Ken Cavers Custom Pens: December 2016

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, 15 December 2016

Special Guest: Jonathon Brooks' Aka-Kin Tamenuri Urushi

Hey all,

Special treat today. Someone else's pen work!

Some time ago, one of my fellow pen makers, the very gifted Jonathon Brooks began to work with the Japanese Urushi styles of lacquer art, as applied to his pens. In a very short time, he has developed some pretty amazing skills.

Seeing his work take off, I decided I really must have some of his beautiful work (I love to collect work from other artisans), and Jonathon kindly indulged me, and began work on this amazing piece, which he describes as aka-kin tamenuri (red-gold layered urushi).

I will attempt to describe the technique from what Jonathon told me, though I will undoubtedly get some points wrong. The base pen is a black ebonite Cigar style, with multiple layers of shu (red) urushi. The pattern that you can see on the surface was created using the seirei nuri technique, with gold powder applied to the pattern. After another layer of kijiro urushi, the pen is covered in a thin layer of gold powder, followed by many coats of nashiji urushi.

The result: a truly beautiful highly polished deep reddish brown pen, with fascinating gold patterns showing from the depths of the translucent urushi. one of the very cool things about urushi is that over time, it slowly becomes more transparent, revealing more the deeper layers. This pen will only get better and better with age.

To top it off, the pen is fitted with a lovely 18k nib engraved with Jonathon's Carolina Pen Company logo.

This pen has immediately fallen into the category of one of my absolute favourite pens, and a lifetime keeper. Thank you Jonathon for a very, very cool pen and fine example of excellent craftsmanship!

Cheers,

Ken

Thursday, 8 December 2016

White and Red 'Japan-Themed' Curvy Style Fountain Pen

Hello all,

Here is another Curvy style fountain pen - this one just finished today. This is the result of an order that I received some time back. The order was for a custom FP in my Curvy style, but to be themed after the Japanese flag - that is, in white, with round red inlays on the cap and barrel ends. The red grip section is to match the inlays and tie the whole pen together.

The customer ordering it agreed to go with a pearly material rather than just plan white and plain red - and I am very glad he did, as the result is really quite eye-catching (though sadly hard to capture on camera). All in all, I am rather happy with how this one came out.

Thanks for looking!

Ken

Amber Swirl Curvy Style Fountain Pen with Inlay and 18K Fine Nib

Hi all,

After several weeks of travel, work, family time, and more work, I finally had a chance to put in some hours in my workshop.

Here is one of my Curvy style pens in a lovely translucent Amber Swirl acrylic. The cap has been dressed up with a black finial with more amber as an inlay - just to add a little extra to the pen.

The nib is a fine JoWo 18K, and the pen is a cartridge-converter filler.

Thanks for looking!

Ken