# Hand made?



## vakmere (Sep 18, 2015)

You bet. Some may have seen this however it's my 1st. Interesting watching how this is done. Enjoy....
https://youtu.be/F5HYElVwfj8


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## J Michael (Sep 18, 2015)

I've watched about half of the "Masters of the Fountain Pen" series and those guys are amazing! The Japanese style of turning is certainly a lot different than that in the Western world.
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## magpens (Sep 18, 2015)

Very interesting ! . I wonder ... what is the purpose of treating the ebonite with the flame ?


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## duncsuss (Sep 18, 2015)

magpens said:


> Very interesting ! . I wonder ... what is the purpose of treating the ebonite with the flame ?



I wondered that also ... I think I'll try it to see what happens. My suspicion is that it fuses the surface, doing away with the need to sand and polish -- but that's just a guess and I expect it's wrong.


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## plantman (Sep 18, 2015)

magpens said:


> Very interesting ! . I wonder ... what is the purpose of treating the ebonite with the flame ?



The addition of heat to Ebonite or Valcanite ( trade names for hard valcanized rubber ) is to char the gums in the compound. This causes the heated edge or border to be perfectly cured and smooth with all stickyness removed, and giving the material superior mechanical properties as well as waterproofing it. I think in this video the pen maker is using the heat to make the ebonite leak proof, smooth, and remove any tackyness  found in the drilled blank. Sort of the same idea when applying acetone to plastic to smooth  the edges. Could be some other reason, but this sounds logical.   Jim  S


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## its_only_me (Sep 19, 2015)

It looks like he is heating the ebonite to soften it and then he puts it in the chuck to squeeze it, he is in fact swaging the end smaller to be able to take the plug, you can see him trying it several times until he gets it right.


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