True Bamboo: Yep, Finally Did It.

Well, after making so many 'Bamboo' style pens, and then working on one made of bamboo 'wood', it was really kind of inevitable that I would eventually make one of these.

When I first saw one of Sailor's 'Susutake' pens some time ago, I knew that I would eventually have to have a go at a real bamboo pen.  This is only a first attempt, of course, and while I am pretty happy with the result, there are a few things I would do differently next time.  For instance, the bamboo stalk I used here was simply 'what I could find', not having a great source for bamboo around Manitoba.  It is a bit thicker than I would have preferred, and I think I will do the end jewels a bit differently next time.  I am pretty happy with the combination of blonde cane and green thread wrap, though I might try to find some darker cane and do a wrap with burgundy or chestnut thread on the next one.

The pen is sealed and stabilized inside and out with low viscosity CA, and is finished with Tru-Oil varnish.  It is fitted with an 18 K fine nib.

Thanks for looking!

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

A Couple of Clipless Fountain Pens

Here are a couple of pens I have just finished, the two of them heading shortly to a fellow Doc and pen enthusiast.

The first one is another of my 'Curvy' style pens, done in a nice amber swirl acrylic with black trim.  The cap end has an inlay of the amber material to give it that extra 'cool factor'.

The second is a Cigar Style pen, but in the larger 'Big Hand' sizing.  I quite enjoyed having another excuse to do something with the Charger Lava (Van Gogh 'Starry Night') material.

Both pens have been fitted with two-tone steel JoWo broad nibs, and both have been ground to a nice smooth stub, giving them some great line variation.

Thanks for looking!

Ken

Bamboo Style FP in Walnut with Thin CA Finish

Well, this isn't the first Bamboo style pen that I've made out of Walnut (of which I have a pretty good stock), but while the others have been finished with Danish Oil, this one was finished with thin (ie low viscosity) cyanoacrylate.

For those who are wondering about what in the world cyanoacrylate (CA) is, it is the same stuff that is in the various brands of super glue.  It is a liquid that undergoes a chemical reaction upon exposure to air and moisture to form an acrylic polymer - that is, a hard plastic.  Makes a great bond between hard surfaces, which is why it sells as super glue, but interestingly, it also has one other very useful property - that it can be polished.  For a thick, glossy, glassy finish, I usually apply about 8 - 10 coats of medium CA, having to cure each coat in between, and then polish using the usual 12 steps (400 grit through to 12,000 grit, followed by a polish),  The problem lies in the fact that on prominent surfaces, the finish wears through much faster than in other spots, making it very difficult to do such a finish in places like, for instance, the inset ends on my Bamboo style pens.  For this reason, I have only been offering an oil coat finish for these pens before now.

This particular pen is indeed finished using CA, but instead of building up a thick coat before finishing, I am using a few coats of low viscosity CA to soak into the wood, and seal it - in just the same way that oil would.  The difference is that it takes very little time for the CA to cure, and even the penetrated coats allow the wood to be polished to a nice shine - which unlike the oil finish, is pretty durable.

I have also finished the inside of the cap and barrel with the same penetrating thin CA to seal and protect against ink leaks.

One of the really nice things about wood with a strong grain, like walnut, is that I can cut cap and barrel from one piece, and line up the cap and barrel grain, preserving the natural flow of the wood from cap to barrel.

Alright.  Time to write-test and smooth this nib to make it an awesome pen.

Thanks for looking!

Ken

Black and Amber Swirl Fountain Pen in 'Curvy' Style

Just finished this pen this afternoon, and had a bit of time to get a few pics done.  It is custom order based on a Curvy Black and Yellow Pen I made some time back (one of the pens pictured in my first post on this website), only the amber swirl acrylic was chosen instead of the yellow, and a clip was requested.  

In order to accommodate a clip, the cap had to have a slightly less pronounced curve to it, so the barrel does as well in order to maintain the flow of the lines of the pen.  The cap uses black trim to frame the amber swirl, and the barrel has an end-inlay of the amber swirl to match the cap.

Once again, the nib is a steel JoWo nib, and the fill system is cartridge/converter.

Thanks for looking!