Thread: Pacific Blue Custom Fountain Pen

Ah McCain, you've done it again! Another Ironwood special - that looks fantastic, Brad. Not a great fan of acrylic, but that's a good choice and is very popular (have even done a couple myself due to requests from the family). The demand proves what little I know! Am really impressed with the shape and the finish, and the thread is so damn smooth . Is it done on a metal lathe?

Cheers, Gary

Originally Posted by Gary H

............. Is it done on a metal lathe?

Cheers, Gary

Thanks Gary. Yes, I prefer the look and feel of timber myself as well. But due to the stability and lack of issues with this type of pen, made made materials are a much easier proposition I'm afraid.

Everything done here using a Midi wood lathe. A carbide tool to round off the blank, then all other shaping done with a 3/4" skew and a parting tool. A collet chuck for holding the bits. And of course various drill bits, and a few taps and dies.

Brad,
That is really quite cool.
I love how you see mostly just the Pen blank,
Especially on the ends.
I’m also not the biggest fan of acrylic, not a complete hater either,just prefer my timber or metal.

Or combinations,
Was that a Brad original or something you have seen elsewhere?.

Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Brad,
That is really quite cool.
I love how you see mostly just the Pen blank,
Especially on the ends.
I’m also not the biggest fan of acrylic, not a complete hater either,just prefer my timber or metal.

Or combinations,
Was that a Brad original or something you have seen elsewhere?.

Cheers Matt.

Cheers Matt, woodworkers definitely prefer timber pens, but I sold a lot of pens to a wide range of people over a 10 year period, I probably sold 5 resin/plastic/cast pens to 1 timber pen. Then if you break the timber pen sales down, maybe 10 timber pens with a high gloss CA finish (plastic) to one natural looking finish. So horses for courses.

I wouldn’t say this is an original, it has some of my original spin on certain aspects, but it does look similar to what some other makers are producing.
There is a whole little cottage industry making this type of pen. It’s mostly going on in the US, where there are regular pen shows all over the country, so the ones that put the work in, get the exposure, some are doing quite well out of it.
There doesn’t seem to be many here in Australia, I know of one other bloke who is posting some stuff on Instagram, there may be some others , but without an active pen forum or some other way of networking it’s hard to tell.

I must be delerious Brad but this pen is sweet mate,ticks all the boxes for me,takes pen making further up the scale of art without predudice where I prefer to be.

Seems as another of my heroes you just excell. So many thanks for sharing this pen with us at this time when we need cheering up more than at any other time.

When 9/11 occured in the States our youngest daughter rang me at 2 am to say the world will never be the same,she was prophetic and now the world has done it again.

Grateful to call you my friend.

Peter.

Peter , glad I could help to brighten your day Mate.
As you might know, elsewhere I called this pen the “Corona Blues”, because I made it while in self imposed isolation due to the CV19. It was a tongue in cheek effort at making light of our current situation.

The world is changing from what we grew up with, hopefully it will continue to be somewhere we want to be.
Hope to talk with you soon.