Its a small world especially the engravers world

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

I was contacted by a Belgium company that makes the CONID ink pens to do some engravings.
My first reaction was : “engraving is done on metals only” but I had to give it a try to do some lettering on these gorgeous ink pens.

When visiting the company a few pens had my attention as I thought I had seen them before, and by doing a Café search I found the ones engraved by our Café member “Newton Pens”
His profile does not tell his location so he / she could be from Belgium.

Anyway, those pens are made out of different materials like ebonite, celluloid, polycarbonate and delrin (Polyoxymethylene) if I got it translated right.
Newton Pens had some problems cutting on a curved surface and making nice cuts.
After I gave it a try on some samples I found out that using the Smoill made by Allexandre Sidirov makes the graver cuts real nice and shiny. Probably any lubricant will do on Polyoxymethylene or any similar material.
Those Conid Bulkfiller pens have different colors and also black. The lettering is not over exposing without using paint, but there is no need for that in some cases like this pen I engraved for a Japanese customer who bought two of those Conid pens.
And probably you will ask me if the engraving won’t wear of fast on this relative soft material, I say, it is a pen for handwriting.
So if you ever have to engrave some Polyoxymethylene try some oil to make the cuts, you will be surprised.

arnaud

 

[Roger B]

Arnaud,

It looks as though the lettering you put on the pen (compliments by the way) would suit a left handed writer - was that the plan? From past experience most pens that were engraved were facing the other way as it could be read when held in the dominant hand.

Roger

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Roger, I understand your question and I have no experience were the lettering on a pen should face. I suppose you know better but in this case the customer wanted the lettering 180 degree opposite of the clip when capped. and also the location of the engravings in relation to the nib and section, the engravings should be on the same straight line with the center of the nib when grabbed for writing.

One difficulty is the cap screw-thread has 4 starts, the nib can be adjusted.

I think the idea is that the engraving is not seen when writing, it is just an extra for the writer himself.

BTW, thanks for the compliment.

arnaud

 

[dlilazteca]

Arnaud

What did you use to hold the pen while you engraved?

Saludos,

Carlos

 

[scott99]

Hi, looks real nice to me, nice cutting.

scott99

 

[mrthe]

Look very nice Arnaud and thank you for the tip!

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Thank you Carlos, Scott and Paolo

The GRS knife fixture is great for holding the pen, not even need to tighten the screws real hard, just use your fingers. I also have put an sheet of paper to prevent scratching the polished barrel.
As you know I'm using the EnSet and for this purpose I removed the strike hammer to cut real light.

arnaud

 

[KCSteve]

The two threads really do show the difference between a pen engraved by an experienced pen maker and one engraved by an experienced engraver.

 

[LVVP]

Thanks for sharing that Arnaud, it's truly beautiful