I'm Curious, How Many Of Us Have Kaigelu 316's?

[kidde]

So my wait is over. One arrived yesterday and the other two today. The only "flaw" in my three pens was a drop of glue in the cap that rubbed the section, but it came out very easy. I think these are the prettiest $20 pens I have seen (actually $26 after finial). Thanks Richard!

 

Paul

[richardandtracy]

Those are gorgeous looking pens, Paul.

 

I am still to be convinced that the transparency of the white is nice, as I don't like seeing the gold shading through the resin. If there was a way of stopping it, the pen would look like an updated version of the Parker Duofold 'Norman Rockwell' LE pen. I wonder if white car primer would stick well enough not to come off.

 

I broke down after seeing so many gorgeous Amber & Grey 316's and ordered another from YCPens - my first pen for over a year. Think it'll have a cast finial once I get that production method sorted and I shall experiment with grinding an italic nib from one of the redundant kit pen nibs I have.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[columela]

I have an amber/ grey 316. nice looking pen, unfortunately too heavy for my taste and with a medium nib which is not suitable to my small hand writing

[erpe]

  On 4/5/2014 at 10:24 AM, columela said:

Quote: with a medium nib which is not suitable to my small hand writing

 

Completely off topic but this is an interesting remark. I also found my handwriting too small but since I have been writing on a daily basis with a 316 ( i use one for the breakfast diary), my characters sort of automatically became larger and surprisingly, I can now adapt my handwriting to the used nibsize. Never thought of practicing for it, just happened.

[Paul80]

Hi

 

Just got my £15 inc postage Black smoke one in the post and its every bit as gorgeous as the Amber one I got a year ago, so their QC is still working well.

 

Paul

[johnmc2]

I have an amber grey which has been much improved by the replacement acrylic finial.

[richfong]

I plan on buying one in the following few months, so I'd be very interested in hearing how work on the alternative finials goes.

[robofkent]

Strange but true....I now have two Kaigelu 316s and they appear to be different lengths. The threads in the cap are not as good in the Tiger Eye as in the Pearl and Black version which may explain it?!

[Flounder]

Rob, I've noticed that the threads in both my caps took a while to bed in. It may be that your tiger eye is not screwing all the way closed yet.

[MrDickens]

Mine arrived today. The b&w one though it is more grey & black. Very nice looking pen. Yet to try it out.

 

[scrivelry]

I'm trying to figure out what the colors offered actually are.

 

What I see when I look at various pens are a charcoal color, the amber/grey, the white swirl and then something that looks like tigereye to me.

 

What I can't figure out is if the tigereye color (which is not my taste) is just a variation of the Amber/grey or a different color.

 

isellpens seems to have been out of stock on these for a little while now, so if I order one it will be from one of the Chinese companies on ebay - I fear that language problems being what they are, any sort of complex explanation of what I want will do nothing but confuse people... Does anyone have any information that might help me?

 

Thanks!

 

T

[kidde]

I do. As far as I know they are made in just three color combos, with the amber and tiger eye being the same. I should have bought one of each color, but bought two ambers and a white. To me (my opinion being worth full retail-$0) they are worth the $20-$25 they sell for. For an extra $8-$10 you can get the box, but I'm not a box kind of guy.

They are translucent and almost glow in good light, like celluloid but still just plastic. I really like mine.

 

Paul

[richardandtracy]

The charcoal is amazing too. It's not often that you find a black with gorgeous pearlescence deep inside the material. It makes the black actually quite desirable - and I usually find black dead boring.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[kidde]

Richard, I'm going to have to block you! I've given away one of my ambers and I'm trying really REALLY hard to not replace it. But your description of the charcoal has me looking at photos and realizing that would make a complete set. Hhhmmmmm, what to do to correct the balance?

 

Paul

[Dickkooty2]

This yet another Duofold I found surfing around. Shape seems OK. Not made by the Kangaroo people. What do you think?

 

 

http://s271.photobucket.com/user/dick168/media/ScreenShot2014-04-13at101315PM_zps5899ad6d.png.html?filters[user]=139176284&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0

[richardandtracy]

Was that made by the well known Kangaroo imitator, Parker?

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[richardandtracy]

I have made my first stab at moulding finials. It has not been a success, but I didn't really expect my first effort to work (just hoped it would), so I am not too disappointed. To be honest, I am moderately pleased with what I have achieved, given the fact that I have never tried this sort of thing before. The nearest I have come in the past is sand moulding of aluminium - similar in idea but utterly different in execution.

 

I planned on making a two part mould, with the split line where the finial spigot starts. So, I put all the finials I have for my own K316's into a plate to act as the top of the lower half of the mould. Then put in two locating buttons so the top would register in the correct place:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13074a_zpsc9d9a9b5.jpg

After this, filled the mould with liquid silicone rubber which took 24 hours to cure:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13075a_zps960bbfdd.jpg

On turning the mould the other way up and re-setting the mould box:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13076a_zpsc70e77a6.jpg

Filled the mould with more silicone rubber, but put in a lump of acrylic to form a reservoir to act as a pouring basin for the resin when it was to go into the mould:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13077a_zpsc7172553.jpg

Then, after 24 hours I tried to split the mould. Contrary to the assurances I had been given, curing silicone rubber does stick to cured silicone rubber and as a result all my registers had disappeared and the two halves had stuck together as a single lump of rubber. To get the finials out, I had to use a knife to cut the mould in half. Next time I need to use a mould release.

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13094a_zps6d9f26d6.jpg

Now to use the mould. I shook the bottle of coloured resin, weighed it into one pot, then the catalyst in another pot, all weighed out to the nearest tenth of a gram. Rapidly mixed the resin (5 minute pot life and 15 minutes to removing the mould at 25C, but it was 12C in my workshop) and poured the water thin liquid into the mould. And straight out along the knife cut parting line... So added a couple of weights to the top of the mould and poured in some more resin:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13095a_zpsd5a3f237.jpg

After 15 minutes the resin was starting to go a bit thicker, and I got fed up & brought it inside to cure overnight. Next morning I split the mould and found this:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13097a_zpsa8f66572.jpg

I don't think the resin is black enough, but it's certain I hadn't mixed it very well, being in way too much of a hurry on my first ever attempt. It seems the pot life in my conditions is about 10 minutes, so I needn't hurry as much as I did. This is a bit more detail of what came out, and one fitted to my Charcoal K316 with my turned finial next to it to emphasise the difference in colour of the resin from the 'proper' finial:

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13098a_zps0a3f2329.jpg

http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/penmaking/Sdc13099a_zps10977919.jpg

 

So, not a success, but many lessons have been learnt and it's apparent I can get it done.

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[Dickkooty2]

  On 4/14/2014 at 7:42 AM, richardandtracy said:

Was that made by the well known Kangaroo imitator, Parker?

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

Richard,

 

This beautiful piece of work was probably made by someone you might know from the higher realms of Pendom.

 

Best,

 

Dick

 

http://www.penboard.de/shop/details/03120

Edited April 14, 2014 by Dickkooty2

[scrivelry]

Very interesting - it's always great to see how projects evolve!

 

On a different note - does anyone know which size nib I need to replace the medium on these pens? Will a Goulet nib do it? I have a vague idea I read something about this, but can't recall...

 

(One day when my nib skills are better I will grind the medium to something more useful for me and have the kangaroos back, but in the meantime I can live with a nice smooth fine or italic, even if the design on the nib is not quite as distinctive...)

 

T

[richardandtracy]

It's a #6 nib.

 

Regards,

 

Richard