Closed end curly Koa fountain

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Ironwood

Ironwood

Member
Joined
May 31, 2010
Messages
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Location
Mackay. Australia
I used one of the Jr Gent fountain kits to pair with this curly Koa blank I received in a blank swap.

I left the chrome and black rings off the cap centerband to give it a sleeker look.

It has a glossy CA finish, not evident under my LED lights.

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Leaving the 2 rings off the cap centerband made the cap about 3mm shorter. This caused me some problems, because the nib was contacting the finial cap before it was screwed all the way on.

To overcome this, I cut a couple of mm off the end of the feed housing, and also modified the feed so it would push in further.
This helped to make the pen look a bit simpler too.

You can see the difference in these 2 pics.

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Beautiful work on this. I especially like the profile for the lower half; makes for a very nice visual effect and I suspect very comfortable in the hand.

Thank you for sharing.
 
Having lived for forty years of my life (until Jan 2018) on various islands of Hawaii, I always take notice of a Koa wood pen when presented here. Yours is worthy of notice. Beautiful work, and excellent re-engineering on the front end to make it functional within your design. Aloha! :):wink:
 
Thanks everyone for the positive comments, much appreciated.
The Koa sure is beautiful, it is very similar to our Blackwood, I suspect it's a bit faster growing as it's a bit softer and less dense. In Australia we pretty much have the monopoly on the Acacia species, but there are some out there that lets the rest of the world know how good they are, like this one.
 
McKenzie Penworks said:
Koa is by far my most favorite wood... Love it! I worry about modifying the feed when I think replacement potential but the unique design is great.
Click to expand...
Yes, modifying the feed wasn't the ideal thing to do, but when presented with that problem at the assembly stage, it was about all I could do to save it.
It will be going into my collection and likely never have ink put through it, so not a problem for this pen, but something to keep in mind if I do any more.

Edit- I also posted all the details just in case any else was considering trying something similar.
 
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Ironwood said:
McKenzie Penworks said:
Koa is by far my most favorite wood... Love it! I worry about modifying the feed when I think replacement potential but the unique design is great.
Click to expand...
Yes, modifying the feed wasn't the ideal thing to do, but when presented with that problem at the assembly stage, it was about all I could do to save it.
It will be going into my collection and likely never have ink put through it, so not a problem for this pen, but something to keep in mind if I do any more.

Edit- I also posted all the details just in case any else was considering trying something similar.
Click to expand...



Next time you could cut a longer tube for the cap.


Sent from my iPad using Penturners.org mobile app
 
I have owned a closed end mandrel for 5 years, but never made one because I didn't like the closed end on a pen (I don't care about posting the cap). That is, until I saw yours! That is an awesome profile. I will be copying it; I hope you are flattered :) . Beautiful work!
 
More4dan said:
Next time you could cut a longer tube for the cap.
Click to expand...

I am planning another closed end fountain pen, I found that the thinner tube in a full-sized Gent is the same diameter as the cap tube for my Barons and Jr Gent I's, but it is longer. Would have to cut it to the required length.

Another option is, the finial end hardware has the same internal thread, so it accepts the feed housing, but the black threaded section is about 2.5mm shorter.
This is about the same as the thickness of the 2 rings.
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The only issue here is the cap takes about 1/2 turn to screw right on instead of about a full turn with the original threaded hardware, should be OK, just feels a bit weird only having 1/2 a turn.
After thinking about it, I think I will go with swapping the hardware bits, that way I am using the contents of the kit to complete the pen, not having to rely on having extra bits to be able to make the pen.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this, good or bad.
 

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The lower tube for the Majestic looks to be the same diameter as the Jr Gent I upper tube, 0:450" OD. PSI has a set of Majestic tubes for $0:75.

With coupler change out you would have to make sure you still have room for the ink converter in the shortened body.

You could also just shorten the JrGent component by carefully sanding it down. I'd be concerned with the shorter thread engagement and the cap coming loose in your pocket.

Sent from my iPad using Penturners.org mobile app
 
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TonyL said:
I have owned a closed end mandrel for 5 years, but never made one because I didn't like the closed end on a pen (I don't care about posting the cap). That is, until I saw yours! That is an awesome profile. I will be copying it; I hope you are flattered :) . Beautiful work!
Click to expand...
By all means Tony, copy away to your hearts content.

I am not a fan of the uniform diameter round end version either.

I had one of these in a rollerball, with dark blue chip resin for a carry pen a few years back, I showed it to a guy that worked for Parker Pens, he wanted it bad. I offered to sell it to him for a fair price, but he didn't want to pay the money.
I almost gave in, and gave it to him, but ended up putting it back in my pocket.

I still have that pen, I used it to take measurements from, to make these last couple that I just made.
 
More4dan said:
The lower tube for the Majestic looks to be the same diameter as the Jr Gent I upper tube, 0:450" OD. PSI has a set of Majestic tubes for $0:75.

With coupler change out you would have to make sure you still have room for the ink converter in the shortened body.

You could also just shorten the JrGent component by carefully sanding it down. I'd be concerned with the shorter thread engagement and the cap coming loose in your pocket.

Sent from my iPad using Penturners.org mobile app
Click to expand...
Thanks for your thoughts Dan.

I am in the process of building another fountain pen, for this one I have swapped the threaded couplers around, using the shorter one for the feed end.
I wanted to have a solution that used only the parts in the kit bag. I will see how it looks and feels when it's finished.

I think the best solution is probably to buy the longer brass tubes, and just make the cap barrel 3mm longer. This would keep the full turn thread engagement for the cap, and I don't think the extra 3mm would upset the look of the pen, maybe the pen barrel could be made a little longer to compensate.

I wonder if there is a golden ratio for cap to pen body length that is generally acceptable ? 1.6:1 maybe ?
 
Ironwood said:
More4dan said:
The lower tube for the Majestic looks to be the same diameter as the Jr Gent I upper tube, 0:450" OD. PSI has a set of Majestic tubes for $0:75.



With coupler change out you would have to make sure you still have room for the ink converter in the shortened body.



You could also just shorten the JrGent component by carefully sanding it down. I'd be concerned with the shorter thread engagement and the cap coming loose in your pocket.



Sent from my iPad using Penturners.org mobile app
Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughts Dan.



I am in the process of building another fountain pen, for this one I have swapped the threaded couplers around, using the shorter one for the feed end.

I wanted to have a solution that used only the parts in the kit bag. I will see how it looks and feels when it's finished.



I think the best solution is probably to buy the longer brass tubes, and just make the cap barrel 3mm longer. This would keep the full turn thread engagement for the cap, and I don't think the extra 3mm would upset the look of the pen, maybe the pen barrel could be made a little longer to compensate.



I wonder if there is a golden ratio for cap to pen body length that is generally acceptable ? 1.6:1 maybe ?
Click to expand...



Wouldn't it just restore the length to the same as the one with the rings on the center band?


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app
 
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