A pen made in Jerusalem

2006-05-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hi,
My name is Rani. I live in Jerusalem. I made this pen and pen holder that can be seen in the picture. It looks kind of natural and wild. The black part on the handle is real leather and the rest of the pen is made of 1mm thick copper tubes. Maby later on i will go into more details about the exact dimensions.

Refill: Pilot - BLGP - GI - 5 - L Roller ball - replaceable

The base of the holder is a natural, uncut, pinkish - orange dolomite limestone from Jerusalem. A copper tablet - 1mm thick, is embedded into the
upper surface of the stone. It is engraved with the name "Jerusalem ". A copper coupler, projects out of the stone and serves to house the pen.
The bottom of the stone is carpeted (to avoid scratching) and is suitable for placing on furniture and glass.

The three main materials used in this art - piece are copper, leather and stone. These materials, combined together, reflect some kind of an authentic natural feeling to me. Except for an electric drill, everything is done by hand. I like simplicity and quality. The pen is strong and durable. The hardest part is finding the right stone for the stand. I would often wonder for hours in the hills and valleys of Jerusalem before finding the right stone. It has to be just the right size, shape, kind and color. The trick is not to cut the stone or fashion it in any way. I leave that to the forces of nature. The end result is more breathtaking that what any human artist can accomplish - an authentic piece of Jerusalem right there on your desk.

My Primitive Lathe

My lathe or polishing machine is very simple and primitive. It is also very handy.
As you can see in the picture, it is a Bosch electric hand drill which I clasped tightly to a little table. This was done with two pipe clamps.
In the same way you would fasten a pipe to a wall. The drill is not laied directly on the table, but is carpeted by some piece of sponge in order to insure tightness and avoid slippering. I must stress that the clasps must be bolted down very firmly with lock washers.
How does it work? I simply use a wide variety of sanding drums which are easily mounted on the drill and the rest is left for your imagination..... This is my funny way of turning pens. No fancy machinery here - just like they used to do it in the old days. Maby one day i will buy one of those ready-made kits that teach how to turn pens....

Step 1 - Cutting the metal tubes

These are the five metallic parts of the pen. It is very important to cut them with accuracy and precision. Therefore it is recommended to use a good quality pipe cutter. There are many brands of pipe cutters in the market. Some leave marks and scratches on the metal and their replacement disks are impossible to find. I use Ritchie from Yellow Jacket and I am very happy with it.

Starting from the left, these are the parts :
1) Brass, length = 1.3 cm , External Diameter = 1 cm, Internal Diameter = 0.8 cm
2) Copper, length = 2.5 cm , External Diameter = 1.3 cm, Internal Diameter = 1.1 cm
3) Copper, length = 1 cm , External Diameter = 1.3 cm, Internal Diameter = 1.1 cm
4) Copper, length = 10.6 cm ,External Diameter = 0.95 cm, Internal Diameter = 0.75 cm
5) This is a ready made copper coupler. Length = 1.8 cm. Front end: External Diameter = 1.1 cm, Internal Diameter = 1 cm. Back end: External Diameter = 1 cm, Internal Diameter = 0.9 cm.

Step 2 - Smoothing out the rough edges and polishing the metal

This is where the "lathe" comes in. Of course, before I built my "lathe" I did it all manually using hand files. If you have the time and patience it can be even fun. Now I use sanding drums and polishing pads for the job which are easily mounted on the "lathe" and do a quick, beautiful job. To the left is a close up picture of what the edges look like right after the pipe is cut. See how the outer and inner edges are sharp. Our job is to smooth out these sharp edges. This process is also known as deburring and buffing. After that I use a product called Dialux Blanc for the polishing. It was reccomended to me by a jeweler. Actually, this is the part where pen makers and jewelers become good friends.
A few words about the thickness of these copper pen blanks. As you can see in the picture, they are quite thick for a usual pen - 1mm. This is also the reason why this pen is relatively heavy.
Actually, these copper tubes are borrowed from the gas pipe industry. I searched for a long time and could not find slimmer copper tubes in small quantities. At first i thought that the heavyness of the pen was a set-back but later i realized that many people like the heavy feel.

This is what the cap blank looks like after polishing and finishing. It is smooth, round and shiny. Copper tends to oxidize and become a darker brown in time. This doesn't bother me too much. I have found other ways to treat the copper which I will discuss further on.
After finishing and polishing the rest of the metallic blanks I proceed to the next step which is mounting the remaining non metallic pieces of the pen.

Step 3 - The Refill

The refill is a Pilot BLSG15 Gel Ink Refill . It can be replaced by screwing off the silver cap. I fitted the top part of the pen into the copper blank. It isn't easy because of the different dimensions
but it is possible with some adjustment to the diameters of the blanks.

Step 4 - Leather, Beads, Studs, and Plastic

I used 2 8mm turquoise round beads on both cap ends of the pen.
These are real semi-precious gem stones. Since beads have holes on both ends, I used some golden (I am not saying it is gold...) metallic studs to fill up these holes.
A leather strap is tightly glued and wound around the handle of the pen. The strap has to be perfectly cut and measured; otherwise it would all look very sloppy. Shoe makers
usually have some spare pieces left so this would be a good place to start looking. That's where I got my leather at the beginning. I recently discovered a fantastic website that sells many kinds of Buckskin, leather and rawhide.
Next we have the plastic sleeve which is used as an adaptor between the two tube sizes. It is glued into the interior of the cap. The cap then fits perfectly and tightly on the main body of the pen. It is also with this sleeve that the top ring of the main body is glued on. I will not reveal right now where and how I get this sleeve - this will remain a trade secret. A little bit like the Coca Cola formula. The reason is that I went through a lot of trouble until I got this sleeve working right so I am a bit reluctant to give it away. It took months of experiments....
A few words about gluing. I use the strongest glue possible - Loctite Two component Epoxy Glue. It is used to glue the beads, studs, leather and plastic sleeves. It cannot be seen on the pen. The pen looks strong, elegant and unless run over by a truck it is very strong.

Step 5 - The "Jerusalem Tablet"

On the third picture from the top of the page, you can see the black tablet which is embedded into the stone pen holder. It is engraved with the name "Jerusalem". I will now explain how it is made. What you can see on the picture to the left is a copper ring, 1 cm wide. I cut it off a copper tube, slightly thicker than the previous ones: External diameter = 1.9 cm, internal diameter = 1.6 cm. I use the same good old Ritchie for the job. Then I hold it firmly with the vice and slice it across with a mini hack saw.
Then, I open the ring and flatten it out to make a tablet. This part is very tricky because copper is a very soft material and can get scratched easily by any sharp pliers' edges or hammering. After the piece is flattened out, again, like with the blank tubes, it should be polished and finished. I pinch off the four corners of the tablet so that I could round up nice smooth edges.

Next thing to do is to make it black. This is done by dipping the tablet for a few seconds in a solution called liver of sulphur which smells very bad indeed so it is advised to take it out side.
After the tablet gets a nice dark shade it is ready for the engraving. I take the tablet down town to a gift shop that has an engraving machine.
It is there where I get the job finished.

Step 6 - Stone work

As you can see above, the tablet is embedded into the stone. In order to do that, it is necessary to carve out a little tunnel (about 2mm deep) in the face of the stone. At first, I tried chiseling it out but then I figured that my loyal "lathe" could do a better job.
I mounted a diamond stone cutting disk
on the "lathe". This could be very dangerous if you are not careful in what you are doing. If the disk is not strongly secured in the drill, it could fly off in your face so watch out. I also use protective goggles and stuff tissue in my ears for protection.

In the picture to the left you can see the housing of the pen. This is simply another copper coupler in which the pen fits perfectly. This coupler is symmetrical. External diameter = 1.1 cm. Internal diameter = 1cm. If you look at the external diameter of the copper main body blank, you will see that it is 0.95 cm. Fits exactly but not too tightly. I had to drill a hole with an angle of about 75 degrees to the surface of the stone. I did this by mounting a drill on my "lathe" and holding the stone in an angle to it. It is also helpful to spray water from time to time to facilitate the drilling. I use a simple hand water sprayer for the job.
Limestone is a relatively soft stone and drilled quite easily. I use a simple drill bit, like the ones you would use to drill a hole in the wall at home to hang a picture. It is always better to start drilling with a smaller size drill and then widen the hole with a bigger drill.
Although I don't use diamond drills yet, I learned many helpful drilling tips from diamond drill sites. After the hole is ready, I clean it out and glue the coupler in to place with the strong epoxy glue.

Step 7 - Carpet and polish

I use a little sand paper to smooth out the upper surface of the stone. I start off with the rougher kind and then smooth out with finer kinds. Then I spray some stone polish spray
on the stone to make it shiny and bring out the natural colors.
Carpeting the stone should be done last to all the other operations because we don't want to get the carpet dirty with stone dust and polish.
Carpeting the bottom of the stone is very important. Many people like to place the pen holder on expensive furniture and glass. The carpet's job is to make sure the stone does not scratch the wood and also provide a nice soft base for the stone.
I first smear the bottom of the stone with carpet adhesive. It is usually bought in gallons. Then I stick a piece of thin wall to wall carpet (bigger than the stone) on the stone and wait for it to dry. After it dries (15 min), I use scissors to cut off the edges exactly on the borders of the stone.

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A Pen maker from Jerusalem - Hand made pens

A pen made in Jerusalem