# Pricing Wood Turnings



## txkngfish (Oct 13, 2010)

Still learning this stuff. How do you figure out a good reasonable price for your work, but yet not be too high or too low. Is there a formula to help with this? 

Thanks 
James


----------



## Tortuga (May 21, 2004)

Cost of materials + value of your time + profit = asking price..

Kind of hard with pens...so many folks making them....Somebody told me there was a Federal Law that all white males over the age of 65 were REQUIRED to turn out pens. 

Hard as well with objects ,vases, etc.....but a little looser because the 'Art" part of the value has to be figured in with one of a kind projects...

good luck.....:cheers:


----------



## bill (May 21, 2004)

This is a hot topic. No easy answer. Most go with what the market allows. Think of the money you have invested in material, tools, supplies and your time. If you wanted to break it down then getting a price is easy. The problem comes when people start calling pens works of art.
Another thing is when you get hobby pen makers and full time pros competing. Your pros will never sell a cheap pen. Hobby makers are not running a business. On some sites, pros don't show their work because they are afraid (with good reason) that someone will come along, steal their ideas and sell off a cheaper pen.

Mont Blanc does a $160,000 pen. Limited to 8 for the world to fight over. It takes 8 months to set in all the diamonds.

Each pen must be looked at by the maker and desired by the customer. If I was to build a custom pen using ivory, then it's not going to be cheap. Just think of the time involved. Just to drill the blank would take a couple hours. Zero room for any errors.

Always talk to the customer, find out what exactly what they want and then the two of you can decide on a fair price.

$1000.00+ range pens are pretty common for some, others are thrilled to get $100.00 for a pen.


Keep learning, turn turn turn. Spend a few years doing that, try and get featured in stylus pen magazine or pen world...then apply for the Pen Makers Guild LOL


----------



## Fishin Tails (Mar 21, 2007)

I agree 100% with Bill. As a rule of thumb, I charge double of what I spend for the pen kit and materials, wood and acrylics. Now when it comes to Deer Antler, I go for one set price regardless of the Pen Kit. To me Antler is valuable and if you want the pen, you have to buy the pen. 

When you start building pens you quickly understand that you can afford to give certain ones away. There will be others that you cant give away and feel good about. Some people say "This amount for a pen is too high", well the next guy will say I want 5 of them. That's the beauty of pen building.

Good luck and post your pens.


----------



## Viking48 (Jan 24, 2006)

I'm no expert since I haven't sold a thing (give pens away faster than I can make them) but I took a bowl turning class and the instructor suggested $1.00 per inch so if you have a bowl that is 10" diameter X 5" tall it would be $50.00 (exotic wood would increase the price). He felt that would compensate you without destroying the market.


----------



## Slip (Jul 25, 2006)

Wow, that is new to me. I always figured, you cost divided by two and multiply that by .5 (for your time) = price......lol.


----------

