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The Fountain Pen Community -> Custom Pens (Edison, Newton, Thompson, etc..) -> Very special pens for a special person
Post Info TOPIC: Very special pens for a special person
RodNeep


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Very special pens for a special person
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A very special pen....

Starting with some of my favourite soapstone from Kenya.

First we drill the "small" hole... 15/32" in the long tube.


Next onto the short blank, and the big hole. First a 7mm pilot hole
and then the big drill mounted and ready to go...



Done.... and not a lot of wall thickness remaining after drilling out with the 37/64" drill.



This is the other end of the hole. No break out thankfully!
The drilling job would not have been possible without that pen blank chuck.



Next... those big tubes glued in with thick CA.



Mounted on a mandrel, and sitting on part open vice cheeks, while I use a big coarse rasp to remove the corners.



There's no sense in slowly turning the blanks round, when you can take off bulk stone with the rasp, getting them roughly round. And here they are mounted on the lathe before turning.



Turning the soapstone (I use a gouge) is now pretty easy. Sand, and then micromesh, and a final polish on the lathe, and soon assembly is under way....



And all done...








Detail of the ends







Alas, I no longer have this pen to hold. It is already in London, along with three other pens.



The recipient is a young man who, like me, has spent quite a lot of time in Kenya. It was there that he became engaged. So I thought that pens made of Kenyan stone would be appropriate. There's an every day use ballpoint pen for him and his bride to be, a desk fountain pen in the same stone, and lastly, an identical fountain pen made of ivory polyester. A wedding pen.

His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton will be married on Friday 29th April this year.

This is the wedding pen in more detail...







Actually, I made two of these...


It is a really big pen!
Seen here against a normal fountain pen for comparison.



I had a lovely letter of thanks back from the palace too, saying how pleased that they were with the pens, and that they would be using the wedding pen.

Rod



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DWL


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Very Nice!



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Frank


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NOW, that's what I call Provenance!

Great work!

You were commissioned for this project?

Frank

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RodNeep


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No. I just thought it might be a good idea..... made the pens and sent them to him as a gift.

It was great to get a reply back from the palace smile.gif

Cheers
Rod

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Scrawler


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Really nice pen. How durable is the soapstone? It looks fragile.

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RodNeep


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Scrawler wrote:

Really nice pen. How durable is the soapstone? It looks fragile.

 I reckon that I have been extremely fortunate in sourcing my soapstone in Kenya. The stuff that I get is harder than normal soapstone. You can't scratch it with a fingernail, and it is much harder and more resilient than wood (from which I usually make my pens).

When working with it I have learned that I can be quite brutal with it without it breaking or shattering. In one of the photos above, you can see me working with a big coarse rasp. I really lean on it hard to remove material. I have made about 50 pens with this stone to date, and I haven't had the slightest problem with any of them.

Will it break if the pen is dropped? I try not to, but I did drop my ballpoint pen (same as the ballpoint pen I sent to Prince William) on the hard tiled kitchen floor yesterday. Yes, I winced as I did it. But it survived perfectly!

Regards

Rod

ps.

Here is another pattern of soapstone, on a pen of the same design. It is naturally glossy like that without any artificial coating, although I do add a little carnauba wax to finish them.

0599-prince01.jpg

0599-prince07.jpg



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Scrawler


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Oh, this other one is divine. If I could buy a new pen now, this would be it.



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