New Titanium Pen Project At Kickstarter

[Aramchek]

Yet another interesting fountain pen project at Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/i-d/tti-120-titanium-fountain-pen/description

Nice design but not cheap! The engraved version seems especially nifty but even more not cheap than the other versions.

Unclear what nibs are offered, it is listed both as M only, M or F, and in the comments he talks about possibly offering EF as well.

I would probably consider it if it wasn't for the slight detail that I want to still be able to feed myself for the rest of the month.

Apparently the balance is adjustable but he doesn't indicate how.

 

No affiliation etc

[Drone]

Interesting. It looks like there's a weight you can remove to change the balance of the pen. I'm worried that even with the weight removed, the pen will still be too top-heavy when posted.

 

Also, I'm not a fan of pens with caps that screw-on to post. Unless properly designed with high-pitch threads and a robust thread stop, sooner or later the cap threads wear-in and the nib and clip become forever mis-aligned when posted. The thread pitch on this pen design seems to be too low for threaded posting.

 

The $189 Kickstarter price with the steel nib seems a tad high, but titanium is rather expensive and is notoriously difficult to work with - so I'm OK with it. The $350 retail price for the same pen is simply too high. And we're talking about the cheapest version of the pen here; no barrel engraving.

 

I wonder why there isn't a semi-flex titanium nib option for this titanium pen?

[EclecticCollector]

It looks like there's a weight you can remove to change the balance of the pen.

This is my interpretation as well, based on the exploded view image. The weight appears to go under/inside the blind cap at the rear of the pen. I question how much difference such a small piece of titanium will actually make to the pen's center of gravity, the cynic in me thinks it's just a marketing gimmick.

[Feanaaro]

The prices seem very high to me. Namisu (also on kickstarter) gave you titanium pen for less than 100$. More troublingly, to me, the level of obfuscation in the language used to describe the pen is disturbingly high, even for kickstarter pitches.

[watch_art]

Whatever this is supposed to show is bunk.

 

[Nibasaurus]

It really seems like all of the time has been spent on marketing. Following the rabbit hole through the other projects and web sites leaves me dubious.

[adamselene]

Whatever this is supposed to show is bunk.

 

 

 

 

Good pickup! I saw it, but ignored it, "suspended disbelief" or maybe I'm just another desensatized American!

 

Thanks for waking me up!

[Inkysloth]

I don't get the obsession with milled titanium everything, it seems very wasteful of materials.

[Drone]

I don't get the obsession with milled titanium everything, it seems very wasteful of materials.

 

"...obsession with milled titanium everything...", "...wasteful of materials."

 

C'mon, titanium alloy is far from common as a material in consumer products. It is a relatively expensive material and difficult to work with compared with (e.g.) aluminum.

 

Before you pass such sweeping judgement: do you own any titanium pens - or any other products made of titanium alloy?

 

While I'm not a big fan of the pen which is the subject of this thread due to the high price and style, I would welcome more titanium pens. A good reason for using titanium is that it is resilient yet light enough to form a cap that keeps the pen well-balanced when posted (assuming of-course the pen is designed properly in the first place, a rare occurance). Aluminum alloy is the next best choice - lighter but not as resilient as titanium alloy, and aluminum feels entirely different in the hand. And then there are the aesthetics of a titanium alloy finish, especially when bare.

 

Most "Titanium" pens are turned from Grade-5 Ti-Alloy round bar stock (which consists of approximately 90% titanium with most of the remaining material comprised of a mix of aluminum and vanadium). For turned pens that are not mass produced, the unworked rod stock cost for a single pen (barrel, section & cap) will run you (roughly) $10 USD per pen.

 

But that's the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cost of working with titanium vs. aluminum.

 

As for titanium fountain pens being "wasteful":

 

Titanium is one of the most abundant metallic elements mined on Earth. The amount of titanium used in the manufacture of all the titanium pens on the planet is a teensy-tiny fraction of the amount of titanium used to make (e.g.) containers for nuclear waste - or even parts for Comrade Baby-Kim's nuclear bombs.

Edited March 28, 2016 by Drone

[Inkysloth]

 

"...obsession with milled titanium everything...", "...wasteful of materials."

 

C'mon, titanium alloy is far from common as a material in consumer products. It is a relatively expensive material and difficult to work with compared with (e.g.) aluminum.

 

Before you pass such sweeping judgement: do you own any titanium pens - or any other products made of titanium alloy?

 

While I'm not a big fan of the pen which is the subject of this thread due to the high price and style, I would welcome more titanium pens. A good reason for using titanium is that it is resilient yet light enough to form a cap that keeps the pen well-balanced when posted (assuming of-course the pen is designed properly in the first place, a rare occurance). Aluminum alloy is the next best choice - lighter but not as resilient as titanium alloy, and aluminum feels entirely different in the hand. And then there are the aesthetics of a titanium alloy finish, especially when bare.

 

Most "Titanium" pens are turned from Grade-5 Ti-Alloy round bar stock (which consists of approximately 90% titanium with most of the remaining material comprised of a mix of aluminum and vanadium). For turned pens that are not mass produced, the unworked rod stock cost for a single pen (barrel, section & cap) will run you (roughly) $10 USD per pen.

 

But that's the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the cost of working with titanium vs. aluminum.

 

As for titanium fountain pens being "wasteful":

 

Titanium is one of the most abundant metallic elements mined on Earth. The amount of titanium used in the manufacture of all the titanium pens on the planet is a teensy-tiny fraction of the amount of titanium used to make (e.g.) containers for nuclear waste - or even parts for Comrade Baby-Kim's nuclear bombs.

I should have been more specific, sorry, I didn't only mean fountain pens.

 

I mean on Kickstarter as a whole - search for "Titanium" and it seems like any consumer item is being produced in titanium, whether it needs to be or not. Are titanium bottle openers, keyrings, belt buckles, cheese slicers, phone chargers, credit card holders, chopsticks, whiskey stones, playing cards, dice, plectrums, combs, shot glasses and paperclips necessary? Are they genuinely improving on existing products?

 

I'm not a minimalist by any stretch, but I appreciate efficient use of materials, and materials chosen to make the most of their properties. Titanium is a brilliant material to build a wheelchair from, but is it really the best material for a plectrum, belt buckle, or pen barrel?

 

Titanium might be abundant, but it doesn't come out of the ground ready to use. It's refinement and processing uses a hell of a lot of energy. This doesn't mean I think it shouldn't ever be used for anything fun, but I don't think it's a suitable material for frivolous products.

Edited March 28, 2016 by Inkysloth