Chamfer/fillet your blanks

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pacer_3iii

Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2024
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19
Location
Jonesboro, AR
I made a lot of pens and left the very end of my barrels with sharp corners. I was watching some Will Stelter and Alec Steele knife making videos, and they were talking about what they called an "heirloom fit-up" where they slightly chamfer or fillet the ends of their knife handles where they meet guards, blades, and pommels. I lliked the idea and started doing that to my pens and handles, and I really like the way they match up to the kit hardware now. I'm sure other people do this, but I've never been given that advice and wanted to say, just give it a try. Here's some examples

No chamfer, sharp corner where the hardware meets up:
20260615_170422.jpg

Slighly rounded edge to blend in:
20260615_170451.jpg


It's really easy to do and I always do it during the sanding process after I remove any kit bushings and switch over to non-stick. A piece of 600 grit sand paper held at an angle gives it a really good look in my opinion. If this is widely known information, sorry for wasting your time, but I really wish I had known about or thought about this earlier, I wasted a lot of good blanks and kits and just don't like the fit up without the rolled edges.
 
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Yup. A very handy end of process thought. I got used to using calipers to match the final blank ends to the components (instead of relying of bushing dimensions), but when you are very close, slightly rounding the edges is merited. Nice comment.
 
I don't like square corners on my pens - I like a smooth blended edge. I make mostly bespoke (kitless) pens now, so I am not matching component dimensions as much, but I believe a smooth rounded edge gives my pens a better hand feel, especially when mating the cap and body junction.

Kevin
 
I've been doing that to all my pens since I started many years ago. The slightly rounded edges of the ends of the blanks helps to hide any small mismatches to the hardware. You dont need much more than a 1/64" (or 1/2mm) radius.
 
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