Fountain pens

[Baldy]

Looking for some help.. I want to get my first pen kit so that I can do it for myself and keep and use.. I want a fountain pen kit.. it has to look good and be a good quality kit without being ridiculously expensive..

Suggestions welcome..

Thanks in advance

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[bellringer]

Baron 2 from timber bits

 

[Buckeye]

Pristina, BA, Sedona or Roman Harvest all from Timberbits.

Peter

 

[silver]

Artisan JR statesman fountain pen from CSUSA..

Artisan Jr. Statesman II Non-Postable Fountain Pen Kit | Pen Making | Craft Supplies USA

Quality pen and nice feel to it..

 

[Jim]

The Majestic Fountain Pen from Axminster ..

 

[Kardav]

Pristina from TB my favourite.

 

[Robert]

Looking for some help.. I want to get my first pen kit

Have you never made a pen before?

 

[Buckeye]

The Majestic Fountain Pen from Axminster ..

You are right I forgot about that one and less than £20

Peter

 

[Baldy]

Have you never made a pen before?

Never..

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[Robert]

Can I suggest you practice on a couple of Sierras and slimlines first? That's what I would do.

Relatively easy and cheap if you feck them up

(he says, acting like he's been turning pens for yonks!!)

 

[rayf6604]

If you understand the process of making pens then you probably could do most kits, but if you're not confident with turning pens then as Robert says you'd be better off at least getting to grips with pen turning by making slimlines first then move onto sierras etc.

The Empress from Axminster is nice pen kit and quite easy but you need special sized drill bits and bushes. Better to learn to walk before running so as to avoid being disappointed with failures, and you will get failures from time to time, and if you ruin a slimline you haven't wasted that much money. Have a word with Dan TaylorMirfield on here. He has some good prices on pen kits.
Hope that's useful

 

[Neil]

I'm with Alex on this one, as a first bash the Baron is a good starting point as the dimensions on the barrel are not critical and the dims on the cap are fairly forgiving. Pens such as the Roman harvest, deserve a decent blank and I wouldnt recommend it, nor the majestic or pristina as a first stab, lovely pens the lot, but not as a first off.

I like the Atrax, but the dims are critical and not for the first timer. The Tycoon is another good one, metal threads and as good as the Baron/Sedonna for a first stab. What ever you go for, get some spare tubes. Yes I know you can strip the tubes, but you may just want to turn three or four as your first and learn from them or choose the best one before you assemble the kit.

 

[Dalboy]

And to add to the above you then need to finish them especially if they are wood. So turn some throw away spindle work to get a good finish on and then use these to practice your desired finish

 

[Buckeye]

There is nothing more difficult about turning a fountain pen than any other pen, okay it has two parts to turn so it takes a little longer than a single barrel, but don't be put off going straight to a fountain pen, a slimline may be cheap, but so are the tubes and that's all you need to think about. If you turn a blank for a slimline then it may as well be for a fountain pen, it is no more difficult.

If you would like a Jr. Gent Fountain pen to try PM me your address and I will send you one.

Peter

Peter

 

[Robert]

I agree, I don't think turning a fountain pen is necessarily any more difficult than turning any other pen.

What I'm suggesting is he practices turning pens on a few cheaper versions first, to learn and home the basic techniques. I think you forget as a novice how many steps there are to the process, and how many things can go wrong.

And how irritating it will be every day looking at a pen knowing all the defects in it, wishing you'd cut it straighter, shaped it better, sanded it a bit more, used a different finish etc etc. of course he will be the only person who sees these defects, but that won't make them less irritating.

Hence practice on some cheap ones first. If they fail, no big deal. If they succeed, he has something he can give away/sell

 

[paulm]

Sedona for me despite someone having had a problem with the thread.

 

[Woody]

All this good sound advise I wish it was around when I started LOL if your like me the impatent type then all all I can suggest Baldy dive in at the deep end and go for it you will soon learn even if it is the hard and expensive way I started with fountain pen sets many moons ago all in Ebony and every one split within a few days so I stripped them all down and started all over again I soon learned to sand at slow speed personally my preference is the pristina a good solid pen

 

[bellringer]

I'm with Alex on this one, as a first bash the Baron is a good starting point as the dimensions on the barrel are not critical and the dims on the cap are fairly forgiving. Pens such as the Roman harvest, deserve a decent blank and I wouldnt recommend it, nor the majestic or pristina as a first stab, lovely pens the lot, but not as a first off.

I like the Atrax, but the dims are critical and not for the first timer. The Tycoon is another good one, metal threads and as good as the Baron/Sedonna for a first stab. What ever you go for, get some spare tubes. Yes I know you can strip the tubes, but you may just want to turn three or four as your first and learn from them or choose the best one before you assemble the kit.

That what I start with

 

[paulm]

There is a degree of difficulty on the various models of pen as Neil has said but also a 7mm slimline is easy as there is only a small hole to drill with plenty of tolerance and plenty of meat left when you've turned it. Some of the other pens need a large hole with very little tolerance. The most common pen to start with is the slimline because at £2.00 at time its not a big pain if you cock it up.

If you want to start on a fountain pen then I would suggest getting the cheapest one you can with the smallest tube and most amount of wood.

One of the nicest and probably best non fountain pen to start with would be the Concavia as that is a 7mm tube and there is loads of wood left on turning and its a lovely pen at a reasonable cost.

 

[Grump]

Time for my tuppence worth init?
It's all been said and I would be wrong to disagree with any of it.
Hey Iv'e been wrong before so who cares.
Go for it pal. look around at the available kits, choose the one you want, it really don't matter which cos they is all crap.
Even if you make a total balls up of it you still have it, it's still your first pen and you will look back on it and learn from it.
If you can turn a fountain pen, you can turn any pen, likewise if you can turn a slimline, you can turn any pen.
You will soon learn how to strip them down and redo them, you will have your screw ups and build a spares box.
Enjoy what you do, build your confidence, get stuck in and have a lot of fun.