Fisher Of Pens - Our Story And Common Questions Answered

[Carl Fisher - F3 Pens]

Good morning FPN. After posting some of our custom work recently and receiving a few questions, I figured it was about time to properly introduce myself and my family along with our products.

Who is Fisher of Pens?

Fisher of Pens is a family centered artisan business with a goal of creating quality handcrafted products. Our team consists of myself, my wife Chrissy, our boys Ryan and Justin and our 17-month old baby girl Alyssa. She likes to supervise and quality test and make sure things will stand up to repated drops and bite marks

What do you mean by full custom vs semi-custom pens?

All of our pens are individually handcrafted with special care given towards material selection and final fit and finish. Since all of our products are turned by hand, each is one-of-a-kind. Our pen lineup includes two distinctive categories: full custom and semi-custom.

Our full custom pens are crafted from premium new and vintage materials with only minimal machine-fabricated components, limited to a selection of quality nibs and converters, clips and common refills for rollerball and ballpoint pens. All of the pieces within our full custom pens are turned, threaded and polished by hand and allow us greater design flexibility than our semi-custom component based pens.

Our semi-custom pens are a mixture of hand-turned materials within the body combined with externally manufactured metal components and accents. All handcrafted pieces are carefully designed to complement the overall look of the pen. By using fabricated components, we are able to offer a wide variety of writing instruments to meet any budget - whether you are a first-time pen purchaser, professional writer or somewhere in-between.

How do you create your pens?

We turn all of our pens by hand. Currently our primary machinery is a set of Jet wood lathes and a small metal lathe complimented by the standard woodworking shop machinery. We are also currently working on a rotary cnc that will allow us to mill ornamental designs and embellishments along with in-house engraving.

What are your nib offerings?

After thoroughly testing many of the nibs from top manufacturers, we have chosen JoWo as our primary nib provider. JoWo nibs have been high quality and consistent across every order. Offered in both #5 and #6 sizes, these steel point nibs are available in several plating and engraving options and can be ordered in Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad, 1.1 and 1.4 without the need for special grinds. JoWo also offers a line of gold nibs and all nibs are plug and play easily swapped by the user.

In addition we also have offer a few products from the Schmidt line. The Schmidt large nib in medium point is a good reliable nib at a slightly lower price point and is directly compatible with the Schmidt Roller Writer rollerball tip. This allows you to exchange fountain pen for rollerball at any time while using the same standard international sized cartridge or converter for your favorite ink.

We are also working on a line that uses the Esterbrooks and Venus renew-point style nibs along with certain Pelikan nibs that are compatible with the Esterbrook lineup. These vintage nibs offer a great selection of quality steel nibs at a relatively low price point. Due to the design of the nib housing, these pens will be either large capacity eye dropper filled or bulb fillers.

What materials do we use?

Every item we create starts with hand selected raw materials ranging from domestic and exotic hardwoods to custom poured resins or high-end plastics such as italian lucite, acrylic acetate, inlace acrylester and more. We also try to source classic vintage materials as they become available including cebloplast, ebonite, bakelite and cellulose acetate to name a few.

We leverage several of the top blank artisans in the industry. Much of our hand poured lineup comes from Jonathon Brooks while also turning to blank makers such as Mutt Blanks and Marla Mills among others. We also work with commercially available plastics from Richard Greenwald, Bear Tooth Woods and several others. We try to source vintage materials whenever possible

What product lines do we offer?

At this time our primary lineup includes: Fountain Pens, Rollerball Pens, Ballpoint Pens, Calligraphy Pens, Mechanical Pencils, Touch Screen Stylus, Razors and Shaving Sets, Bottle Stoppers and Pepper Mills

Where can I see and purchase your products?

FisherofPens.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pen Shows, Art and Craft Shows, Custom Orders, Enthusiast Websites such as Fountain Pen Network and Fountain Pens Buy & Sell on Facebook

Do you accept custom orders or commissions?

Absolutely! In fact a many of our clients commission us to design custom orders for them. With the wide range of materials available to us, we are able to create something perfectly tailored to meet your needs. Want to create a special pen using your favorite sports team colors or do you have a piece of wood that has special significance in your life? We can use your inspirational piece to make a special heirloom that is meaningful to you. We will work directly with you to create something that is distinctively yours.

How did you get into pens?

I have been interested in woodworking as far back as I can remember to the days of playing with tools in my grandfather’s garage. I could spend hours folding and unfolding his wooden rule and finding creative ways to use the basic hand tools I could reach on his bench. As a family, our first introduction into working with a lathe was some years ago when my we were at a woodworking show where my sons and I had the opportunity to turn a basic pen. You could just say it was an addiction from that point forward and we have since found that each member of our household has an individual specialization. My wife Chrissy has an eye for design, is an expert at segmenting different materials and inlay work, as well as turning on the lathe. My boys Ryan and Justin, currently 13 and 11 respectively, are both capable at the lathe and have a growing enthusiasm for woodworking. I personally enjoy the detail work of final turning and finishing as well as working with our full custom lineup. As we honed these skills Fisher of Pens was born.

Are you affiliated with Fisher Space Pen?

No we are not. Our family name is Fisher. We have no affiliation to the Fisher Space Pen company other than the fact that we share a common surname. We have gone through great effort to ensure that we are not confused with them in any way from our name and logo design to our product offerings.

How does your pricing work?

All of our full custom pens start at a base price depending on the model. This base price is typically $125 or $150 depending on the model. Then we factor in any additional based on material selection, nib options, clip options or any other embellishments and adjust the price accordingly.

Attached are a few examples of our currently in-stock and ready to ship custom fountain pens. Each can be viewed on our website along with their respective prices, measurements, weights and options.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Carl Fisher