Custom Turned Aluminium Fountain Pen

July 8, 2013

Hi everyone,

a couple of weeks of practicing patience have finally come to an end: today was the day that my pen was finished; and it came out so much better than I ever could have hoped.

I sketched up the pen in CAD and Jim did a terrific job in deciphering and improving my amateurish drawings.

The whole 15cm long pen is machined out of 1/2" hexagonal aluminium, with a compression O-ring sealing the body, so that it could be used as an eyedropper pen; feed and nib are a Bock 076 medium triple.

The pen is well balanced, has a nice weighted feel to it and I finally have a pen close to the Rotring 600, only that it's custom made

I'm not sure yet if I should keep it like that or have anodized black - I kind of like the "pure aluminium" look of it ...

Thanks for looking,

Chris

July 9, 2013

I like it a lot, and also like the raw aluminum finish. Keep it that way (or send it my way if you get tired of it ). Also it's nice to find out about a fabricator who is willing and able to do something like this, as I have a metal-bodied pen concept I would like to bring to reality some day.

Edited July 9, 2013 by sethk

July 9, 2013

That's very nice, especially when your own concept comes to life. Congratulations! I agree, keep it as is. Why change a good thing?

July 9, 2013

Nice pen but, AFAIK, you shouldn't use a reactive metal(e.g. aluminum) as an eyedropper.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Lloyd

July 9, 2013

Aluminium wouldn't be good as an eyedropper unless anodized, preferably hard anodized. Once that was done, it should be satisfactory. The problem with hard anodizing is the colour, it can only be dyed black or left in its natural dark grey.

I do like the pen, but an odd taper here & there wouldn't go amiss to my eyes. Nicely machined though.

Regards,

Richard.