I know that I'm replying a little late to this post, but I thought that I'd throw in my two cents. I saw that Nakaya was mentioned earlier and one of their big selling points is that every pen is handmade for your hand only. Here's a link to their website giving an overview of their process.
http://www.nakaya.org/ehandmade.html
Their Master lathe craftsman, Mr. Matsubara, has been handmaking their pens since 1991. I've attached a photo of him using his foot-powered lathe, pretty awesome! If you are curious, search Nakaya at the Pentrace website and you will find several articles showing off their techniques and craftsmanship.
It is one of my goals to immitate if at all possible one of Nakaya's Piccolo pens (photo attached), but so far I can't even get the closed end barrels to come out consistantly. But that's probably because I don't want to spend the money on specialized mandrels and chucks just yet. And eventually, I would love to get into cutting threads and all that, but am hesitant to spend the money and end up getting the wrong kind.
I also, would like to
immitate the Piccolo because I don't want to spend the $300-$2,000 (depending on options, finish, design) it costs for one.