Customized Pilot Pens - Any Interest?

[darrin1200]

Thanks Appleman. I just checked my shop and I don't seem to have one.

 

Thanks James. Since this is a "project" without a timeline, I think I need to use it as a learning experience. I recently purchased a metal late, but have not yet learned to make threads. Since a tap for ebonite does not need to be super hardend, maybe I can use this as my first threading project.

 

I'm going to stop by Michaels today to see if they carry the Parralel. If not, ten it will have to wait until next week when I am in Ottawa.

[Jamesbeat]

Yes, you could probably get away with mild steel for a tap that will only be used on plastics.

I have found though that ebonite seems to dull tools surprisingly fast, so you may have to sharpen it from time to time.

You could probably also get away with grinding four flats on the tap rather than milling proper flutes.

[Joseph B]

I posted this in the Japanese pen forum about 2 weeks ago and the response was underwhelming. Posting here to see if I can garner any more interest. But I guess I'm just going to cry in my beer and be resigned to use a cheap plastic Parallel pen:

 

"I'm posting this here first, then depending on the response will either post something in the pen turning forum or perhaps, compose a letter to Pilot HQ in Japan. Or, if there's no interest at all, do nothing except cry in my beer.

 

I have all four sizes of the Pilot Parallel pens and use then frequently to practice italic calligraphy. I would like to have a "nicer" version of a Pilot Parallel pen such as a pen body made of wood or ebonite. If you browse any of the calligraphy supply catalogs or sites you will see that there are a variety of nice wooden dip pen bodies available from various manufacturers ranging in price from $10.00 - $20..00.

 

So 2 questions:

 

1 - Is anyone else interested in this or am i just spittin' in the wind and destined to use the ho-hum bodies of the Pilot Parallels?

 

2 - How much of a premium would you be willing to pay for such a nicer version of a Parallel pen?

 

For myself I'd be willing to pay as much as $40. for a wooden body (perhaps ebonite would be more expensive?).

 

Getting the body itself produced shouldn't be that costly based on the variety of dip pen bodies which are available and their price. The challenge would be fitting the body with the threaded insert to accept the nib. I don't see why Pilot couldn't figure out a way to use the same plastic insert and put that into a wooden ( or ebonite) body.

 

Thoughts?"

 

 

Consider using the end of the Parallel barrel for the insert coupling that you mention, then both sets of threads would be accommodated, that is if the original cap is used. This would be a lost cost option.

 

Joseph B.

[Jamesbeat]

The problem with that is that you would have to make the new barrel wide enough to accommodate the outside diameter of the original pilot barrel where it meets the section.

Either that, or you would have to somehow fit the new barrel into the inside diameter of the portion of the pilot barrel that has the threads, which would then present the difficulty of making enough room to house the cartridge or converter.

 

That might be difficult to accomplish and still end up with something that looks nice.

 

If the threads really are m10 x .5 then the tap is cheap enough that it's worth doing the job properly.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Jamesbeat

[Jamesbeat]

Let's take a quick look at the economics of this:

 

The pen would take two acrylic blanks at around $3.50 to $5 each, so let's call that $10 to be safe.

Add to that the price of shipping the blanks, which would be another $5 at a minimum.

 

We will assume the customer supplies the parallel.

 

If you make a simple one piece cap and a barrel, they probably take 1.5 hours each from square blank to polished pen part if you work fast and the design is very simple.

(I'm assuming an accurately produced machined part here, not a freehand wood lathe item).

 

So call that $15 in materials and 3 hours machining time, not to mention cleaning up afterwards, packing for shipment etc.

How much would you want to get paid an hour?

 

This also doesn't include sundries like abrasive paper or tooling (such as the tap) not to mention the occasional broken or otherwise unusable blank.

 

I'd say $40 would be unworkable - it would probably work out at less than minimum wage.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Jamesbeat

[Maurizio]

James I think your calculations are reasonable. Here's an alternative that I had not conceived of in my original post.

 

I am happy to announce here that poster Appleman and I have come to an agreement to do some work. The price is reasonable and not too far off from the number I contemplated in my original post.

 

I am sending him a Pilot Parallel Pen and a Think pen (which has been sitting around idle). He is going to work some artisan's magic and insert the Parallel barrel into the Think barrel and do whatever drilling etc so that the Pilot nib section fits into the barrel. I'm very pleased about this and anticipate sending him more pens in the future.

 

To me this kind of procedure opens up all sorts of possibilities. I may try to find an inexpensive Chinese wooden bodied pen to see if this would be compatible with Appleman's style of work. Lots of other possibilities come to mind; find relatively inexpensive pens and see if they would be compatible with Appleman's process. Maybe an Ahab, or a Jinhao 159 or 750.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Maurizio

[Jamesbeat]

Now that sounds exciting!

Please be sure to update the threads with some photos once the work is done

[Maurizio]

Most certainly

[darrin1200]

Really interesting idea. I to would love to see some pictures.

[Maurizio]

I will be happy to post when the work is done

[Maurizio]

I am pleased to report here that pen artisan Appleman has completed his job for me. I don't have it yet but he sent me some pictures.

 

To recap: he has put a Pilot Parallel 3.8 nib and feed unit into a Think Pen barrel and re-threaded the Think Pen cap and barrel so that the cap can screw back on to the Think Pen barrel. He said he also had to substitute a Sailor converter for the Pilot con-50 that was attached to accomodate the Think Pen barrel; and had to do some drilling in the cap and the barrel to make all these parts fit back together. I'm curious to see how he got the Sailor converter to work with the Pilot nipple.

 

I couldn't be more pleased. I now have a fatter-bodied calligraphy pen which for me is great because I like wider-bodied pens; the pen posted has a decent length as well and I'll use it posted because the length helps with fine control; plus it's a pen I can carry around and put in my pocket and thus practice calligraphy almost anywhere where I can also bring along a Clairefontaine pad (or even a lowly legal pad in a pinch): while waiting around in court, at the airport, or anywhere else I'm compelled to sit around and wait.

 

I plan to send him at least one more pen, and likely more. I've been looking at inexpensive wood-bodied pens on Amazon for pen candidates. Recall my original impulse was to have a wood-bodied Pilot Parallel pen. I've seen some nice bamboo bodies. I already ordered an East Vita 8812 (supposedly) Rosewood barrel pen. It looks like it's made by Jinhao, has a similar shield on the clip, and has a Jinhao converter (price $6.99). From the feel of it, I'm not quite sure it is wood, or if it is, I doubt it's really rosewood; the body feels very waxy like it's been given a heavy coating of oil or similar finishing substance; but it looks fairly handsome and is almost double its capped length when posted. Perfect for a calligraphy pen where length of barrel helps with control. I will send this next to Appleman (assuming he can work with it). He had previously converted another customer's Think Pen to a Pilot Parallel and had posted that in one of his links above. When I saw that I said "boom" that's it and contacted him by PM.

 

Not only was Appleman a pleasure to deal with, he did the work very quickly, within less than a week from when he received the package.

 

3 photos attached from Appleman with the work completed.

 

3 photos of the East Vita 8812.

 

Darn. Appleman's photos are too large to be uploaded at the moment. I will see if I can manipulate their size and post them shortly.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Maurizio

[Maurizio]

1st Appleman pic

[Maurizio]

2nd Appleman pic

[Maurizio]

3rd Appleman pic

 

There it is

[Maurizio]

Dear Moderators could you please change the title of this post to "Customized Pilot Parallel Pens - Any Interest?" That's what I should have named it.

 

Thanks for your attention.

[Jamesbeat]

A vast improvement!

Looks very classy now, and I expect you will be very pleased when you have it in your hands.

My compliments to Appleman - a tricky job that was well planned and executed.

It could so easily have looked like a 'frankenpen', but it comes together very nicely indeed.

[Maurizio]

I appreciate your comments James. Yes Appleman has developed a nice technique.

[KennethMc]

It is wonderful to see true craftsmanship nowadays.

I enjoy my parallel pens but the soft plastic barrels bug me.

Do you reckon it would be possible, or feasible, to have barrels made with Pilot threading that are similar to those for the Rotring Artpen?

I reckon that would be really great combination.

[Maurizio]

Happy to see someone reading this odish post. Yes I’m happy to repeat that Appleman really is a skilled craftsman. I am very pleased with my customized Pilot Parallel pen and use it anytime I practice my calligraphy.

 

I have not yet sent him a wood-barreled pen. I ended up giving the EastVita “rosewood” pen away to a young user. I could not even be certain that it’s “wood” surface was really wood. If I’m going to pay Appleman for his craftsmanship, I want to have a nice wooden-bodied pen to keep for a long time. I havn’t been able to find an inexpensive, wide, wood-barreled pen which sees suitable for Appleman’s special conversion technique.

[fountainbel]

Very nice transformations, congratulations Maurizio !

And my sincere congratulations to Appleman, who proves again he's a real pen making artisan !

Well done Appleman !

Unfortunately we see only sporadically work from him on the board these days.

Francis