Hi Pen Friends
The reason I got into making fountain pens was because I stumbled across a picture of some custom pens that absolutely blew me away. I remember thinking, “I have to learn how to make those.” It was a moment of real inspiration. I’d been buying kits and blanks from Phil Dart for a while, so I sent him the photo. He explained this was a “kitless pen” and, to my surprise, he kindly spent an hour and a half on the phone with me, walking me through the process, the tools involved, and some key tips. I’m sure I wasn’t the first (and definitely not the last) to ask for help, which probably led him to writing the excellent tutorial that’s now freely available on the Beaufort Ink website.
That’s where it all began for me. That image of those pens stuck with me—I wanted to reach the point where I could consistently make pens to a high standard. Getting everything just right—length, diameter, taper, etc.—turned out to be trickier than I initially thought. At least for me!
Recently, I made four pens in a single batch, something I don’t often do. So I decided to test just how uniform they were by panning a camera over them with a backlight, watching how the light reflected across each pen and checking if it moved consistently across all four. The results are in the attached video (I hope it’s uploaded ok!)..
It’s rare for me to step back and really assess my own work like this, but I have to say, it made me smile. For a brief moment, I thought, “Yes, I’ve actually achieved what I set out to do.” That’s not a feeling I’ve had often in my life.
Cheers
Ash
View attachment IMG_6212.mov
The reason I got into making fountain pens was because I stumbled across a picture of some custom pens that absolutely blew me away. I remember thinking, “I have to learn how to make those.” It was a moment of real inspiration. I’d been buying kits and blanks from Phil Dart for a while, so I sent him the photo. He explained this was a “kitless pen” and, to my surprise, he kindly spent an hour and a half on the phone with me, walking me through the process, the tools involved, and some key tips. I’m sure I wasn’t the first (and definitely not the last) to ask for help, which probably led him to writing the excellent tutorial that’s now freely available on the Beaufort Ink website.
That’s where it all began for me. That image of those pens stuck with me—I wanted to reach the point where I could consistently make pens to a high standard. Getting everything just right—length, diameter, taper, etc.—turned out to be trickier than I initially thought. At least for me!
Recently, I made four pens in a single batch, something I don’t often do. So I decided to test just how uniform they were by panning a camera over them with a backlight, watching how the light reflected across each pen and checking if it moved consistently across all four. The results are in the attached video (I hope it’s uploaded ok!)..
It’s rare for me to step back and really assess my own work like this, but I have to say, it made me smile. For a brief moment, I thought, “Yes, I’ve actually achieved what I set out to do.” That’s not a feeling I’ve had often in my life.
Cheers
Ash
View attachment IMG_6212.mov
