In the photo are two pens made of Australian mallee burl wood that I cast in resin to make the blanks. At bottom is a Vesper click pen. The one at top is an Apollo twist pen which is the subject of today’s photo essay.
The process starts by selecting a set of pen components that match the barrel blanks in color and style. The Appolo pen a higher-end executive pen and a good match to the expensive Australian burl wood. The gold trim will go well with the red tones in the resin and the soft tan color of the wood.
The blanks will be drilled to accept brass tubes that form the inside of the pen barrels. To the left of the blanks are bushings that fit inside the tubes. The barrel diameter will be cut down to match the diameter of the bushings. The difference in the bushings between the small part and the larger part is how thick the pen barrel will be when finished. Just thick enough so the barrels aren’t too fragile, but with very little room for error.
Here the barrels are mounted on a mandrel. At this point, the corners are knocked off the blanks and some of the initial shaping has begun. Both pieces are still quite a bit larger than the bushings so there’s a long way to go.
Skipping ahead, the barrel diameters now match their respective bushings and I’ve begun to rough sand them with 150 grit paper. The barrels will be sanded with 150, 240, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, and finally 1,200 grit. If there are any scratches that do not sound out at any stage, we go back 2 or 3 stages and start over. This is repeated until both barrels are glossy and scratch free.
The bushings are removed and replaced with Teflon cones for final finishing. This prevents any metal sanding debris from getting into the finish. The barrels are now wet-sanded using 9 different grits of Micro Mesh pads. This results in a flawless gloss finish.
The final step is to apply high gloss polish with a soft micro-fiber cloth. The pen barrels are left with a presentation-ready finish.
The two barrels and pen components are laid out prior to assembly and checked against the manufacturer’s inventory. I have never been shorted a part by the manufacturer, but I have managed to drop or lose components at this stage.
The pen is assembled by press-fitting the components into the barrels. The gloves aren’t so much there to protect the finish at this point as they are to give me a good grip. Those gloss finished barrels can get slippery when under pressure from the pen press.
After assembly the pen is inspected for any injuries that might have occurred during assembly.
As we saw a few photos back, the barrels are fairly thin and sometimes they can crack or split from the pressure of inserting the pen components. IF you do a lot of these you learn really quick to line up the components precisely and then press them very slowly together.
The finished pen was worth all the work. Last I heard, this pen was enjoying its new life on the desk of a loan officer in Boston.