A comment: the reason behind it.
I like the look of the "retro" pen.Who makes it is not important. The design effect is accomplished by the shape of the finial.You could do the same thing with a Polaris, Atlas etc.
The problem I have with the PSi Polaris is the ""clunky" nib.It is the same style they use on their power point pen and pencil.
That is why I started out on the Bloodwood pen with a slim line.Inexpensive,If it turned out to be a clunker, no great loss.
Where I ran into a problem was finding the components to add the clip and finial to get a distinctive shape and size in the upper portion of the pen.
No matter what you can do with a slim line to modify it you have the constraints of the dimension where the nib and clip are.Anything in the middle is fair game.
To get the clip and finial, I needed to
go into my stash of "parts stash" to come up with the ones I used on the bloodwood pen.
The American Classic component set from WoodCraft costs around $4.40 in groups of ten.
I would use that "kit" but as anyone knows who has made that pen the way the transmission "seats" in the top of the blank can have problems down the road.That is why I still have one of those Kits left over after a year.It is a woodcraft kit and I have a good idea who supplies it to them.
Bill at Arizona Silouhette had the PF on sale last year and I tried it.It does not have the same "look" as an American Classic(Parker style Design) but it also does not have the problems either.
Anyway I wasn't going to buy the AC "kit" just to throw half the parts away or have them clutter up me too precoius space just to get a clip.I can make my own finial.
I had heard rumors that a modifyable "parker" type kit may be coming out soon.I think it would be great to have something that we could"play" with as many of us do with the "Cross" slimline.
Lately I have been wondering if that modifyable "kit" isn't already there but I didn't know it.
I have limited "kits" at my disposal.Without seeing how the components "fit" it is difficult to see what changes you can make without major tooling most of us don't have at our disposal.Machine lathes, cnc machines etc. Those that do have them use them to their best aadvantage(Fred's indexer, Bruces gorgeous pen)I am a "wood" kind of guy, even though I am a tin knocker by trade, I love wood.
Delving into threads, plating metals is quite confusing for me.Also did I mention I am a little dyslexic?
Well there you have it.
I had a shape in mind, I knew what I wanted for a clip and finial
The final decison was risking ruining part af a set of components that I had already been using.
I could purchase a "retro" kit or american executive etc, but then my pen would look the same as "catologue" pens but with a different blank.
We like to say our pens are "custom" or "One of a Kind" and technically they are as it is virtually impossible to get any 2 pieces of wood that are the same, or I imagne to cast to resin blanks exacly alike. Once you get past that how "custom" is the custom pen we are making.
To me two pens that look similar is a "production run"
Many times I hate to make a matching pencil for a pen.
I like the idea of a double sale but the thought of repition of a design makes me lose interest.
Lastly
to all that have commented.
I was asked by the manager of the WoodCraft store in Charlotte N.C.
"Why can't you just turn the pens the way they are supposed to look ,like in the catologue?"
That was a few months after I discovered this forum.
After seeing what had already been done in regards to design I told him that most DON'T turn"catologue" pens and there are a lot of people who experiment with kits, blanks, finishes. I know, I have seen it done on the internet.
His reply to me was"You're Wrong!"
Ironically on that same visit the owner of the store was impressed enough by a simple modified deer antler slim line he called his wife and children over to see that pen.
I wonder if the owner realizes how much business he lost because his manger told me I was wrong about experimentation and not making "catologue" pens?
I have never set foot in that store since last September and I have never recommended any one shop there either.
I doubt they will out of buisness because I found better prices and service on the "net" from peolpe I may never meet but who want my business.I also realize there are members of this forum who shop at their local WC for the opposite of the very reasons I don't shop at my"local" one 4 hour round trip away.
They are treated well, maybe experimentation is encouraged, the AAW meets there. For theose reasons I am envious.
So you see there are a lot of reasons I experiment.
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