Modified Jr. Statesman

[eskimo]

I'm looking for some helpful advice.

I have a customer who REALLLY loves the Jr. Statesman pen, except for the long metal extension from the barrel to the nib. I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how to modify the pen to lengthen the lower barrel to accomodate the rollerball cartridge, but shorten the nib assembly to more closely resemble the nib on a Cigar.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks, Bob

 

[Randy_]

Bob:

I agree with your customer that the long metal nib assembly is not very appealing.

Lengthening the lower barrel is a simple thing to do. OTOH, shortening the nib assembly would seem to be somewhat complicated. I've been thinking about this all evening and can envision a few possibilities; but none of them seem to be economically feasible unless your customer is willing to pay a huge premium for a custom pen.

Maybe someone else will have a practical idea for you. Or maybe an idea will occur to me after sleeping on it.

I wish you luck as this would be a nice modification if it can be accomplished without a great deal of effort.

 

[rherrell]

Here's a photo of a Baron/Sedona I made with antler around the nib. Might work.

<br />

 

[wdcav1952]

NICE modification, Rick!

 

[Randy_]

Bob:

I may have a couple of ideas for you. I assume you do not have a metal lathe; but wonder if you have a collet chuck like the Beall?

 

[Randy_]

Rick:

How did you do that antler thing with the nib??

 

[eskimo]

Randy,

I don't have either a metal lathe or a collet chuck, however, I have been looking for a good reason to buy the Beall chuck. I am intrigued with Rick's solution and am trying to figure out how to apply it to a Statesman. On the Sedona, the actual nib will unscrew, leaving the bottom assembly free to be mounted on a lathe. I can only assume that he turned an antler piece that was glued to the smooth section of the bottom assembly very thin so as not to impact the function of the threads. My only question to Rick is, how did you protect the protruding section that accepts the nib and the threads?

The Statesman lower assembly appears to have the nib attached with a pressure fit that I'm sure I can pop off, but I haven't gotten to the point yet where I going to start destroying kits without a better idea of where I'm going in mind.

One other thought I had was to try and modify a Cigar to incorporate the Statesman fittings on the upper barrel, with the centerband covering the top portion of the lower barrel and replace the parker refill with the Schmidt Parker style rollerball cartridge. Please bear in mind, this idea is not even half-baked yet, it has only gone into the oven, so comments would be welcome. The one area of concern I would have would be the matching of the Cigar platinum nib with the Rhodium on the Statesman.

Bob

 

[Randy_]

Originally posted by eskimo
<br />.....One other thought I had was to try and modify a Cigar to incorporate the Statesman fittings on the upper barrel, with the centerband covering the top portion of the lower barrel and replace the parker refill with the Schmidt Parker style rollerball cartridge. Please bear in mind, this idea is not even half-baked yet, it has only gone into the oven, so comments would be welcome. The one area of concern I would have would be the matching of the Cigar platinum nib with the Rhodium on the Statesman.

I'll have to think about this....the concept doesn't quite register with me Right off hand it seems like a lot of work and you would end up with a twist pen rather than capped pen. Would that difference be acceptable to your customer?

Email being composed.

 

[rherrell]

Like Bob said the nib on the Baron unscrews so it's fairly easy to mount it on the lathe. I used a dead center and a live one.Tighten very carefully and turn it to round using a small mill file. Cut a piece of antler from a tip so there is no marrow and drill a hole. Glue with epoxy, remount and very carefully turn to shape. Notice I used"very carefully" twice