The aim of this page is to help aspiring pen makers in their own journey to making pens. Why am I doing this? Why am I inviting competition into an industry which I am just breaking into? The answer to these two questions are quite simple:

• I am doing this simply because when I started out I had help from other pen makers and I want to share the knowledge. I am an old fashioned sort and I believe in the proliferation of knowledge so that skill sets don’t die out. If we all horde our given skills when we die those skills will be lost.
• As to why I am inviting competition, that is also very simple. Pen making by hand is an art form, you could give 10 different artists the same instructions on how to do something and probably get about 15 different results. The way I do things and the designs i come up with will be completely different to the next person and as beauty is in the eye of the beholder they will appeal to a different customer base.

So I am going to break this down into prep that needs to be done before the making of the pen can begin. I am going to try and avoid referring to specific measurements as each persons designs will differ. I may refer to what I use in examples but when I do these will be in italics. With this way of writing the guide I hope it reads easily and can be understood by everyone who comes across is no matter the experience.

Initial Preparation

Turning the Barrel

Making the Section