# My first fountain pen



## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

Well, the first one I've turned on the lathe. I've had fountain pens before. Mostly just cheap ones from the office supply store, never had one with what even resembled a good nib.

The nib on the classic kit (Parker style) is the usual gold-irridium which I guess the pen-snobs will poo-poo. But compared to the junky steel ones I've used before this is great!

Sorry Harry, no build pictures :sad: . The turning is pretty standard operation, nothing special or fancy. 10mm tube in a 3/4" square Padauk blank. Perhaps the only special step is the turning off of a 1/8" length of wood for the center band to fasten to the cap section. Just measure twice and cut slow. 

Sanded to 600 with wipe down between grits. Wipe down with mineral spirits after the last grit to check for residual scratches and get any oil off the wood. In the second photo, it looks like the reflection is showing a series of scratches but yet when I look with a magnifying loupe or just my unaided eye, they aren't there. Might be an artifact of the JPG compression. -- just used a higher magnification and I can see a series of concentric rings in the Padauk. Not scratches, because they often bifurcate like our fingerprints and in both directions, both with and opposite sanding. -- 

Finish is 8 coats of CA/BLO applied with lathe running. 

Very happy with this kit, a PSI kit bought from Wood-N-Whimsies

Pictures taken with it setting on the workbench at the lab. Perhaps it is about time I make a small photo tent for use here. We do use the digital camera for documentation purposes but honestly, the lighting in here is a real mixed bag!


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## Ralph Barker (Dec 15, 2008)

Looks nice, Rob. 

And, don't pay too much attention to those fountain pen snobs who object to anything but gold-only nibs.


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## Bob N (Oct 12, 2004)

Rob,

Extremely nice job! I like your choice of wood, it goes well with the kit. Don't worry about those scratches in the photo, the camera can many times see what the naked eye cannot and the naked eye is all that will be seeing the pen in person. 

Seeing your nice work reminds me that I still owe myself a fountain pen that I have never got around to turning for me yet. I have 3 kits sitting in my inventory and need to do that one day soon. I keep saying that I need to retire so work will stop getting in the way of my fun time :yes4:


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

A beautiful pen Rob, I'm almost tempted to send you a digital camera!


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

harrysin said:


> A beautiful pen Rob, I'm almost tempted to send you a digital camera!


Ha! Trade you a fountain pen :jester:

I don't believe they are scratches per-se. They look more like an artifact of the wood. Here is a screen capture from the microscope at work. The CCD camera tends to drag down the contrast and with a fluorescent ring-light it all goes a little green anyway. But you can see in this small area how the lines bifurcate like your fingerprint. And I'm quite certain it isn't a captured fingerprint as the "rings" appear all up and down the shaft, relatively even but with enough variation to make me doubt it is mechanical (i.e. sanding) related.

To the Mark-I eyeball it looks fine. And it feels good. It will get its own set of scratches from use. And a little bit of color shift. "Patina" is not a naughty word after all.

And my usual reply to anybody that poo-poos things for reasons of pure snobbery ends in, "... and the horse you rode in on".  If it works, it works.


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## Glenmore (Sep 10, 2004)

Rob really nice job on your pen. I'd like to know though that office you took the picture in are like us. Where else can you use pair of needle nose plyers for the photo don't see nothing with that might use that as a prop myself. Keep it up with your pen talents you are doing great. :dance3:


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## xplorx4 (Dec 1, 2008)

Outstanding job on the pen, keep seeing those and start to get the itch.


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## BernieW (Sep 12, 2006)

Rob that is a beauty for sure. Very well done.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Rob, you are your own worst critic, with woodworking we don't use electron microscopes, we use our eyes!

Up to arriving in Australia I only used fountain pens but the hot climate was drying them up too quickly so I put them in a bottom drawer where they still are.


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## rwyoung (Aug 3, 2008)

Funny thing, to the naked eye, the fine lines are visible in the finished Padauk (at least to mine, but my glasses are set up for close work). But not visible in a bad way, it definitely looks like it is the wood and not scratches. I can even find areas on the pen body where the lines turn into swirls. I suppose they could be itty-bitty medulliary rays.

Reminds me of the Mandelbrot fractal.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Rob, after doing a quick copy and paste into Google, I can now see why you're nit picking your own work. PLEASE, come into the real world where nothing is PERFECT (except perhaps me)!


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## chippypah (Dec 24, 2007)

Really good looking pens Rob.
Cheers
Pete


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Rob, if Pete says they're good looking, you better believe him! Pete turns out some magnificent pieces.


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