# Bespoke taps and dies



## Sean777 (Jan 23, 2019)

I was wondering if anyone could assist me with obtaining taps and dies to create bespoke pens. I’m very interested in obtaining these to take my turn at attempting these pens.


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## Penultimate (Jan 23, 2019)

Greetings and welcome.
Here is an excellent resource for understanding the taps you may need to make kitless pens. http://content.penturners.org/library/general_reference/taps_dies_kitless.pdf
Taps and dies for sections, bodies and caps are based on your design and are easy to find and inexpensive. Specialty taps for the nib units are necessary if you want to remove the unit. Instead of buying expensive taps when starting out you could buy inexpensive nib units and press fit in the section. The Pen Turners bible is a good resource for starting out.
Good luck, have fun designing and making.


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## knotandburl (Jan 24, 2019)

There are a few different places you can find an purchase the supplies you need. One source, although there are few things out of stock right now, is Turner's Warehouse. 

https://www.turnerswarehouse.com/collections/taps-and-dies


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## Curly (Jan 24, 2019)

If you want to make fountain pens you'll need to get specialty taps for the feeds. They are proprietary threads sizes unique to the nib maker so not a stock size. The nib sellers will usually have the taps needed. 

For the barrel/cap and section/barrel threads you can start off with single start threads to see if you like making pens from scratch. If you do then you can graduate to the double start or triple start threads which are specially made and expensive because of the low demand. 

There are various places to get the single start threads but one with a large selection of inexpensive taps is Victor Machinery Exchange. Get the drill bits at the same time. Makers usually gravitate towards the metric threads because they are easy to work with. 

There aren't too many suppliers of multi-start taps and dies so Turners Warehouse mentioned above is one source and the other is Beaufort Ink. They also sell Bock nibs and feeds along with the taps for them. Note that at the moment they are moving over the next couple weeks so not shipping orders until the move is completed. Classic Nib also sells some Bock nib/feeds and the taps. Disclaimer time. My wife Marla makes pen blanks for these companies.

Sometimes here and on Facebook people run group buys to get the taps made for a better price but you might have to wait some time before another occurs.

Your last alternative is to get a metal lathe and cut your own threads, bypassing the need for the taps and dies.


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