Testing out the new stainless kits

[McKenzie Penworks]

Got our first test pen done... Bushings aren't ready yet so it was good practice with my calipers. Never hurts to knock the dust off after a few months away from the lathe right?

This is the Liberty kit. We'll have the first 800 of them ready to go in hopefully just about a week. Super excited! Blank is a new color of DiamondCast we're calling Iolite.

 

[magpens]

WOW !! . . LOVE IT !!!!! .

Sooner than expected, it seems to me !!

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

WOW !! . . LOVE IT !!!!! .

Sooner than expected, it seems to me !!

I suspect these will go fast so we're going to change up the official plans. Next batch will be the Desire kit and then we'll run another Liberty batch before adding the Eagle. Eventually we'll keep inventory up but I think it may take a few months. This batch was 800 kits, we'll do at least 1200 next time etc

 

[mark james]

I'm really excited for this. I hope some thought may be possible for preventing them getting bought by a few with large orders. I know this may not be a concern in 6-12 months, but it would be a shame in a bunch of bulk orders depletes inventory.

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

I'm really excited for this. I hope some thought may be possible for preventing them getting bought by a few with large orders. I know this may not be a concern in 6-12 months, but it would be a shame in a bunch of bulk orders depletes inventory.

I'm not going to do any control over max quantities from the website but I have had conversations with some folks about larger quantities that we'd be doing separately from this batch.

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

Oh and with the new finishing machine and the inventory we're going to be carrying for springs etc it won't be long to turn around the new batch. To give you an idea I just ordered 20,000 springs lol

 

[Dalecamino]

Nice! I'm looking forward to the release also.

 

[goldendj]

Can't wait to try them!

 

[philipff]

OK, but can we pre-order a couple to try? P

 

[civilwartalk]

I've been afraid to turn these kits in my stash for the last few months because I didn't think there would be any more...

Thanks for giving me the peace of mind to get behind my lathe and turn these into pens! At least there will be more kits soon!

Old Raven Kit with Spalted Sycamore (rear) & Old Eagle Kit with White Oak (front)​

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

And he can turn and finish a pen, too. Is there anything this guy can't do?
Nice work. Looking forward to cool stuff!.

 

[Dehn0045]

I'm pretty sure that my EDC, which I received from an IAP PITH swap, is a Raven kit. Honestly I wasn't thrilled with the appearance at first, the cap components are significantly larger than the lower barrel so it looks a little un-balanced to me. However, I will say that the kit stands the test of time! The components look as good as new after 2 years of carrying daily and several refill replacements (I don't use a lot of ink, but the pen is in and out of my pocket all day). Can't go wrong with solid stainless components!

 

[leehljp]

They look very nice! I can't wait to give them a try.

 

[jrista]

These look excellent! Always wondered why there weren't any brushed type pen kits.

 

[penicillin]

I'm really excited for this. I hope some thought may be possible for preventing them getting bought by a few with large orders. I know this may not be a concern in 6-12 months, but it would be a shame in a bunch of bulk orders depletes inventory.

Not for the McKenzies.

Insufficient supply to meet demand can be a problem, but it is a kind of problem that many business would prefer to have compared with unsold inventory.

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

We're planning for them to sell out quick... In fact we've adjusted our original plans to account for it. I'd hoped to bring 4 styles to market back to back but that plan has now changed. The Desire, a capped rollerball/fountain pen went into production this week and will be the next launch. I'll have 600 of those to start with. Once production is complete on that we're coming back to the Liberty and this time upping our order by 50%. We WILL get to the point where we always have inventory but please be patient as this is quite the effort to get off the ground and scale up. We've just spent a few thousand on a new finishing machine that will cut our time tumbling from 24 hours down to 50 minutes. That's a big part of being able to run these at scale and once we're up and running with it we should be able to finish as fast as Constant can produce them.

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

These look excellent! Always wondered why there weren't any brushed type pen kits.

There are a couple but solid stainless kits are expensive to produce and to do it at scale requires a rather expensive specific type of machine. We're cheating a bit because all the design work was done years ago and we purchased the designs AND were lucky enough to retain the services of the gentleman that designed them. Truth be told these have been on the market for years but marketing wasn't really his thing and when they were available they sold out extremely quick.

 

[McKenzie Penworks]

And he can turn and finish a pen, too. Is there anything this guy can't do?
Nice work. Looking forward to cool stuff!.

I had a good chuckle at that. Been way too long since I got to play at the lathe. Got into all this mess because well over a decade ago I made a deal with my wife that if I could break even on a lathe purchase in 3 months I got to keep it. Never figured it would end up being the basis of the family business.