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 31 March 2016

'Mirkwood' Cigar style Fountain Pen


Hello folks,

Figured I'd move this one from the sale page, now that it is gone.  Here is one of my Cigar style fountain pens in a material that has been begging to be used.  I keep collecting cool materials, but since most of my orders are custom, new materials can sit around for a long time before I get a chance to work on them.  Well, I decided to give this one a go, mostly because I really love earth tone colours.


The blank was as usual pretty boring looking before turning it.  A mottled mix of dull, flat browns and greens.  Blah.  But having turned so may of Jonathon Brooks' blanks before, I know better - once you start turning it, it's like a butterfly emerging.  And this was certainly true here - the gorgeous pearly swirls are definitely eye-catching, and yet still reminiscent of the dark swaths of brown and green of a deep forest.  'Mirkwood' - this was well named indeed.

The pen is fitted with a broad two-tone steel JoWo nib, and is a cartridge/converter filler.



Sigh… I still have so many really cool looking blanks crying out to me…

Thanks for looking!

Ken

Wednesday 30 March 2016

'Golden Sunrise' Cigar Style FP with Black Accent Bands


This material, one of J Brook's alumilites, is amazingly cheerful.  I just had to rename it for this pen as 'Golden Sunrise' - the colour alone makes me happy.


Still, I wanted to add something to break up the single colour, so I decided to add in some accent bands in black acrylic, and am pretty happy with how it came out.


The pen a bit smaller than my usual Cigar style, making it a bit more portable.  It is fitted with a fine nib, and is cart/converter fill.


Like many of my pens, this one has found a new home in Singapore.

Thanks for looking!

Ken


Thursday 17 March 2016

'Dragon Fire' Cigar Style Fountain Pen


I have to say that the sale of this pen was one of the most fun sales I've had.   While on a work trip to Toronto, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with a great group of fellow pen fans who arranged a get-together so that we could all meet while I was in town.  So last friday, an excellent evening of conversation around pens, paper, and ink, accompanied by a decent quantity of beer (and even some top notch single malt scotch - thanks, Bob!) was had by all.  During this meet up, this pen was claimed by its new owner, Gerald.


It is however still in my grasp, as I will be swapping out the 1.1mm stub ruthenium coated nib for a broad one.

In any case, I thought I would take opportunity not only to thank the wonderful folks that I met last friday, but also to put up a few pics of this pen.


The material used here is another of Jonathon Brooks' alumilite blanks which he calls 'Dragon Fire'.  And, once again, it looked brutally dull before I started turning it.  In fact, it just looked plain black, so I wasn't sure how the name 'Dragon Fire' came about.  Then I put it on the lathe and started opening it up to reveal this amazingly nice deep translucent red mixed with opaque, smoke black.  Great name for this material, Jonathon!

Thanks for looking!

Ken


'Arctic Night' Curvy Style Fountain Pen


Finally got to this order after having been just itching to get to it.  I love this gorgeous material, so reminiscent of the dark winter night sky (outside the city, that it…).


The buyer wanted this pen done in my 'Curvy' style, but with the news coned instead of flat as I usually do them.  Good choice, as it turns out.  Somehow suits the style very nicely.



The pen is fitted with a medium steel JoWo nib, and is of course a cart/converter filler.

I would write more about it, but it is bed time.

Thanks for looking!

Ken