https://i.imgur.com/mYdC6Jh.jpg?1

Hey hey! How is everyone? I had a bit of a re read of past updates and realised they are getting further away from the subject of the subreddit than I would like. Well with that in mind I am going to try and keep this post as close to the subject of pens and pen making as I can.

First think on my hand written with a fountain pen to write list (just fyi it was a jinhao 992 with kwz gummiberry that I used on rhodia paper) is that I have totally re done my website. It has a completely new look to the way it used to, so please take a look and let me know what you think. All feedback is welcome. Good or bad, either on here or using the contact details on the site. 🙂 Thank you in advance:

[Dens Pens](https://denspens643598967.wordpress.com)

I managed to break some of my pens this week. 😦 I slipped while filling a button filler vintage pen I own and bent up the nib on the bottle, that was the big disaster. A lesser disaster is that my Jinhao 599 snapped in half. For those of you that are unfamiliar with them, the 599 is a Lamy Safari clone, it’s a nice pen but I prefer the 992’s. I am currently in negotiations with my wife on a replacement, I am thinking a Sailor pro gear slim or 1911.

I spent all week working on a single pen, to be honest that is a bit slow for me. Normally I try to get 1.5 to 2 done a week. What held me up this week? The cap did, here are the [3 attempts](https://i.imgur.com/fUMCkoA.jpg?1), the paper is to show the crack in the middle one, the one on the right is the finished one. [Here](https://i.imgur.com/5DMf83k.jpg) is the pen before sanding. [Here](https://i.imgur.com/69mSoNu.jpg) initially I thought it looked great, then I noticed the thread on the inside of the cap shows through and to my eyes it doesn’t look

[straight]

(https://i.imgur.com/tUtGPe9.jpg), I am glad I got the lines to almost meet up when the cap is on though.

Even with the above mistakes I think I am getting better, I am being more adventurous with the designs and I am learning when I go to far and try to get a material to do what it doesn’t want to do. I am discovering different aspects to the materials I use, for example, I now know that acrylics which as basically sandwiched together have a tendency to crack along the join of the different materials, likewise materials that look like gravel have a tendency to have weak spots where the nuggets of material are.

Just to remind you all of three things. First of all I have a lot of the pens I show here for sale on my website under [stock pens for sale](https://denspens643598967.wordpress.com/pens-for-sale/) these are generally set at a standard price which is cheaper than a custom pen. Secondly I am open to custom pen commissions, I only have 1 pen to make at the moment so turn around is pretty quick.

The third thing is that I would like to remind people of the charity auction over on Newton Pens where I have an ebonite pen up for sale. The money raised to help kids get scholarships.

[Info on the scholarships](https://newtonpens.com/newton-pens-scholarships/)

[the auction](https://newtonpens.com/june-2019-auction-dens-pens-ebonite/)