Bullet pen profile

[knowltoh]

I am wondering what profile you use on the turned upper barrel of a bullet pen. I realize it is a matter of preference, but am curious what you think looks the best.

 

[glycerine]

Which bullet pen? For the ones with a cartridge on bottom and full custom top, I like them with a slight curve, nothing too fancy...

 

[Mark]

I aim for this. But it's always nice to change it up a bit here and there. I'm not too particular about the overall shape, just the match of the cartridge head diameter.

 

[jskeen]

I personally don't care for the upper barrel to sit flat against the base of the cartridge. I usually either use a Euro centerband and turn the rim of the cartridge slightly so that it fits up into the band, or part off the base of a second cartridge and use that as a centerband. I lean more to the second option now. Pic 3 is another option using a single cartridge and just parting the centerband out of the middle.

 

[juteck]

Considering the 7mm slimlines using the standard finial, I try to match the diameter of the casing and make a sharp rounded taper at the finial end. I don't like the longer taper that goes straight from the casing to the finial. I've also found that different clips look different too -- the ball clips (like on the 7mm designer series) seem to fit best; the straight clips don't fit as well, and seem to have too narrow of a gap between the clip and pen body. The last bullet pen I made, I used the insert from a 7mm European into the 7mm tube, and threaded the flat top finial from the 8mm American kit - the body diameter was almost the same at both the casing end and the flat top finial end.

Here's one with the std 7mm finial and straight clip - you can see how close the clip gets to the body:

Here are a few more with different clips and profiles - the deer head and rifle clips also get close to the body, but the ball style clips stand proud:

Here's one with the flat top American finial and clip:

 

[PaulDoug]

I've been thinking of trying one where the top blank, at the finial end mocked the shape of the cartridge butt. A grove up there with a flat top the matches the cartridge. Haven't done it yet so I don't know how it would look.

 

[Mark]

I got this design from an article by Barry Gross. I've never tried to duplicate it in acrylic though.