Fountain Pens?
I started turning pens in 2018 when my oldest son was showing an interest in collecting pens. At the time, I was desperate to find activities we could do together. I went full into it, buying all the gear and trying every pen kit I could find on the market. A year later, my son's interests shifted like most 10-year-’, but I found myself still wanting to make pens every day.
I encountered two big problems with component or kit pens as I learned more. First, I was bound to put only my creativity into the barrel of the pen that fit on the kit tube. I felt restricted by the pen kit. Second, I found that the quality of the pen kit platings and the components, in general, were declining during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cheaper platings replaced certain quality platings due to a lack of plating materials. I found that I had to use much more expensive hardware to create a product that I was happy with and would be heirloom quality.
In 2021, I was teaching a local friend how to make pens, and his interest was in learning to make a "kitless" pen. At this point, I had no experience or interest in making fountain pens. Who still uses fountain pens? As it turns out, a lot of people. I went to a pen show where a maker was selling his beautiful kit pens in a fantastic display. This maker also teaches people how to make kitless pens in classes nationwide. I bought his tool kit and instructions and made my first kitless pen. I was hooked from the first pen. The engineering, design, and endless possibilities all attracted me to make “kitless” pens.
I soon realized that I could also make rollerballs and ballpoints by altering my design slightly. That was all I needed to switch to "kitless" pen-making. In 2022, I started putting my work online and found that people liked it. I started selling one or two pens here and there and decided to put all my work online and see how it went.
I work full-time in finance, am married, and have 2 sons in high school and middle school, so I still consider this a hobby. I hope people continue to enjoy my work, and I will keep putting it out there.
Mark 12/6/23
My very first “functional” fountain pen from 3/21. With single start threads, this thread monster took about 5 turns to open and close. Things have improved. All of my triple start threads take 1.5 turns to open and close now.
