerry Stringer]

Ya'll just keep on amazing me!!! Excellent decision!

My first thought was the Bible verse about multiplying your talents . . . in my mind that led to auctioning off the blanks through SMC and using the $ raised to buy more pen kits . . . but your idea is a very fitting one!

Thanks to Bethlehem Olive Wood Imports for teir generous donation and to Ken for agreeing to give even MORE of his time!!!

Jerry

[Tom Sweeney]

& an excellant idea for using them.

Thank you Bethlehem Olive Wood Imports, Keith & Ken.

Well done!

[Don Farr]

That is very interesting. I just spent a hour on their site reading. There is a lot of good info there. Also ordered some pen blanks from them.

http://www.bethlehemolivewood.net/

[Ken Salisbury]

I am sure there are many others who could do as good a job, or better turning these special pens.

I plan on using Flat Top American, double twist kits for these pens. I have 250 FT kits in my own stock and can donate the necessary number to the cause.

[Dave Hammelef]

Great use for the pen blanks.

[Arvin Brown]

Someone may want to find out if there is any issue with this. When I went to the middle east anything that had to do with Israel was a no-no and was confiscated.

[Joe Tonich]

I love the smell of Olive wood when it is being worked! Ranks right up there with Cherry. I just picked up this piece of mediterainian (sp?) olivewood for the rest of my FPP pens that I may finally have time to finish. All that grain in it should make a sweet looking pen! I figured it would be fitting as Olive Wood (branch) goes with peace. Unfortunately the wood is wet. If I turn it wet, do you think it would crack as it dries or would the heat generated by turning and sanding dry it enough?

Joe

[Ken Salisbury]

Someone may want to find out if there is any issue with this. When I went to the middle east anything that had to do with Israel was a no-no and was confiscated.

I don't think that will be a problem. Since we will be sending these directly to Chaplains in Iraq/Afganistan I don't think they will get confiscated. If that happens I will just re-enlist and go do something about it. . It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature or the Old Rebel.

[Diane Darwesh]

After we shipped order's out I realized I forgot to add the letter I wrote
regarding the donation of Bethlehem Holy Land Olive Wood pen blanks,burls and rare carob wood pen blanks.

Many Blessings
Diane Darwesh
http://www.bethlehemolivewood.net
Our MSN user name is : olivewood@hotmail.com
Our Yahoo user name is: talkolivewood@yahoo.com
"Out of the ground, the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant for the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Genesis 2:9"

[Diane Darwesh]

I don't think that will be a problem. Since we will be sending these directly to Chaplains in Iraq/Afganistan I don't think they will get confiscated. If that happens I will just re-enlist and go do something about it. . It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature or the Old Rebel.

I can aure you that there will be no problem at all. I can imagine the chaplins feelings as they find out that their pens are made from Bethlehem Holy Land olive wood!!

Best Regards,

Ghasan Darwesh