On September 28 Edison Pens was kind enough to allow 15 or so members of the Central Ohio Pen Club to visit their facility in Huron, OH. Brian and Andrea Gray and their staff made us feel so welcome and provided us a terrific afternoon seeing how they make some of the best pens and coolest filling systems available. While nothing can capture the excitement we all felt seeing Edison Pens in actual operation, I hope the few pictures I managed to get might be of interest.
Edison offers a wide variety of materials featuring acrylics and ebonites.
It is amazing what a rather drab rod of ebonite looks like once it has been turned and polished a bit.
Brian first started turning pens with a small table top lathe. It was replaced with bigger and better equipment as the company grew. That growth and upgrading has continued, but it was interesting to see some of the old original equipment that still has some limited uses.
Several small "fast lathes" are used for the primary sanding operations.
Here Jake demonstrates how this is done.
One of the most tedious steps and a challenge in managing capacity is the polishing operations. Andrea Gray is the resident expert and she took time out to explain the process to us.
While we were all having fun, *somebody* knew there was work to be done! Back to polishing!
And she sure does polish them nicely!
Brian wanted us to actually see all the steps in producing one pen, so while we were fascinated with Andrea making pens beautiful, Jake was busy turning the parts for a pen.
A small mill is used to cut the slot in which the clip rests.
Please proceed to Part 2
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