Pen Parts

[Matthew Barrett]

What is your opinion of the best pen parts? I bought some recently that seem to have the finish rubbed off rather quickly.

[Rich Souchek]

Mathew,
If pens interest you then I might suggest reading at penturneres.org.
To get back to your question, it seems accepted that the titanium coated finishes (black & gold), the platinum, and rhodium coated finishes are the longest lasting. Then comes chrome and then some of the satin finishes.
The gold coated finishes can be very soft and thin.
See: http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/catalog/plating101.html
and http://www.bereahardwoods.com/price/plating.html#ch
Rich S.

[Gary Herrmann]

Lee Valley sells good stuff, as does Arizona Silhouette and Bear Tooth.

[Chris Barton]

I prefer the Barea kits and I buy them from Bill B at AS as mentioned by Gary as a potential source.

[Montgomery Scott]

If you want gold plated kits and you want them to last then do not buy any kits other than those with titanium nitride coated parts. TiN is very hard (Rc = 85) and durable and when the gold plating wears off the Tin will remain and still look good.

Berea Hardwoods is a great company to deal with as is Craft Supply USA. Berea's gold plated kits are more durable than CS IME. I stopped buying from Penn State as their kits are inferior and the epoxy coating is ineffective and will fail. Mostly I buy kits from CS USA as I like the styling of their Emperor and Lotus kits and some other as well.

Other companies are resellers of these importers products.

[Phillip H Smith]

I think the advice given out so far is good about suppliers for pen kits. I've made a few pens using inexpensive kits...and it's true they don't last very long. Or the hardware isn't quite as robust as it could/should be. Which means that for only a buck or two more, you'd have a much nicer product in the end.

I just measured my bushings for the "European/Designer Pens" from PSI and they are the same diameter as those shown on the CS instruction sheet. I'm wondering if this holds true for the same style pens from other suppliers. And I'm wondering if anybody knows if the "Slimline" bushings are fairly universal? Bushings aren't all that expensive, but I see no need to assemble a collection of same-sized metal tubes!

Also...does anyone know of a supplier for individual pen parts? Most suppliers sell extra tubes. But from time-to-time, I mess up a twist mechanism and it'd be nice to have a couple extras on hand. Same goes for tips 'n clips.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[Don Wood]

Woodturningz sells the transmissions for slimline and parker type for cigars, etc. The link to their site is http://www.woodturningz.com

They do not show the transmissions for the parker type in their online catalog but they do carry them. They are $5 for 5 - (PKPARKMECH).

Don Wood