Bob Ellis
Graduate Member
We get some severe weather in the high Pennines, but Noah's Flood followed by a Sirocco is extreme, even by our standards. Let me explain.
I've not been on the forum (or making any pens) for the last two months because my wife and I came home one Sunday lunchtime in late May to find that Niagara Falls had been diverted in our absence and was now flowing through our ceiling and light fittings.
The worst affected room was the workroom where I make my pens. The water board had done some work further down the village and had ramped up the pressure to test their work. The workmen then forgot to turn it back down to normal pressure with the result that there were several bursts in the area, all of which occurred out of doors except for one – the expansion tank on our hot water cylinder blew when we were out of the house and three rooms below were inundated - my workroom, our bedroom and the corridor.
As you can probably imagine, making pens has not been very high on my agenda recently. For the last six weeks, we have had eight industrial dryers and dehumidifiers going from early each morning until late each night and damp meters are still recording around 50% saturation in the worst-affected walls. I’ve had to throw out more than a dozen completed pens, where the water had split the wood, and I have had to dispose of even more blanks that were no longer usable. It has taken a long time to dry out my lathe and get it working smoothly again. It will be months before the house is dried out, repaired and redecorated, but I managed yesterday and today to make my first two pens since the flood. I started with a dragon pen using an acrylic blank just to test that everything was working properly and then I turned my attention to a new Sirocco that Phil had sent me. Others will have commented on this kit before me, but here is my belated opinion, with a few pictures of the Sirocco I have just made using a hybrid walnut and silver mica blank.
I’m not normally a fan of single barrel pen kits like the Sierra and even the high-end Majestic Squire because the mechanism is often suspect and I don’t find the design very pleasing. Therefore, I approached the new Beaufort Sirocco with a degree of scepticism. However, I was pleasantly surprised. All the components were manufactured to a high standard (no surprise there, considering the quality of Phil's earlier offerings) and they fitted together very precisely, which made final assembly a satisfying and hassle-free experience. The real eye-opener, however, came right at the end, when I sat back and admired my work. Not only was the pen aesthetically pleasing, but the mechanism was smoother in operation than any other single barrel pen I have ever encountered – further testament, if any were needed – to the high quality engineering that underpins this kit. The Sirocco also proved to be a well-balanced and comfortable pen with which to write, not something that can be said of all pen kits.
One of the things I dislike about other single barrel kits is the fact that the cap twists to advance and retract the nib and unscrews to replace the refill. This can lead to unwanted unscrewing when retracting the nib. However, with the Sirocco, these functions are separate: the cap twists to advance and retract the nib and the tip unscrews to replace the refill – a much better arrangement, in my opinion. No longer can I say that I am not a fan of single barrel pen kits: I have been converted!
I've not been on the forum (or making any pens) for the last two months because my wife and I came home one Sunday lunchtime in late May to find that Niagara Falls had been diverted in our absence and was now flowing through our ceiling and light fittings.
The worst affected room was the workroom where I make my pens. The water board had done some work further down the village and had ramped up the pressure to test their work. The workmen then forgot to turn it back down to normal pressure with the result that there were several bursts in the area, all of which occurred out of doors except for one – the expansion tank on our hot water cylinder blew when we were out of the house and three rooms below were inundated - my workroom, our bedroom and the corridor.
As you can probably imagine, making pens has not been very high on my agenda recently. For the last six weeks, we have had eight industrial dryers and dehumidifiers going from early each morning until late each night and damp meters are still recording around 50% saturation in the worst-affected walls. I’ve had to throw out more than a dozen completed pens, where the water had split the wood, and I have had to dispose of even more blanks that were no longer usable. It has taken a long time to dry out my lathe and get it working smoothly again. It will be months before the house is dried out, repaired and redecorated, but I managed yesterday and today to make my first two pens since the flood. I started with a dragon pen using an acrylic blank just to test that everything was working properly and then I turned my attention to a new Sirocco that Phil had sent me. Others will have commented on this kit before me, but here is my belated opinion, with a few pictures of the Sirocco I have just made using a hybrid walnut and silver mica blank.
I’m not normally a fan of single barrel pen kits like the Sierra and even the high-end Majestic Squire because the mechanism is often suspect and I don’t find the design very pleasing. Therefore, I approached the new Beaufort Sirocco with a degree of scepticism. However, I was pleasantly surprised. All the components were manufactured to a high standard (no surprise there, considering the quality of Phil's earlier offerings) and they fitted together very precisely, which made final assembly a satisfying and hassle-free experience. The real eye-opener, however, came right at the end, when I sat back and admired my work. Not only was the pen aesthetically pleasing, but the mechanism was smoother in operation than any other single barrel pen I have ever encountered – further testament, if any were needed – to the high quality engineering that underpins this kit. The Sirocco also proved to be a well-balanced and comfortable pen with which to write, not something that can be said of all pen kits.
One of the things I dislike about other single barrel kits is the fact that the cap twists to advance and retract the nib and unscrews to replace the refill. This can lead to unwanted unscrewing when retracting the nib. However, with the Sirocco, these functions are separate: the cap twists to advance and retract the nib and the tip unscrews to replace the refill – a much better arrangement, in my opinion. No longer can I say that I am not a fan of single barrel pen kits: I have been converted!
