Visit A "pen Factory," Or A Major Pen And Ink Store

[Charles Skinner]

An unusual thought came to me this afternoon. After many, many years in the fountain pen and ink world, I have never been to anything that might be considered a "pen factory," or a "fountain pen ink maker," or ever a major retail store. We live in the South Central part of the U. S. and my guess is that places I just mentioned are on the West Coast, or the East Coast. The distance I am willing to drive is limited, but perhaps on my next birthday, I may give myself a present and go further on "down the road."

 

I know this is an unusual request, but someone might have a great idea for "pen and ink travel." Excuse mistakes, if any.

 

 

C. Skinner

[bobje]

Speedball is in Statesville, NC. Dip pens.

[inkstainedruth]

A guy in my fountain pen club has talked about visiting the Franklin-Christoph facility, which is North Carolina. Bexley is somewhere in Ohio -- near Columbus, IIRC. Not sure where Edison is located. Noodler's is based somewhere in SE Massachusetts, but I don't know precisely where (people joked in a thread a few years ago about his house being a fortress with a moat populated with killer catfish).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[rutherfordr]

The Vanness pen shop is in Little Rock, Arkansas:

http://​https://vanness1938.com/

 

They have a huge selection of pens and inks!

[Driften]

Franklin-Christoph is in Wake Forest, NC

Edison Pens is in Huron, OH

Karas Kustoms is in Mesa Arizona

 

Not sure any of them allows shop visits. You would need to contact them to see. I don't expect any of them to be very close to you but if you happened to be on a trip they are some of the few companies I know that make pens in the US. I know Edison has some videos of their pen making process on youtube.

[Karas Kustoms]

We allow and encourage shop visits. We love when people stop by, offer tours of the facility and are completely open about the pen side of our business. As we do have contract clients since we still operate a standard machine shop as well as making pens, the products we make for our clients can and sometimes are more off limits in terms of explanations, photos, etc.