A brand, spankin' new website

OK, well...a Blogger page, anyway.  But hey, it'll do.  And, it's free.

I had been trying to think of a good way to leave a bit of info for folks who are looking to get a custom pen made up, and have a lot of questions.  Don't get me wrong - you are still welcome to ask questions, but perhaps I will be able to use this medium to give a of basic info about this hobby.

First of all, I got started into this pen making hobby several years back not because pen making had been weighing on my mind for years, but because I loved fishing.  I know that makes no sense, but again, bear with me.

Out of a love for fishing, particularly flyfishing, I fell into the hobby of building my own custom flyfishing rods.  One of the components of a fly rod is the space where the fly reel sits, called the 'reel seat'.

 This particular part is often made of some beautiful, exotic or burly wood, and often sets a rod apart.

Well, my loving wife realized that I need a lathe to make these reel seats, so she went and bought me a General Maxi Lathe for Christmas several years back.

After using the lathe to make dozens of reel seats and grips (the above rod sports an amboyna burl reel seat and an amboyna/laminated birch bark grip) along with a large number of wooden bowls and such, someone mentioned the idea of making pens on the lathe, as there are an enormous number of 'pen kits' out there for just such a hobby.  I gave it a try - a little tentatively at first, then with growing enthusiasm over the results, quickly fell into it (like the fishing) hook, line and sinker.

After several ballpoint and rollerball pens, I thought I'd have a go at a few fountain pens, and found that I quite liked the result.

The problem was that I found the nibs to be of rather variable quality in the kits, so I decided to venture into the world of fully customized fountain pens (often called 'kitless' pens in the pen making world), using high end steel or occasionally gold nibs, and building a pen to use it.  These have varied from pens made of exotic woods...

...to pens of varied colours of acrylic...

...or ebonite...

...or polyresin...

Whatever the material I use, I love to make a little piece of art that can be carried around and used.

Well, enough for now,  time to get back to the family...