Middletown man carves exotic trees from around the world into pens that are works of art

MIDDLETOWN - Growing up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and moving to Monmouth County over 50 years ago, Paul DeSaro always enjoyed woodworking in his spare time. And he successfully turned that hobby into a business seven years ago when he launched Exotic Wood Pens, a Middletown-based venture through which he crafts unique pens made from exotic wood from all over the world.

DeSaro’s early years were spent in the military.

“In 1966, a year after I graduated from high school, I joined the Army for four years; I went to Vietnam for the first year, then Oahu, Hawaii, for the rest of my tour,” recalled DeSaro, 77, a Middletown resident. “I’m proud that I was able to do my part to protect my family and others back home.”

Following his discharge in 1970, “I went to school for computer programming and stayed in that field selling software and ultimately running my own consulting business, Key Data Solutions, for the next several decades,” said DeSaro, who sold software for such other companies as ADP along the way. “But I eventually retired around 2006 and started doing more woodworking.”

According to DeSaro, working with wood always held special memories for him.

“My dad owned a sawmill in Vermont, where my family and I lived for three years when I was growing up, and I can still smell the wood and sawdust,” he explained. “To this day, that smell brings me back to happy childhood days.”

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Working in his woodshop during his newfound free time as a retiree, using skills he honed through help from friends and instructional YouTube videos, “I enjoyed making things for my four granddaughters, including sleds, rocking horses and desks and other furniture,” DeSaro said.

But one day in 2016, a random publication took his interest in a new direction.

“I used to get a woodworking catalog from a company that sold materials used to make pens,” he said. “I wasn’t sure why I received that catalog in the first place and I always used to throw it away, until one day I remembered that a friend of mine knew how to make pens. I asked him to show me how he did it and I liked it.”

DeSaro soon launched Exotic Wood Pens, “and now this is the only kind of woodworking I do,” he said.

Custom-made creations

“If I see wood that I like, I’ll make a pen out of it,” DeSaro said. “I find branches of wood in parks and other locations — I once bought a cutting board in a home goods store to make pens out of because the wood was so beautiful — or people give me wood that’s special to them, and I also source wood from all over the world."

"For example, I’ve ordered olive wood from Israel, cocobolo, leopardwood and purpleheart wood from Central/South America, zebrawood from Africa, and sheesham wood from India,” he said. “There are hundreds of different woods out there and I generally work with 25 to 50 types.”

In terms of his process, “I buy the hardware — the clip, centerpiece, tip/nib and twist mechanism — from outside vendors, then cut the wood to a specific length, position the mechanism in a brass tube, and craft the wood exterior of the pen on a lathe, fabricating everything by eye into whatever shape I want or that fits the hardware,” he said.

“I’ll polish it so that everything is smooth and seamless, let the glue cure overnight, and then, if I’ve done everything right,” he joked, “the pen works!”

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According to DeSaro, his pens are available in small (7 mm in diameter), medium (8 mm), and large (10 mm) sizes and range in price from $35 to $65, depending on the pen size and type of wood used (from, for example, less-expensive laminated birch to costlier purpleheart wood). “I use medium-point ballpoint mechanisms that can be replaced with Parker or Cross refills, and I use black ink, but customers can refill them with any color.”

Because he knows that people have different preferences when it comes to pens, “I have pads at my display table and let people try out different pens for comfort,” he said.

After seven years in business, he’s also come to realize how significant his custom-made creations can be to his customers.

“In one instance, a woman whose brother had recently passed contacted me; her brother had planted a dogwood tree in the yard of their parents’ house years earlier and she asked me to make pens from the tree to give to her parents as a memento,” DeSaro said. “They were so touched by the gift that her mother ended up ordering 10 more pens from me — one to give to each of her grandchildren as they graduated from college as a remembrance of their uncle.”

In another instance, “I made pens from old planks I sourced from the restoration of the USS New Jersey, the largest and most decorated battleship in U.S. naval history,” DeSaro said. “People who had been in the Navy or who had relatives that served on that ship found those pens appealing.”

'Beautiful and useful'

Though he’s been challenged by rising material prices over the years — from the lumber and the interior mechanisms to the special glue he uses — “I still want to keep my prices affordable and make these pens as accessible as possible,” said DeSaro, who typically sells his creations at Bell Works Fresh Markets in Holmdel from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Wednesday from March through December. “Customers tell me how much they love my pens, and that’s part of the payment.”

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Looking ahead, “I just hope to continue making these pens,” DeSaro said. “The wood often comes from global sources and the pens have ended up being gifted to people everywhere from China to France, Spain and other countries, which I feel great about because it’s a beautiful cycle.”

For DeSaro, his venture is a win-win all around.

“I love working with wood and I also enjoy the camaraderie with the other vendors at the markets where I sell my products as well as the social interaction I have with my customers, some of whom have become very good friends of mine over the years,” he said.

As for his favorite part of his business, “I especially love the creative process behind Exotic Wood Pens,” he said, “and the opportunity to make something that people find both beautiful and useful.”

Exotic Wood Pens

Location: Middletown

Phone: 732-241-4799

Owner: Paul DeSaro

Launched: 2016

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Middletown's Exotic Wood Pens carves from trees around the world