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 9 November 2013

Ivory Celluloid and Black Acrylic

I LOVE turning celluloid!  Too bad it is so hard to obtain...
It is a wonderfully nice material to turn on the lathe, and yet produces reams of incredibly tough shavings.  But the coolest thing of all is the powerful camphor smell while working this stuff.  I had a cold while turning this one, and it was very soothing to work on - like working with a giant cough drop!


Celluloid is cool stuff.  It is the first thermoplastic invented (back in the late 1800's!), and while not made very often any more, it is still much loved by pen makers and fountain pen aficionados for its appealing feel and smell.  Of course the historic value as a vintage pen-making material doesn't hurt either...
The ivory celluloid is particularly lovely, with its prominent striations.  I decided for this pen, rather than make the whole pen out of the same celluloid, to frame this material in black to help bring out its amazing grain.



I decided to make this pen a non-posting pen, as I didn't want to risk marking up the celluloid.



The nib on this pen is a JoWo steel 1.1mm stub, great for calligraphy (of course, since the nib units are threaded, the nib can easily be swapped for another).  The fill system is, no surprise, cartridge/converter.

Thanks for looking.  Comments welcome as always.

Ken


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1 comment:

  1. roxtime10 November 2013 at 00:43

    I saw this one first on Twitter and definitely fell in love... such decent, delicate beauty. I really admire your work, you're real artist :)

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