Handmade pen - component quality & plating - Part 3

If your handmade pen is plated, remember that there are many types of plating available, and although many are similar in terms of appearance, they certainly don't share those similarities in terms of durability. The types of plating on components commonly used in the making of a handmade pen, are discussed in more depth below.

The picture here, shows a high quality rhodium and black titanium plating.

........It's basically a thin sheet of gold layered and bonded with another material (often sterling silver or brass), and is generally at least a hundred times thicker than the heaviest gold plating. There are many examples of rolled gold items which have lasted over a hundred years and still look as good as new. Where rolled gold components are used in handmade pens, they are usually components modified from older pens - when rolled gold was the standard - although they may be new old stock. None of the major manufacturers of handmade pen components currently use rolled gold finishes.

This picture shows a high quality, gold plated center ring - rolled gold finishes are at least 100 times thicker than the heaviest gold platng!

Rhodium (white gold) plating is part of the platinum group of metals and is at the top end of plating used in a handmade pen. Rhodium is extremely hard (as with any of the platinum group of metals), and therefore offers superior durability to most plating types. Rhodium is also one of the worlds most expensive resources, so rhodium plating is significantly more expensive than most other types. Platinum has similar characteristics but is not quite as white.

The picture shows a rhodium plated fountain pen with a cast 22kt gold plated center ring.

Black Titanium or gold titanium plating are also extremely durable. Gold titanium does not contain any gold, and is the same material that you'd find coating a titanium drill bit - except highly polished (if you've ever looked at a titanium drill bit after its drilled 1,000's of holes, you'll quickly see that durability here is simply not an issue!).

Gold and black titanium use a different plating process to the standard electroplating process, and, unlike the smooth finish after electroplating, this type of plating leaves the finished item with a rough surface, which then needs polishing to bring it to a shine - this, and the specialised plating equipment required, adds considerably to the plating cost, but this plating can be expected to last several years, even decades.

The picture shows titanium gold components - resembling the color of 24kt gold, but a little more 'orange', - certainly far more durable than 24kt gold though

...... when no micron thickness is specified, care should be taken in making your selection, as these plating types can include heavily plated items, epoxy coated plating (a hard epoxy resin is applied after plating to improve durability), and components which are so lightly plated that they suffer from postal friction wear (ie. the friction from being mailed in an envelope, will actually wear some of the plated surface away).

Unfortunately, unless thicknesses are specified, you need to rely on the reputation of the pen maker to assess - (take a look at feedback if buying on Ebay, and reviews on other sites)

The picture shows a silver plated pen. This particular pen is plated to the same specs as restaurant grade silver plated cutlery - very durable!

Other plating, include various colored and satin finishes, as well as powder coating. Powder coating is extremely durable (a powder is sprayed onto electrically charged components to form an even surface, then baked on at a high temperature which melts the powder, leaving a very durable coating). Many of the colored finishes on handmade pens are translucent colored resins against a chrome or nickel plating - the color tends to wear quickly. Most satin finishes lack durability, although the gunmetal and other satin finishes when brought to a high shine (through the application of a clear powder coat) are as durable as any other powder coating. This type of plating looks very similar to black titanium, and will offer long term durability, but not to the same extent (or expense) as black titanium plating. Again, with these plating types you need to rely on the reputation (and feedback, reviews etc) of the pen maker to assess.

The picture shows a chrome plated pen. A similar color to silver plate but slightly bluer.

In a ballpoint, the best, widely available refills, have a tungsten carbide ball. Refills with a steel ball are much easier to damage, if they're dropped, a scratch or a flat spot on the ball is usually the result, a scratch will usually prevent the pen from writing consistently (stopping and starting) as the ball is unable to turn smoothly. A flat spot most often pumps out excessive ink as the ball turns, resulting in blotches of ink building up at the writing point and the need to wipe it off after every few lines of writing. A tungsten carbide ball is a much harder material - difficult to damage through normal use - and so none of the associated problems as mentioned. It is a fallacy that the only good refills are the 'brand' names. The refills supplied with component sets for the handmade pen makers market, can in fact be a good indicator of the components the maker used. Amongst pen makers, Dayacom are generally considered to be the finest range of components available. Dayacom use there own branded refills as well as German Schmidt refills in many of their component sets, so if you see a Dayacom or Schmidt branded refill in a handmade pen, you can pretty safely assume that you're also getting superior quality components, including the mechanism, plating quality, and clip design ( There are many clip styles available, a popular clip is the ball style. These are produced by a few different manufacturers. One manufacturers clip is far superior, but on first appearance looks identcal. The way to tell the better one, is to look at the bend at the clip top...right at the bend point - on the sides of the clip, a small triangular section is pressed into the clip,- almost like a web across the bend. Only the superior clips have this section...the others are just a 90degree bend with no side reinforcement. These will very often snap under minimal stress - eg puting into a jacket pocket rather than a shirt - so watch out for these !)
When buying a fountain pen, do not be misled into believing that a solid gold nib is always best. Many inexperienced fountain pen users find that a gold nib is far too soft to use comfortably, and can result in nib damage. If unaccustomed to using a fountain pen, most would be better to start out with a steel nib, and change to gold down the track - IF they prefer.

The best handmade pens will have internal components made from brass and steel. Plastic parts do not offer long term durability. The use of base metal cast parts in hand made pens is not uncommon, and although they give a handmade pen a nice sturdy, solid feel, they are often so soft that a handmade pen will literally fall apart where friction fit components are pressed together ( very common in lower quality ballpoints).

Threaded or Friction Fit Components?

A pen is likely to be of much higher quality where components are joined through a tightened thread, than through press on friction fit.

Quality of mechanisms,

Mechanisms in ballpoints and gel pens vary considerably. Of the two cross type mechanisms used in handmade pens, one is of far superior quality than the other. How to tell the difference? The superior component has an 'S-Groove' lock fitted - this can be detected by slowly twisting the pen to extend the refill (as if you're about to write), just as the refill is fully extended, you will feel and see the refill end retract slightly, back into the pen. this is because the pin inside the mechanism slides down a groove which turns back on itself at the end ( like the bottom of an 'S' - hence the name). Why these mechanisms are superior in hand made pen components, is that they are all metal inside (some of the other type are plastic), and the 'S-Groove' lock prevents the refill from retracting while writing (a common problem on many handmade pens which use the other type). Of the mechanisms supplied with pen makers component sets, the Parker style mechanisms are generally better quality than the cross type. The better quality twist mechanisms are often, all, or mostly metal, click style mechanisms are usually plastic.

The Picture shows a high quality fisher space refill. these were designed by Paul Fisher in the 1960's for use by NASA on manned space flights. they write upside down, underwater, and in sub zero temperatures. they are extremely reliable refills that require very little pressure to write, largely due to the pressurised (35psi) ink chamber.