Author: newtonpens

The last year has been insane.  More travel than I’ve ever done in one year (6 pen shows – only 5 this year and from here on out I hope) and we got some health issues dealt with and taken care of (nothing serious, just stuff we needed to do) and with all that and who knows how many other things, I forgot to announce the 2024 scholarship recipients!

So here they are finally:

1	Antonella N C	$2,000.00
2	Lara P	$1,500.00
3	Gabriella J H	$1,250.00
4	Devon W	$1,250.00
5	Avery B	$1,000.00
6	Grace M	$1,000.00
7	Alisha K	$500.00
8	Eve M	$500.00
9	Ava J E	$500.00
10	Ojas S	$500.00

A huge congrats to all you kids!  And thanks everybody who applied and to everybody who helped us read and score the essays.

AND now is the time to apply for our 2025 scholarships!  I feel like the essay prompt hasn’t been the best, so I changed it a bit for this year, and also shortened the required length. So hopefully that’ll help.  🙂

Right now we’re at just over $6500 raised to give away in May.

If you want to help us read and score some short, 450-550 word essays (maybe 10 or 20, maybe 50 or 60, up to you) please holler at me.

[email protected]

Thanks!

After I saw the movie Hook, with Robin Williams, back in… 1993?, I was so excited every time it snowed because that meant I could call my friend Neil and scream into the phone “It’s SNOWING!” and then hang up.  I was an obnoxious kid.  😂

So it just snowed here.

And I have new pens up on the site!

These are prototypes for some new extra long Majestics I just finished for a commission.

And there are some new pens up on ebay.  I’m still raising money for scholarships.  🙂
Right now we have $6516 in the bank, ready to give away in a few months, plus whatever we raise over the rest of the year.  I’m about to make announcements so kids can start applying, but if you know any high school seniors about to graduate and are planning to go to college, and they could use some financial aid, have them apply!

And we’ve made it a little easier on the kids this year (and us) by shortening the length of the essays down to about 500 words.  🙂

Happy New Year!

 

15% off site wide now till midnight Sunday!

 

It’s said word of mouth is the best way to advertise.  With that in mind, I want to thank everybody who has bought one of my pens and shared them with their friends and fellow pen collectors, with a 40% off discount.

• There are 2 ways you can get a discount.

1.

If three people buy a pen and mention your name to me, you get a 40% off discount for any pen in my store.  If three more people buy a pen, and mention your name to me, you get another 40% off discount for another pen. If one person buys 3 pens, you get 40% off.  Any combo of people and 3 pens, and your name being mentioned, gets you 40% off.

People can mention your name in the notes section of my store when making a purchase, or in an email after they have bought something.

So if you bought a pen based on a review you saw, or photos you saw online- Instagram, Slack, Discord, ANYwhere, or because somebody had one at pen club, or somebody was passing one around after a PEN SHOW at the bar, or dinner that night, or had it shoved in a plate of spaghetti at a restaurant, or they dunked it in a cup of coffee, ANYTIME in 2024 or after, let me know that person’s name (dm or email please) and when that person’s name has been mentioned three times, I’ll send them a discount code.

Does not apply to titanium or gold nibs, only steel nibs.  You would get 40% off the pen and pay full price for gold or ti (minus the difference of the steel nib) if you go that route.

Each discount code is good for one pen purchase.

2.

The next time you visit my store page you might be asked to join the loyalty program from a popup.  Or you can click the Rewards button on the store website, usually at the bottom right, and sign up.

You’ll earn points for signing up, following on Instagram, writing reviews, and especially for referring friends.

To redeem points, you click the little Rewards button at the bottom of your screen, and select How to Spend Points, then go from there!

I don’t think it can be any simpler than that, but if you have questions, please reach out.

[email protected]

Thanks!
Shawn

Hi Everybody!

While I’m frantically getting ready for the Pacific Northwest Pen Show (Portland, OR), I’m also trying to keep up with everything in the shop.  You can see the PNW show on Instagram, too.

I’ve just recently started getting black nibs again, and that means I can finally use all those black clips I’ve been sitting on.  🙂

I have a few with logos so I’ll use those first, but these won’t come with my logo engraving after this.  The fit is very tight, and to avoid messing up feed or housing, I’m going to opt for them to stay blank.

 

I’m also getting ready to start a small group buy, or big group buy, depending on how many people want one of these.

I’m planning on making my Knickerbocker pen in large size for this.  These will be made in amber colored ultem with black acrylic grip and knurled ultem rings.  The custom clip will be cast in brass, with it and the nib plated black.  These will be piston fillers, taking #8 nibs.

You can read more about these, and see the prices, here.  I’ll also be posting updates to the bottom of that page when I have anything to announce.

Okay, that’s it for now I think.  I’ve got pens to finish!  🙂

I can usually find what I need online when I have to take something apart, from a switch in the Whirlpool washer, to a vacuum switch on the old HVAC.  But this morning I couldn’t find what I needed.

My wife loves pepper, so maybe 8 or 10 years ago I bought her a nice little OXO pepper grinder at Bed Bath and Beyond, and it lasted a good little while.  I forgot what happened, but it failed.  It quit grinding pepper.  Or maybe it broke.  Or maybe I broke it.  Who knows?  Point is, I bought her a new Salt and Pepper Grinder set.  Yeah that’s right.  The SET.

That was in 2020.  Time passes, things get dirty.  Normally you clean those dirty things, but in the case of the OXO, you really can’t do much more than wipe it down.  But what if you drop it in the sink, into dirty dish water?  Throw it away?  NO!  You go online and look for how to take it all the actual way apart to give it a proper deep clean.  Except there’s nothing out there.  Not one photo or video that I could find on how to take it all the way apart.

But now there is.

I’ll get back to making pens now, but I hope this is helpful to somebody out there.

Hey Everybody it’s that special time in a pen maker’s life when I get to release something new (at least new to me, b/c as we’ve learned and keep learning, there is NOTHING new under the sun 😂).

At the 2023 Chicago pen show one of my favorite regulars asked me if I would be able or willing or interested in making a fountain pen with the same sort of profile shape as my Preston ballpoint.

I drew a sketch out, and exactly 2 days before the 2024 Chicago pen show made a few prototypes to bring to the show.  She and several other people bought one or two of those prototypes, and when I got back home and had more time, I worked on refining the shape a bit.

The Preston ballpoint next to one of the newer prototypes to highlight the similarity:

I wanted to make them in two sizes: one longer that could use a converter, and a shorty that would be short cart or eyedropper only.
The Long (with open style section)-

And the Shorty (with a more traditional covered section)-

The long posted okay but the barrel taper needed some adjusting.  The short didn’t post very well at all, and the Dandelion in Snow version above only posts b/c I took my Nicholson to it and shaped the barrel a bit more by hand so that it would post.  I can do the same on the others at request, but for now only the one posted nicely.

Why bother making it post at all?  Yeah I hear you at your keyboards.  Posting damages the barrel!  Or something something…  🙂
For me (and I don’t post most of my pens either) if a pen looks like it should post, then it better post, and post well.  Susan Wirth made sure to tell me all about that right after I started making pens, at the 2012 Arkansas Pen Show, and it stuck.  Even before that though, when I was just buying and collecting and loving every bit of it, I was IRRITATED beyond description when a pen that looked like it should post just WOULDN’T.

So after Chicago I went back to work on my finishing station (sanding and buffing) to make it better at…. no wait hold on…

So after Chicago I started work on the Preston again.
First up is the Long.  I really like the open section for this shape, so that’s going to be the standard across both sizes-

You can see I have posting where I want it, and these all have the open style section with a longer threaded tenon to make capping less fiddly.

And the Shorty shown here with the adjusted barrel shape that allows for  proper posting.

I made several more prototypes with more traditional design.  These don’t take converters.  They’re a sort of in between of the Shorty and the Long.  Once this group is gone these won’t get made again-

And I’ll be using these wheel clips as long as I can keep getting them-

All of these will all get uploaded to the store tomorrow after I’ve had my morning coffee.  🙂  So check back around lunch (that’ll be Wednesday May 22, ’24).

 

Have you ever been to Red Lobster?  I just heard they’re filing for bankruptcy.  I’ve never been, but tried once with my wife maybe 5 or 6 years ago.  I had heard so many good things about their cheese biscuits I thought let’s go.  We walked in the front door and the smell punched me in the face.  I couldn’t run out of their fast enough.  Sea food is not for me.  😂

If you have any questions about anything, holler at me.  [email protected]

Thanks!  And see you at the Pacific Northwest Pen show in July (13 & 14).

Everything available here.

photos by Matthew Chen

 

I’ve just put up 8 new pens, what you don’t take will go to the Arkansas show next weekend.    Click the image to see.

Thanks!