monophoto
Member
There was a post this morning on a thread that started many years ago, and where the original poster hasn't been on the site for almost ten years. I didn't want to hijack that thread, but it did trigger some questions that probably deserve discussion.
The post questioned the choice of pen kit platings, and raised the issue of the expected durability of those platings. Conventional wisdom is that some platings are 'better' than others and can be expected to last longer, while others have a reputation for not being very durable. For example, gold plating doesn't have a very good reputation in spite of the cachet associated with that metal. Several posters suggested that a good entry point for pen turners wishing to test the market for selling pens at shows would be chrome because it's relatively durable, and yet inexpensive enough that retail prices don't have to be excessive.
There have also been dozens of threads about finishing choices for pens - CA vs polyurethane vs friction polish vs whatever, with durability as one of the metrics that supposedly should be considered.
But the question I would pose is what is the expectation of a customer who purchases a hand-made pen at a craft show? And how does that expectation compare with the actual life expectancy of the plating and/or finish on pens? I know what we've been told, and what is conventional wisdom about platings and finishes, but what has been the actual experience of others about the durability of the various options?
I got my start in wood turning about ten years ago, and initially my focus was on pens. I currently have three pens on my desk that I made in those early days - two are 10K gold, and one is chrome. One was finished with CA, one with solvent-based WOP and one with water-based poly. I also have a fourth pen that my wife purchased for me that I'm pretty sure is 24K gold and finished in CA. All four pens are about the same age (10 years) and all have seen regular use. As I compare the pens today, I can't detect any evidence of wear in either the finishing or the plating.
I am a pen person and treasure my collection of pens. I have some fairly old pens in my collection - a Cross (all metal) that I bought 35 years ago, and a Parker 45 (plastic) that was given to me as a college graduation present more than 50 years ago. I still use both, and neither shows significant wear. I also have an expensive Mont Blanc that was given to me about 30 years ago and that I retired because it had a habit of deteriorating rapidly and requiring frequent, expensive repair.
My wife has two pens that I made for her and that she uses very regularly. Again, both are about ten years old and made of wood finished with CA. One has gold TN plating, and the other is copper. And again, I can't see any evidence of deterioration in either the finish or the plating. But while she treasures these pens because I made them for her, she also interchangeably uses cheap plastic advertising giveaway pens. For her, a pen is a utilitarian item rather that the object of a fetish.
I would argue that most people whopurchase a hand-made pen at a craft sale are not pen collectors, and it is unlikely that they will keep that purchase for a lifetime. Instead, it will get lost, loaned or stolen, dropped on pavement or damaged in some other way, or simply replaced by some other favorite pen. So the issue for the make is not whether the plating and finish will last forever, but rather will they last as long as the typical purchaser is likely to be using the pen?
Pen makers often caution purchasers are leaving pens in hot cars or other things than can cause damage. While it would be ethically questionable for a turner to intentionally use inferior kits and finishes in order to maintain cost of making pens without advising purchasers about the possiblity of aging and wear, I don't see any problem with offering purchasers a choice of quality with a corresponding range of prices while explaining that the more expensive options are made with materials intended to last longer and are probably more suitable for collectors, while the less expensive options are completely functional but might show signs of aging over time.
Fred Picker was well known photographer and maker of photographic equipment. One of his products was a wooden tripod. He used to say that one of the differences between his tripod and the metal tripods made by other suppliers was that wood was like people - over time, it picked up honorable scars. That's also true of pens.
The post questioned the choice of pen kit platings, and raised the issue of the expected durability of those platings. Conventional wisdom is that some platings are 'better' than others and can be expected to last longer, while others have a reputation for not being very durable. For example, gold plating doesn't have a very good reputation in spite of the cachet associated with that metal. Several posters suggested that a good entry point for pen turners wishing to test the market for selling pens at shows would be chrome because it's relatively durable, and yet inexpensive enough that retail prices don't have to be excessive.
There have also been dozens of threads about finishing choices for pens - CA vs polyurethane vs friction polish vs whatever, with durability as one of the metrics that supposedly should be considered.
But the question I would pose is what is the expectation of a customer who purchases a hand-made pen at a craft show? And how does that expectation compare with the actual life expectancy of the plating and/or finish on pens? I know what we've been told, and what is conventional wisdom about platings and finishes, but what has been the actual experience of others about the durability of the various options?
I got my start in wood turning about ten years ago, and initially my focus was on pens. I currently have three pens on my desk that I made in those early days - two are 10K gold, and one is chrome. One was finished with CA, one with solvent-based WOP and one with water-based poly. I also have a fourth pen that my wife purchased for me that I'm pretty sure is 24K gold and finished in CA. All four pens are about the same age (10 years) and all have seen regular use. As I compare the pens today, I can't detect any evidence of wear in either the finishing or the plating.
I am a pen person and treasure my collection of pens. I have some fairly old pens in my collection - a Cross (all metal) that I bought 35 years ago, and a Parker 45 (plastic) that was given to me as a college graduation present more than 50 years ago. I still use both, and neither shows significant wear. I also have an expensive Mont Blanc that was given to me about 30 years ago and that I retired because it had a habit of deteriorating rapidly and requiring frequent, expensive repair.
My wife has two pens that I made for her and that she uses very regularly. Again, both are about ten years old and made of wood finished with CA. One has gold TN plating, and the other is copper. And again, I can't see any evidence of deterioration in either the finish or the plating. But while she treasures these pens because I made them for her, she also interchangeably uses cheap plastic advertising giveaway pens. For her, a pen is a utilitarian item rather that the object of a fetish.
I would argue that most people whopurchase a hand-made pen at a craft sale are not pen collectors, and it is unlikely that they will keep that purchase for a lifetime. Instead, it will get lost, loaned or stolen, dropped on pavement or damaged in some other way, or simply replaced by some other favorite pen. So the issue for the make is not whether the plating and finish will last forever, but rather will they last as long as the typical purchaser is likely to be using the pen?
Pen makers often caution purchasers are leaving pens in hot cars or other things than can cause damage. While it would be ethically questionable for a turner to intentionally use inferior kits and finishes in order to maintain cost of making pens without advising purchasers about the possiblity of aging and wear, I don't see any problem with offering purchasers a choice of quality with a corresponding range of prices while explaining that the more expensive options are made with materials intended to last longer and are probably more suitable for collectors, while the less expensive options are completely functional but might show signs of aging over time.
Fred Picker was well known photographer and maker of photographic equipment. One of his products was a wooden tripod. He used to say that one of the differences between his tripod and the metal tripods made by other suppliers was that wood was like people - over time, it picked up honorable scars. That's also true of pens.
The Finish Cube!