Like many collectors, I have too many pens. I was storing them in "proper" pen boxes, buying new ones as each one filled up. Of course I wanted the 100-pen glass-topped wooden one, but those boxes are dreadfully expensive. And since there aren't many pen stores around here that sell the smaller ones, I had a hodgepodge of boxes, and many of my pens weren't easy to find.
So when I was browsing the Lee Valley catalogue, I discovered that the company sells toolbox trays, meant for woodworkers to turn into small tool chests. And the gears in my head started turning, especially since I could get shallow trays that would be perfect for pens.
I bought several of them, and my neighbor, who is a carpenter, built the boxes to hold them. I then lined them with felt.
These things are great. They don't have dividers (which I suppose could be made to go into them), but then, I'm not yanking the drawers out hard. In return for taking more care when opening each drawer, I can fit the pens in however I like, and I'm not restricted to the pen sizes I can store. I also put in a couple of larger drawers, which I use to store ink and pens in cases. And it all came out to less than what I paid for a 20-pen box from the store.
