WELCOME!

Welcome to my Custom Fountain Pen website/blog. I put this site together a while ago so that I could let some of my fellow pen enthusiasts and penmakers, as well as my customers, see what I have been up to lately in the workshop. I don't publish all of my pens here, but good percentage of them.

A Little About My Pens: I love doing fine work on the lathe, which is what got me into this work. That is, I enjoy the focus on the details of a project - the material and colour selection, the form, the fit and finish of the pen. I also test all of the my nibs before shipping. I fill the converter, run ink through the nib and feed, and write with it. I spend a significant amount of time smoothing and adjusting the nib of every pen that I sell. My goal, with each pen that I make, is to create a writing piece whose fit and finish will impress you when you first pull it out of the packing, and that will serve you well as a great writer when you fill it up with your favourite ink.

Have a look at my posts to see some of the work I am doing lately, or see my pricing guide in the link below to the right, or check the link to my current inventory of already-made pens (usually small, as most of my work is by commissions/orders).

Or, if you are interested, you can see some of the work I have done previously in my Custom Pen Gallery on Photobucket!

If you have a Twitter account, I am @drgoretex

If any of my posts generate particular interest, I will pin them as links on the right (eg 'Basic Nib Adjusting 101').

* ORDERS: Please contact me at kencavers@gmail.com to place an order.

* PRICES: Please see the link on the right side of the screen 'Pricing Guide' for an idea as to the cost of a pen.

* REVIEWS:
Have a look at the bottom of this page for some reviews done by previous buyers!

* HOW LONG WILL MY ORDER TAKE?:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: I am happily overwhelmed with pen orders. This gives me great joy in that my work is so well received, but saddens me that I cannot fill orders anywhere near as quickly as I would like. I am still trying to work through back orders, but if you have ordered from me and heard nothing for some time, feel free to email me and ask how things are going.
I still only make these pens in my spare time, when work and family time permit, and even then the productivity slows down during the coldest winter months thanks to my unheated workshop.
Given that I make these pens primarily as a hobby, I also reserve the right to pursue some other interesting pen projects in between filling orders.
I apologize for long delays in order fulfillment, which may in some case be over a year and a half. In the meantime, you are welcome to contact me to inquire about new pen orders, or to check up on a previously submitted order.

-Ken Cavers








Sunday 23 September 2018

Micro Pocket Pen in Caramel Apple and Red Pearl

Hi folks,

Here is something a bit different.  I had made a series of 'Micro Pocket Pens' a few years ago, but with a threaded barrel end to allow the cap to be screwed onto the end of the barrel.   I didn't really like the look of the exposed threads, though, so haven't made these for quite  awhile.






This time, I have opted to allow posting by friction, which actually worked out quite nicely.  The pen is quite compact when closed, and when posted, the cap is quite secure on the barrel end (won't fall off while you write), and extends the pen enough to be fairly comfortable in action.






The pen is of course cartridge only, as a converter would require quite a bit more barrel length. 

This pen is available on my sales page.

Thanks for looking!

Ken

Tuesday 4 September 2018

A Year in Pen Making

Hi all, been a long time since I updated my website, since between work and family life I have not had as much time lately for pen making.  Still have managed to squeeze out a few, mostly posting them on Instagram (@kcavers).

Here is a sampling of a few of the pens that I have put together over the past year or so:

Cool Moonlight Pen - a lovely shimmering silver and black resin, done up in my deeply posting Compact style:



Moonlight and Starlight Compact style pen - once again using the same moonlight resin as above, but paired with a darker resin with points of light reminiscent of starry skies:



Red Swirl and Black Curvy style with inlay - in acrylic resins:



Matt Black Ebonite Curvy Style Pen with Real Paua Shell Inlay:



Tropical Sunset Compact Style Fountain Pen (I love this material!):



Arctic Ocean alumilite Compact style Fountain Pen:



Green Swirl Acrylic Bamboo Style Fountain Pen:



Arctic Night alumilite Semi-Compact style Fountain Pen:



Black Ebonite with Ivory Celluloid Inlay Shirt Pocket Fountain Pen (a tribute to the first fountain pen materials!):



Black Cherry Alumilite Compact Style Fountain Pen:



Sunny Granite Shirt Pocket Fountain Pen (this one is still available and is on my 'Available for sale' page):


Well, I guess that's about it for now.  Hopefully will get a few more in before the year is out...

Thanks for looking!

Ken

Thursday 4 May 2017

Gold-Veined Marble Fountain Pen



Hello folks,

A while back I was sent this cool material by a customer who asked that I turn it into a pen.  I discovered that this material (a marble white with real gold foil embedded in it) is made of polyresin, which I had some time ago sworn off using because of brittle nature and its tendency to shatter - while turning, and when dropped on a hard surface.

Fortunately I happened to have a piece of pearly white alumilite on hand, which has none of those nasty tendencies, so I used that for the grip section, and for an insert into the barrel from which to cut the threaded tenon.  The gold-marble still managed to split a couple of times along the gold foil while turning, but nothing a bit of handy CA couldn't deal with.


In the end, I am quite happy with how it came out.  I had planned to make one of my 'purity' style pens (cap all one diameter, barrel all one slightly smaller diameter, rounded ends), but the recurrent cap splits forced me to finish it off with a slightly different shape.  In fact, I kind of like it, and will probably make more of these.  But I don't have a name for this style yet.  Will have to think of something.


With the little bit of remaining gold-marble, I made a little pen rest so that this pen can studiously avoid tumbling onto hard surfaces and shattering.

The pen is here posing with what seemed like a very appropriate nib - an 18K fine, to match the gold veining.


The fill system is as cartridge/converter as usual.

Thanks for looking!

Ken

Saturday 22 April 2017

Green and Purple Shirt Pocket Fountain Pen



Just got this pair of odd blanks in with a recent order.   Not enough of either to make a pen, but they looked like they might go together, and it just happened that I needed a break from some studying I was doing, so off to the workshop, and this pen was born.


in fact, the green material looked more like it belonged with the purple before I started turning it, as there was a fair bit of purple in it.  Sadly, once I turned it down to size, the purple was mostly gone.  Still, they seem to go together fairly well.

The pen is done in my Shirt Pocket Fountain Pen style, which is super-handy for the workplace with the fact that it has the clip and posts securely.

The filling system is cartridge/converter as usual.



Thanks for looking!

Ken