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








Saturday 24 August 2013

Bamboo Rod - the Fly Fisherman's Pen



Before I started making a lot of pens, I used to make fishing rods - specifically those used for fly fishing.  One of the skills that I learned in rod building was that of 'thread-wrapping'.  This is a technique used to reinforce the ends of the parts of the rod, as well as to secure the line guides onto the rod.   Occasionally, I would go all-out traditional, and build fly fishing rods out of bamboo (either hexagonal split cane, or two-strip rods with a square cross-section. Here are a few examples of this (sorry for bad pics.  As you can see, I love using green with lighter coloured bamboo):




So ever since I started making custom 'kitless' pens, I have had a few ideas floating around in my head about how to use bamboo and some of this thread-wrapping in making a fountain pen.  Ideally, I would want my pen to be hexagonal, like the split-cane rods, but I'm still working out how best to to do that.  In the meantime, I decided to jump in and make one out of bamboo, rounded to a straight rod, and thread-wrapped at the joint, as one would do for a fly fishing rod.  When using light coloured ('blonde') bamboo, I tend to use this green thread as a good match.  Here I have added a black thread trim.





I decided to go with inset ends again on this pen, as I have with my 'Bamboo' style pens, just to add a bit of visual interest.



The pen is stabilized and sealed inside and out with low viscosity cyanoacrylate, and final finished with 'Tru-Oil', taken down to a matte finish.  It is fitted with an 18K fine nib.



I must have bamboo in my head.  I am currently working on a pen made out of a small bamboo stalk.  Will post this shortly.

Thanks for looking - comments welcome!

Ken
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Robin29 September 2013 at 05:20

    That's gorgeous. How much would such a pen be?

    Best wishes

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. kcavers1 October 2013 at 20:48

      Thanks, Robin!
      I'm not settled on a price, but likely a bit more than my other exotic wood pens, given the thread wraps.

      Delete

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