WELCOME!

Welcome to my Custom Fountain Pen website/blog. I put this site together a while ago so that I could let some of my fellow pen enthusiasts and penmakers, as well as my customers, see what I have been up to lately in the workshop. I don't publish all of my pens here, but good percentage of them.

A Little About My Pens: I love doing fine work on the lathe, which is what got me into this work. That is, I enjoy the focus on the details of a project - the material and colour selection, the form, the fit and finish of the pen. I also test all of the my nibs before shipping. I fill the converter, run ink through the nib and feed, and write with it. I spend a significant amount of time smoothing and adjusting the nib of every pen that I sell. My goal, with each pen that I make, is to create a writing piece whose fit and finish will impress you when you first pull it out of the packing, and that will serve you well as a great writer when you fill it up with your favourite ink.

Have a look at my posts to see some of the work I am doing lately, or see my pricing guide in the link below to the right, or check the link to my current inventory of already-made pens (usually small, as most of my work is by commissions/orders).

Or, if you are interested, you can see some of the work I have done previously in my Custom Pen Gallery on Photobucket!

If you have a Twitter account, I am @drgoretex

If any of my posts generate particular interest, I will pin them as links on the right (eg 'Basic Nib Adjusting 101').

* ORDERS: Please contact me at kencavers@gmail.com to place an order.

* PRICES: Please see the link on the right side of the screen 'Pricing Guide' for an idea as to the cost of a pen.

* REVIEWS:
Have a look at the bottom of this page for some reviews done by previous buyers!

* HOW LONG WILL MY ORDER TAKE?:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: I am happily overwhelmed with pen orders. This gives me great joy in that my work is so well received, but saddens me that I cannot fill orders anywhere near as quickly as I would like. I am still trying to work through back orders, but if you have ordered from me and heard nothing for some time, feel free to email me and ask how things are going.
I still only make these pens in my spare time, when work and family time permit, and even then the productivity slows down during the coldest winter months thanks to my unheated workshop.
Given that I make these pens primarily as a hobby, I also reserve the right to pursue some other interesting pen projects in between filling orders.
I apologize for long delays in order fulfillment, which may in some case be over a year and a half. In the meantime, you are welcome to contact me to inquire about new pen orders, or to check up on a previously submitted order.

-Ken Cavers








Thursday 21 March 2013

Classic Clipless Fountain Pen in 'Cappuccino Humbug' Acrylic


Here's one that I finished last night.  Finally someone chose this cool acrylic for their custom pen!  I have been itching to use this stuff since I got it, but I guess I needed an excuse.



So anyway, the order was for one of my 'Classic' style pens, clipless, in this material, with a two tone fine nib.  No problem.

Interestingly, as I turned this material, which is pretty obviously a resin composed of chips of another layered acrylic, I came across one solitary black chip, mixed in amongst the others.  I thought that was pretty cool, so I hope the buyer does too :-))



When I bought this stuff, it was called 'cappuccino', but since everyone renames these acrylics when they sell them, and since my wife thought they looked like the candies known as 'humbugs', I thought the name was appropriate.



So there we go.  I hope the new owner likes it, because that's what it's all about!

Thanks for looking,

Ken


Saturday 16 March 2013

Ivory Celluloid Bamboo



Here is a custom order I just finished, a 'Bamboo' style fountain pen in this cool 'ivory' celluloid.



I don't often get the chance to turn celluloid on the lathe, as it is a pretty rare resin to get hold of.  One of he earliest plastics, it is made of polymerized cellulose, and when turned, gives off a strong camphor smell.  Matter of fact, my whole garage smelled a whole lot like a cough drop while I was working on this pen :-))



This pen was a custom order, and as requested has a medium steel JoWo nib installed.  It also came

equipped with a good quality converter, as it is a c/c filler.

One of the things I like most about this material is that it looks so convincingly like casein resin.  Maybe also like ivory, but I think less so.

In any case, it was a lot of fun to work with this stuff, as I don't come by it very often.


Tuesday 12 March 2013

The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers...

...is that these Tiger-Stripey pens are so popular!



This Tigger was ordered as one of my 'Classic' style fountain pens, but using this lovely acrylic.



This one is fitted with a two-tone steel JoWo nib, and as usual, is a cartridge/converter filler, complete with the converter.




It is finally starting to warm up a bit now (at least, not so much of a deep-freeze), so working in the shop is becoming more pleasant.  Not hard to find excuses to be out there...

Thanks for looking.

Ken

Friday 1 March 2013

New Design - the 'Shirt Pocket' Fountain Pen


I am always on the lookout for cool fountain pens that fit well in my shirt pocket.  Yes, I am that much of a geek, and proud of it.  In any case, they are hard to find - at least, in the higher end fountain pens.  Most charge a higher price simply for being larger pens.  But in the real world, those of us who carry our pens in the shirt pocket want nothing more than a decent, quality pen small enough to fit the shirt pocket, but large enough to use comfortably.



Enter the 'Shirt Pocket' style fountain pen.  I made this one to be short enough capped to fit in my pocket easily, yet when posted (even unposted), it is the perfect size for long writing sessions.




This particular pen was made out of some really cool striated green ebonite that I have been dying to use, and so is made with flat ends to show off the ebonite cross-sectional patterns, but of course it could as easily be made with rounded, 'torpedo' ends.

In any case, this was the first 'just because I wanted to' fountain pen that I have made in a while.  Loved the experience!

Comments welcome.

Ken