This hand-turned pen is made from Israeli Carob, Ceratonia siliqua, an ancient biblical wood. In Luke 15:16 the Prodigal Son wishes he could eat the carob pods he is feeding to the swine because he is suffering from starvation. The use of carob during famine is likely due to the tree’s resilience in drought. During the famine, the swine were fed carob pods so they would not consume a farmer’s limited resources. Carob is also know as St. John’s Bread, which developed from the belief that in the New Testament, Matthew 3:4 St. John the Baptist subsisted on “locusts and wild honey”. The Greek word translated “locusts” likely referred to carob pods rather than grasshoppers. Subsistence on carob pods is also mentioned in the Talmud: Berakhot reports that Rabbi Haninah subsisted on carob pods.
Also of historical interest is carob’s role in the term “carat”. The word carat comes from the tree’s seeds, which are very uniform in weight and were used to determine the gem weight of one ‘carat’. In late Roman times, the pure gold coin known as “solidus” weighed the same as 24 carat (seeds), about 4.5 grams. As a result, the carat also became a measure of purity of gold. 24-carat means 100% pure, while 12-carat gold contains 50% gold.
Carob is a hard densely fibered wood. Its color is rich with shades of dark to light brown and red throughout. Your carob wood is sealed with cyanoacrylate and wet-sanded to 12,000 grit for a high-gloss finish. The barrels are mounted in a cigar style twist ballpoint with a Black Titanium and Platinum finish. This pen uses Parker style refills.