Are Custom Pens Popular?

[Technomancer]

Are custom pens made by individuals (ie. not companies like Edison, etc.) popular? If so why or why not? Does anyone collect them? Do people value the brand of the pen more than they should? Brand pens have a track record for quality and performance that crafter's pens might not, does that contribute to peoples choices?

 

Edit: I should also add if you have had a customer pen made by an individual did you like it? Who made it?

Edited August 16, 2016 by Technomancer

[Cyber6]

Are custom pens made by individuals (ie. not companies like Edison, etc.) popular? If so why or why not? Does anyone collect them? Do people value the brand of the pen more than they should? Brand pens have a track record for quality and performance that crafter's pens might not, does that contribute to peoples choices?

 

Edit: I should also add if you have had a customer pen made by an individual did you like it? Who made it?

 

 

I have a couple of custom pens made by Ken Cavers and Jonathan Brooks, both are high quality, gorgeous materials and the best of it... ONE OF A KIND!!!... Love them both.

 

I guess, as with everything... you need to do your leg work and review the work of whoever you want to get a custom pen from.

 

 

C.

[pajaro]

I might be wrong about this, but I think most custom pens are using to some extent parts manufactured by someone else, like sections, feeds, nibs, clips or other parts. Barrels and caps might be turned by a craftsman making a pen, but some parts would have to be purchased, because it seems making all the parts would call for a lot of investment, time and technical expertise. It seems to me that the pen maker isn't going to craft every part.

 

A lot of what I have seen advertised looks like kit type pens with crafted barrels and caps. Personally I am not the least bit interested in this sort of thing. Perhaps at the most attractive you might have a craftsman like Ralph Prater designing and producing beautiful versions of Parker 51 Vacumatics in beautiful plastic and metal. Somehow, though, it's just too much, all the really beautiful custom pens are not the kind of items I started to collect. In the beginning Parker 51s made by Parker were all I was interested in. Then I wanted a bit of color and bought a few Ariel Kullock conversion kits and used black and gray 51s to convert.

 

Then things got out of hand. I read all the posts about how this and that were the cat's meow, and tried this and that. Ultimately, I have come to realize that all these pens are inferior to a working Parker 51, and so I am divesting. Custom pens, made based on pens that I have already found to be inferior, have no attraction. They are well meaning attempts to make an attractive pen, but they are using the C/C parts and so on, so you can wax ecstatic about these pens, based upon their undoubted beauty.

 

I believe custom pens are beautiful, and they probably work OK, but I have no interest in them at all. That's another branch of collecting.

[TheRealMikeDr]

I've got one on order that is slated to be completed in the Spring of 2017 - I'll let you know then if I like it

 

 

[Kelly G]

I too have a custom pen in process. It is based on the Edison Extended Length Mina and the customization is by Ernest Shin - urushi laquer with maki-e elements. Ernest and I collaborated on the design and it should be a great pen. I know the Mina is a sound foundation for the work that Ernest is doing as I have the Mina group buy LE.

 

I am currently contemplating another custom pen to be built around a great vintage nib I have in my accumulation; a Diamond Medal # 8 nib. It is a big gold nib in a pen that I believe to be a Diamond Medal Diplomat pen that someone hacked off an inscription on the barrel. While I've restored the pen the best I can, the hack job definitely defaced the pen. That nib deserves something better. I don't have a final design firmly in mind, but it should be a fun project.

[empliau]

When and if I have the money (in other words, fantasyland) I will get a custom Brad Torelli. He does amazing work. The pens by him people have shared here are remarkable.

[Wahl]

Most collectors keep to well known brands.

[Technomancer]

That is what I am noticing. I see all the pen crafters, mostly kit made, on Etsy and places and wonder who buys them and if anyone collects them.

[J85909266]

I believe Shawn Newton makes fully custom pens and even works with a jeweler that can craft custom clips, overlays, and nibs. Check out his FB photos. He does some really interesting stuff.

[SirVival]

Hi,

 

I am the owner of a custom pen (no kit) turned in Coolaba(spelling?) wood and tiger eye acrylic with two dragonfly roll stoppers.

 

It is a beautiful pen with a #8 nib ground to a stub by Oxonian. Do I use it a lot? Not really, it is more of a commemorative pen that reminds me of some great times had and shared.

 

The artist is John Twiss and part of the fun was visiting him in his workshop and discussing options over a cup of tea. A very nice guy whom I can really recommend!

[NinthSphere]

Certainly they're popular enough to keep makers in business, even if only a part time job for some.

 

I don't collect them personally, due primarily to expense & wait time. The one I do have, from Scriptorium, came with 6ish months in queue & is the second most (technically the most, depending on how you do the math) paid for any pen in my possession thus far. I love it. It's been inked up & in use since the day I got it. Should my plan for a second custom go through more or less as is, I'll be looking at another 6ish months & roughly twice the expense.

 

Brand pens do tend to have a track record for quality & performance, not always good. Custom makers will too though, & my own choice was made based on looking at the work of multiple makers & how that fit with what I was looking for in my pen.

[penmanila]

I have a custom oversized Astoria Goliath by Max Schrage--I chose the MB Oscar Wilde material for the barrel and a No. 8 18K nib--and more than a year later I'm still absolutely thrilled by it. I won't even mind if Max makes more of the pen--it's not cheap but it certainly deserves to be replicated.

 

I also have a whopper of an all-bronze-bodied Duofold Senior replica by Chris Thompson, the heaviest pen in my collection. I love it when these craftsmen make wonderful replicas in new materials.

Edited August 19, 2016 by penmanila

[Ted A]

Are custom pens made by individuals (ie. not companies like Edison, etc.) popular?

 

 

came with 6ish months in queue

 

With that kind of wait it would appear that some are very popular. I think I even saw one person say they were at about 10 months. That leads to the next question of what is the difference in concept between a custom pen made by and individual and a custom pen made by an individual who has help because their pens are so popular?

 

I have one custom made by Shawn Newton. I like it a lot. Shawn ground the nib for me and did a WONDERFUL job, making it one of my very favorite pens.

 

Custom pens are unique. You can get them made to your own specifications so it's very unlikely that there is another pen exactly like it anywhere in the world.

 

The craftsmanship is usually very high. How many threads on FPN have you seen with a variation on the theme of "Why is my super expensive pen such a lousy writer out of the box?" I'm not sure that I've seen that said of custom pens. There have been some where a person posts that their nib isn't right and within a day or so the maker is posting that they will happily fix it.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Ted A

[Technomancer]

Like the difference between an artist who paints their own pictures and one who sketches the pictures for their apprentices to paint.

[Cryptos]

Don't know. I thought so 6 months ago. Now? I cannot help feeling that they are often nothing more than fancy holders for generic Jowo or Bock nibs. If I was to do it again - and I'm still waiting on mine - I would source an interesting nib first and then have a pen built around it to my own specs. As it is I am getting an off the peg pen with and off the peg nib. Next time, if there is a next time, I may go for something like a Romillo, as that is probably the only way I will get hands on a decent nib.

[ac12]

I don't know about "popular."

If you want a unique or less common pen, then that is the way to go.

If you want a pen to FIT your hand, you could work with a custom pen maker to make a pen to fit YOUR hand.

 

I only have 1, because my wife bought it for me, for a gift.

Nothing has caught my interest enough to buy one, at a price that I felt was reasonable ... yet.

[Buzz_130]

I received a custom pen as a gift. The pen is beautiful and has significant meaning. I've written with it several times, but this pen stays in the presentation box with the engraved glass. I don't have the desire to buy more custom pens.

 

Buzz

[mmg122]

Don't know. I thought so 6 months ago. Now? I cannot help feeling that they are often nothing more than fancy holders for generic Jowo or Bock nibs. If I was to do it again - and I'm still waiting on mine - I would source an interesting nib first and then have a pen built around it to my own specs. As it is I am getting an off the peg pen with and off the peg nib. Next time, if there is a next time, I may go for something like a Romillo, as that is probably the only way I will get hands on a decent nib.

Since your pen hasn't been made yet, why don't you source a nib you like now and send it to Renée* so that she can match the section to your chosen nib? Not too late to get the pen you seek. Additionally, as you well know, she will build a pen to your specifications. Just a suggestion.

 

* As I recall, you've stated in a previous thread that you have a custom order with Scriptorium.

[mmg122]

I've commissioned pens by Renée Meeks and Ken Cavers and they are all of outstanding quality and workmanship. One of the pens Renée made me was designed around a nib I supplied. I don't think bespoke pens become collectibles per se but they certainly have value in their own right to the person who commissioned them. We are lucky to have so many skilled pen makers as fellow members of this forum.

[Cryptos]

Since your pen hasn't been made yet, why don't you source a nib you like now and send it to Renée* so that she can match the section to your chosen nib? Not too late to get the pen you seek. Additionally, as you well know, she will build a pen to your specifications. Just a suggestion.

 

* As I recall, you've stated in a previous thread that you have a custom order with Scriptorium.

 

I'm into the 6 month of waiting. At this point I wouldn't want to stop and start at the beginning of potentially an even longer wait. Besides which, in all sincerity, where would I find a nib? I live in New Zealand. We don't have these things here, and buying unseen and untested from the internet is just fraught with issues.

 

I do take your point though, and it is because of this that I doubt I would go down this path again.

 

 

Edit: when mine arrives I will be looking to replace the nib with a custom ground Jowo. Either from FC or Esther at Jowo.