Safety Pen

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jalbert

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This is a pen I made a couple weeks ago as more of an experiment and engineering exercise to get to know my new lathe. The mechanism of this pen is inspired by an old design, in which the nib remains retracted in the barrel while the pen is capped, and not in use. When the pen is going to be used, it is uncapped,and the user twists the knob on the back of the pen to extend the nib for writing.

The design is called a "safety pen" because when the pen is capped, there is a plug inside the cap that completely seals the barrel off, making the pen leak-proof no matter how much you throw the pen around. The pen is filled with an eyedropper, and the downside of the design is that if you uncap the pen while not in a vertical position, the ink will spill out of the barrel (so don't give the pen to someone who doesn't know what it is!).

I used tortoise shell acrylic for the cap and body, titanium and ebonite for the mechanism, and bronze for the clip. I used a random vintage gold nib I had laying around.

This was a fun project, and something I had wanted to try for a while.
Here is a video of the mechanism:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Boo66UPjUUf/
 

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magpens

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Beautiful work, John !!!!

You should pass it around so we can all have a play with it !!
 

jalbert

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Awesome and beautiful! It's the first one I've seen like that.
Thanks. There aren't a lot of modern examples of this mechanism, but I like trying to modernize the old filling systems.

It's always a pleasure to see your work. Excellent as usual.:)
Thanks Skip. High praise from you
I was fortunste to see this in person. Its an amazing pen. Again, great job John
Thanks Ernie. Good to have chatted with you the other day.
Beautiful work, John !!!!

You should pass it around so we can all have a play with it !!

Ha. I would if I could!
 

darrin1200

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Mar 17, 2010
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That's an incredible redesign John. I don't have the courage to try a safety pen yet, but I do plan on a button fill after Christmas.
Everytime I see these great pens, it dries me to get my new studio finished so I can get back on the tools.
 

jalbert

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Louisville, KY
That's an incredible redesign John. I don't have the courage to try a safety pen yet, but I do plan on a button fill after Christmas.
Everytime I see these great pens, it dries me to get my new studio finished so I can get back on the tools.

Thanks Darrin. It's a pretty intense process to try and engineer from the ground up. I spent a long while trying to visualize the specifics of how everything would work together. I'm happy with the results, but have a couple things I'd like to improve on in future iterations.

Button fillers are a good transition into the realm of more involved filling systems. I've made a few, and they're satisfying to make. I'd say you should go for it!
 

Curly

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Poking around FB in the Black Pen Society group and there are some pictures of a Montblanc Retractable Nib Fountain Pen. Interesting that I see two show up almost at the same time when I've never seen one before. Yours has cleaner lines. ;)
 

darrin1200

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Thanks John. I will definitely give it a go.

Hey Pete.

You should see the Pilot Vanishing point. It is the pen that drew me into the fountain pen world. The mechanic side of me was fascinated by the thought of a "click" fountain pen. I finally got one, this summer, for my anniversary.

It's the Blue Carbonesque Vanishing Point. Please excuse the lousy pictures.
 

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jalbert

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Darrin I have been fascinated by the VP for a long time but still haven't plopped down the cash for one. Maybe Christmas. ;)

I've wanted one for a while too, and I actually just traded a guy for one. I made him a pen in exchange. Granted I probably could have gotten more money by selling the pen and buying a vp with the proceeds....
 

darrin1200

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I love the pen, but it is a bit of a pain to fill. You have to stick the inner mechanism, attached to the converter, deep into the ink. And you can't just fill the converter. I am not sure what to do when I'm down to a quarter bottle.
 
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