Pen kits and suppliers

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Hi All, I was wondering where you get your pen kits? Is there one place that has good prices on slimline pens? Is there a quality difference between the different sellers like PSI and others? Thanks!

[Michelle Rich]

yes there are differences..platings, etc..PSI Craft Supplies, Berea Hardwoods..get cheaper ones to make a few that if you screw up, all is not lost..then get better plated ones to give as gifts or whatever...My personal preference to start is not slimlines..it's PSI 's comfort pens..they are a tad thicker in the middle and make a rather universal size that fits most folks much better...good luck & have fun

[John Hart]

another thing about quality....I was over at Berea Hardwoods and they are more than happy to discuss their processes. With gold plating, it will wear off over time...given enough usage. You can get very high-priced kits that last longer....but they all wear. But with the Gold Titanium kits, the titanium underlayment is the exact color of the gold plate....so even with wear, you can't see it.

Just a tidbit of information :)

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Thanks John and Michelle. The comfort pens sound interesting; I've done some slimline in the past.

[David E Keller]

Lots of places for kits. I'll give you a few of my favorites.

Beartoothwoods- Ernie carries a really nice looking two tone cigar kit at a reasonable price. The Vail kit is a relatively inexpensive clone of the jr gent. he also carries the elegant sierra kits which are dead easy to make and quite nice looking.

IAP- Smitty in the classifieds has deals on 100 slimline kits for about 100 bucks. That's about the cheapest I've seen them. I like silver colored kits, so I usually get chrome kits which have been durable from just about every source thus far.

Arizona Silhouette- The biscayne ballpoint is a slightly beefier version of the slimline that I like.

That's just a few of my favorites.

[James Combs]

Hi All, I was wondering where you get your pen kits? Is there one place that has good prices on slimline pens? Is there a quality difference between the different sellers like PSI and others? Thanks!


Over on the "LumberJocks" forum there is a very detailed discussion/comparison of pen kit vendors with most of the pros and cons questions answered that a turner could think of. Check it out here.

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/2481

[Montgomery Scott]

There are only three importers of pen kits in the US; Penn State, Craft Supply and Berea Hardwoods. Everyone else is a reseller of these kits.

I've purchased from all of them and pruchased a number of different kits. The low priced kits from all of them are generally worth giving as gifts to people you don't feel like spending much money on, are just getting started and don't want to screw up an expensive kit, or want to sell at craft fairs where few people want to spend much for pens they usually are giving as gifts to others. They either have lower quality parts or plating that doesn't last much more than a few months.

The epoxy coating that PSI has is a joke. I've had kits that started flaking off after a few weeks so I won't buy from them any more and I don't particularly like the styles they have.

The low end Berea kits are better, IME, but still not that good. Metal threads in the cap section usually ends up damaging some of the body parts. I've had corrosion of the fountain nib from something in the ink so after several months it looks like crap. Their higher end pens are well made but not all their styles are attractive to me. The guys at Berea are great guys and I've chatted on the phone with them for long periods of time regarding the woods they import and some of the stories they like to share about wood hunting in Tasmania, Cambodia or where ever.

Craft Supply low end pens, same story. I tend to prefer CS for high end pens as their plating is as good as Berea's high end stuff and I like the styles better. They are well designed and have solved the thread problem with plastic threaded sleeves, however, I have seen that the plastic can be too soft tot he point that it is easy to crossthread when screwing the body to the cap. I suspect this is a compromise so that the plastic is soft enough to have an interference fit with the cap and not crack the wood barrel due to the radial load.

[Steve Bigelow]

There are only three importers of pen kits in the US; Penn State, Craft Supply and Berea Hardwoods. Everyone else is a reseller of these kits.


Good info there! I have long suspected as much, but didn't have any verification.

Also, I did find at one point where it seems PSI gets their stuff. There's a website based in China where you can buy for about half the price of even the cheapest places, but you do have to make a huge order or they won't even talk to you.

For people just getting started, I've found that woodturningz.com generally has cheap prices, but you do get what you pay for. The PSI kits - the finish is supposed to have a lifetime guarantee, but trying to collect on that may be hard. Who really wants to disassemble a pen just because the plating is starting to wear? Easier to just buy quality in the first place.