No Kaweco Steel Sport Fireblue? Now There Is!

[sub_bluesy]

I love this finish on the Liliput but was a little disappointed it wasnt offered on the Steel Sport so I decided to make my own! Getting the pen dissembled was a little tricky. I actually had to order a second pen because of a mess up dissembling the cap on the first pen. Its a little different color than the Liliput but finishes look to be all over the place on that pen due to the process. Also the brushed finish on the Steel Sport is a little different than the smoother Liliput. I might polish my second Steel Sport a little and then fire it to match a little closer.

[MsRedpen]

Great idea and compliments!

 

It looks great!!!

[paperglo]

Wow, this came out great! You really need to add a 'don't try this at home' disclaimer for the clumsier people like myself

[SoulSamurai]

Love it!

[TheDutchGuy]

Looks good!

[sub_bluesy]

Thanks everyone! Heres a pic of the disassembled pen. It was a fun project despite messing up the first pen cap. Its repairable though if I can get a new threaded sleeve from Kaweco.

[Miyajima]

Oh my, that turned out beautifully Kaweco should definately bring out one like this, it's the prettiest Sport I've ever seen.

[Chrissy]

It's a great idea, and I really like it.

[whichwatch]

That's terrific! When you go into business providing this service, I'd like to be your first customer!

[Chrissy]

Kaweco should definately bring out one like this, it's the prettiest Sport I've ever seen.

 

I hope they will too.

[dennis_f]

That looks awesome!

 

D

[mallymal1]

Fantastic.

[FrankvK]

Looks great, good work

[RoyalBlueNotebooks]

This is a work of art!

[hmj]

I think it looks cooler than the Liliput. If you don't take this to market, would be awesome if you shared a detailed 'How To' guide (for a dummy).

[escribo]

That truly is beautiful--you can get colors ranging from pale yellow > straw yellow > browns > purples > magenta > blue > cyan, etc. doing that.

 

Now, I hate to be Captain Bringdown, but this is a very thin oxidation film which will wear off fairly easily. Have you sealed this pen with clearcoat or something? I wonder what would be the best sealer for a finish like this that would dry hard and stay that way? Automotive clear coat? Rattle-can clear lacquer? Drafting/art fixative? Epoxy? CA adhesive (superglue)? (Interesting how the laser etching didn't take on color for the most part, which is a good thing in my mind.)

 

OTOH not sealing it and letting nature take its course would likely be a very cool look anyway. I'd love to see what this pen looks like in a couple of months. I might try this on a Jinhao 159 I have that never had a very good finish anyway. Nope, it's brass. Oh well; must be something around here made of steel... Actually, I'm not sure that other metals won't do that as well. Just thinking 'out loud' here.

 

Anyway, looks great & thanks for sharing! I'm off to go look at Kaweco Steel Sport pens.

 

ETA: I've just now seen Kaweco's Liliput Fireblue at Goulets. You've done a MUCH better job.

[Pichak]

Wow, so beautiful.

 

[sub_bluesy]

Wow, this came out great! You really need to add a 'don't try this at home' disclaimer for the clumsier people like myself

 

Added a cautionary note in the how to

[sub_bluesy]

I think it looks cooler than the Liliput. If you don't take this to market, would be awesome if you shared a detailed 'How To' guide (for a dummy).

No problem! This is how I did it on mine. I might make a couple pens and put them up for sale but if anyone is interested in doing it at home, here’s the process.

 

Materials:

Hot water

Mapp gas torch (yellow bottle). I’m not sure propane will get it hot enough.

Shellac or lacquer

 

Parts of the cap:

The threaded cap liner is held in with a small amount of adhesive. It’s pressed into the cap also. This is the larger black cylinder with the Kaweco logo on it that you can see on the top of the cap.

 

There’s a small plastic ring at the entrance to the cap that keeps the metal cap from scratching the body when capped or posted. This looked to have some adhesive on it as well.

 

Stripping the plastic cap parts:

*I should preface this with grab the pen body and cap with a towel after dipping the cap in hot water since the pen body will be about at hot as the cap* I removed the section from the pen body and used the stripped pen body to thread all the way into the cap and pull the cap liner and small plastic ring out. I dipped the cap with the stripped pen body threaded in into near boiling water for about a minute. Then you start to pull with a towel around the pen body and cap. The cap liner gave way after a couple dips in the hot water and some hard pulls.

 

Once the cap liner is loose, you hit the small plastic ring. I rocked the body back and forth and eventually the cap liner and plastic cylinder came out. Also after dipping in near boiling water a few times. That’s it for the cap and it’s fully stripped!

 

Stripping the pen body:

There’s no plastic in the body so once you remove the section and converter, it’s stripped.

 

Stripping the section:

The nib and feed come out in a unit. You can unscrew this by grabbing the nib and feed and turning it out. That’s it for the section!

 

Now the fun part. Firing the pen:

 

The cap:

I used a large screw driver to hold the cap up. Make sure the screwdriver is clean otherwise the charred debris on the driver tip will fly all over the pen when you’re firing it. I fired the screw driver tip first. You need to clean the cap with alcohol and wipe it off to remove finger prints. Don’t dump alcoholic on it without wiping. The oil etc will collect in the last droplet of alcohol before it evaporates and mark the finish when you fire it. Just wipe it off with a paper towel after degreasing. Again, I learned the hard way. I departed from the Kaweco method here and did not fire the pen with oil on the surface. I did the oil method on a Ti pen and it didn’t come out so great for me so no oil this time. Firing Titanium and steel are two different animals so you might want to give it a go with cutting oil on the steel and see what happens. The actual firing is completely artistic and you kind of have to fire the cap and turn it until you’re happy with the color. Also don’t put it in water to cool. Just let it air cool. I’ll explain more on this at the pen body firing step. The cap will stay hot for a very long time so be careful.

 

Firing the pen body:

I used a ceramic rod to hold the body but you can use a screw driver as well. I left the section threaded to the body to keep the color uniform. It’s hard to match color with the smaller section so I just fired them threaded together. Clean it with alcohol and wipe it down first. This is the reason you don’t want to use water to cool the steel. I dipped it in water to cool and found that the threads to the section/body had rusted. I cleaned this off but it can be avoided by just letting it cool in air. Firing the body is artistic as well so just fire it until you’re happy with the color. I think this pen might be just straight up mild steel and not stainless so heat and water should be avoided at the same time. I’m tempted to analyze it at work and see what alloy it is. I’m 99% sure it’s not stainless though. It’s also pretty magnetic too.

 

Assembling the cap:

I used some lacquer as an adhesive here. Shellac might be more appropriate but I’ve been using lacquer on other pens for years and it’s been fine. The cap liner has two raised bands that touch the cap. I put lacquer on these points and pressed the liner back in the cap. Take note to align the Kaweco logo button to the laser etched logo on the cap.

 

Install the small cylinder:

I put some lacquer on the inside of the cap a little above the large opening and pressed the small plastic cylinder back in. Then just let the cap sit for about 24hrs to dry.

 

Honestly I would have just bought one of these in Fireblue rather than do it myself if Kaweco offered it. They do charge a huge premium for it though on the Liliput. You do pay for the story behind the process on the Liliput so it is pretty cool to have a pen that has some artistic influences from the guy running the company! Hope this helps everyone if you want to tackle it on a weekend!

 

Edit: I added a nice purple inlay with finger nail polish to the Kaweco button on the cap for some added depth!

[sub_bluesy]

That truly is beautiful--you can get colors ranging from pale yellow > straw yellow > browns > purples > magenta > blue > cyan, etc. doing that.

 

Now, I hate to be Captain Bringdown, but this is a very thin oxidation film which will wear off fairly easily. Have you sealed this pen with clearcoat or something? I wonder what would be the best sealer for a finish like this that would dry hard and stay that way? Automotive clear coat? Rattle-can clear lacquer? Drafting/art fixative? Epoxy? CA adhesive (superglue)? (Interesting how the laser etching didn't take on color for the most part, which is a good thing in my mind.)

 

OTOH not sealing it and letting nature take its course would likely be a very cool look anyway. I'd love to see what this pen looks like in a couple of months. I might try this on a Jinhao 159 I have that never had a very good finish anyway. Nope, it's brass. Oh well; must be something around here made of steel... Actually, I'm not sure that other metals won't do that as well. Just thinking 'out loud' here.

 

Anyway, looks great & thanks for sharing! I'm off to go look at Kaweco Steel Sport pens.

 

ETA: I've just now seen Kaweco's Liliput Fireblue at Goulets. You've done a MUCH better job.

Cheers! The heat oxidation process is always a light surface layer but its the only way to get these kinds of color on this material. Theres no option to hard anodized. There is a really cool electric blue phosphorus finish but you need a hydrogen furnace to make it. A clear coat should work out pretty good but that wears as well and is difficult to pull off while maintaining the sheen of heat oxidation. This way if you ding the pen, just bust out the torch and re oxidize the flaw. It should be a fairly long wearing finish though in this application if just touched by hand. Monteverde clear coats their gold plating of which I really appreciate since finger prints dont show. Its the only way to go on a high polish finish like that but I would say some things would be lost in clear coating a machined finish in this case. I could be wrong though. It might look amazing! Go for it!! Theres a good amount of clearance between the cap liner and pen body so it shouldnt wear so much capping and un capping the pen. Edited March 11, 2018 by sub_bluesy