Pen turning runs on kits and blanks — bolt-actions by the ten-pack, stabilized burl blanks worth more than the hardware, CA finish built coat by coat. The trap is pricing off the kit and forgetting the rest. MadeKeeper costs each pen from everything on the mandrel, so the $45 price tag stands on arithmetic.
The app is live. Free during the pilot. Founding rate $19/mo, locked for life.
No card to start. Use it free through the pilot, and lock the $19/mo founding rate for as long as you stay.
Say you turn 5 bolt-action pens:
At $45 each you keep $33.57 a pen — and when a buyer asks why the burl pen is $65 and the oak one is $40, the answer is in the blank costs, written down where you can see them.
Materials and true cost per piece, products (in bulk or one-of-a-kind), sales that drain stock, the was-this-fair-worth-it event math, mileage, expenses, and the year-end tax packet — all in the app today. Etsy and Square sync, your own storefront, a booth card reader, and shipping labels are building, shaped with founding makers. Nothing above describes a feature that doesn't exist without saying so. See the full live-vs-building list →
Each kit style logs as its own material with its own unit price. A pen's recipe names its kit and blank, so slimlines, bolt-actions, and rollerballs each price from their real parts.
The pen with the visible glue line or the blowout you saved sells from a seconds tier at its own price — real revenue, kept separate so it doesn't blur what your first-quality work earns.
Log them at zero or at trade value — either is honest if you're consistent. The margin difference between free spalted maple and bought stabilized burl becomes visible, which is exactly what should drive what you turn next.
The app is live and free during the pilot. Lock the $19/mo founding rate for as long as you stay.