Ivory Celluloid..

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bgray

Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2006
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423
Location
Milan, OH
I recently made a pen from Ivory Celluloid...

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I was looking at a Fountain Pen site earlier today and they mentioned cross cut celluloid. Is that what this is?
 
Definitely a stunning pen.
Too bad the cut line for the clip is so prominent.
Where did you get the material? Is it also called something else?
As pretty as it is, I have never seen real ivory with a pattern like that.
 
Brian,
Great capture of that crossgrain. How does that stuff turn and finish compared to the other commercially available plastics? By the way, then pen is fanatstic.
 
Outstanding pen. Love the blank and I especially love the threads... they look perfect.
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
Brian. Flawless execution as usual. Wonderful section and nib, and I love the shape of the body. Is the extra length above the clip a copy of a vintage design, or just an internal vision thing? I wonder if it would be possible to do a hook style hidden clip that didn't involve a cut line in the top? Tried it and didn't like it? Why? I wouldn't see it being worth the extra effort on a solid color blank, but that line does seem to throw off the pattern in that wonderful material. Of course, that's just my opinion, and I'm not the one handing you a check, so it may not matter very much :-)
 
Thanks for the comments everyone - I'll try to answer all questions in this post...

The material comes from American Art Plastics.

It has a low melting point. Also - it's highly flammable. Keep the shaving's cleaned up. Don't let a large mound of shavings accumulate on your lathe.

Actually, I usually take handfuls of it to my driveway and light it. I don't want this stuff in my trashcan. It's not real volatile in bar form, but wispy shavings will go up SCARY fast.....

The longer finial is reminiscent of vintage designs - Wahl writers series, etc...

And the break in the finial - I'm not a fan of a clip method that can't be removed, and I'm also not a fan of post clips.

Ringed clips will resist lateral pressure, and are much better. They necessitate a finial.

If I did a hook clip, then the clip could never be removed. When doing pens on a production scale, I don't want to do anything that wouldn't allow me to replace parts.

Post clips don't resist lateral pressure, and I've seen them fail a lot.

Thanks
 
Brian; Thanks for the follow up. I see your point about serviceability vs aesthetics. When you are selling your name and a lifetime warranty, you really do have to be able to fix it if it gets abused and comes back to you. So, from that, I take it that the finial is removable? at least by you in a shop setting. Is it threaded into the cap body through the ring of the clip, or glued but still removable with a little effort?
 
jskeen said:
Brian; Thanks for the follow up. I see your point about serviceability vs aesthetics. When you are selling your name and a lifetime warranty, you really do have to be able to fix it if it gets abused and comes back to you. So, from that, I take it that the finial is removable? at least by you in a shop setting. Is it threaded into the cap body through the ring of the clip, or glued but still removable with a little effort?
Click to expand...

Yes. When doing things on a production scale, making parts non-replaceable is a bad idea.

There's only a few rare exceptions to this, but I will always make every part removable and replaceable.

The nib penetrates up beyond the seam of the cap.

The finial is male threaded into the cap, but with an inner bore. This bore allows the nib to penetrate into the finial but not crash.

Thanks.
 
bgray said:
If you guys want to see the flammability of nitrous celluloid, dig this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LX2tlMNhCk
Click to expand...

most materials, when cut into fine ribbons, will burn very easily.

When I go camping, 0000 steel wool is my friend. I don't care how wet the ground is or if I'm on my last match, start the wool and sit back and watch the fire grow. Best tinder ever.

I would wager that the other plastics we use are nearly as flammable in shaving form.
 
Great work, Brian! This pen looks like something The Great Gatsby would use! It has a classic and timeless look. It deserves a very special pen box and possibly a very figured cut crystal ink well? Excellent job.
 
Russianwolf said:
most materials, when cut into fine ribbons, will burn very easily.

When I go camping, 0000 steel wool is my friend. I don't care how wet the ground is or if I'm on my last match, start the wool and sit back and watch the fire grow. Best tinder ever.

I would wager that the other plastics we use are nearly as flammable in shaving form.
Click to expand...

I wonder how 0000 steel wool would work for flint/steel and fire drill tinder? Got a cub scout demo in the works, may try it.

As for the nitrated cellulose being flammable, yes, it definitely is, and yes, nitrated cellulose is one of the primary ingredients in early smokeless gunpowders like cordite, but there is nitrated cellulose, and then there is NITRATED cellulose. The stuff we turn is a lot less volatile than the guncotton sort. Not that you want to be careless with it, but it's not like you're turning a stick of dynamite (metaphorically speaking, I just know some retired EOD guy out there was just about to jump on and point out that dynamite and gunpowder are different stuff because.........zzzz) :-)

Still love that pen Brian!
 
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