Edison Mina In Tortoise Lucite

[bartlee01]

This one was a gift for a friend. I ended up getting it engraved locally (last minute decision and it was after I took these photos). Then I used black model aeroplane paint to fill in the engraving and rubbed the excess paint of with paper towel and methylated spirits while it was half dry. It turned out really well. Without the black paint the engraving really didn't stand out at all. Sorry no photos of that!

 

I did very slightly adjust and smooth the nib. When it arrived it wrote quite well but I found with loops it would write wet in one part a dry in another with very slight skipping occasionally (well not quite skipping but it wasn't a really good reliable flow). I did order it to be 7/10 for flow and I've probably made it an 8.5 and now it's "reliable" (nothing worse that "skipping anxiety" although I must emphasise it was not actually skipping when it arrived, reliable flow is very relaxing).

 

It loves Perle Noire.

 

The pen is made from Tortoise Lucite and the grip section is black ebonite. I ordered the black ebonite because it's nice to hold and the nib unit on the Mina protrudes from the end of the section and I was aiming to hide that. You can also randomly smell it to remind yourself it is ebonite and not a ballpoint.

 

The bulb was actually slightly too long when the pen arrived. The blind cap would end up pushing on it and twisting it so that ink would squirt out of the feed. I emailed Brian from Edison pens about this and he explained the bulb is glued on with shellac and can be melted off with a hair drier. It was easy to remove and I obtained some shellac flakes, dissolved them in methylated spirits and use a tiny paint brush to glue the bulb back on (after cutting about 2 mm off the end to shorten it). The shellac take about 30 mins to dry. You do have to be careful shortening the bulb because there are 2 holes for ink to come in/out of the feed. A small one and a large one. The pen fills (I think!) because when you squeeze it the larger hole lets a large volume of air out while the small hole only lets a tiny bit of ink out. Then the air volume is replace by lots of ink coming in. It's not 100% efficient but so long at the air hole is quite a bit larger than the ink hole it works (correct me if my theory about this is wrong).

 

As this pen was a present it's hard to rate it precisely from my perspective. It has a very narrow grip section and is probably comfortable if you have smaller hands. I would tentatively give it 9.5/10.

 

I would have liked the nib to have the Edison logo but Brian did not have #5 nibs in 18k gold with his logo.

 

 

 

Pictures:

 

I shortened the ink sac 2mm (it did not seem to harm the bulbs ability to fill the pen)

 

I think the Tortoise Lucite really suits this pen design

 

 

 

Brian's photos:

 

 

[jandrese]

Good looking pen, thanks for sharing. Considering you had to put some work in you gave the pen a high rating. I often work nibs on new pens, indeed, I recently conquered a Taccia that was giving me fits. Brian is getting really good with nibs but his pen body work is normally fantastic. Although a small detail, because it is a bespoke transparent pen I'm surprised about the bulb. At least it was easy to fix. Enjoy.

[Amandaa]

pretty! this is actually very similar to what im planning my next custom to be (colors, materials) just a different model

[kp288908]

beautiful! I agree, tortoise suits the mina very well. Enjoy that gorgeous pen!!!

[bartlee01]

Good looking pen, thanks for sharing. Considering you had to put some work in you gave the pen a high rating. I often work nibs on new pens, indeed, I recently conquered a Taccia that was giving me fits. Brian is getting really good with nibs but his pen body work is normally fantastic. Although a small detail, because it is a bespoke transparent pen I'm surprised about the bulb. At least it was easy to fix. Enjoy.

 

Shortening the bulb was no trouble... and now I know how to replace them. The bulb is probably the only part of the pen that might need to be replaced eventually even if it's looked after well.

 

I highly recommend getting a 20x loupe, some micro abrasive, nylon pliers and learn how to get the feed out of a pen and adjust/smooth the nib. Once I figured that out all my pens improved (I did wreck a couple of sarafi nibs while I was learning but they aren't too expensive).

 

1. nib must be in full contact with feed all the way along (you can remove it and push it slightly flatter along the middle)

 

2. tines "almost" touching at the end with the "camber" of the tipping material slightly the opposite to a normal car (actually kind of like a race care where the wheels point out very slightly at the bottom)

 

3. I've found the best way to smooth a nib is to hold the mico abrasive sheet in your hand with it rolled into a half tube and gently slide the nib along it backwards and forwards from left to right while keeping the tipping material horizontal and tilting the pen body forwards and backwards (if you know a better way let me know!)

 

3. you can also cut an ebonite feed very carefully to widen the ink channel if the ink flow is not enough

[raging.dragon]

The tortoise lucite looks great. The ebonite section is good idea too, I only have one ebonite pen (Indian with German nib) and I quite enjoy the feel of ebonite. Though I'd go for satin finished ebonite, instead of polished.