The Modern Quill

Ballpoint, Rollerball or Fountain Pen

2008-04-11T15:31:00.001-07:00

I make ballpoint, rollerball and fountain pens. Within these three basic types of pens are several different styles. I am going to try and explain exactly what is available

Ballpoint pens are probably the most widely used pen type today. The ballpoint pens that I make use a twist mechanism to extend and retract the Cross or Parker style refill. They come with a black refill, but I do have blue available as well.

Here are some of the ballpoint pens that I have made.

Birdseye Maple Slimline
Bloodwood and Ebony Modified Slimline
Pink Ivory Father Sing
Green dyed Boxelder Burl Sierra
Reindeer Antler Cigar
Loofah Cigar

Rollerball pens write much more smoothly than ballpoint. Most have a cap that fits over the end of the pen to keep the ink from drying out while not in use. They come with a black Schmidt refill, but blue is also available.

Fountain pens are becoming more popular again, especially for those who still enjoy writing letters or writing in a journal. If the nib is tuned properly they write extremely smooth with even ink flow. Fountain pens of today don't leak like some that I had many years ago seemed to. I made my first fountain pen in mid 2006, which I carry most very day, and it has not leaked at all.

I think over half of the pens shown in Pen World Magazine are fountain pens selling from less than $100 into the 10s of thousands of dollars. Their November 2006 issue showed a fountain pen carved from a very high grade of Jade that sells for $250,000.

http://anycoastguard.com/

2008-03-30T13:12:00.001-07:00

Several days ago a fellow penturner posted a message on the International Association of Penturners website about www.anymarine.com, and how he has been sending some of his handcrafted pens to our service men and women serving in The Middle East.

I thought that was an excellent idea so I went to check out the website. I found that it is broken down into: www.AnySoldier.com, www.AnyMarine.com, www.AnySailor.com, www.AnyAirman.com and www.AnyCoastGuard.com. Check it out, they have a forum as well as information on what to send, how to send and where to send it.

Since I served in the Coast Guard back in the 70's, it only made sense for me to pick them to write to and send a few things that they can use along with some handcrafted pens.

How this works: (copied from the website)

We have volunteer Coast Guardsman "contacts" on the "Where to Send" page. Click through the names and select the one(s) you wish to support. They list what the folks they represent want and need. We even have a search capability so you can easily identify what the troops need most.

All the Coast Guardsmen involved in this effort are military volunteers stationed in areas that are in harm's way. You send your support (letters and/or packages) addressed to them and when they see the "Attn: Any CoastGuardsman" line in their address they put your letters and packages into the hands of Coast Guardsmen who don't get much or any mail first. Everything is shared.

My first higher end pen

2008-03-25T19:20:00.001-07:00

After learning how to use the lathe and turning Slimline and Cigar pens for a few months, and carrying a couple of these, I thought it was time to make a little bit higher end rollerball pen for my daily carry pen. I decided on the Baron Rollerball with Sterling Silver plating. The barrels are one of my favorite woods is Desert Ironwood, which grows in the Sonoran Desert is southwestern Arizona.

I was very happy with the way it turned out and it is an extremely smooth writing instrument. I carried this pen for several months before I decided to convert it into a fountain pen. Of course the fountain pen is even more smooth than the rollerball and takes zero pressure on the paper to make it write. I am still using that same fountain pen, although I changed the barrels from the desert ironwood to deer antler. I can't seem to find a picture of it so will have to add that later.

Next time I thought I would talk about the different pens styles that I work with.

You can make pens out of wood?

2008-03-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

I decided to start a blog so that I would have a place to tell how I got into pen making and things I've learned along the way. I'll share ideas of different materials that I am working with in creating new pens, as well as telling about the materials that I have used in the past.

I learned woodworking from my dad when I was in Jr. High School back in the late 60's. I have built many things over the years, but in January of 2006 I found out that people made pens out of exotic woods. Since I have always like nice pens, I thought this would be a great way to make some really sharp looking rollerball and fountain pens for myself.

I ordered everything I would need to get started from Penn State Industries. This included a lathe, chisels, pen kits and wood pen blanks. It took a couple weeks for everything to arrive, but it seemed like it was taking forever, since I was excited to get started.

I usually like to try and figure out how to do things on my own, but I thought it might be a good idea to actually read how to make a pen. I bought a couple books on pen making that I read looked at the DVD from Penn State. With that information I was off to a good start.

The first pens I made were called a Slimline, which have a twist mechanism to extend the Cross style refill. I used Bubinga, an exotic wood from West Africa. They turned out pretty nice, but I knew I had a long way to go before I could build a high quality pen that would last for many years.

I will continue with how I learned more about making pens and decided to make a part time business out of it.

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