Hello pen people
I’ve managed to acquire quite a lot of vintage (I overuse that word) cellulose acetate stock. I know some of you will be familiar with it and it’s lovely stuff. However there is a small problem in that it comes round and drilled, and the outside diameter is already very close to the finished diameter of a standard pen barrel (well my standard pen barrel at least). This means that if I want to make a pen in my usual way where the cap screws over the section and onto the barrel, and that is close to my usual sizes, then I can’t make the cap from the same material, but have to use something in a complimentary colour from wider stock. Are you still with me?
So I thought about how to make a pen that allowed all components (barrel, section and cap), to be made from this slim material whilst sticking close to the 13mm diameter barrel. In the prototype below, where I’ve used modern material to test the idea, the cap screws onto the end of the section, just covering the nib. This is not a new idea, other pen makers already do this, it’s just the conclusion I came to as the most viable way to solve my problem.
One of the obvious potential drawbacks of this design is that the action of unscrewing the cap may unscrew the section. (Newton’s laws dictate that both can’t happen at the same time, but Sod’s law says it will always be the section). Anyway there are ways around this. The one I’m considering is lengthening the section so the user will naturally be holding it when unscrewing the cap. But that’s why this is a prototype. It’s literally my first attempt with a no6 nib.
Anyway I thought I’d share a bit of my thinking on this as it’s quite interesting (I think!).
(The final picture is the first one I made that uses a no5 nib).
Cheers
Ash
I’ve managed to acquire quite a lot of vintage (I overuse that word) cellulose acetate stock. I know some of you will be familiar with it and it’s lovely stuff. However there is a small problem in that it comes round and drilled, and the outside diameter is already very close to the finished diameter of a standard pen barrel (well my standard pen barrel at least). This means that if I want to make a pen in my usual way where the cap screws over the section and onto the barrel, and that is close to my usual sizes, then I can’t make the cap from the same material, but have to use something in a complimentary colour from wider stock. Are you still with me?
So I thought about how to make a pen that allowed all components (barrel, section and cap), to be made from this slim material whilst sticking close to the 13mm diameter barrel. In the prototype below, where I’ve used modern material to test the idea, the cap screws onto the end of the section, just covering the nib. This is not a new idea, other pen makers already do this, it’s just the conclusion I came to as the most viable way to solve my problem.
One of the obvious potential drawbacks of this design is that the action of unscrewing the cap may unscrew the section. (Newton’s laws dictate that both can’t happen at the same time, but Sod’s law says it will always be the section). Anyway there are ways around this. The one I’m considering is lengthening the section so the user will naturally be holding it when unscrewing the cap. But that’s why this is a prototype. It’s literally my first attempt with a no6 nib.
Anyway I thought I’d share a bit of my thinking on this as it’s quite interesting (I think!).
(The final picture is the first one I made that uses a no5 nib).
Cheers
Ash
