Four Hex- Section Kit pens- lathe not required,.

Making kit pens without lathe machine !

I had made these blanks on the ship using various scrap woods, all turned to 25 to 28 mm diameter and drilled through with 9 mm drill. These were put in a makeshift vaccum chamber and stabilized at 1 atmosphere vaccum using general wood varnish. Later these were soaked in linseed oil for days and dried.
I had turned a few of these on board, and noted these were much better than usual dry wood, ie no splinters and smooth turning, even the dust was very smooth between fingers, almost like talcum powder.

The blanks :

These were lying at home un-used as I do not have a lathe here. I had managed to buy some kits during this vacation, but could not use them.

Finally I got the idea of making hexagonal section pen bodies, where i would not need a lathe.

The wooden tubes were cut to correct length and the internal diameter was matched with the brass tubes using a hand reamer.

The hexagonal shape was made by grinding starting with  rough emery paper [ grit 80, 320 and lastly 600 and 1200].Then 4 to 5 coats of CA glue and polish using micromesh stick up to grit 12000.

I was very happy with the results. Though the freedom of  having a lathe machine is not there, with a little tedious work, the results were quite  good. With more practice I can make the pens quite good looking.

I used the following economy range kits

a) Traditional
b) Reinhert Gold Trim
c) Pressimo
d) Vertex magnetic Steel cap chrome trim.

Hope viewers like the photos. Request your comments.

Traditional kit :

 

 

 

 

 

Reinhert Gold Kit :

 

 

 

 

 

Pressimo Kit :

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vertex Magnetic Chrome Kit :

 

 

 





 

All brass Kit-less Hooded Nib pen.

All brass Kit-less Hooded Nib pen.

 

 

 

Just complteted this pen today. This is the third and last of the semi-finished brass pens I had brought home from the ship.

This is the semi-finished body I started with. The jobs done were : a) Fitting a nib / feeder set b) Fitting a clip  c) Adjusting all fits and finish and d) Fine surface polish.

 

The conical section of the nib hood was drilled to 8 mm due to my ignorance, ideally all chinise pens are fitted with 4 mm diameter nibs [ with of course a separate conical acrylic feeder], pity I did not know at time of machining!.

Now this was a damage control job.  I used a regular open type nib and feeder sourced locally, and that combo went in loose, being 6.3 mm. To make up for the left over 1.7 mm I wrapped around strips of cellotape, taking measurement in between.

Once the combination was fitted tight inside the section , I fitted the converter at the other end of the section. Water-tightness tested with water, found working normal.

 

The excess part of the feeder protuding at the back side of the section , along with slight protrsions at the shoulders of the nib , were ground off using a carbide cutter in a die grinder to match the contour at the reverse side of the section. I liked the final look.

 

For the clip , I had some part finished brass clips without the ring. To fit this at top of the cap, I toyed with many ideas, but finally settled for this! Using the die grinder a recess same in size as the butt of the clip was made and then filled up with CA and the clip butt press fitted into the recess.

 

To my surpize the bonding was strong and the brass clip even has a little spring action.

 

The body had many machine marks and small dents. Tried to remove those as best I could using filing, sanding , smooth sanding up to grit 12000 and finally brasso polish.
No the surface finish is not perfect, meaning I would not dare to try selling this pen.!!

 

Happy to see  the way this regular sized pen finally turned out, I would preserve it as a memento and a prototype.

 

Hope the viewers like this pen. Please let me have your comments / ctritiques.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Details of the Section part :

 

 

 

Brass Hexagon section Kit-less Pen with WingSung 233 Nib.

Brass Hexagon section Kit-less Pen with WingSung 233 Nib.

This is once again a completion job on a semi-finished kit-less I had made on the ships lathe machine.

This is the semi-finished kit, it was lying like this for a long time.  I worked for two days at home and competed this pen.

 

 

 

 

 

The pen body is made from a hexagon section brass rod, end finials are black plastic [ same  material as Diabolo pen detailed earlier ] with several coats of CA. The clip is from  some unknown pen I found in the drawer, matching well with the finials.

The nib section on the original pen body was made to fit open type nib, but I wanted to use WingSung 233 nib [ I have purchased 10 pcs from ebay  for $ 1.0 each] and I had an old usable 233 feeder from an old pen shop.

To fit the nib to the section I cut a 15 mm tube piece from a gel pen. After good smoothing the plastic tube was reduced to correct diameter for attaching to the nib thread . The full nib unit with nib, feeder and the holder tube complete was press fitted onto the section. A Jinhao converter  fitted to the section completed the pen body.

 

This work really gave me a lot of satisfaction!!

The remaining work was mainly fitting the clip and polishing the pen.

The pen is made  postable  using the exposed threads at the barrel end.  Posted, this pen about 19 cm long and capped , about 15 cm.

 

 The barrel is a little heavy because it was not fully hollowed out, having about 1.5 mm wall thickness, while the cap is fully hollowed out and light.

So the working balance of this pen does not vary much posted or un-posted.

Grip section is comfortable and there is an added notch turned to provide better grip.

 

I am yet to carry out a writing test on this pen.

 

 As of now I am very happy with the way this pen turned out.

These are the various photos .  Welcome your comments and critique.  

 

 

 

 The nib section : Please note the black plastic tube visible between the nib and the section. This is purposely kept to give contrast look and allow slight flexibility. I had to use an old and used feeder, not getting new WingSung 233 feeders in Kolkata!

 

 

Three Indian Pilot pens

Three Vintage Indian Pilot Pens

Paid a visit to Pen Hospital yesterday, there were some fine vintage pens including one Eversharp  marbled celluloid with missing nib and filler lever. And there were these Indian pilot pens from 1970’s. I picked up three for just Rs. 300/-, these are almost in mint condition. All these are eyedropper filled pens, I clearly remember having seen these pens with some of our fellow students-definitely 1970’s.

The pens had minor scratch marks on the body and required a  mild polish with grit 12000. Ink test was good, the medium fine nibs write very smooth.

Here are the photos for lovers of Indian Pilot. Please could anyone remember the model numbers ?

 The nibs :

Atrax Gold kit- Inspired by praying mantis figure.

Atrax  Gold kit- Inspired by praying mantis figure.

I had always contemplated finishing this semi- finished pen body. Now at home , without the support of a lathe machine, I chose to use a kit.

After a long matching and mixing session , finally decided upon using the Atrax Gold kit I had with me. The clip and end finials of this kit seemed to match with the mantis image. I do not know why this pen body always reminds me of a mantis, perhaps the articulated segmented look.  Nevertheless  I would call this mantis!

The body is made with steel and brass with four segments of wood rings. There is very fine misalignment due to the wobbly lathe machine , but unless looked closely these are not visible.

For the fitment I had to little bit modify the inner tubes using a die grinder [  my only tool ahead of the stone age!] and for the pen press I used a C-clamp !

The wood part retained the original CA finish, perhaps a few more coats would have done it better. But I decided to avoid the messy stuff for now.

Overall I am very happy that this one tuned out just the way I wanted.

Please  let me have your comments and critiques.

 

Atrax Chrome Kit pen : Tulip bud shape.

Atrax  Chrome Kit pen : Tulip bud shape.

I made this pen last night.  As usual, I do not have a lathe at home now, so I used a previously  made part finished  pen body and an Atrax kit.

This is the semi-finished body I used from stock.
 

Regular Atrax Kit pens come with parallel sides, but in this one I have tried to add a curvature. The overall shape is inspired by tulip bud. Seemed to

 look good.

 

The Body

 

 

 

This pen has come out with almost no construction flaws. I am happy that I could do the assembly and finish all by hand.

 

 

The wood is some scrap wood from ships engine room , perhaps packing crate for machinery spare parts. I had stabilized this wood by a vaccum chamber made on board at near to 1 atm vaccum, but the medium  used was ordinary wood varnish . Can not say how effective the stabilization, but the wood had become much better for turning, ie no chipping etc and the dust was very smooth.

 
 

 

This pen can not be posted. Writing balance is good, though the section is very slippery. The nib is excellent.

This is my first work on Atrax kit , I liked this simple and elegant

 kit. Handwriting sample :

 

Vertex Steel Cap

Vertex Steel Cap  

I had made this pen much earlier but might had forgotten to post in this blog. It is made with Vertex magnetic steel cap Kit. The section is octagonal , good looks but very awkward to write with. Hardware is rhodium plated Chrome colour.

Inspected and tested this pen after quite some time. This is a reasonably well made pen, in reality there is not much for  the turner to do in this pen except the barrel tube.  Rest is supplied in the hardware.

In this one the parallel barrel wooden tube is slightly oversized in diameter than the end couplers. This affects the look of this pen. Perhaps I  would need to find a way to bevel down the ends.

The pens wooden part has retained the CA finish quite well.. Overall this is fine looking pen, but to a trained eye the flaw in the barrel machining would become apparent.

Writing was smooth and easy with the iridium point nib. I found that holding the pen at the section coupler gives a more comfortable grip.

A fine pen for the collection.

Sample handwriting: