Surface-Mount Printed Circuit Board Pen

There's a retired gentleman just around the corner in our village who makes "hand crafted writing implements." As well as some beautiful turned-wood examples, he makes pens from surface-mounted PCBs. I've never seen anything quite like them. He heats a section of board and curls it into a tube, which he then encases in clear acrylic. He turns and polishes this to produce a pen shaft. In his shed.

The photos don't do it justice: the components are in glorious 3D in real life.

Makes a great present for geeks. Not surprisingly, my girlfriend not-so-secretly bought one from the village craft fair at the weekend. Hurrah for Christmas!

There's probably something profound about making an old-fashioned pen from new-fangled technology. Probably.