Second Kitless Pen

[verulean]

I decided to buy a lathe and jump into pen making a few weeks ago after being in the fountain pen hobby for several years. I spent a lot of time reading through the resources here to wrap my head around how to get started. My first pen was also kitless, made out of a spare alumilite blank I had lying around. I decided to really push myself on the second pen and experiment with a few techniques.

This is an eyedropper pen threaded for Bock #8 nibs and M15x0.8 triple start threads. I used pensmiths blanks, cherry tint demo for the ink window and mother of pearl for the rest. I added brass trim rings and synthetic rubies on the finials. I added a Sailor KOP nib in a Flexible Nib Factory housing for the photo.

This was a great learning opportunity and there are a bunch of things I'm looking to improve with the next few pens. I definitely rushed the polishing so there are a few visible scratches left on the ink window, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around internal polishing. I also want to tighten up the tolerances lengthwise - there are several places where I added a few millimeters of extra wiggle room for mistakes, so the pen is very long at about 180mm when capped. I can probably shave off upwards of 30mm with more careful planning. Overall I'm really happy with how this turned out, and I think I'm hooked on pen turning

Thanks for looking!

 

[d_bondi]

Very nicely done!

 

[floatslow]

Very well done. Not only have you pushed yourself, you went bold to bench mark for a #8 KOP nib. I look forward to seeing what you do next.

 

[johncrane]

job well done! congrats

 

[Jim15]

That's a beauty.

 

[NJturner]

This is a beaut! Very nicely done - I like combination of materials with the pen size - truly nice!

Kevin

 

[Curly]

Under achiever you are.

 

[woodwzrd]

Welcome from a fellow Wisconsinite. I am just getting my feet wet in kitless and your second attempt is light years ahead of my feeble attempts thus far lol. I really like the material combinations and without the cap it appears to be well proportioned. I look forward to seeing your third attempt.

 

[anthonyd]

Great job!

 

[sorcerertd]

Wow, that turned out beautifully! The brass rings really take it up a couple notches, too.

 

[duncsuss]

You might find a video made by Brian Gray of Edison Pens useful - he covers the way that he polishes the insides of a translucent barrel. I don't remember the name of his pen model where he shows it - but it has an interesting "pump action" to fill with ink. If I find it I'll post a link.

[edit ... found it, the Menlo pump-filler, video #2 on this page: https://edisonpen.com/helpful-videos/ ]