Reloaded: Brass Pen and Pencil Crafted From Spent Bullets

Last month, I "recalibrated" a spent 6.5 Creedmoor shell and a piece of exotic wood into a unique pen (see here).

The story behind it was serendipitous. I was out walking with my new grandbaby when we passed an open garage (aka an open invite to meet), and the guy inside was a precision marksman repacking his rounds. By coincidence, the night before I'd been researching how to turn spent bullet shells into pens. I'm part of a woodturning club, and we make over 2,000 pens a year for active and retired military. He handed me a box of spent 6.5 Creedmoor shells and said, "Have at it."

I made a bunch of those pens at our club's demo booth at our local county fair and already handed a few out to military folks in appreciation for their service. They loved them. But one asked, "Can you make an all-metal one?" I said of course, and over the next several weeks I tinkered on how to make them beautiful and, more importantly, efficient, since I knew I'd be asked to make many.

I also wanted to go a step further. I wanted to make the pen nib (i.e., the tip of the pen) out of an actual lead bullet, and build a matching all-metal mechanical pencil to complete the set.

If you look at my other Instructables, you'll see I love taking things most people discard as waste and repurposing them into items worth cherishing. I just hate waste, and I love a good metaphor and a good pun.

This build was never really about the writing instruments. It was about what bullets are versus what a pen and pencil are.

1. A bullet is the fastest, most final thing a piece of lead can do: one direction, one purpose, gone in an instant, built to make a powerful but momentary impact.
2. A pen and pencil are its exact opposite: slow, deliberate, and capable of an impact that lands just as hard but never fades, one that can inform, persuade, comfort, and inspire. Same brass, same precision, but a completely different target.

That's the "bullet points" I wanted to make . Not discarding the brass, but giving it a second life with a longer reach. The first time "around" (pun intended), the shell's job ended the instant it was fired. Now it gets to start things instead: every sketch, every signature, every idea worth keeping. A piece of metal built for a single moment becomes a tool meant to be picked up again and again, long after the hand that wrote it is gone.

For the ambitious, I hope the many hours I spent figuring out the best way to make these writing instruments motivates you to try it yourself. For everyone else, maybe the next time you pick up a pen or pencil, you'll have a little fun and try to Be Curious. Be Purposeful. Be Impactful.

Ready, Aim, Write.

Supplies

Materials

1. Spent Bullet shells
2. Lathe Pen Kit
3. Wood blanks
4. Epoxy or CA glue
5. Fine sandpaper (400–1000 grit) & Steel wool
6. Polishing compound (optional, for a mirror finish)
7. Solder and flux

Tools

1. Wood and Metal Lathe
2. Centering drill bits
3. 7 MM drill bit
4. Step Drill
5. Vise or clamp (important for safety)
6. Copper tube expander (Keep find to make things easier)
7. Deburring tool
8. Safety glasses
9. Taper Punch
10. Doming Punches
11. Tube flaring tool (process improvement)
12. Hammer

*links added for example products.

The first time, involved a single spent shell and a piece of exotic wood. This round, I wanted to make an all-metal ammo pen with a real bullet nib (i.e., pen tip)... plus a matching all-metal ammo mechanical pencil.

Spent brass is wonderful stock to work with and machines beautifully. Better it was free to me from my neighbor and it was already the right shape for the job. I just needed to figure out how to fabricate the bullet as a nib and permanently attached it to the shell.

I grip the shell by its body in the lathe's 3-jaw chuck and run it true to make sure it's concentric.

Working from the tailstock, I drill out the spent primer and firing-pin with a center drill, which gives the larger 7mm bit a positive start so it can't wander. Then bore straight through the shell base to open it up for the pen kit's brass tube to snuggly slide in.

Since the pen kit's brass tube was a bit longer than the shell, I cut it to length to match the case before fitting. After reaming and deburring both ends, the trimmed tube seats into the bore with a snug fit, no slop, no sharp edges.

The nib is what sets this build apart: it's bored from an actual lead 6.5 Creedmoor projectile, and it's fully functional with the ink refill fitting straight through it.

I chuck the bullet by its base in the 3-jaw chuck to center it. From the tailstock I center-drill the tip for a true start, then follow with a 2 mm twist drill to bore the bullet all the way through so the ink refill tip can pass and write.

Machining lead is softer work than brass, so I take light passes to keep it from grabbing or melting, It throws chips rather than dust, but I wear a mask anyway as a sensible precaution around lead.

Techniques: surface finishing.

I polish the metal through progressively finer grits, 400 up to 1000, then bring it to a near-mirror polish 0000 steel wool. I leave the brass raw rather than lacquering it; raw brass develops its own character as it's handled, and any future owner can bring the shine back with a quick polish.

Big Lesson

To keep the pen tube snug in the brass casing, I initially tried CA glue but I was concerned that wouldn't last long term. So, I put a thin layer of solder on the pen tubes. With a vise I compression fit the bullet to the shell tip and the pen cartridge to the shell base. I also compression fit the pen clip to the pen cap.

That worked perfectly and it's very strong

I repeated the above steps but used an AR15 shell and mechanical pencil kit. This was much easier since the kit has a screw tip nib which tights up against the shell.

Since using an actual bullet for a pen nib is very time consuming, I made a version using the pen kit nib. The kit nib is a bit larger than then shell tip. This required work since I had to dome the shell tip to have a smooth transitions between the parts.

I used a tube expander to enable the pen kit tubs to fit snuggling (that was a quick process) and then a doming punch to make tuba-like flare. (That takes time too and now I'm trying a flaring tool.)

Since flaring the tip also takes time, I decided to machine the nib down on the lathe and that was also smooth - I have to decide what is best approach for my 100 production run.

When I started, the goal was simple: build a nicer pen because someone asked for one. What I ended up with was a better reminder.

A bullet is built for a single, fast, final moment. A pen and pencil are built for everything after, the slow, deliberate marks that outlast the hand that made them. Same brass, same precision, a completely different target with a much longer reach.

I hope the build itself is useful to you, the machining, the bullet nib, the pressure-fit solder, the lesson learned tops. But more than that, I hope the next time you pick up a pen or pencil, you give the idea behind it a second thought, and try to Be Curious. Be Purposeful. Be Impactful.

If you're at the July OC fair, come find me at our club's booth and watch a spent round become a pen.

Always Aim Higher.