Pen Kits and Custom Pens

[cklondon]

Anyone have any experience with pen kits and custom pens?

 

A neighbour of a friend hand carves items (including some pens) as a hobby. He is quite good with wood and carving from the looks of his work and has offered to make a custom pen or two for my friend and I from some really nice bits of wood we have around.

 

The problem I have is that the only kits I have seen are pretty cheap ($20 - $30 range, not much chance of a good nib there I suspect...) My friend is not as much of a FP nut as I am, so he likes the idea of a $20 kit, but I am not as interested.

 

Has anyone had any experience with higher quality pen kits, or maybe using bits and pieces of an existing pen? Can you get the innards from any of the major pen companies and use that?

 

Thanks,

Chris

[FrankB]

Chris asked:

 

" ... Can you get the innards from any of the major pen companies and use that? ... "

 

I would say that depends on the skill of the wood carver. I have a couple extra Duofold nibs/sections that I would like to have incorporated into custom lathed pens. Those sections were not cheap, but I love the Duofold factory italic nibs. When I an find someone with materials that I like, I will try to commission a custom pen. I don't want to get into technicalities, but the cap and barrel will have to be large enough to accomodate the length of the nib, section and converter; and the barrel diameter will have to be wide enough to accomodate the threads on the section. As I said, it will all depend on the skill of the pen maker.

 

I have heard very mixed reviews about the quality of the kit nibs/sections. I tend to avoid them, but someone with more experience will be able to respond more competently than I.

[cklondon]

Chris asked:

 

" ... Can you get the innards from any of the major pen companies and use that? ... "

 

I would say that depends on the skill of the wood carver. I have a couple extra Duofold nibs/sections that I would like to have incorporated into custom lathed pens. Those sections were not cheap, but I love the Duofold factory italic nibs. When I an find someone with materials that I like, I will try to commission a custom pen. I don't want to get into technicalities, but the cap and barrel will have to be large enough to accomodate the length of the nib, section and converter; and the barrel diameter will have to be wide enough to accomodate the threads on the section. As I said, it will all depend on the skill of the pen maker.

 

I have heard very mixed reviews about the quality of the kit nibs/sections. I tend to avoid them, but someone with more experience will be able to respond more competently than I.

 

Thanks for the reply. I suspected this might be the case with the kit pens...

 

Mods, is this post in the correct spot, or should I have placed it under Pen Turning and Making? Feel free to move it on over if I screwed up! :embarrassed_smile:

 

Chris

[baldysm]

Kit pen nibs aren't bad considering the price. You can get fountain pen kits, including nib, tubes, clip, hardware, etc for under $10 retail easily. So the manufacturer would only get $2-3 a kit to make everything.

 

 

Are the nibs Bocks? Not even close. QC is a little sketchy and you can get nibs of varying widths, some are scratchy, etc.

 

 

I have made alot of fountain pen kits in the past, and my only real problem was that all the nibs were supplied in medium. Getting different nibs for all the models I carried was a problem. Most people liked the way the nibs wrote, but admittedly the people were more general public and a FP enthusiast.

[Songwind]

Can you get the innards from any of the major pen companies and use that?

 

I think that this is very doable. The real question is, can you get all the information you need in order to do it?

 

For example, if you wanted to use the section from an existing pen, you would need to be able to reliably know the thread size, spacing, etc so the custom body could be properly tapped. I don't know if that's something that's realistically measurable or not. Similar considerations would hold for mounting a feed/nib, piston, etc. Tolerances seem fairly tight if you want to avoid warping or leaking.

[Rapt]

I see a couple options...

 

Schmidt (Sp?) offers their nib/feed/section for sale, its in the catalog anyway.

 

Or you could try buying the pertinent bits from someone like Brian Gray (bgray) on here as he has already done the hard part of sourcing them. He might be willing.

[JayLo]

I have limited experience with kit pens but for a great custom made pen, check out Brian Gray's Edison Pens. (www.edisonpen.com)

He makes a fabulous pen.

[cklondon]

Thanks for all the ideas. I'll sift through Edison and see what I find as well!

 

Chris

[scogre]

Hi Chris!

 

If you have a friend who is able to make a pen out of some special wood for you, and is able to do some artistic carving to make them one-of-a-kind, I suggest you go for it, because that is not an opportunity that will present itself often!

 

I have lots of experience with pen kits and what you can do with them. First of all, don't be afraid of pen kits! If you are looking at kits in the $20 and above level, you will end up with a pen that has the potential of being great! Fountain pen kits are really pretty simple - other than the nib, feed and section, it's usually just assorted pieces, such as clip, centerband and finial. What you really end up with on any kits is a steel nib, and considering the cost of them, they are generally pretty good! I am using one now that is as nice a writer as any of my gold nibs! I'd say about 60% or better are decent writing nibs out of the package, and the rest are not so bad they can't be adjusted.

 

For almost all the fountain pen kits available there are now gold replacement nibs available from various vendors. If you have to have a gold nib, which I fully understand, they are available. They are Bock nibs, but so are the stock nibs on a lot of commercial pens! Penworks and Heritage Pens are two sources that come to mind.

 

Have your friend make that special pen for you! Try it out and see if you like how it writes. If it needs some work, or you want to step up to a gold nib, contact one of the nib meisters, as they can all source nibs for you. And remember that ultimately it is all about how the pen writes for you! So don't worry about pen kits, they are just 'parts' anyway!

 

Scott.