Here's my latest pen. It has a pretty unique shape in that the section is trilobe, and it twists, tapers, and curves simultaneously. It took a long time to work out the design of it. The pen has both a clip and a cap that acts as a stand for sitting it upright on a desk. When it sits on a desk, the shape is reminiscent of a flame from a candle. The trilobe shape and twist fits the pen to the hand. This is a right hand version, whereas there would be the option of a left hand version as well. The pen has an 18k nib and takes cartridges or a converter and will have the option of a rollerball. The cap, barrel, and centerband/ clip are machined from billet titanium.

Here a picture of the pen in use. Notice how the back fits the nook of the hand.

Here's a pic of the pen standing and showing the smooth acrylic surface and reflections of daylight.

Wow, GREAT pen! I love the sculptural aspect! Thanks for sharing the photo!

Petra

dang that's gorgeous. It strikes me as looking a good bit like a quill also.

That's gorgeous. The lines are very graceful, and the colors delicate and lovely.

Fantastic!

It reminds me of a great quill knife.. Must feel so nice to hold one of those!

Edit: Accidentally wrote "quill pen" instead of "quill knife"

Am I correct in thinking this is one you made ?

If so I'd love to hear more : cage-turned off-centre or hand shaped etc etc

Itching with curiousity

Regards,
Ruaidhrí

Thanks guys. Yes, Ruaidhri I made this one from scratch. The main body is machined from solid acrylic bar on a rotary axis computer controlled machining center. I designed the parts in 2D CAD and hand programmed all the 4th axis code for the machine, which was a real bear. It took 7 iterations of tweaking in the shape before arriving at the final shape. I made the barrel and cap from billet titanium and turned those on a CNC (computer numerically controlled) lathe. I had to come up with my own threading to fit the design, as normal stuff didn't work as well. It worked fine since I made both mating pieces. The cap screws on with a 4 start thread so only takes about a quarter turn to fully engage. This is possible in titanium because it's so strong. The trilobe shaped titanium clip and centerband piece was also machined from solid titanium. Notice that it takes on the same curvature and taper as the body. It was first drilled and internally threaded to match a brass bushing that gets glued into the pen body. This bushing is what also holds the forward titanium barrel. I had to be sure the orientation of the clip and the front body section were correctly aligned before finishing them. The nib is also able to be oriented to the writer's specific writing angle.

Finishing the clip was the trickiest operation since I had to sand and polish the hard titanium right next to the soft acrylic. The parts were assembled before the finishing stage to be sure everything aligned and flowed together. The whole thing was sanded and polished or mirror finish.

Here's a picture of some of the parts that were made in dialing in the design.

Bruce,

Thanks. Some #%$£ gear to produce that shape Wow.
As a hand turner when I want triangular type sections I have to rig a cage & mount on that ! That shape would be a bl### nightmare in my workshop

Any more pics would go down well !

Regards,
Ruaidhrí

Here's another pic.

Here's one from the end.

Here's one of the grip.

Here's a side view showing the clip.

Here's one made in African Olivewood.

wow! I especially love the wood one. Wood and steel/silver are two of my favorite materials. I don't often see them used together like this; it looks great!

excellent work

Hubba Hubba!

Now the question that no one has had the total lack of couth to ask is...

How Much and Where do I sign up?!?

Really can appreciate the work that went into that, somewhat of a machining background myself and all.

Very beautiful, course I would need to see the lefty version as I am so blessed (or is it cursed??)

Cheers,
SG

I'm still trying to nail down final costs. Definitely trying for less than 4 digits. My challenge is to get the manufacturing and finishing times down. I haven't yet done a lefty version, but making the code change shouldn't be that bad. I'll be able to write the machine code with a variable that makes right or left. Email me if you're seriously interested and we can talk.

I must add it is impressive work and a nice design.

Ron

The pen is stunning.

I don't mean to be negative but the cap doesn't wow me. Not sure why exactly but the pen body and clip are so incredible maybe the cap seems a bit plain or strange.

I'm in awe of the skill and creativity. Thanks for sharing with us!

Andy

Absolutely extraordinary! Wonderful picts and description of your work.

Ooooooooooooooh.

Michael

did I say ooooooh?

OK, I confess I started out admiring the pen... but then I went to your website - and got stuck on the diamond rings...incredible settings ...now there's an incentive for a girl to get hitched

Thanks guys. Nipu, the rings are my main line of work. I've done a few high end pens and am hoping to expand in that market. Rings are what pays the bills at this time. I've done something like 20,000 of them or so by now.

Andy, I appreciate your feeback. I'll take a look at the cap with fresh eyes and see if there might be a way to spice it up without adding a ton of labor. Note that the cap on the wood one was not yet polished. That's how it comes right off the machine.

Personally, I'm totalled wowed by the pen. Although, I can appreciate Andy's point. I appreciate the functionality of the cap and understand how that could introduce some limitations if you still want to be able to stand the pen up.
But hey, if I'm going to spend possibly somewhere around 4 digits for this pen, maybe I could commission you to machine a second cap for it. The one shown for standing up and a different, more ornamental version for presentation in the heavily-fortified display case.

Nice, nice work!!

Dean

What a nifty pen! Is it going to be available in flame red?

Judybug

Holtz. or Evans would smile happily in their graves to hear that - "if the edge be honed to a mirror then..."

Seriously lovely shapes. Personally I think I'd keep them as they are - you can only sacrifice so much form for functionality

Regards,
Ruaidhrí

Working in metal in my real life with tools such as you used, I applaude your work. Very nicely done.

If you do change the cap at all, think minimalist. I think too much detail would detract from the simple, beautiful lines of the pen.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I really appreciate it. Dean, a special cap might be just the ticket for something looking for something ornate and smaller there. I was looking for something simple and contemporary on this one that would highlight the pen when it stands, yet not look too ridiculous when in a pocket. It's a tough challenge to do both. The cap has some 3 dimensional texturing on it with a logo, so it does stand out when in a pocket, that's for sure. From what I've heard from some dealers at the shows I've been to, people who have a very high end pen want to carry their pens with them and be seen with them, and might be hesitant to leave it on a desk at the office. This made a lot of sense to me, so I designed one that could do both.

Judybug, I will be looking into other colors. The problem is that this takes 1" diameter stock instead of the usual 3/4", and it's extremely tough to find fancy acrylics in that size. I may need to special order some in large batches. I just tried some nice ruby red ebonite, but it flexed too much, so chattered during machining. It would be extremely difficult to get the deep gouges out and back to a nice finish. I'll have to keep looking for the perfect sources of acrylic.

Did you say ruby red ebonite ? Where did you get that?

I can imagine many people trying to take a second mortgage to
get the Spyra in ruby red ebonite. I am sort of imagining a
"meta"-Waterman kind of red cardinal with a titanium (or perhaps sterling) overlay.

Anyway, really nice, unusual creations.

Antoniosz, the red material actually came from a bowling ball. There is a supplier for pen makers that sells such material. I believe it is considered ebonite, but I might be mistaken about that. It might be a hard urethane. It was more flexible than acrylic. I only noticed that after machining it to a thin section. There are muted color swirls in it, but it's not as clear as acrylic is.

Hi Bruce,
I'm really astonished !
My sincere congratulations on the beautifull, ergomonic & pure design of this pen.
You surely beat the famous Italian designers with this one!

Francis

Fantastic work! My friend Rabbit, the one who complemented you on the wooden pen, was talking to me a couple of weeks ago about them, and mentioned that you machined them yourself and that you do a lot of work in titanium. As soon as he said you mostly make ti rings, your name popped into my head...because of your other rings. I've been on MTBR for a while and have followed your work - you make the most beautiful bicycle chainrings and cogs, by far. I'm a sucker to opening threads in the SS forum which mention your gears in the title, just to see some more pictures. Great stuff!

I've always wanted to order one of your rings just to wear around - I'm not even considering marriage at this point, they're just nice. I'd forgotten about your pens...the Spyra is my favourite. Keep up the great work!

Brian

Thanks guys. Brian, I'm actually doing the titanium wedding rings full time now. The titanium bike cogs andchainrings are now being made by a former employee that now has his own shop.

Francis, I just got ahold of some blue acrylic that the Flame can be made in. It's very tough finding suppliers that have it in large enough stock! Here's a picture of the raw stock: