(machine thuds) (jazz music) The sounds can be a little deafening, earplugs, a must, long rolls of metal feeding in on one side, industrial size machines, then hammering away, and out on the other side comes tiny little metal pieces.

Each piece identical to the others.

It's all part of the fabrication process, cutting, bending and assembling.

- We've grown 400% in sales.

We're a very complicated little company.

- [Jason] What this particular machine is cranking out are the interior components of a pen nibs, as they call 'em.

- You know, we make various styles of pen nibs for engineering, cartooning, drawing, calligraphy, illustration.

- [Jason] It's all happening inside this nondescript building just off I-40 in Statesville.

The company is Speedball Art.

- The main foundation of our success is our people.

They're extremely gritty, extremely tough.

- [Jason] Inside the 210,000 square foot facility over 3,000 items are produced and it's not just pen parts, it's a plethora of art supplies, everything from paper products to printing rollers getting handles, paint jars getting filled and lids twisted on.

- All our inks and paints we make ourselves - [Jason] And no matter the part, each one is meticulously inspected for quality control.

If it doesn't measure up the standards, out it goes.

- Inspecting these pens just to make sure that the slit is straight up the middle and that when the pen is flexed and I let go of it, it closes back tightly so the ink does not seep through.

- And you can look at every one of them through an eye loop and they're perfect right down the middle.

- [Jason] What's perhaps most amazing is some of the machines in use like the ones you see here date back nearly 100 years to the 1930s.

- I have a few that are 1938.

- [Jason] When something goes wrong, it's not like there's some 800 number to call or website to order from.

- When parts finally break, I have to make whatever, you know, you can't just order it.

- That's where Speedball's tool and dye manager David Langston comes in.

(door squeaks) When something on one of these old machines breaks down, David fixes it.

- It's like working on a '57 Chevy instead of a brand new Ferrari (laughs).

I just enjoy working on the older machine.

- [Jason] And if he can't fix it David will recreate the part from scratch.

- And a lot of times I get with our maintenance guys and they you know, they tear the machine apart and then they'll say, you know, we need this and can you make that and I'll make up a drawing and make what they need.

And they put it in there and it runs.

- So he's one of the most critical people here.

And without him we would've a hard time making pens.

He's been with the company like 40 years.

- [Jason] If David's job is technical then you might say Shannon Bowies is scientific.

He's Speedball's color department manager and oversees the mixing and filling for inks, paints, glazes and fluids.

- Once we feel like it's mixed well we will then take a sample of this into the lab.

The lab will use it like the artist use it.

They check the pH, they check the viscosity and they will also check a overnight viscosity.

- [Jason] Kishon James is assigned with running those tests.

- While I was out there, I pulled my sample, I get my cups I pull my samples.

What I do is I come in here, we have a test on the batch order and it tells you what pH level it should be and the viscosity should be.

So right now I'm gonna be testing the pH level.

- And for professional artists like Maria Frati who specializes in block print making having this type of company nearby is huge.

- I think they really care.

Honestly that sounds kind of trite but I think they really care.

They support, they're really supportive of this art form.

(upbeat music) - Speedball Art's roots can be traced all the way back to get this 1899 long before the days when pens were equipped with ink cartridges.

- It's called the Speedball pen because it held twice as much ink as any pen nib at that time.

So you could write faster and then dip less.

Okay, so everybody basically used dip pens at that time.

- [Jason] It originated in Camden, New Jersey as the Hunt Pen Company, cranking out nearly 45,000 pens a day.

- I don't know how they survived particularly, except I always assume they had grit just like we do.

And then they made an acquisition of the Boston Pencil Sharpener Company from those pen nibs, they became a $350 million company.

- [Jason] In 1957, Speedball left New Jersey moving to its new home in Statesville.

That's former North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges on the left doing the ceremonial ribbon cutting when the company opened its doors.

Today, Speedball employs just over 100 people, many of whom have been with the company for more than a decade.

- I believe in people, you know, it's all about the people.

I have all kinds of sayings about people and we've built a culture that is all about people.

- You take care of the company, the company will take care of you.

- Culture eats strategy for breakfast.

You ever hear that saying?

Yeah, our culture is killer and that's why we are successful.

- [Jason] Speedballs products are found in places like Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Staples, and Office Depot.

You might think a company that did all of this would have multiple distribution warehouses but know everything from concept to creation to shipping is all done out of the Statesville location.

- A lot of times when we're on the phone speaking with consumers they don't realize like we're just one location.

They think that, oh we have different locations and you know maybe this is just the main headquarter location and they find that hard to believe.