Latest Fordite Rollerball

[Doug Geary]

This is the last piece of vintage Bowling Green Corvette Fordite I had in my collection. I was saving it for a special buyer, and they stepped up. The blank was just 5/8" square, and the cap drill size was 13.3mm (slightly larger than 33/64th"), so there was very little tolerance drilling the blank. The paint was very hard, prone to chipping, but I turned at a very high speed with sharp carbides, and finished sizing by wet sanding with 120 grit Abranet.

I purposely overturned the blank, as I wanted to add significant layers of CA for protection. There are 4 layers of thin, and 12 layers of medium Mercury Flex CA on this pen.

Shown here on a Canadiana Rollerball Style A (Silver with Gold accents), this pen is heading to a Sr Exec at GM in USA.

 

[1shootist]

Great looking pen !
I love those rb kits...top notch quality.
I think the Ford executive will be thrilled with his/her new pen.

 

[Humongous]

Wow! That pen is fantastic. Great job

 

[Doug Geary]

Great looking pen !
I love those rb kits...top notch quality.
I think the Ford executive will be thrilled with his/her new pen.

Thank you. Yes, I love the kit. Going to an exec at GM, not Ford.

 

[Doug Geary]

Wow! That pen is fantastic. Great job

Thank you for your kind words.

 

[SteveJ]

Very nice looking pen - I wonder the material should be call GMite...

 

[Jim15]

Awesome pen.

 

[johncrane]

Luv it'' WOW what a great looking R/B

 

[Sataro]

Fantastic job! Pen looks great!

 

[Doug Geary]

Very nice looking pen - I wonder the material should be call GMite...

Thank you. I like it too, but I'm not the car person in my household, so no issue passing it along. Around home, I call it Detroit Agate. Keeps the peace.

 

[philipff]

WoW!! Congratulations. The new owner will have bragging rights around the Bd Table. P

 

[turncrazy43]

Great job Doug.

 

[hbillings]

Those are beautiful. Where do you source your Fordite?

 

[Doug Geary]

Those are beautiful. Where do you source your Fordite?

Thank you hbillings. I was able to buy this Bowling Green stuff just once, and all I could get was 4 pieces. I have emailed my source over and over and no reply.

I have been collecting Fordite for a while. But there isn't a particular place I can send you. I ask around, and keep my eyes and ears open. I never seem to be able to get Fordite from the same source twice. It's pretty rare. There seems to be product available from, say, Catapillar and Kenworth. I have never bought any of that. I tend to stick with the big 3.

That said, do you have any to sell?

 

[Ironwood]

That's a great looking pen, congratulations. It's awesome looking material.
I saw on instagram today someone who was selling fordite blanks.

 

[Ironwood]

Just had a look, search for swampwoodproducts on instagram. They have a website as well.

 

[SteveJ]

Thank you. I like it too, but I'm not the car person in my household, so no issue passing it along. Around home, I call it Detroit Agate. Keeps the peace.

After I posted that I saw that it is also called Detroit Agate! A beautiful pen no matter what you call the blank.

 

[mark james]

That is a stunning pen Doug. Excellent work with a blank that size - not many would attempt that kit with a 5/8" blank. The finished pen is wonderful, but only rates second to your photography (well, maybe each rates as top notch!).

That is one to be proud of, and it is very fitting to go to an automotive executive of any company; we can all appreciate the contributions of competitors. These blanks are very special, and from what I have read are especially fussy, but well worth the effort.

Thanks for sharing, that is a mighty nice pen/photo.

 

[Fred Bruche]

For fordite blanks, you can contact foothills_antiques on instagram or Jason Geer on facebook (same person), he regularly has some for sale that look awesome (I have bought blanks from him but not fordite)

 

[magpens]

What an absolutely gorgeous pen !!!!!

Congratulations, Doug !!!!

 

[hbillings]

Thank you hbillings. I was able to buy this Bowling Green stuff just once, and all I could get was 4 pieces. I have emailed my source over and over and no reply.

I have been collecting Fordite for a while. But there isn't a particular place I can send you. I ask around, and keep my eyes and ears open. I never seem to be able to get Fordite from the same source twice. It's pretty rare. There seems to be product available from, say, Catapillar and Kenworth. I have never bought any of that. I tend to stick with the big 3.

That said, do you have any to sell?

Nice twist at the end! No, I don't have any.

 

[MDWine]

The fordite makes such an excellent looking pen... I have one blank, and am a bit timid in pulling the trigger. I decided to get a couple of others out of the way before trying this challenging blank.

Yours looks amazing!

 

[DB in VT]

Great job! I recently did one, myself. The material came from a local body shop that also does a lot of high end restorations. I had one PSI Gearshift kit hanging around. It seemed appropriate. The finished pen was given back the the body shop owner. After all, it took almost 20 years of buildup to get enough for a single pen.
Due to the fact that paint doesn't always stick to paint, this was very difficult. It kept de-laminating. I ended up doing the entire thing with sandpaper and 11 coats of CA for protection.

 

[Jim15]

That's a beauty.

 

[Doug Geary]

Great job! I recently did one, myself. The material came from a local body shop that also does a lot of high end restorations. I had one PSI Gearshift kit hanging around. It seemed appropriate. The finished pen was given back the the body shop owner. After all, it took almost 20 years of buildup to get enough for a single pen.
Due to the fact that paint doesn't always stick to paint, this was very difficult. It kept de-laminating. I ended up doing the entire thing with sandpaper and 11 coats of CA for protection.

Thank you. Yours looks excellent for a body shop pen. The big difference with paint from the big manufacturers is that each coat is baked, and there are less delams. Still, very nice pen you have there!

 

[Doug Geary]

The fordite makes such an excellent looking pen... I have one blank, and am a bit timid in pulling the trigger. I decided to get a couple of others out of the way before trying this challenging blank.

Yours looks amazing!

Thank you. I barely touched this with a chisel on the lathe. I rounded it on my disk sander with the bushings on, leveled it up with my carbide on the lathe, and the rest of the shaping I did by wet sanding with 180 grit Abranet. Took a while, but I wasnt taking any chances with this blank.

 

[Doug Geary]

That is a stunning pen Doug. Excellent work with a blank that size - not many would attempt that kit with a 5/8" blank. The finished pen is wonderful, but only rates second to your photography (well, maybe each rates as top notch!).

That is one to be proud of, and it is very fitting to go to an automotive executive of any company; we can all appreciate the contributions of competitors. These blanks are very special, and from what I have read are especially fussy, but well worth the effort.

Thanks for sharing, that is a mighty nice pen/photo.

Thank you for your very kind words Mark. I delivered this last week and the client was very happy.

 

[MDWine]

DANNGIT...That's a great looking pen!
Is the CA finish necessary? I haven't done a CA in years... would lacquer work?
I am not going to touch my Fordite blank until I have all my ducks in a row!

 

[lefyldepens]

Wow we don't seem to find Fordite here in the UK

Awesome Pen

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