I have a deck in my back yard made of this very hard, dense wood called Ipe (pronounced ee-pay). Randy saw it when he visited three years ago. I gave him some of the leftover pieces and later he sent me this pen that he made from that wood. I have no idea how he crafted it so perfectly to fit the pen components. I would think he had a heck of a time working with it; the wood is so hard that many nails were broken during the deck installation.