Central Ohio Club Custom Pens Arrive

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Central Ohio Pen Club has run a series of special projects that have been great fun for our members. We twice formulated and had made for us custom Limited Edition ink in three colors, two of which we also offered for sale at last year's Ohio Pen Show. Some of you may remember "Storm Warning" and "Park of Roses".

This year the club had great fun having pens custom made just for us. Please note we did this as a fun project for club members. We do not have any pens for sale!

After considering several makers, we selected Brian Gray of Edison Pens. Brian had previously hosted a club visit to his site where everyone had a great time seeing how his pens are made.

We first selected a model from Brian's extensive offerings. Club members reviewed, voted on and selected a Menlo but with no trim bands and cartridge converter filling system. Brian then loaned us a box with about 100 samples of many of his available materials. We ultimately chose a special resin made by Jonathon Brooks he calls "Galaxy Prime".

Next decision was the engraving and fill color. We chose a two line engraving with club logo which you will see in the photos below. Brian sent prototypes of that engraving with three different fill colors and again club members voted and made our choice. Brian provided the option of a third line of engraving with the member's name or any other inscription.

More choices? It was easy to decide on a SS nib, with each member able to upgrade to gold for a reasonable price extra. Oh yes, the finish of clip and nib was another choice. Each member was allowed to specify their own choice from Brian's several available finishes, but members were allowed to order an extra nib and clip in a different finish for a very reasonable price.

With all choices made, the order was placed, and we waited, Not very long, although the project was delayed a bit due to Jonathon's illness and subsequent surgery. We're glad he recovered and is back to work. And the wait was certainly worth it!

Brian took photos of all steps of the manufacturing process as the pens progressed through his pipeline, and this helped anticipation build. Finally the big day came and pens were distributed to club members (in small groups, with masks and appropriate social distancing of course). Here are some pictures of our pens both in process and completed.


















Brian and Jonathon were helpful, super cooperative and easy to deal with, which made for a fun and highly successful project for our club. We would recommend them to anyone!

Thanks for reading about our experience. Hope you like the pens!