Ken Cavers Custom Pens: May 2017

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, 4 May 2017

Gold-Veined Marble Fountain Pen

Hello folks,

A while back I was sent this cool material by a customer who asked that I turn it into a pen. I discovered that this material (a marble white with real gold foil embedded in it) is made of polyresin, which I had some time ago sworn off using because of brittle nature and its tendency to shatter - while turning, and when dropped on a hard surface.

Fortunately I happened to have a piece of pearly white alumilite on hand, which has none of those nasty tendencies, so I used that for the grip section, and for an insert into the barrel from which to cut the threaded tenon. The gold-marble still managed to split a couple of times along the gold foil while turning, but nothing a bit of handy CA couldn't deal with.

In the end, I am quite happy with how it came out. I had planned to make one of my 'purity' style pens (cap all one diameter, barrel all one slightly smaller diameter, rounded ends), but the recurrent cap splits forced me to finish it off with a slightly different shape. In fact, I kind of like it, and will probably make more of these. But I don't have a name for this style yet. Will have to think of something.

With the little bit of remaining gold-marble, I made a little pen rest so that this pen can studiously avoid tumbling onto hard surfaces and shattering.

The pen is here posing with what seemed like a very appropriate nib - an 18K fine, to match the gold veining.

The fill system is as cartridge/converter as usual.

Thanks for looking!

Ken