My first two kitless pens

[bvcreates]

Just finished up with my first three kitless pens. The first was the prototype so it's not worth showing here but the second and third turned out ok, I think. I made my own alumilite blanks and turned them on my smallish Rikon wood lathe using Easy Wood Tools negative rake cutters (they are awesome). I'm using cheap Chinese taps and dies but I did get in on a group buy for some triple start taps and dies from Tapco. Can't wait for them to get here!  The nibs are Bock #6 fine. BTW, does anyone have a preference between Jowo and Bock nibs? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Aysedasi]

Looking very nice indeed!      As to nibs, no preference between those two.  I prefer Knox, but they are now hard to get hold of.  

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

Beautiful work.

 

[Inspector]

Nicely done. 

 

Pete

[PAKMAN]

Very nice! Good job!

[mizgeorge]

Those look fabulous! Well done

 

Of the two, I have a very slight preference for JoWo - perhaps because I seem to end up with so many of them with a wider variety of grinds. 

[BayesianPrior]

Great work!

 

I have a slight preference for Bock, because they use a greater variety of materials (gold, steel, titanium, platinum, and formerly palladium).  But I would posit that more established artisanal pen makers (F-C, Edison, Newton, etc.) use Jowo by default.  Not sure why that is.

 

I also like the little mountain goat logo

[amberleadavis]

Great job!

 

I too have slight preference for Bock.

[Solaris89]

So pretty!

Where do you buy the nibs

 

[bvcreates]

Thank you very much!  I purchased the nibs from Beaufort Ink in England. 

[SoulSamurai]

Nice, I'm impressed by how well you've managed to match the body and cap on the two-tone pen!

[DRBays]

Very nice!

 

I've just begun this "kitless" adventure, about to begin on my third pen - working on esthetic dimensions, & still ruining many sections and cap blanks - but getting there!  Am participating in this year's IAP group purchase, expect my triple start taps & dies by June or so...

I've the same question on Jowo vs Bock, so interested in the various responses to your question re preference.  At the moment, I'm only tooled for Jowo #6 and #5.

 

Once I have a "kitless" pen with which I'm satisfied, I'll post it.

 

Dennis

[Pierre---]

Honestly, if I close my eyes, I could not feel the difference. But nearly every Bock has to be tuned, and most Jowo do not need to be, they are just perfect out of the box.