Thanks for posting this, Martinpens. Great to meet you at the show. And by the way - your photos are awesome!
And sorry guys, I really haven't had a presence here for a very long time.
I'll address a few things here...
The material comes from Bear Tooth.
The nibs are JoWo. I'm the US distributor.
I have managed to go full time with this crazy business, and growth has been exponential each quarter. Pretty crazy. I'm loving it.
But if you search for posts that I've started on this forum, you can go way back and see some real basic pens that I made. I owe a lot to this forum. I just saw some of these old threads, and it's nice to see that progression.
With the CNC vs handmade issue, please don't think that by using CNC, I'm simply pushing a button and a pen pops out like a Coke machine.
Ask anyone who is qualified to program and operate a CNC machine, and they will tell you that it's a tool just like any other tool. It takes a lot of time to keep the machines tuned, programmed, and running effectively.
CNC does repetitive precision very well. But it's not a panacea. If I have a custom order, I'm going to make it manually, hands down. I can make a pen in 1 to 4 hours on a manual lathe, but it literally will take me 60+ and sometimes 80+ hours to create fully sound programs on the CNC machine for a new pen design. Why on earth would you use CNC for one custom pen? Even a small run of 10 pens? It's not worth it.
So the whole "handcrafted" issue is real tough to define. I would say that more than 50% of my business is still custom, so I'm still running the manual lathe a whole hell of a lot.
I remember when "CNC" was a bad word around here (maybe it still is). But until you've done both, trust me, it's just another tool. And it will definitely introduce a HELL of a lot more new and interesting headaches.
But it does have advantages with design possibilities. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on a design where the cap wall is literally .050" thick. The cap lip is .018" thick. I created centerbands that are .015" thick plated brass. This centerband is captured with teeny tiny 54 TPI threads that need to fit within that .050" cap wall. I would never attempt this delicate work on a wood lathe or manual metal lathe. Not saying that it can't be done, just saying that it's not practical. But the CNC machine can handle this little delicate work.
The CNC machines are just like any other tools in my shop. They are not easy to work with, take up a lot of time, and create headaches. But when you need repetitive and delicate work done, they can handle them.
So again - sorry about being absent here lately...I miss this place. If anyone has questions about my pens or business, let me know...I'm always open with information. Sharing is beneficial to all of us.