KDM
Member
My 9 year old decided he'd like to make a pen. He turned up a piece of mahogany (as you've seen, I have loads of it!) and painted it with enamel paints. A few flecks of colour (to make it less boring).
After he went to bed, I put a layer of thermochromic paint on it. It's basically blue, but when it warms up with the heat of the hand, it goes white!!
I put the CA glue on it. The last thing I need is a small child Crazy-glued (US) or Superglued (UK) to my lathe. He did the sanding. He's as impressed with my 9-piece sanding set as I am!
Towards a Kitless Pen
In my third pen, I used a piece of brass sheet as the band because I wanted a bigger one than that in the slimline kit. As you can see, the middle band here is white. This pen also uses a slimline kit, but I didn't want to waist it, so I turned up a piece of PVC (from a front door, this time!) to use as the band. Looks quite smart.
Everyone I've shown my pens to in real life has been irritated by the length of the nib. Common ractice (particularly among young folk) is to hold a pen quite close to the bottom. I wanted to make my own nibs, so I turned this one up on the lathe from a piece of steel rod.
It was going to be part of this pen, but I realised too late that the shorter the nib, the longer the lowe pen body must be. D'uh. Obvious, really. I'll use it in another design later.
Which reminds me, rather than putting a clip on this pen (what 9 year old puts pens in a shirt pocket, anyway!?), I just made an end plug for this one.
It's turned from a piece of brass rod. It's not the best photo, but I'm pleased with the plug anyway. I'm definitely going to be making my own end plugs and nibs in the future. I've sourced a bunch of transmissions without buying the slimline kit and I have loads of brass tubing.
After he went to bed, I put a layer of thermochromic paint on it. It's basically blue, but when it warms up with the heat of the hand, it goes white!!
I put the CA glue on it. The last thing I need is a small child Crazy-glued (US) or Superglued (UK) to my lathe. He did the sanding. He's as impressed with my 9-piece sanding set as I am!
Towards a Kitless Pen
In my third pen, I used a piece of brass sheet as the band because I wanted a bigger one than that in the slimline kit. As you can see, the middle band here is white. This pen also uses a slimline kit, but I didn't want to waist it, so I turned up a piece of PVC (from a front door, this time!) to use as the band. Looks quite smart.
Everyone I've shown my pens to in real life has been irritated by the length of the nib. Common ractice (particularly among young folk) is to hold a pen quite close to the bottom. I wanted to make my own nibs, so I turned this one up on the lathe from a piece of steel rod.
It was going to be part of this pen, but I realised too late that the shorter the nib, the longer the lowe pen body must be. D'uh. Obvious, really. I'll use it in another design later.
Which reminds me, rather than putting a clip on this pen (what 9 year old puts pens in a shirt pocket, anyway!?), I just made an end plug for this one.
It's turned from a piece of brass rod. It's not the best photo, but I'm pleased with the plug anyway. I'm definitely going to be making my own end plugs and nibs in the future. I've sourced a bunch of transmissions without buying the slimline kit and I have loads of brass tubing.