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InvisibleMan
September 11th, 2013, 11:27 AM
My favorite filling system to make is a bulb filler. This one was a lot of fun. Well, ruining the first cap wasn't fun, but.....:)

This is a large (14mm cap threads) Richland model fountain pen. It is made from Alumilite resin that was a pain in the rear to get right. I poured a lot of duds before these came out the way I wanted them. It is a dark mica blue with light turquoise swirls and slightly pearly light and dark brown chunks. I can't decide whether it looks more like wood pieces floating in the ocean or milk chocolate chunks in blueberry yogurt. Either way, I'm happy.

I chose to make the ink window smaller than I normally would for a bulb filler, because I liked the material, and wanted as much of it as possible on the pen. This required some additional plumbing work on the inside to keep the ink capacity close to normal, but it was worth it to me. You can see a tube extending back from the ink window. That is additional ink reservoir space. The bulb is attached to the tube. I really need to get some black sacs for these.

Anyway, enough words. You can see more words (and pics) on my site if you care about weights and measures and such: http://www.pensbylyleross.com/richland-2-mica-chunk-bulb-filler-fountain-pen.html

A few pics:

5302
5303
5304
5305

Thanks for looking! I'm happy to answer any questions.

Lyle

Feardorcha
September 11th, 2013, 12:14 PM
The colouring and the dark patches remind me of a water feature in a zen garden. The water lapping around the rocks.

It's a beautiful pen.

fountainpenkid
September 11th, 2013, 02:58 PM
Very beautiful as always! Could you make one with a short ink window that doesn't have a minimized capacity?

InvisibleMan
September 11th, 2013, 03:12 PM
The colouring and the dark patches remind me of a water feature in a zen garden. The water lapping around the rocks.

It's a beautiful pen.

thank you!!


Very beautiful as always! Could you make one with a short ink window that doesn't have a minimized capacity?

Thanks! Yes, I think I can do better than I did with this one, although without measuring, I don't think I lost a whole lot of capacity here. The tube extension pretty much made up the difference, and I believe I can make the tube wider for even more capacity next pen. I also have another window/plumbing design idea that may or may not work.

yipe
September 12th, 2013, 03:23 AM
No no no you guys are thinking to small, this pen looks like a satellite view of an archipelago of desert islands, the white is hopeful wisps of clouds, perchance to bring rain. I own a small stone that I've had since I was a kid, it kind of looks like this. I think it's turquoise with small occlusions of... something not turquoise. I call it the "map stone."

Gorgeous pens. I'm sure they're well out of my price range, but I wish I could own one.

drgoretex
September 12th, 2013, 07:04 AM
I love this pen. The material is unique, and as mentioned above, looks like a group of islands. The pen's shape is very appealing, and the ink window just sets the whole think apart. Very nice work.

Ken

InvisibleMan
September 12th, 2013, 08:34 AM
Thanks everybody!

I put up my first ever video on my site. It's just a goofy video of me filling the pen for the first time, but it was fun: Video (http://www.pensbylyleross.com/videos.html)

I definitely need a better video camera.:)

maestro
September 13th, 2013, 11:22 PM
I really like that. Definitely one of the more distinctive blanks I've seen.

InvisibleMan
September 15th, 2013, 09:58 PM
thank you:)