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Pen Making Equipment And Suppliers


richardandtracy

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The following suppliers have been suggested by FPN members as selling pen making materials/equipment that may be suitable.

 

FPN makes no form of warranty about their suitability in your case, or the supplier's honesty. This list is given in good faith, but you must confirm yourself that the supplier exists and is legitimate. While every effort will be made to ensure that this list is current and that all links work, please be aware that the links point to areas outside the control of FPN, and the links may be broken or the targets hijacked with inappropriate content.

 

If you wish to suggest suppiers, add the suggestion to the thread, and this first post will be edited to add the supplier. Once your suggestion has been added to the list, your post will be made invisible (unless there's other useful information that doesn't fit on the list) in order to keep the thread looking tidy & less intimidating.

 

The categories are as below:-

 

Machine Tools

  • Lathes
  • Mills
  • Drill Presses
  • Tooling

Pen Kits

  • Standard Pen Kits
  • Exotic/Executive Pen Kits
  • Pen Kit Parts/ Nibs

Pen Blanks

  • Wooden Pen Blanks
  • Acrylic/Plastic Pen Blanks
  • Hard Rubber Pen Blanks
  • Metal/Metal Effect Pen Blanks
  • Antler/ Horn/ Ivory/ Substitute Pen Blanks

 

Lathes

North America

(Owned by MSC)

(Owned by MSC)

(wood lathes only)

(wood lathes only)

UK

(wood lathes only)

Mills

North America

(Owned by MSC)

(Owned by MSC)

UK

Drill Presses

North America

(Owned by MSC)

(Owned by MSC)

UK

Tooling

All the machine tool retailers above sell tooling too. The vendors below tend not to sell the machines themselves, but all the associated tooling.

US

UK

E-Bay

ctctoolseller (Hong Kong)

fun-e-turnz (UK - usually
only
tooling directly used for making pens)

rdg355 (UK - E-Bay Branch of
)

Standard Pen Kits

North America

UK

1woodpenpro (Hawaii)

fun-e-turnz (UK)

vinny5353 (UK)

Exotic/Executive Pen Kits

North America

UK

(just one executive kit)

E-Bay

1woodpenpro (Hawaii)

Pen Kit Parts/ Nibs

North America

(wholesale outlet for Heritance Nibs)

UK

Europe

 

Wood Pen Blanks

 

North America

UK

Australia

E-Bay

1woodpenpro (Hawaii)

vinny5353 (UK)

 

Acrylic/ Plastic Pen Blanks

North America

UK

Home Made

E-Bay

1woodpenpro (Hawaii)

fun-e-turnz (UK)

vinny5353 (UK)

Hard Rubber Pen Blanks

North America

Metal/ Metal Effect Pen Blanks

North America

(Aluminium Blanks)

Antler/ Horn/ Ivory/ Substitute Pen Blanks

North America

UK

I hope this is of some use,

 

Richard.

Edited by watch_art
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At the moment the list is very UK centric, could you help make it more wide ranging? At the moment continental Europe, S. America, Asia and Australasia are completely missing.

 

There are a few US retailer's I've got up my sleeve that I've not had time to add, and will do shortly. However, please suggest your own suppliers & take a look to see if you are inspired by any of the listed ones.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

 

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Hi Richard,

Thanks a lot for the work on listing sources for these items, much appreciated!

Francis

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Whoa, casein! This stuff was actually used for pen bodies during the transition period from hard rubber to celluloid. I'm not sure I'd call it plastic, but it's a polymer of sorts...

Does not always write loving messages.

Does not always foot up columns correctly.

Does not always sign big checks.

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  • 1 year later...

Not sure if this supplier of pen blanks has been suggested?

 

Bad Dog Burls

 

Used this vendor...yes!

Service....beyond excellent!

Quality...even his 'junk stuff' is better then some 'premium' on the market!

 

 

 

Scott (hope this helps someone) B

Check out the lastest and greatest PR swirled blanks!

You will be blown away by the prices!

 

Slabsblanksandboards.com

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here's an addition of two Canadian sources:

 

Busy Bee Tools for machining and larger tools. A fair number of Chinese cheapies.

 

A & M Wood Specialty a world-class source for woods of all kinds. Set up in an old sawwill in Cambridge, Ontario. Hie thee quickly, and bring a drool cup.

David Armstrong

• antiques for readers & writers •

http://www.restorersart.com

Sevanti Letterpress

• guaranteed fountain pen friendly •

http://www.sevanti-letterpress.com

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have heard nothing but bad things about the Lathes from Harbor Freight. Can anyone hear shed some light on those lathes?

"What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving."

"When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for...that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation."

"You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it"

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If you mean the metalworking lathes, I think you'll find that they are pretty average Chinese manufacture.

 

They will be accurate & repeatable to around 1/100mm (0.0004"). They are not hugely stiff, and you will need to reduce the cut depth compared to a US/European model. Their life in a production workshop will be short due to lower quality bearings and lesser case hardening thickness on the ways. However, they are 1/4 the price, and are perfectly suitable for a hobby workshop if you do not need a precision of 0.002mm (1/10000"). I know I don't, because the temperature in my workshop varies enough that a precision of 1/10000" on a pen will be vastly exceeded by the temperature effects.

 

Horses for courses. And there are a number of snooty precision fanatics who feel they need to denigrate anything other than the best. I prefer the idea of 'Good enough for the job in hand', and a Chinese one suits me well enough, but it may not be good enough for someone else doing a different job.

 

If you get a lathe with all the bells & whistles, then you can do more stuff immediately, but getting around the limitations of something like a fixed saddle nut (as is the case on most of the cheaper Chinese lathes) makes you think how to get around the problem. This forces you to become a better machinist, and may actually benefit you in the long term.

 

One final thing. The Chinese lathes found nowdays are at least as good as those available to Parker, Sheaffer, Onoto etc in the 1920's. Many of their pens from that date are considered to be adequate...

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Wonderful resources. Thanks!

With the new FPN rules, now I REALLY don't know what to put in my signature.

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  • 2 months later...

Very belated response, but for the record, one can order directly from the American Art Plastics site through a normal shopping cart system. When the site first launched, it was primarily informational.

 

Also, do you think the initial post could be edited to indicate that we do indeed have ebonite (hard rubber) in stock? It's currently noted as "not just yet", but we have had ebonite is large quantities available for quite some time now.

 

all best

 

David

 

--

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  • 4 months later...

Great source for Spalted Pecan crosscut blanks.....me! I'll make ya a deal too!!!

 

 

 

Scott (SDB777) B

Check out the lastest and greatest PR swirled blanks!

You will be blown away by the prices!

 

Slabsblanksandboards.com

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  • 3 months later...

New supplier of Bock Nibs and feeds, Blanks, Components,inks and supplies. WWW.ClassicNib.com

Edited by Oklahoman
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

For those who might not be aware - we carry a great number of pen making supplies for everyone interested in component work (kits) to componentless (kitless) design. We have BOCK nibs & feeds, just a few Heritance/Heritage nibs & feeds and even some Schmidtt nibs & feeds. We have lucite, ebonite, Tru-Stone, M3 and Feather blanks to name a few. We carry the esteemed Wood Chuck Pen Pro turning tool - with replacement Carbide tips, taps & dies - with new sizes on the way which will be great for making your own custom designs, we have various mechanisms, clips (including vintage), original Pen Sac Co. sacs, talc, C-A, Novus, Micro-Mesh and much more. In fact - if you are looking for something specific and don't see it why not send us a note and ask about it? Many of our products have come from customer inquiry.

Edited by Indy_Pen_Dance
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  • 2 weeks later...

The list shows Pen Making Supplies as a vendor. This is an affiliation of Steebar, who has not been very reliable over the years.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Just wanted to mention that we are now at 29 different color variations of PR swirled blanks, we don't just have wood!(There is wood also for those that need the 'extra' challenge)

 

PR blanks or Wood blanks

 

Don't be fooled by the outside of these blanks(thinking they are just 'blah'....typically the outside of the blank takes on a solid sheen from being next to the mold-but just underneath is where the magic happens)

 

Looking for a blank of a certain color combo, or even solid in color? No problem! Just contact us and we can go from there....

 

 

 

 

 

Scott (coffee is finally finished) B

Check out the lastest and greatest PR swirled blanks!

You will be blown away by the prices!

 

Slabsblanksandboards.com

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