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Thread: Wooden pen recommendations?

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    You folks are so awesome. Bonanza!

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    I have to go to work now, but I will get back to these later . ...

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Alternatively, you can buy a cheaper version, from one out our new members and see if you like it
    https://whiskycaskproducts.co.uk/shop/

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Pierre from Desiderata does also this one.

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    This may be unpopular, but what the heck:

    I like wood. A lot. When I was able, I tortured trees for fun with hand tools so I could better hear their screams. But I think it's a lousy material for a pen. It moves. it splits. Unless it's so loaded with resin to make it stable, at which point it might as well be plastic anyway. Even if it's just a veneer on a core, which is the kit pen way and many others, it will likely split. And it will absorb oils from your hand and end up looking naff, unless, again, it's so finished as it might as well be plastic. Get a pen holder in wood. Or a tray. Or a rocker blotter. Or, heck, a desk. But a pen? Nah, much better choices of material available.
    In the words of Paul Simon, you can call me Al.

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Wood seems to work fine for dip pens. Just sayin'

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    Senior Member Jon Szanto's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Quote Originally Posted by grainweevil View Post
    And it will absorb oils from your hand and end up looking naff, unless, again, it's so finished as it might as well be plastic. Get a pen holder in wood. Or a tray. Or a rocker blotter. Or, heck, a desk. But a pen? Nah, much better choices of material available.
    I'm kind of glad I didn't have this advice before I made a purchase from Ryan Krusac 3 years+ ago. That is after looking at his pens for a couple years (at shows) and discussing with him. I ended up shooting a couple of quick photos the other day for a different use, but they fit here perfectly: an RK Legend in California bucket burl. Hand and orange oils are the only things that have touched it in my use of the pen, and there is no degradation, only a maturing. I'm fine if it ends up being the only wood pen I own, and I'm happy to have it in the mix.


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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Quote Originally Posted by Empty_of_Clouds View Post
    Wood seems to work fine for dip pens. Just sayin'
    Yeah, I've made a few. Have you come across one that doesn't rely on metal to hold the nib?

    It occurs to me that folks may not know about stabilised wood pen blanks, so a link and a quote from same (my bold):
    Stabilizing is a process that impregnates the wood pen blank or burl blank with stabilizing resins and renders it into an ideal plastic like turning blank.
    If Mr Krusac isn't using such stabilised wood I'd be very much surprised. If you like it, no worries, but equally if you like the tactile nature of wood I stand by my view that a pen is not the ideal way to enjoy it.
    In the words of Paul Simon, you can call me Al.

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Quote Originally Posted by grainweevil View Post
    If Mr Krusac isn't using such stabilised wood I'd be very much surprised. If you like it, no worries, but equally if you like the tactile nature of wood I stand by my view that a pen is not the ideal way to enjoy it.
    Oh, I'm fairly certain it is stabilized in some way, he may have mentioned that. Nonetheless, it is wood and feels like wood in my hands and, most importantly, feels like no other of my pens, nor does it look like any of the others. It is unique.

    And as to how best to enjoy the tactile aspects, maybe we should just be at variance. I have held thousands of drumsticks in my hands, having played for six of my seven decades on Earth. I know, intimately and abundantly, what wood-in-hand is like. The pen is another aspect of that relationship.
    "When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
    and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

    ~ Benjamin Franklin

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Wow, beautiful pen, Jon!

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Grainweevil, thanks for your comments. I trust the quality wooden penmakers to know how to do all this well. There are lots of great pens out there, especially for under $500. I won't be disappointed, whatever I might end up choosing.

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Does the all-wooden look of this make some of you worried about longevity?


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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    It's difficult to say at that scale: you can't really see the craftsmanship.

    One thing that I would be concerned about, assuming they are, is the wooden threads. But if the wood is hard enough, and well-treated, they should be OK, I suppose.
    Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    I wasn't thinking of buying it; I just wondered if it is this kind of wooden section that people don't trust. It seems fairly clear that the wood has been treated, but, sure, the details matter.

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Szanto View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by grainweevil View Post
    If Mr Krusac isn't using such stabilised wood I'd be very much surprised. If you like it, no worries, but equally if you like the tactile nature of wood I stand by my view that a pen is not the ideal way to enjoy it.
    Oh, I'm fairly certain it is stabilized in some way, he may have mentioned that. Nonetheless, it is wood and feels like wood in my hands and, most importantly, feels like no other of my pens, nor does it look like any of the others. It is unique.

    And as to how best to enjoy the tactile aspects, maybe we should just be at variance. I have held thousands of drumsticks in my hands, having played for six of my seven decades on Earth. I know, intimately and abundantly, what wood-in-hand is like. The pen is another aspect of that relationship.
    You should write sales copy for wood pen makers!

    That's what I'm talkin bout!

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    The durability and appropriateness of wood for pens is an interesting consideration to me, coming at it from a slightly different but still musical angle to Jon. As a violinist, I have a French bow from the late 19th century--pernambuco and ebony pieces handled with tamed force for over a century. The ebony hardly shows any wear--certainly no cracking--while the pernambuco is a bit blackened and split in some places. This seems to be common for fine bows of this age, most of which have been taken care of to a greater extent than most well-used pens would be--relatively temperature and humidity controlled, placed carefully into a case and not knocked around on a table etc. Conversely, you could look at this and say, some wood is perfectly capable of making a pen. I subscribed to the latter when I purchased my GvFC, and it held true for the year I had it, at least.
    Will
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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Ebonite or resin sections are the way to go. I have a Platinum 3776 Briar, and love it to bits. A really stunning pen, dark burl wood and black section. Same with the Man 100 Watermans - briar and ebonite, and the nibs are really good in my opinion; also come in olivewood, natural or stained.

    Matthieu Faivet in France has made some wooden pens too; https://www.faivet.net/accueil/hokkaido
    He uses a wide selection of woods, with wooden sections. I don't have one but I know from friends in the French pen scene that he's well regarded.

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Szanto View Post
    ...maybe we should just be at variance.
    Happy to meet you for a cuppa at Café Variance any time, Jon.

    Before I go and book a table, if any reader is bored enough, here's a story: Twenty odd years ago I met a patternmaker who apprenticed at Bristol Aero Engines. Patternmakers make, or used to, the initial shapes to make the moulds for castings, and they used to use solid wood to do it. The finest, tightest grain stuff, of the highest quality. It will also help to know that Bristol is not renowned for its dry climate. So this gentlemen, who was a lovely fellow sadly struck down by emphysema, told me about his apprenticeship and how the patternmaking shop was humidity controlled to keep the work stable and so forth. Sizes are crucial, because not only are you making something to fit, you're making it with the allowance for the shrinkage of the metal when it cools. (There are such things as patternmaker's rules that have different scales on them, the inches varying in length depending whether you were measuring your pattern for bronze, or brass, or whathaveyou, and the differences are mere tiny fractions of an inch. Enough to get you in trouble if you use a pattermaker's rule in error mind you...) Anyhow, he went on to tell me how he'd made this chest to hold his tools - whether an official apprentice piece or a lunch break kinda deal, I can't recall - with all these beautiful piston fit drawers that were made to such perfect tolerances that if you pushed one drawer closed a bit too fast, the others were popped out just a touch by the air pressure. Basically a chest such as we'd all love to have to keep our pens in, except perhaps the celluloid ones. Anyway, time came that he left the firm and took his tools in their tool chest back to his home in Bristol. Next day he went to open one of the drawers and... it was stuck fast. Every drawer was absolutely totally and immovably wedged together; the dry timber from the humidity controlled workshop had drunk in the soggy air of Bristol and swelled everything shut. With considerable sorrow, even some 40 years later, he explained how he'd had to basically pull his tool chest to bits in order to reclaim his tools. Now imagine that with a pen cap and barrel or section and nib, and you can readily understand why making wooden pens is inevitably an exercise in making a pen despite the wood. To me this makes wood a last resort choice of material; for others, not so. S'okay, we can all have a cup of tea at Café Variance. Except you might want coffee. We can disagree on that too.
    In the words of Paul Simon, you can call me Al.

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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Quote Originally Posted by amk View Post
    Ebonite or resin sections are the way to go. I have a Platinum 3776 Briar, and love it to bits. A really stunning pen, dark burl wood and black section. Same with the Man 100 Watermans - briar and ebonite, and the nibs are really good in my opinion; also come in olivewood, natural or stained.

    Matthieu Faivet in France has made some wooden pens too; https://www.faivet.net/accueil/hokkaido
    He uses a wide selection of woods, with wooden sections. I don't have one but I know from friends in the French pen scene that he's well regarded.
    Those French pens, indeed, are beautiful. The 3776 in Briarwood is lovely, too.

    Thx, amk.

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    Senior Member Jon Szanto's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wooden pen recommendations?

    Quote Originally Posted by grainweevil View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Szanto View Post
    ...maybe we should just be at variance.
    Happy to meet you for a cuppa at Café Variance any time, Jon.
    A happy meeting, and I'll certainly get the first round. If any eyebrows raise, it might be over an ask (on my part) for Irish breakfast tea, but I have no doubt that any small bumps in the road can be smoothed out.

    Thank you for that story. As I mentioned, many of the instruments I deal with are wooden in composition. Adapting to climate has always been an awareness.
    "When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
    and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

    ~ Benjamin Franklin

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