About Grumpy

My name is Russ, I’m the Grumpy Guy. I would like to tell you a story about pen making in my family for several generations, but it would be a lie, so I won’t. I learned some of the basics of woodworking from my father. He wasn’t a professional wood worker and neither am I.

The truth is that I’m just a creative guy, always have been and I kind of stumbled into making pens about ten years ago or so. I was looking for different things to turn on my lathe and decided to give pens a try. Since then I’ve turned a lot pens and still do, I enjoy it. It’s a great outlet for that creativity and I like working with my hands.

I have a room in the house where I do the resin casting and I have a small shop in my basement where I make the pens. All the pens are made one at a time. 

When I'm not turning pens or casting resin I can be found playing with my dogs. We have two Golden Retrievers, so if you find dog hair in with your pen it's their contribution.

I am a veteran, I served for 20 years with the Air Force so Grumpy Guy Pens is a 100% veteran owned company. I still work a full-time job so most of my time making pens is spent in the evenings or weekends, until I retire that is.