A Whole New Concept For Hand-Crafted Clothespins

Dateline: 13 September 2013

The "Make Your Own Clothespins" Kit

A couple days back I blogged about my hand-crafted clothespin business (and showed lots of pictures of the finished product). I told about how I was working to get the first production run of pins ready to sell, and I let it be known that the price would be $1.50 each for ten finished clothespins.

Someone commented and asked if they might get some unfinished clothespin halves, with springs, for less money. The more I thought about that idea, the more I realized it was an excellent concept. It's kind of a variation on the old Frostline sewing kits I wrote about recently (HERE).

So I'm going to give it a go. I plan to have make-your-own clothespin kits ready to sell by next Friday, and I'll be shipping orders the following Monday. Here's how it will work...

The clothespin kit will contain 19 of the high-quality stainless steel springs, 38 unfinished hardwood (ash) clothespin halves (enough to assemble 19 clothespins), and one sanded, oiled and assembled clothespin. That makes a total of 20 clothespins in the kit. 

When you get the kit, you will need to finish-sand the clothespin halves with some 120 or 150-grit sandpaper. If you have an emery board, that will work perfectly. A lot of sanding will not be needed because the halves will be already tumbled and mostly smooth. But there will be some touch-up sanding here and there, as this next picture shows...

The unfinished wood will be tumbled and mostly smooth, but there will be some touch-up needed. You can do the touch-up with an emery board. Click picture to see an enlarged view.

After the wood is sanded to your satisfaction, you can assemble the unfinished clothespins and put them right to use. Or, you can give them a protective coating of boiled linseed oil. If you coat them with linseed oil (recommended) you will need to let them air-dry for a week or so (until thoroughly dry) before you assemble and use them. If you want to wax them after the linseed oil is dry, you can do that too.

When you're done, you will have made your own heirloom-quality, multi-generational clothespins...

This new make-your-own clothespin concept allows me to get the clothespins on the market so much faster. And it allows me to be able to sell the clothespins for less. The price for a make-your-own clothespin kit, as shown and described above, will be $20 (plus $5 for shipping).

I still intend to offer completely finished clothespins, but don't see this happening before the end of this year, and the price will need to be more than the $1.50 I had thought I would sell them for. The labor to finish-sand, oil and assemble the pins is turning out to be much more than I expected.

I have a feeling that most people who use clothespins, and who will truly appreciate the quality of these clothespins, are the kind of people who are fully capable of using a little sandpaper and linseed oil. It won't take that much time or effort, and when you're done you'll have some really special clothespins.

How does this idea sound?

Your own homemade clothespins, with their powerful stainless steel springs, will hold jeans on the line.... no problem.