Flamed Cane: The True Bamboo with Garnet Thread Wrap and Ruby End Jewels

In my last couple of blog entries, I introduced a technique of thread wrapping used in fly fishing rod construction, particularly in that of the bamboo, or 'cane' rods.   Another technique widely used in bamboo rod construction is that of 'flaming'.   In this process, the raw bamboo is subjected to flame (usually in the form of a blow torch of sorts) in order to carmelize and lightly charcoal the bamboo to give it the colour and texture.  As you take off the outer layers of more burnt cane, the deeper, browned cane appears, giving the bamboo a rich tan or brown colour.

Here I have applied that same technique to a small culm intended for use as a fountain pen.  Having flamed the culm, I took off the outer scorched enamel, smoothing it with steel wool, and then giving the outside (and inside) a good soak in thin (low viscosity) cyanoacrylate to stabilize and seal it.  I buffed the outside to a matte finish before adding the garnet thread wraps (as mentioned in my last post, the blonde bamboo is often paired with spring green thread, and the flamed cane with a darker thread such as garnet).

The end jewels in the last post were convex, like the end jewels in most popular pens.  I didn't think it looked right with the bamboo, so this time, I tried plain flat end jewels in ruby red flake acrylic, and am reasonably pleased with the result.

The nib section, cap thread, and barrel tenon are all in black acrylic.

I think I have gotten some of the bamboo obsession out of my system.  For now....

Thanks for looking!

Ken



PS - here is a group shot of these last three bamboo pens:

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!

Black and Rust Desk Pen

Every once in a while a fit a 'whim' pen into the mix to keep it lots of fun.  I had the beginnings of a barrel that I had stopped work on a while back, so I picked it up and reworked it a bit, deciding on a longer 'desk pen' with a tapered shape.

Decided to go with a mixed material cap, with a splash of the rust material in the middle, and then made up a nib section to match.  Tried to make the cap a smooth curvy taper to match the barrel.

I finished off this pen with a medium steel JoWo nib.

Since this pen is not made with anyone specific in mind, I will be putting it up in the 'Available for Purchase' section of this website.

Well, that was fun!

Thanks for looking.

Ken

This Pen Is Made For Posting...

I love the colour green - it is my absolute favourite.   But after raving about green pens I had obtained, and getting a rather tepid response, I had begun to think I was one of the rare ones who loves this colour.

Then along comes this swirly green acrylic into my stock, and it must have triggered an 'I love green' response, because I have had quite a few orders in this material.  Suits me fine, it a beautiful acrylic!
:-))

So this is another example of my most user-friendly, functionally useful styles, the 'Shirt Pocket Fountain Pen'.  It is made to be compact enough when capped to sit comfortably in an average shirt pocket, and yet long enough to be comfortable to use.    This pen is indeed made for posting!   In keeping with the goal of making this a 'daily user' type of pen, I have designed this one so that the cap fits deeply and very securely onto the barrel for long periods of comfortable writing.

The pen is fitted with a gold ball-end clip to match the green acrylic, as well as a two-tone JoWo steel fine nib, and a high quality converter for filling.

Now, to let the new owner know that I have a pen for him!

Thanks for looking!

Ken

Matte Black Ebonite Cigar FP in 'Big Hand' Size

Hello all,

Every once in a while I get an order for a pen with a larger grip section, for someone who likes larger pens, or has big hands to accommodate.    So I sometimes take one of my usual styles of pen, and kick it up a notch to the 'Big Hand' sizing.  Such is the case with this pen.

The order was for a matte black Cigar style fountain pen, but with the larger sizing.  This results in a thicker pen all around, of course, but most importantly for the buyer, it means a thicker grip section of 12.7mm, as opposed to my usual 11.5mm.  This may not sound like much, but when it comes to grip diameters, it is a huge difference (see the comparison picture below).

            (In this poorly focused comparison photo, L to R: Pelikan M600, The Big Hand Cigar, Sailor 1911 full size, and Parker Duofold Centennial.  Missing is a sample of my standard size pen (oops) whose grip section is comparable to the Sailor 1911.)

This Cigar is fitted with a polished 18K JoWo nib, to be smoothed and tuned prior to shipping, and is equipped with an excellent converter for filling.

Thanks for looking!

Ken

'Double-Taper' Style Fountain Pen in Amboyna Burl with Glossy CA Finish and 18K Fine nib

Finally, found some more time in the shop and got to finish part two of a the pen order I mentioned in my last entry.  This one was to be fashioned out of a piece of exotic wood - best of all, the choice of wood was left to me :-))

I chose to make this one out of one of my favourite of all woods, amboyna burl.  Wonderfully intricate figuring and warmly coloured, it is a truly lovely wood to look at.  The bonus for me is that it smells great while turning it.

The shape that was specified was my 'Double-Taper' style, with its matching midsection diameters but  shorter and slightly wider cap.   The finish that was requested was the high-gloss cyanoacrylate finish.  The burl wood was first sealed inside and out with thin CA before applying and polishing the outer coat.

The nib section, as well as the threaded parts inside the cap and barrel were all fashioned out of black acrylic.  The nib is a fine 18K JoWo nib, to be smoothed and tuned prior to transport.  The fill system is no surprise, cartridge/converter.

I am once again struck by just how involved a process it is doing these wood pens with the resin thread inserts - quite a lengthy project!

Here is one final pic of the two pens together.  Now, to do the nib work and get them shipped to their new owner...

Thanks for looking!

Ken