Faceting Pen Cap/Body

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R

ridlaH

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Hello Everyone,

I'm looking for some advice for faceting Pen bodys/caps.

I've always liked the idea of adding facets to give a play of light and sparkle to the pen, but wasn't sure if there was a jig or tool that would help get the angles consistent to make it look nice?

Any ideas/thoughts would be helpful.

I've placed an example screenshot of a BENU pen below.
 

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If you can get your hands on a Pen Wizard you can make facets using the various wheels and cogs that come with it. I have made pen bodies with 6 and 8 facets in the past. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos.
 
I use a fluting jig with a trim router. My lathe has indexing stops built into the headstock - 24 stops so I can easily make 6, 8, or 12 facets. Got it from PennState but it looks like they've discontinued it.
 
hokie said:
I'm fairly positive that Benu pen is made with a mold you can get on Aliexpress for like $4 and inserts for $2.50...
View attachment 366617View attachment 366622
View attachment 366618


Obviously Benu has some different hardware, but the overall resemblance is uncanny.
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Actually pretty ingenious.

If you check Steven AKA: SkipRat posts he shows how he does all that stuff on his metal lathe and shows jigs he made and things. I am not going to look up the links. You can easily do that.
 
jttheclockman said:
If you check Steven AKA: SkipRat posts he shows how he does all that stuff on his metal lathe and shows jigs he made and things. I am not going to look up the links. You can easily do that.
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Do you mean in regards to the faceting or the hardware? I was curious either way and looked through 7-10 years worth of his threads and did notice he had a cool setup to carve v-slots into pen bodies for that pool cue look. Pretty neat.
 
hokie said:
Do you mean in regards to the faceting or the hardware? I was curious either way and looked through 7-10 years worth of his threads and did notice he had a cool setup to carve v-slots into pen bodies for that pool cue look. Pretty neat.
Click to expand...
Years ago I did this pen and he loved it so much he went ahead and did an even better job by faceting the body . here are those photos.

Mine: first one and his second one.

https://www.penturners.org/threads/a-jt-cloned-panache-almost.135080/
 

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My advice is to research "diy gem faceting jigs" and "gem faceting for beginners"

It's a whole new world of creativity. Knowing the if's the and's and the why's of how it works will help make better easy to use and inexpensive jigs.
 
I love facets, especially freely flowing ones. It is above my skills to make them on a mill or a router. But I love hand work, and with it everything is possible. First a careful drawing (veeeeery careful near the center), here I used an octagon with double threads, the doted line marking the surface that will be stay untouched:
IMG_1113 comp.jpg

Then using rasps, files, a scraper (Exacto knife with a round blade), sanding paper and buffing can do the job in a shorter time than one could think! Quite inexpensive stuff, this is all I need:
100_5281 comp.jpg

IMG_1183 comp.jpg


The same technique on ebonite with an urushi coating:
IMG_0843 comp.jpg

Mills and pen wizards are expensive and not the only tools one can use. Just my 2 cts. :)
 
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