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brown ink sketch design 7.mov Time lapse of my updated sketch of fountain pen and ink display / organizer per you guys’ feedback. There’s also an alternative inspired by one of your comments (will share later). Let me know what you think and then we get closer to some prototypes! Will share more designs in due course Photos below so that it is easier for you to give feedback.

Like many collectors, I've found my collection of pens has outrun its storage space. I started off with a thuya wood octagonal 'mug' for my three Cross Sauvages, couple of Waterman Forums, and Cross ATX. That was before I'd heard of the Parker 51.... Then I got some small cigar boxes, then a shoe box... Better pens were kept in tubes or pieces of plumbing pipe or bubble wrap, low cost users had to struggle along as best they could. A couple of months ago I found a rather dodgy looking three-drawer wooden chest at a car boot sale, for the price of 8 euros. The seller threw in a strong Ikea transport bag for free. It was horribly scratched on the sides, and stained with a nasty brown stain. It looked like this: http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/_IGP0206.jpg So the first thing to do was to take those horrible handles off the sides, and sand it down to a nice finish. First using 180 grit and then 240 for finishing it nicely. (I go a lot further than that when I'm doing fine work in hardwoods, but this wood is fairly porous and coarse grained, so there wasn't much point.) The colour of the wood was a lot lighter than it looked. Then I applied three coats of boiled linseed oil to the sides, rubbing down gently between each coat. Now I had a chest I would allow to come into the house and out of the workshop. The drawers were deep. I thought I could get an extra tray of pens in each. I built these with plywood bottoms and using pine strip sides, simply glued. (I really ought to go back and put a screw in each joint to make it a bit more secure.) I then used a few pieces of old wood to line the bottom 4 cm of each drawer providing a ledge for the tray to sit on. I also used a rasp to carve an indent in the front of the trays to match that in the front of the drawers. I tried two different methods for making the pen trays. 1. For the upper trays, I cut 10mm wide strips of card (actually from the cardboard wrap that my sandpaper comes in, slightly thinner and springier than cereals box, but let's not get too nerdy - it's only cardboard after all). I used these as 'spines' and glued them with Copydex to the back of some old velvet I had (curtains from a thrift shop), leaving 25mm (10mm for the other side of the strip and 15mm spacing) between them. Once the glue was dry I glued the velvet to the other side of the card so I had a sort of 'accordion'. Finally, I glued this to a corrugated cardboard backing (grocery boxes, thank you Aldi!) Total cost minimal. 2. For the lower trays, I used 8mm dowel cut to length and spaced at 3mm centre to centre, stuck on to a cardboard backing. I then glued the velvet over the top of the dowels. This is much quicker. It looks a lot better. But it doesn't hold the pens so securely. And it's significantly more expensive; total cost 8 euros for the dowels. That doubled the cost of my pen chest! Here are the trays: http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/_IGP1067.jpg http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/_IGP1066.jpg http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/_IGP1065.jpg And here is the pen chest, next to some of the pen boxes it is replacing (at least in part): http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t411/amk-fpn/_IGP1068.jpg A final touch remains to be added; I have cut small triangular handles of leather which will be glued and possibly upholstery tacked to the trays so that they are easier to lift. And I'm going to put felt on the bottom of the trays, since there is some risk of them touching the pens in the bottom layer - I didn't allow quite enough clearance. That's a lesson for next time. It's been a nice project. But the nicest thing of all is being able to pull out a drawer and just admire my pens, en masse. I've never been able to do that before!