Silver?

[Koakai]

Has anyone played with silver around here? One of my hobbies is silver working, and I was just curious if anyone had any luck or success in making pens.

I can see directions to go in to play with. Inlay work, etching, and the like but of course that would mean I actually have to sit down at the bench and place tool to silver. Nibs and feeds also bother me with regards to solutions. I can see picking up a all in one replacement from someone like Edison and incorporating it.

Just curious more then anything.

[scrivelry]

Look up Henry Simpole - he does absolutely stunning overlays on modern pens. There is another guy - Alex something that begins with a K? - who seems to modify older pens - All the older silver pens I have seen are one form of overlay or another - there are a few modern sterling silver pens that seem to be all silver. I have no idea how anyone would go about doing either, but overlay does seem, to my possibly overly simple mind, the less pen technical of the two.

[Brooks803]

I've been itching to do some lost wax casting for my pens but I haven't gone to far into it yet.

Here's one place you can buy just about everything needed to make a solid silver pen: http://www.silverpenparts.com/index.html

[Rich L]

I make solid silver pens - what do you want to know?

Cheers,
Rich

[Koakai]

I make solid silver pens - what do you want to know?

Cheers,
Rich

Oh god, looking at your site I can feel immediately in awe.

It was more of a call out there, trying to wrap my head around the whole thing, but the more I look at them the more I relize that they are quite simple mechanically. I see cut threads and the like so I imagine a tap and die work just the same as they would on any other material. As a rank amateur, I've never had reason to take the items to silver before.

I was considering brass with a silver barrel overlay, but now that I have seen your lovely pens I almost want to go the pure route.

From the name of the website, I imagine you have played with argentinium silver? Not something I have touched before, but I can see the lure in having pen barrels that resist tarnish.

Now excuse me while I go admire your pens some more.

[Rich L]

I don't use taps and dies, however, I suppose I could make my designs fit the standard metric or imperial sizes. All my threads are single-pointed on a lathe. As you said, fundamentally, the mechanics are simple - the major difference is that tolerances with metal typically need to be closer and finishing presents additional challenges.

The clips I make are from Argentium as the metal hardens a bit more for springiness than sterling and I've really had no complaints about tarnishing of the ordinary sterling except from folks that live near salt air. In any case, the tarnish easily polishes out with a clean rag and, indeed, some folks like the patina. All my barrels are ordinary sterling are they are fashioned from plain tube stock.

I'm sure you've got more questions. Ask away.

Cheers,
Rich