Japanese fountain pen

[Krisfiz]

I'm fairly new to pen turning so looking for advice on making something like the Japanese fountain pen in the picture. What sort of pen kit, preferably available in the UK, would you good people recommend for making something like this. My plan would be to use milk paint on the body and rub some of the top coat away and to use small burrs and pyrography to do the deliberate'faults'
Or just tell me I'm waiting my time !!

 

[Curly]

To make a pen exactly like that you will have to make it from scratch, a kitless pen. Check the library to get an idea of what would be involved.

You could get close with a kit by making a closed end pen. I believe there is information in the library on making them.

There is a German company that makes some kits that have the threads for the cap at the front of the section. It would let you have the section, barrel and cap from the same material. If you want I'll look for it and post later. You'll need to run it through a translator if you don't speak German.

 

[Krisfiz]

Thanks Pete,I'll look through the library. The link to the German company works but I've yet to translate.
Thanks for your advice
Chris

 

[chriselle]

I'm with Curly...start with some closed end pens using partial kits and then get your feet wet with full on kitless. Urushi is pretty tough to emulate but hey...give it a shot..

 

[Krisfiz]

At this stage I'm interested in the finish and overall shape of the pen rather than pure kitless approach, something for the future. I found a thread from 2012 on mimicking urushi finish, some sound advice on there from Chriselle and others and wondered if there had been any updates since? is grz5 still around perfecting the technique? there is a great link in that thread to the Edison pens site which shows some videos of the urishi process that includes about 20 layers of paint, gold dust, lacquer and egg white (!) being applied and sanded to make the stunning pens, well worth revisiting.
Chris

 

[wood-of-1kind]

Member MANUPROPIA is the urushi King here now. Check out his pens and posts and have your jaw drop.

 

[chriselle]

I don't post much these days but I still make 20 or 30 urushi pens a year. Here is a pen I just sent off to a customer. Probably about 40 layers, a bunch of gold leaf and powder, about 6 months to finish. The threads weren't cleaned up yet for the picture. Manupropia is the Urushi madman. Indeed, check out his stuff. PM me if I can help you in any way.