im making a pen for a friend, and she likes the size of her lamy safari. what pen kits are close to the safari in size, both in diameter and length?

My Safari went to the pen heaven quite a while ago, but if you can measure your friend's, you can compare those dimensions to any of the kit dimensions listed on the manufacturers' sites. Unless you are going to turn your pen from hexagonal stock, the profile of your pen will be significantly different anyway. Also, the Safari is very lightweight. I don't believe that you will find a kit that comes close.

its really the general size she likes. i dont have a safari for measuring myself. hope she brought hers with her from Germany...

Here you go:

Cap:
diameter at finial = 12mm
diameter at mouth = 14.5mm
length = 64 mm

Body:
diameter at section mouth = 12mm
diameter at finial = 10.5 mm
length = 74mm

Section:
length = 35mm
nib length = 17mm

I think the Classic American kits at Woodcraft are approximately the same size when finished.

If you want something comparable, I would not use the entire kit, and go for a closed end cap and body. Just use the fountain pen guts, the tubes (or part of the tubes), and the connections for the cap and guts into the barrel and cap.

I just made a new body for a Pilot Crystal that I dropped (and it cracked/shattered) using just an acrylic blank, but I had to sacrifice the pen guts... the inner cap from inside the cap, the finial, and the entire section, as well as part of the body that contained the screws... all got re-used inside of an acrylic body.

It was fun, and I like the results. I'd like them even more if I'd have let the acrylic cool before putting it in a press to finish drilling out the cap. Ended up smooshing it, but I didn't know until I removed it from the vise. Oops. Next project = Pilot Petit, and I'm only going to do the barrel... sacrificing the existing barrel to get its threaded part to insert it into a barrel I'm going to make from acrylic, and turn the $5 pocket pen into a $10 full sized pen.

-George