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The pens made by the late AC Ramachandran were noted for their generous proportions. However the proportions did change and evolve over the brief period from 2011 onwards when I started buying his pens and also placing some custom orders. In this post I will be covering three pens: Pen 1: An Early ACR Jumbo with 28mm stock nib Pen 2: A Later ACR Jumbo Pen 3: Stock Woodex 63 I have measured the outside diameter of the barrel mouth and the inside diameter of the barrel mouth. The difference between these two when halved, yields the barrel's wall thickness. The weak part of any section is its neck as there is very less material in this region. This region also sees a lot of stress as the tightening torque of the section acts on this weak region. The thickness of this wall is also important and is the half of difference of the neck OD from the section bore ID (6.35mm for Indian no 8, 35 and 40 nibs). The measurements are tabulated below: As we can see from the table, the early ACR had a thick barrel wall but a weak section neck wall. It’s a trade off. Increased barrel wall thickness will automatically yield a lowered thickness of the neck wall. The later ACR version has a good balance between the barrel wall and the neck wall. The Woodex 63 has nearly the same barrel wall thickness and section neck wall thickness as the later ACR Jumbo. So rather than indiscriminately increasing the barrel wall thickness, it’s more important to strike a fine balance which was done in the later ACR and the Woodex 63. Comparing the section neck wall thicknesses of the Kim ACR #1 and #2: The bore IDs in the above pic are nearly same. It’s an optical illusion that #2’s ID looks smaller. What role does the barrel wall thickness play? Read on here at this link. Cheers Hari

A C Ramachandran, popularly known among fountain pen enthusiasts as ACR or Kim ACR, passed away two days back (Dec 22). He was 84 years old and had been suffering from age-related illness for the last few months. ACR started his pen making life at a very early age of 16 and continued his pen journey until his 80s. ACR was one of the greatest pen makers of India. His handmade ebonite eyedropper fountain pens, using conventional lathe and hand tools, are known for its simple but elegant design, burp free writing, and build-like-tank features. In addition to making wonderful pens, ACR had special skills in repairing all sorts of pens. During the heydays of fountain pens in India he had repaired thousands of pens. ACR was a man with so many skills and talent. He was very knowledgeable in Ayurveda (the traditional Indian medicine), Jyothisham (the Indian Astrology), Tantra, Yantra & Mantra (the Indian Occult Science). He also had a great interest in Hypnotism and practiced it for long years in his earlier life. Over the last six decades ACR pens were sold all around the world, and sure he will live through his pens for ever in the minds of Indian pen lovers. RIP, the Great Master ACR!