An Introduction To Maxwell Scott Bags

[MaxwellScottBags]

Hello to one and all!

 

I thought I would provide a bit of information and detail about my business:

 

Maxwell Scott Bags is a family run business based in York, England fusing together British design with Italian style, materials and craftsmanship. The label was created with the philosophy of providing the finest quality luxury briefcases, handbags, luggage and accessories to suit today’s demanding requirements.

 

Each individual creation is beautifully hand crafted to the highest standard, using only full grain vegetable tanned Italian leather. Each hide is very carefully chosen, plus we also insist on sourcing and using the finest locks, linings and fittings to compliment each design. We still use traditional methods by our skilled Artisan craftsmen wherever possible, however recent technological advances in materials has given us the means to extend the life of our products.

 

Please visit our main International website here: http://www.maxwellscottbags.com. Here is a link to our current pen case for reference.

 

 

I am open to any questions you might have.

 

Kind Regards

 

William Forshaw

Managing Director

 

http://www.maxwellscottbags.com/media/wysiwyg/Corporate/corporate-leather-gift.jpg

Edited April 23, 2015 by MaxwellScottBags

[Newjelan]

Very nice

[delano]

Beautiful, dignified looking leathers

[da vinci]

Very nice. A couple of thoughts if I may.

 

First your pen case looks lovely, but people with expensive pens tend to prefer dividers between each pen to avoid damage by pens bumping together.

 

Also I could see conference folders but you might wish to consider a notepad cover into which fussy pen and ink lovers can insert their own choice of notepad - perhaps a4 and a5 and other sizes.

[MaxwellScottBags]

Hello,

 

I am so pleased for the feedback - thank you (exactly why I came on here).

 

The dividers between the pens is a definite once we come up with our new design. This in retrospect from customer feedback is a relatively easy design improvement.

 

The conference folder design will deserve a lot more thought and consideration

 

Thank you again!

[MrThoth]

My own two ducats: besides the dividers (which I agree with), the case needs to hold the pens firmly in place somehow so they don't rattle around. That may mean making the channels small enough that the pens can't move, or providing some sort of leather flap for the pen to clip onto.

 

Of course, I may be alone in this view. But it drives my OCD-ish self crazy when pens rattle around in the case, potentially get turned around so they're not all facing forward, etc.

 

Thanks for soliciting our input!

[fountainbel]

Very nice !

One question : are these completely fabricated in the UK?

Francis

[Scrawler]

My own two ducats: besides the dividers (which I agree with), the case needs to hold the pens firmly in place somehow so they don't rattle around. That may mean making the channels small enough that the pens can't move, or providing some sort of leather flap for the pen to clip onto.

 

Of course, I may be alone in this view. But it drives my OCD-ish self crazy when pens rattle around in the case, potentially get turned around so they're not all facing forward, etc.

 

Thanks for soliciting our input!

You are not alone.

[MaxwellScottBags]

Good morning,

 

Firstly, I do not have vast knowledge and experience with fountain pens so please excuse my ignorance.

 

If a design / layout with channels was similar to our existing model here : pienza pen case, then i am unable to visualise how the pen could spin around, or are we discussing the conference folders? Am i right is assuming that the girth varies considerably between fountain pen manufacturer / model. Therefore I would need to make sure the design would fit the largest model, yet still snuggling fit leaner pen models

 

Regarding country of manufacture, all our materials are sourced and ultimately built by hand in Italy.

 

Looking forward to more useful info (thank you again)

Edited April 27, 2015 by MaxwellScottBags

[Intellidepth]

(FYI, Some fountain pens don't have clips and some are as thin as pencils. On the other hand, others are very bulky.)

 

The leather looks gorgeous. The lovely pen case would be showcased even better if it had some higher quality glossy black pens with silver or gold toned hardware protruding from it rather than blue capped biros .

 

My own preference is for a more rigid pen case so that vintage pens with less than stellar mechanisms and age-degraded barrels are more protected. I also prefer full or three-quarter length dividers, as scratched up pens at any price point are never visually attractive.

 

However, I have noticed that others on FPN have different preferences including non-bulky soft cases.

[Scrawler]

This is my "Everyday Carry". I have one of the largest pens it is practical to carry and one of the smallest. If anyone is carrying something larger than this MB 146, they probably also have a special single pen case for it. If you look at the top end you will see that both pens fit in the individual channels with the clip turned to the back corner, When they are like this the pens will not move around, despite the difference in size between the MB146 and the Esterbrook SJ.

 

http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx153/FPWriter/pencase2_zpszhomu0gh.jpg

 

If you look closely at the pen tubes, you will see that over long usage the channels are now slightly different in size as a result of having one very large and one very small pen in at all times.

 

http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx153/FPWriter/pencase1_zpsc57lkzet.jpg

[MrThoth]

I thought I'd post a couple pictures to provide examples of what I was talking about. Please forgive my poor photography skills.

 

First up: a Levenger 25-pen case:

 

 

In many ways, I love love love this case. The outer casing is hard, thus helping to protect the pens. It uses a magnetic clasp, which I think is far preferable to a leather loop or tie. Each pen has its own separate channel in the case, separated by walls, so they can't scratch each other. The manufacturer even made one row of channels slightly larger to accomodate larger pens (more on that below).

 

But this case has one colossal problem: nothing to attach the pens to within the channels, or to hold them in place. As a result, every time you pick it up they rattle around, making this damn annoying noise, and at least potentially causing abrasion to the pens over time. If not for that problem, this would just about be the perfect pen case for me.

 

Here's another case, a 13--pen one from Wancher:

 

Now, the nice thing about this one is that each pen has a snug cloth channel you can clip it to, which both protects it and keeps it from moving around. And though you can't see it in the photo, there's enough room in front of the channels for a small box of ink cartridges or the like -- very handy. And again, it has a magnetic clasp.

This case's big failing, at least from my perspective, is that it's entirely made of soft leather. It's not sturdy. It flops around. This sometimes makes it more difficult to carry and is generally just annoying.

And just to show what pen case manufacturers such as yourself have to deal with, here's a picture of two of my pens: a lovely little Parker that's about as thin as a #2 pencil, and a Laban German Rubber that's thick and heavy enough to make a decent weapon in hand-to-hand combat if you happen to have left your brass knuckles at home:

So somehow a good pen case has to be able to accomodate a wide range of pen thicknesses -- not to mention pens that don't even have clips, and many other oddities. Obviously there's no one solution that will satisfy all collectors, but I know as a manufacturer you want to try to reach as broad a market as possible.

Good luck with your planning and please keep us informed of your progress! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

Edited April 27, 2015 by MrThoth

[MaxwellScottBags]

Good afternoon,

 

In response to your queries

 

Intellidepth - I completely agree about the appalling props. This is something we will rectify in the next few months. In terms of rigidity, I am hoping a similar set up to our current pen case should offer amble protection (this is just the thick leather, rather than any additional plastic / cardboard reinforcement).

 

Scrawler - I like the concept of individual channels covering 100% of the pen (this seem the best solution for protection from each individual pen). This case however seems a very personal item, as it has moulded to your requirements over time. Unfortunately our leather would not have the same effect and stay pretty much the same shape. Therefore we would need to make sure the dimensions are spot on the accommodate the standard requirement.

 

Mr Thoth - unfortunately for some reason the images have not displayed. If you do again read this message then please please submit so i can understand your feedback (this would be really helpful)

 

Thank you again

[Scrawler]

<snip>

 

Scrawler - I like the concept of individual channels covering 100% of the pen (this seem the best solution for protection from each individual pen). This case however seems a very personal item, as it has moulded to your requirements over time. Unfortunately our leather would not have the same effect and stay pretty much the same shape. Therefore we would need to make sure the dimensions are spot on the accommodate the standard requirement.

 

<snip>

 

Yes it is true. I was just trying to illustrate the concept of tubes. This one of mine is intended to go in the inside pocket of my jacket and it does not have the form retention of your design. I like your rigid case, as something I would put inside a matching briefcase. I feel that if you had a simple separator, your more rigid pen case would offer more protection to valuable pens than this one of mine does. These two pens pretty much illustrate the extreme ends of large and small and are not what most people would be carrying, and for "standard" equipment I think that a Parker Duofold would represent the size to go for.

[MrThoth]

 

 

Mr Thoth - unfortunately for some reason the images have not displayed. If you do again read this message then please please submit so i can understand your feedback (this would be really helpful)

 

Huh. They were there when I first posted it, but they're darn sure not there now.

 

::investigates::

 

OK, I think I figured out the problem. For some reason the way the board currently works I can only add an image to a reply if (a) I provide a URL, or ( b ) it's included in "My Media." No longer can I simply add it as an attachment, AFAICT. So what I did was create a fake thread, post the three images, and thus get them added to my media. Then they were part of "My Media," so I could upload them here. But maybe once I deleted the dummy thread the pics were deleted from My Media, because they're not there now.

 

This is damn annoying. Working on it....

Edited May 1, 2015 by MrThoth

[MrThoth]

OK, let's see if this works. Here are the three pictures in order:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MrThoth]

Unfortunately you can apparently only edit a post one time, so I couldn't go back and put the images in my first post. >:|

[MaxwellScottBags]

Hello,

 

Thank you for sending through the images - these do help.

 

I do think the best solution for holding several pens in place is some type of elasticated solution.

 

Currently, I am not sure how well a large case to accommodate 10+ pens would sell. I am concerned the market and demand for this type of product at the premium level may not be there. So I am probably going to start by developing two cases. One singular unit and probably a case for three pens (with dividers and elasticated fixtures). If these work well, and I feel there is adequate demand then I will indeed look at a larger option.

 

I will spend some time to work through some designs and post my sketches here.

 

Thank you for your thoughts and feedback.

[Scrawler]

Hello,

 

Thank you for sending through the images - these do help.

 

I do think the best solution for holding several pens in place is some type of elasticated solution.

 

Currently, I am not sure how well a large case to accommodate 10+ pens would sell. I am concerned the market and demand for this type of product at the premium level may not be there. So I am probably going to start by developing two cases. One singular unit and probably a case for three pens (with dividers and elasticated fixtures). If these work well, and I feel there is adequate demand then I will indeed look at a larger option.

 

I will spend some time to work through some designs and post my sketches here.

 

Thank you for your thoughts and feedback.

I agree with you. The average user will have 1-3 pens in a case they can keep either in a suit pocket, or their brief case. Those large ones are for people transporting a collection. I have always found 2 to be adequate to my needs. I like your idea of elasticated dividers and look forward to seeing your results.

[MrThoth]

Thanks for being open to feedback and sharing your thoughts!