Not wood, but still turning

[Carl Fisher]

I had a customer contact me looking for a pen modeled after the 1920's Parker Sr. Duofold "Big Red" but BIGGER. He has arthritis and wanted it fatter to make it easier to grip. So I took on the challenge.

Although I did have to turn to the metal lathe to get my trim bands done properly and ultimately turn the cap to a consistent finished diameter since there is so little of the thickness of the brass rings left after turning. I didn't want to blow through them hand turning.

Had a friend of mine mix up some raw blanks in the appropriate color and paired it with ebonite for the black finials and front grip section. I think it turned out nice and it's already earned me 2 other orders for the same style.

 

[red]

Well done!

Red

 

[Mark Gottesman]

I like it!

 

[Raymond]

Outstanding!

 

[llucas]

YES! Spot-on GOOD!

 

[nn4jw]

Very nice. It looks lke the brass bands are in grooves and flush with the surface? How did you get the bands into grooves?

 

[Carl Fisher]

Very nice. It looks lke the brass bands are in grooves and flush with the surface? How did you get the bands into grooves?

Ahh, I can't give away all my secrets

Seriously though, I cut a tenon on the blank and then mounted a stack of rings with epoxy and then turned as normal. So brass / red / brass / red all stacked on the tenon. Then I was able to drill and thread and maintain a solid piece of stock along the interior for structural support since the hole diameter was just smaller than the tenon (not much)

To do the math, the tenon was 5/8" or 15.875 mm The largest interior drill was 14.3 mm in that area of the cap. The final cap diameter was 16.8mm. So that left me 0.46 mm of actual band thickness per side and right around 0.78 mm per side of wall thickness on the cap interior.

 

[Carl Fisher]

Here is the stack clamped while the epoxy dried.

 

[nn4jw]

Magic

Pretty ingenious. And very skillful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

BEAUTIFUL pen, and excellent craftsmanship.

 

[Hmerkle]

Beautiful pen Carl - but your box is pretty cool too! (the nameplate is classy!)

 

[Carl Fisher]

It's actually just a gold foil sticker printed. I have sheets of them I use for various things and figured it looked right inside the box

Thanks everyone.

 

[ScottM]

Great job Carl. Your ingenuity is amazing.

 

[CrealBilly]

"He has arthritis and wanted it fatter to make it easier to grip." Very nice work man - sadly I know how he feels.

Calm seas never made a good Capitan

 

[Hmerkle]

It's actually just a gold foil sticker printed. I have sheets of them I use for various things and figured it looked right inside the box

Thanks everyone.

And it did! "...looked right inside the box"

Classy!

 

[drw]

I use to enjoy writing with a fountain pen! Of course, that was many years ago, back when I wrote and secretaries typed. Computers changed all of that, I typed and then hit the print key. That said, your pen is a gem, wonderful craftsmanship!

 

[Carl Fisher]

Thanks all

My fountain pens are actually beginning to out sell every other pen type combined. What's old is new again.