Here's a pen I made

[untamed]

Absolute beauties! Functional works of art thru superb craftsmanship!

 

[BlackHills]

Is that last one acrylic or resin? It doesn't appear to be Ti.

I'd think you could make some money selling those, there are people that will pay crazy prices for fountain pens. I'd love to have one but I'm sure it would be way out of my budget. You do beautiful work. :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

[btboone]

The last one is acrylic with the clip/ centerband part and cap in titanium. They are darn expensive, but since they take so much time (that I should be making rings with) I can't really make them cheaper. As I get more and more efficient in the shop, the shop rate goes up and up. For each and every hour I worked last year, the shop did around $450. It's pretty hard to compete with jewelry with anything else I can make on an hourly income basis, so I have to make them unique enough that it would justify the higher price to a collector. If I could make them at half the price, I know I could sell more, but it all comes down to the amount of time it takes.

Here's a pic of the iterations it took to get the Flame dialed in.

 

[BlackHills]

I have no doubt there are many hours of labor involved in those and that doesn't come with a low price. They really are gorgeous, far nicer than any of the LE pens I've seen from the big name pen makers. I imagine it is hard to beat the jewelry sales side since there's a much bigger customer base there. I would think the small base is probably the same reason you moved away from making cranks, BBs, etc. (I still kick myself for not buying one your cranks back in the day). It's amazing all the work you had to go through to make the Flame, I'd have never guessed it took that much.

 

[btboone]

Yup. I used to bring rings to the International bike shows. Every year I did that, I completely sold out of them. It took me a while to realize that was a CLUE!!!

The cranks were made the same way. Hand written 4th axis G-Code. On that one, I used parametrics, where you could input the length you wanted, right or left side, and everything would scale itself properly. No small feat when it all curves, tapers, and twists at the same time and the ends had to stay the same. Again, it took a while to dial in the program, but it made for a nice part.

 

[b.c.molin]

I am more in awe of your skills and talents than I could hope to express.

Many thanks for sharing these works of artisanship and function combined.