Best place to get an oblique holder for a crow quill?

[Elisabeth_M]

the world of mechanical pencils ...

this is pure stationery fetishism

You say that like it's a bad thing. 

The lead holders sound familiar, my grandfather was a civil engineer and my father a sometime journeyman carpenter, so I saw some around and about while growing up.  In shop class in junior high, we had a drafting unit and learned how to use a T-square, triangle, etc, although I think we used regular pencils.  At the time, most of us would rather be out working on projects using the patterns the teacher already had, but as an adult, I have found that tiny bit of drafting experience very useful from time to time!  Actually, most of what I learned in "vocational" classes has been extremely useful.  Typing, for instance....

[Elisabeth_M]

My Etsy store has been seeing lots of traffic lately, now that i am adding more dip pens.

You've got some beautiful products!  I love the ebony and deer antler holder, it looks so sophisticated, I'm pretty sure I'd want to put on a pencil skirt every time I used it.  Sadly, not in the budget right now (the holder or the pencil skirt--it's funny, but when I became a stay at home mom, my need for a pencil skirt went from barely existent to nothing at all).

[Moya]

Yeah, I'm not saying I spent a ridiculous amount of money on a really nice rOtring mechanical pencil ... but I totally did. It's just so pretty.  It does exactly the same thing as a plastic $1.00 Papermate from Staples, but dammit, it's pretty.

I mean, if we're not gonna fetishise nice paper and pens, what are we even doing here?

[Jamie]

I bent one of my obliques to fit the current crow quills I'm using. Works really well! Dunno why I didn't think of that myself. Just wish I was better at bending the metal smoothly so it didn't end up with dings all in it, lol. It's weird how much smoother the crow quill was to use with the oblique holder too, guess the angle up from the paper is better or something.

On the subject of mechanical pencils, I actually got really into what the best kind of pencil was to get about a year ago... and I ended up with two 2mm drop lead clutch holders and a bunch of 2mm lead, haha. I mean my favorite of the two is a nicer rotring holder, but it's still the same mechanism. Only reason I got that one is because it's one of the thinner holders I was able to track down, and since I have a smaller hand I prefer something smaller to hold onto most of the time (calligraphy is the exception to this, I find I often want to bulk up my holders for that, I think it's because I move a lot slower for that.) It's now my favorite go-to pencil for drawing.

The only other two kinds of mechanical pencils I touch these days is a .3 mm for really tiny details, and I have a .5 with blue lead because drawing in blue lead is fun sometimes.

[Milonguera]

the world of mechanical pencils ...

this is pure stationery fetishism

You say that like it's a bad thing. 

The lead holders sound familiar, my grandfather was a civil engineer and my father a sometime journeyman carpenter, so I saw some around and about while growing up.  In shop class in junior high, we had a drafting unit and learned how to use a T-square, triangle, etc, although I think we used regular pencils.  At the time, most of us would rather be out working on projects using the patterns the teacher already had, but as an adult, I have found that tiny bit of drafting experience very useful from time to time!  Actually, most of what I learned in "vocational" classes has been extremely useful.  Typing, for instance....

Wow, Elizabeth.  I don't recall girls even being encouraged to take any shop classes.  If I'd known that drafting was a part of what I'd have learned in shop, I might have taken that instead of home-ec because basically, I already knew how to cook and sew.  No doubt that knowledge really does come in handy.

[darrin1200]

My Etsy store has been seeing lots of traffic lately, now that i am adding more dip pens.

You've got some beautiful products!  I love the ebony and deer antler holder, it looks so sophisticated, I'm pretty sure I'd want to put on a pencil skirt every time I used it.  Sadly, not in the budget right now (the holder or the pencil skirt--it's funny, but when I became a stay at home mom, my need for a pencil skirt went from barely existent to nothing at all).

Thank you very much Elizabeth. I love making the more elegant holders. The Ambyona/Ebony one didn't last long, Its being shipped out today. My first sale to Hong Kong.

Darrin, they used to come in different sizes but I think most crowquills today would be about the same size i.e. 1/8". I have a William Mitchell's 0567 Crowquill that seems to be just slightly bigger than the Zebra crowquill but fits fine in the flange I made for the Zebra (pictured above). Another vintage crowquill I have (John Heath No. 7) is cleary thinner and will not fit in the flange for the Zebra.

I don't use crowquill nibs and am in no way an expert but I think you'll be fine if your flange takes the 1/8" nibs.

Regards,
Salman

 Thanks for the info Salmon. I will order a couple in from John Neal, and try with the Bullock.



When it comes to mechanical pencils, I have to admit,  is all I use. During drafting in school, we always used the 2mm clutch pencil. Now though I'm lazy about sharpening, and use 0.5mm for all my drawing.

When I was at Rosewood Studios, taking a fine woodwork course, Ron Barter was adimat that we must use 0.5 for all our measurement markings on wood. He would say,The fine line is critical to accuracy. It was also insanely frustrating, with the lead constantly breaking on the wood grain. In my shop now, its either 0.7mm usually, or a finely sharpened 2mm.

I do have a couple of vintage 0.9mm propel pencils that I want to get working again.

[AndyT]

this is pure stationery fetishism

You say that like it's a bad thing. 

No, not really.    It's a bit ridiculous, but even the top of the line Rotrings are affordable luxuries compared to what the fountain pen manufacturers are selling.  Also, I do realise that mechanical pencils are used differently nowadays: what amuses me is that they're still sold as draughting rather than sketching and writing tools.

I mean, if we're not gonna fetishise nice paper and pens, what are we even doing here?

Well, I'm here for the writing, mostly.  That's not to say that I'm immune to the lure of nice paper though: far from it. 

[Elisabeth_M]

In shop class in junior high, we had a drafting unit and learned how to use a T-square, triangle, etc, although I think we used regular pencils.

Wow, Elizabeth.  I don't recall girls even being encouraged to take any shop classes.  If I'd known that drafting was a part of what I'd have learned in shop, I might have taken that instead of home-ec because basically, I already knew how to cook and sew.  No doubt that knowledge really does come in handy.

Well, in 7th grade, everyone was required to take shop (hand-powered tools only), home-ec, and art, each of those classes lasting 1/3 of the year.  The next year, you could take a semester of any one of those and I chose shop, partly because I enjoyed it and partly because I disliked the home-ec/art teacher.  Given the prevalence of "helicopter" parents in the US these days, I often wonder if jr. high shop classes even exist anymore.  In 8th grade, we were allowed to use the power tools and I suspect a lot of people don't think it's appropriate for 13 year olds to use a band saw or a lathe, especially with very minimal supervision.  Our teacher was an older guy, (he was around in my parent's day, too) and if he showed you how to use a piece of equipment and you showed him you knew how to use it safely, then he pretty much left you alone unless you asked him for help.  So, there were maybe 15 students all just doing their own thing in this great big shop with a teacher who was hard of hearing due to being around machines all his life and who spent most of his time in the corner where the different woods were stored, helping people get cuts of wood (all kinds of gorgeous woods) and grading people's projects.  The only thing he didn't want you using without supervision was the table saw.  I gave away most of what I made, but my younger brothers each made me something when they took shop (one made me a wooden bowl and the other made me a wooden teddy bear silhouette which has moveable arms and legs that now lives in my daughter's room).  As for drafting, kids who took shop at other middle schools didn't have drafting as part of their program, I think that it was a particular favorite of our teacher; the first thing we had to make in 7th grade, before we could do anything else, was a "pencil pointer" --a small paddle with a piece of sandpaper glued onto it, used for sharpening leads.  If it was made to our teacher's satisfaction, then we could move on to other projects.

I just realized, I'm sort of hijacking this thread.  Sorry about that.  Now that I'm studying calligraphy, I do wish I had bothered to do a project on the lathe when I took shop, because handmade pen holders fascinate me and look like they would be really fun to make.  Of course, I don't have access to a lathe, so the point is really moot.

[Salman Khattak]

I just realized, I'm sort of hijacking this thread.  Sorry about that.  Now that I'm studying calligraphy, I do wish I had bothered to do a project on the lathe when I took shop, because handmade pen holders fascinate me and look like they would be really fun to make.  Of course, I don't have access to a lathe, so the point is really moot.

You can easily carve them by hand Elisabeth. Just takes a bit longer than on a lathe but then you are saving on set-up time and don't need to sharpen your chisels. A few basic tools are all you need to get started carving your holders :-)

- Salman

[Tanvir Ahmed]

I just realized, I'm sort of hijacking this thread.  Sorry about that.  Now that I'm studying calligraphy, I do wish I had bothered to do a project on the lathe when I took shop, because handmade pen holders fascinate me and look like they would be really fun to make.  Of course, I don't have access to a lathe, so the point is really moot.

You can easily carve them by hand Elisabeth. Just takes a bit longer than on a lathe but then you are saving on set-up time and don't need to sharpen your chisels. A few basic tools are all you need to get started carving your holders :-)

- Salman

Salman:

I think you did a periscope or something live how to go about carving a pen holder.  I looked around every where but I could not find the reference or link.  I hope the information is still around.

Thank you.
Tanvir

[Salman Khattak]

Salam Tanvir - I did a Periscope broadcast about a month or so ago where I went through the process of carving a simple holder by hand. Periscope broadcasts last only 24 hours so it is long gone. I recently taught a workshop in Toronto where we all carved holders from Cherry by hand. It was a lot of fun and all participants ended up with their own holders.

I have been asked for an online version of the workshop but I don't think that is feasible. I will make a video and upload it to YT one of these days. The process isn't hard at all.

- Salman

[AnasaziWrites]

Well, in 7th grade, everyone was required to take shop (hand-powered tools only), home-ec, and art, each of those classes lasting 1/3 of the year.  The next year, you could take a semester of any one of those and I chose shop, partly because I enjoyed it and partly because I disliked the home-ec/art teacher.

Very similar in my junior high school. In 7th grade, all boys were required to take wood shop, first semester, and metal shop, second semester. In eighth grade, it was electrical and mechanical shop (these were optional, but I took them both). I still have the book holder and cribbage board I made in wood shop at age 12 in 1962. Yeah, 54 years ago. I don't throw out much. Hey, they work just fine.

[Tanvir Ahmed]

Salam Tanvir - I did a Periscope broadcast about a month or so ago where I went through the process of carving a simple holder by hand. Periscope broadcasts last only 24 hours so it is long gone. I recently taught a workshop in Toronto where we all carved holders from Cherry by hand. It was a lot of fun and all participants ended up with their own holders.

I have been asked for an online version of the workshop but I don't think that is feasible. I will make a video and upload it to YT one of these days. The process isn't hard at all.

- Salman

Salam Salman.  When I first saw your pen holders, I thought that the word "carving" is used in a figurative speech.  I just assumed that you use lathe followed by milling machine or do all the work straight on the milling machine.  It did not even cross my mind that carving means real, honest to goodness, hand carving with knife and some assorted hand tools.  Just amazing and outstanding work.

Tanvir

[Moya]

Salman, I'd love to see a video on your process! I'm not likely ever to have access to a lathe or a workshop, but I am sure I could manage sandpaper and wood knives on my kitchen table at home

[YokePenCo]

Handmade doesn't have to break the bank. I could do a basic oblique crowquill holder for $44.99. A custom order from me just means you get what you want, there is no upcharge for being a custom order, it just reserves you a place in my schedule to make whatever it may be that you want.

If you want to try to make it yourself, just drop an email and I would help you through the process of making it. You could take a simple dowel and insert a flange without any carving and just have a very basic holder that would work well.