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Music and Ink
December 11th, 2015, 02:49 AM
My uncle made a pen for a few people and gave me a beautiful one. It's set up with what I, someone who does not make pens, think is a basic pen kit. The cool thing is the pen is made with wood from a tree in my grandparents yard in West Virginia. My question would be then, can a pen made to be a ballpoint be refitted as a fountain pen? If a base kit worked then could a fountain pen kit replace it without major work? Again, thanks to anyone willing to dispense knowledge, I appreciate you taking the time answer.

Haga888
December 11th, 2015, 04:03 AM
Id go with maybe. Most FP nibs are pressure fit so it depends on how large the section can be made to fit. It's wood so it could be widened easily enough. But also since it's wood it's also porous so you'd need some kind of liner for the ink or more likely a cartridge/converter system that fits with the nib and in the barrel. I think it really depends on the pen and how badly you want it to work. But I'm new to fountain pens so someone with more knowledge might have a better answer.

penwash
December 11th, 2015, 05:56 AM
Depends on the kit.
Most kits for hand-turned pens depend on brass tubes to provide the support (and consistency) for the innards of the pen.
The wood (or acrylic, horn, antler, whatever) is wrapped around these brass tubes.

If it's one of the basic ones sold in wood-turning shops, most likely the answer is no.
Some higher end kits has both FP and BP version that *maybe* interchangeable.
You just need to ask your uncle what type of kits he's using and go from there.

Or, buy a kit that is designed for FP and ask your uncle to make you a fountain pen using the wood from the same tree (if he has enough left).