New in the Store: NE-RD Bookends!

Welcome to our new series Floss:Handmade, where we showcase creative products we've added to the mental_floss store and the people who make them.

Tammy, Bruce and Eric of Knob Creek Metal Arts are friends with a common background in industrial metal work. Armed with the requisite skills and a desire to be more imaginative in their work, they decided to dabble in the metalwork arts by opening up shop in the Knob Creek valley of rural Kentucky. It began as a hobby, but the friends soon found themselves artfully occupied full-time, creating wall art, garden signs, wine holders, key racks, bookends and other original metalwork.

Well, it seems that Bruce is kind of a book nerd and Eric was not afraid to remind him of that fact. The amiable derision turned to inspiration for these NE-RD bookends, which are perfect for supporting Bruce’s collection of science fiction. 

“The nerd bookends are plasma cut from 14-gauge American steel," Bruce told us. "Each piece is then de-burred, sanded and cleaned.  Then the parts are formed in a brake press and welded together. After a second round of grinding and cleaning the assemblies are finished in hammered black and cured. After curing they are wrapped in foam and boxed.”

We understood 12 or so of those 57 words but we definitely understand how cool these photos are that he shared with us of the NE-RD bookends being made:

And since we know a few book lovers with room on their shelves for these, we asked Tammy, Bruce and Eric if we could carry the NE-RD bookends in the mental_floss store. You can order yours right now!