Here's a slightly different shape pen I've been working on recently. I wanted something a little shorter but quite angular looking, with a nice long taper. I was trying to achieve a sort of art-deco shape.
For those considering making pens without kits one of the challenges when designing them is having to consider wall thickness and making sure you don't go to thin and introduce potential areas of weakness. One of my design criteria for this pen was to have a fairly aggressive taper run for (almost) the entirety of the cap and the barrel. It also had to have a clip and, from an aesthetic perspective, I wanted longer finials to empathise the angular look. (This turned out to be quite helpful).
When you add a taper it does, by definition, get slimmer meaning that you have to think about stepping down the internal diameters as you drill/bore through the length of the cap/barrel while still making sure you can still accommodate the nib/section/ink filling mechanism etc.
Adding a clip adds another consideration (if you do it the way I do it) as it needs a finial with a tenon to accommodate the shop-bought clips I use. Of course making your own clips and attaching them externally is one way overcome this. The point is it can get a bit tight in these areas, and you have to think about it. But you can make design decisions to help you. For example making the finials longer bought me a bit more room to attach the clip because it's a wider part of the cap.
Anyway this is what I came up with. The last photo shows it next to one of my more standard sized pens which is around 135mm open. This new model is about 10mm shorter when open, 15mm shorter when closed. The cap threads are 13mm triple lead. The nib is a Faber Castell no5 fed by cartridge converter and I've tapered the section to fit in with the rest of the pen (I usually "pinch" them). I think I can refine the section a little and have more of a taper, but as a first go it's not too bad.
The metal is all sterling silver, apart from the chrome plated steel clip.
Comments are always welcome (don't hold back - I can take it
).
Cheers
Ash
For those considering making pens without kits one of the challenges when designing them is having to consider wall thickness and making sure you don't go to thin and introduce potential areas of weakness. One of my design criteria for this pen was to have a fairly aggressive taper run for (almost) the entirety of the cap and the barrel. It also had to have a clip and, from an aesthetic perspective, I wanted longer finials to empathise the angular look. (This turned out to be quite helpful).
When you add a taper it does, by definition, get slimmer meaning that you have to think about stepping down the internal diameters as you drill/bore through the length of the cap/barrel while still making sure you can still accommodate the nib/section/ink filling mechanism etc.
Adding a clip adds another consideration (if you do it the way I do it) as it needs a finial with a tenon to accommodate the shop-bought clips I use. Of course making your own clips and attaching them externally is one way overcome this. The point is it can get a bit tight in these areas, and you have to think about it. But you can make design decisions to help you. For example making the finials longer bought me a bit more room to attach the clip because it's a wider part of the cap.
Anyway this is what I came up with. The last photo shows it next to one of my more standard sized pens which is around 135mm open. This new model is about 10mm shorter when open, 15mm shorter when closed. The cap threads are 13mm triple lead. The nib is a Faber Castell no5 fed by cartridge converter and I've tapered the section to fit in with the rest of the pen (I usually "pinch" them). I think I can refine the section a little and have more of a taper, but as a first go it's not too bad.
The metal is all sterling silver, apart from the chrome plated steel clip.
Comments are always welcome (don't hold back - I can take it
).Cheers
Ash
