One Good Turn

Harbor Woodworker Earl Reid Jr. makes “Freedom pens”
By Carl E. Feather
Lifestyle Editor

Ashtabula Harbor resident Earl Reid Jr. is near the front of a pack of woodturners who are using handmade pens to express a nation’s gratitude to troops deployed in the Middle East. Reid turned his very first pen for the Freedom Pens Project a little over two months ago. As of last week, he had shipped 154 pens to Keith Outten, founder of Sawmill Creek Woodworkers Forums, which originated the project. Outten, who lives in Hayes, VA works through the Chaplain Corps to put the pens in the hands of battalion officers for distribution. As of last Friday, the project had delivered 2,322 pens and received 3,245. Outten has set a goal of 20,000 delivered by the end of 20004. Reid is one of the project’s most prolific turners. “I told the guys I’d make 600 of them this year,” says Reid, 71.

Outten tossed out the idea with a post to the forum at 9:52 am on January 16. Within minutes of making his original post, he received several responses from other forum members willing to donate pens they’d already made or turn pens just for the project. “A pen is a gift that a soldier can use to write home and it’s small enough for them to carry,” Outten stated in his original post. “Hopefully the pens and their new owners will find their way back home safe and sound, and it will someday be a special keepsake, a reminder of a call to duty.” The project took off quickly, with hundreds of woodworkers now enrolled and more joining daily.

R. L. Johnson, a forum member from Arlington, Texas, says he has a son in the service and making pens for the troops seemed like a simple and easy way for folk’s back home to show their support and gratitude. “Until someone has been away from their families due to military obligations, it is hard to understand how special it is to receive something from home,” says Joseph Green, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Texas. “These pens are a reminder to those receiving them that someone cares. It gives them encouragement that they are being remembered for their sacrifice.” Feedback from soldiers who have already received the pens confirm what the woodworkers are saying. “I would like to say that the soldiers here are very thankful to have supporters such as yourself. We are thankful that we are not forgotten,” wrote a female soldier from Camp Victory, Iraq.

Freedom Pen makers solicit community and business participation to help them turn their pens. For example, Jim Marx of St. Peters, MO, turned out 200 pens with the funds provided by students and teachers at DuBray Middle School. DuPont has donated scraps of its solid surface product, Corian, in red, white, and blue. Woodworkers glue blocks of the materials together, then cut blanks on their lathes to create patriotic, durable gifts.

Woodcraft, a woodworking supply retailer, is throwing its support behind the project by sponsoring “Turn-A-Thons” across the nation. Woodworkers get together and turn out pens on lathes provided by Woodcraft, which also donates pen kits to the events. Similar events are being organized by woodworking groups around the nation; Outten says a Turn-A-Thon that draws strong participation or goes over several days can contribute several hundred pens to the project.

Individual and small businesses are providing donations of pen kits and other supplies, which the woodworkers can request from Freedom Pens headquarters if they don’t have the resources to purchase the kits themselves. A kit costs $1.90, including shipping both ways. Outten says a hand-crafted wooden pen can sell for anywhere from $20 to $125, depending upon the kind of wood and metal trim used. But the greatest value of the pen is the message it sends from the citizens who turned it and the businesses and donors who support the project. “I would like to thank you for one of the greatest momentoes of support that I have ever received,” wrote a soldier who had received a cedar and Corian green pen. “The pen is fantastic and I truly appreciate the support the organization is doing.”

It takes Reid about 15 minutes to turn down the two blocks of wood on his lathe and polish them to a fine finish. Assembling the pens takes a few more minutes, as does packaging and shipping them. Reid has bought and donated several dozen pen kits; the rest he obtains from Ken Salisbury, the forums moderator who is also the financial and materials coordinator for the project. The kits are not the only expense involved, however. Sandpaper is a huge expense (one small box costs $40), and Reid goes through a lot of the extremely fine-grit paper necessary to put the flawless finish on his work. But the woodworkers know there’s a far higher price being paid by many American families. “You’re safe at home because they are not,” he says.

Reid’s original commitment was to only cut and ship wooden blanks to other woodworkers who wanted to make pens. Reid says he’d tried making wooden pens on his large lathe, and he just didn’t like that kind of work. “When I made them before, it didn’t click with me,” he says. “I like to make what I like to make.” But when he saw the kind of momentum the project was gaining and read the letters from grateful troops, he decided to try turning pens himself. “I think it’s one of the best things to come along,” he says.

To facilitate the work, Reid purchased a smaller lathe, more suitable to the task of reducing a ¾-inch square, 6-inch long block of wood into the two thin pieces of a pen barrel. “My wife allowed me to buy a little lathe and the rest is history,” says Reid. The Montville native has worked around wood ever since he was old enough to work, starting with sawmill labor as a teenager. After high school, he and two friends left for Wisconsin, where they planned to join the Army and get involved in the Korean War. But Reid was rejected for a heart murmur—not just once, but three times. “They wouldn’t take me,” says Reid. His father was drafted during World War II at the age of 35, leaving a half dozen kids and wife back on the homefront. And his son, Earl III, was a Navy career man. His daughter, Lois Mammana, is career Navy, as is her husband Scott, a chief. As a child and father who’s know the deep value of a hand-written letter from a loved one serving his country overseas, Reid’s passion for the pen project is understandable. “I’ve always had a soft spot for our troops, he says.

Reid’s career was in industrial maintenance, and his work with Diamond Alkalai took him all over the country. Along the way, he bought power tools, and dabbled in woodworking, making much of furniture he and his wife Barbara have in their Lyndon Avenue home. While living in Baltimore, he made 100 clocks that were sold or given away as gifts. He made several hundred owl-shaped cheese boards that were sold nationally. While his wife was working for a nursing home, Reid designed and built assistive technology products and prototypes for therapists.

He retired at the age of 56 and, in 1992, moved back to northeast Ohio. The couple’s house didn’t offer enough room for a workshop, so Reid had one built in the backyard, a 14 by 24 foot building that he thought would be too big and Barbara knew would be too small. “My wife insisted on making it bigger than I wanted, and I’ve been complaining about it being too small ever since,” he says. His workshop has turned out all manner of products, from the maple cabinets in their kitchen to the wooden cars they pass out to trick-or-treaters who knock at their door every Halloween.

Like every woodworker, Reid has a deep respect for the raw materials that go into his projects. Most of his hardwood comes from his connections to Amish mill owners in Geauga County. But some of the wood in his shop is far more exotic, having been acquired by himself and his son during their travels: a block of olive wood from the Holy Land, a chunk of rosewood from Brazil and a piece of zebra wood from Africa. Even Reid’s front yard provides a supply of beautiful, unique wood. He dried the roots of shrubs he tore out of his front yard, cut them down into blanks and turned them into pens. An heirloom lilac bush likewise provided richly grained wood for pens.

The rarest, and most patriotic of the pens he makes are turned from teakwood that his son gave him. Earl III was chief aboard the battleship USS New Jersey, and when the main deck of the ship was dismantled, his son salvaged a couple of blocks of the rare wood and gave them to his father for use in a special project. To Reid, The Freedom Pens are just that project. He has turned some of this rare wood into pens for the troops, but he reserved four of the pens to use as fundraisers for any organization that would raffle them to generate money to purchase pen kits. He will donate the pens with the stipulation they raise at least $1,000 for The Freedom Pens Project.

Any organization interested in taking on the project can call Reid at his home, 964-6212.