3 minute read
There’s A Story Behind Every Pen
There’s A Story Behind Every Pen
By Leonard Shapiro
It began for Michael Hardin when someone gave him a broken seat once occupied by countless fan fannies in historic Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.
Hardin is the founder and owner of Hardin Penworks now based in Middleburg. He recently moved his business from his garage and basement at his South Riding home into the Pendleton Street complex that once housed J.R. Snider Plumbing. Hardin’s office is there. His workshop is there. And so are many of the historic materials he uses to hand craft custom writing pens.
Many of Hardin’s pens are made from the wood in old stadium or arena seats, or bats once used by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, or a piece of the famous parquet basketball court where the Celtics played in the old Boston Garden.
Washingtonians might definitely be interested in pens made of seats taken out of long-gone Griffith Stadium and soon to be demolished RFK Stadium. This University of Wisconsin alum asked Hardin if he had any wood from Camp Randall Stadium, the Badgers football facility, and of course the answer was “yes I do.”
“I’ve acquired wood one way or the other from 223 stadiums and representing over 250 professional teams,” said Hardin, 47. “They came from places that were knocked down or were being renovated and some don’t even exist any more. I make a couple hundred pens a year and I also sell the wood to other pen makers.”
According to his website, hardinpenworks.com, “we put a lot of effort into searching the world for fine and interesting materials to create pens with stories that last a lifetime. The bottom line: a good pen never goes out of style, so we work hard to ensure our pens stand up to the test of time.”
Hardin described himself as a woodworking hobbyist going back to his high school days in his native Arkansas. He’s a Navy veteran and put those skills to use when he created wooden “shadow boxes” for retiring soldiers and sailors to store their military memorabilia.
He purchased a lathe after he was discharged and continued making the boxes as well as designing and producing custom made pens. He now has a thriving on-line business. Depending on the style and material used, most pens are priced in the $50 to $100 range but some can be considerably more expensive.
He has a day job as an IT specialist and making pens initially started as more of a hobby. But he now has something of a cult following and said his pen sales last year exceeded his regular salary, one reason he was looking for larger quarters to expand this ever-growing side gig.
“One day I just might retire and do the pen stuff,” he said. “That’s the plan.”
