Tube Length Question

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DrD

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When did BHW change the tube length of the Elegant Sierra Button Click Pen? The Attached photo shows, left to right, a tube from a current Elegant Sierra Button Click Pen kit. A pen I turned from the first production run of Elegant Sierra Button Clicks, and for comparison, a current production Elegant Sierra Twist Pen. The first production of the Button Click has a barrel tube shorter than the current production Elegant Sierra Twist. Whereas the current Elegant Sierra Click has a barrel longer than the current production Twist pen - as shown in the attached pic.

Did BHW change the Click mechanism from when this kit was first introduced to now? Inquires to BHW have gone unanswered. I notice in the IAP resources re Tube Lenghts, etc., that data is absent for the Elegant Sierra. Any help would be appreciated.
 

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magpens

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WOW !! . Your picture shows your point quite dramatically. . I have a liking for those "elegant" kits.

I haven't followed their history, but I sure am interested in the situation you have elucidated.

"Some IAP member living in Ohio" just might have the right contact at Berea to get the answers you need, Don.

It is an important issue and I will try to keep a watch on the responses you might get here in this thread.

I seem to recall that there is a "Sierra Elegant Beauty" as well as an "Elegant Sierra" but I don't know the tube lengths or other differences.
 
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magpens

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I have an old single-table IAP compilation of tube lengths for various kits dated 7-23-2010 (10 or so pages of finely printed data across all manufacturers/vendors). . (I know my use of the terms "manufacturer" and "vendor" may not be accurate but there has been a lot of "cross-selling" at various times.)

Searching that single-table for the occurrence of both "elegant" and "click" in the kit names by Berea turns up only the one length of 1.89 inches.

And I cannot find any names distinguished as "Sierra Elegant Beauty" as distinct from "Elegant Sierra" so I could be wrong on that point.
However, I do remember some kit "baggies" having labels with such names.

I used to find this old table quite useful but I have not used it much since the new set of IAP tables came out fairly recently.
Both the 2010 table and the more recent set of tables (one table for each manufacturer/vendor) were compiled by our guru for such data, namely Wayne R.

As JT just suggested, ed4copies (Ed Brown at ExoticBlanks) might have the answers, and his name was the first to pop into my mind also.
 
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DrD

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WOW !! .

I seem to recall that there is a "Sierra Elegant Beauty" as well as an "Elegant Sierra" but I don't know the tube lengths or other differences.
You are correct. At the time of the introduction of this particular pen style Jim H. was calling it the Sierra Elegant Beauty and it came in both Twist and Click. The available component finishes were combinations of Black Titanium, Ti Gold, and Platinum. The cost was right up there too. Jim saw the kits take off, so he decided to expend the offering and introduced a variation of Chrome and Satin Chrome at a lower price and called them Elegant Sierra.

Dimensionally there was and is - I believe - no differences between the Sierra Elegant Beauty, and the Elegant Sierra.

Thanks
 

DrD

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I have an old single-table IAP compilation of tube lengths for various kits dated 7-23-2010 ...
Searching that single-table for the occurrence of both "elegant" and "click" in the kit names by Berea turns up only the one length of 1.89 inches.
The first production kit/pen I have is a Sierra Elegant Beauty Click in Black Titanium and Platinum and it has a tube length of 1.89". Al the football tubes Kenny Durrant made up for me are nominally 2.2 " which is the tube length in the new Elegant Sierras Twist kits I have. The tube for the new Click kits I have are 2.368".
 

DrD

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JT's advice to ask Ed is good advise. Ed goes way back with Jim H. and BHW; thanks JT. And Ed if you see this, please weigh in.
 

magpens

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Don, the lengths you have quoted are noteworthy.

I used to buy a lot of both Sierra Twist kits and Sierra Click kits (neither having "elegant" in the names.)

The Sierra Twists had a tube length of 2.21", while the Sierra Clicks had a tube length of 2.42".

But I have that nagging recollection that there was/is also a Sierra kit with a tube length of 2.368" as you just stated.

And I also have the distinct (not nagging) recollection of getting terribly confused on many occasions.
 
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DrD

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It was mid 2007 on a return trip to Canton, OH, after shutting down my consulting office in Alliance earlier that year, that I took my wife to meet Jim H. at BHW. As we talked he told me about the new pens based off the Sierra, called the Sierra Elegant Beauty. At that time a bought several of the Twist and more of the Click kits - literally fell in love with the 2 pens. Shortly after that I stopped turning and didn't start in again until a year and a half ago or so - whenever I joined IAP. So that would have around 2018. I purchased several of the Elegant Sierra kits but never checked to see if they were any different from the few original kits I still had on hand.

Didn't give any of this any thought until I got together with Kenny Durrant on the football blanks. My thought was to take those blanks and make them as Button Clicks. Surprise, surprise. Now, I'm just curious as to what changed to necessitate a tube length change.
 

magpens

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@DrD

Maybe not a "necessary" change.

Could have just been a whim on the part of the designer to change some style feature which precipitated a tube length change !
 
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