Birthday present for my wife

Her first fountain pen. Material is a new purple pink mix from erinoid with the back painted in lavender. Very nice stuff. Custom turned cabachon.

I love the Cabachon - A nice element that many overlook but is well worth the effort to explore.

Very nice

mark james said:

I love the Cabachon - A nice element that many overlook but is well worth the effort to explore.

Very nice

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Thanks! This was the first time I've tried one that is conical in shape, rather than rounded over. It's reminiscent of the Leonardo Momento cap. I quite like how it turned out. Will definitely be doing more in this style.

Beautiful! I was recently thinking about trying to replace the cap with a cabochon. Is it difficult to remove the piece already in place? I feel like I might damage the finish on the surrounding metal.

sorcerertd said:

Beautiful! I was recently thinking about trying to replace the cap with a cabochon. Is it difficult to remove the piece already in place? I feel like I might damage the finish on the surrounding metal.

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It's not too hard to do. For the JR series, here's my method: I glued a piece of rubber onto some MDF. Then, I drilled a hole slightly smaller than the base diameter of the finial but larger than the diameter of the cabachone that was in there. I think I used 15/32 if I'm remembering correctly. I drilled through the rubber into the MDF by a bit. Then, I turn the finial upside down and push it into the rubber. You should be able to see the pin where the cabachone that comes with the kit is inserted. I take a drill bit that is just bigger than the pin in the cabachone--usually around 4mm or thereabouts. Then, just start drilling in the center of the cabachone while providing downward pressure on the finial. You should drill a hole straight through and the finial will drop right out. It's sort of like removing rivets if you've ever done that.

The cap doesn't get scratched up at all (well, if you do it right. I've mucked up one finial using a different system). The rubber provides a pretty good surface that holds the finial in place without scratching it or damaging the finish.

I gotta know how you got that crushed look in that pen?!? That's some beautiful color!


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That's just the blank material. It's got pearl flakes of different colors—pink, purple, red—in a black matrix it looks like. I painted the inside of the blank lavender rather than my normal white to give it a darker look and add some saturation to the purple. Beyond that, it's just polishing it up shiny and getting the light right in the photo!

@EricRN, thanks for the tip! I took a look today at a kit I had and can see what you mean about the "rivet". I hadn't gotten as far as planning anything yet, just one of those when I get around to it things that your post got me thinking about again. I'll probably use a gemstone or swarovski when I try it. A nice piece of Labradorite would look awesome on a pen.