Turning an unsightly pen into something worth looking at

[myu]

I've had this PILOT Knight pen for about 8 years. I'd keep it in my laptop bag. Then at some point, it came into contact with metal and got nicked/scratched. Having a brass body with a black coating, the brass started peeking through and it didn't look very good. I figured it didn't really matter, as this was only an "emergency" pen. Still, the OCD in me was bugged. So I used a Sharpie to touch it up. That minimized the contrast, but you could still feel the damage. I left it alone for quite some time, until one day when I was using it I had a thought...





I coated the parts I wanted to protect with painter's tape and then had at it with a Dremel. I think it turned out pretty well. This is a roller ball, but the matching fountain pen has an identical body (same coating with the black version). This is an older version... not sure if a more recent release solved the vulnerability with the black coating.

[catbert]

A surprisingly delicate looking result, especially considering the process — almost like randomly applied gold leaf. (Eyes scuffed black Parker 25 ...)