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Carbon fibre blanks

Neil

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May 21, 2013
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Neil
Ray,
don't want to dampen your enthusiasm but in my opinion, for what it's worth they are @@@@! The colour is on the surface of the blank and they easily chip off, I bought fifteen when they were launched and ended chucking most of them away. The wife liked the look of one, I gave her a blue sierra and it lasted three days in the handbag. Suggest that you may want to finish the blank with a coat of CA and it might last.
 

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
The blue does it for me and the overall look does look nice, Neil's tip using CA to finish them off may be worth wile if they are easily broke ... :thinks:
 

Bluefoxy

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Jun 26, 2013
Posts
173
Location
London
Ray,
don't want to dampen your enthusiasm but in my opinion, for what it's worth they are @@@@! The colour is on the surface of the blank and they easily chip off, I bought fifteen when they were launched and ended chucking most of them away. The wife liked the look of one, I gave her a blue sierra and it lasted three days in the handbag. Suggest that you may want to finish the blank with a coat of CA and it might last.

I've been using a Sedona rollerball in the same material for about 2 months now and have noticed no deterioration at all. Maybe you had a bad batch. In any event I don't sell my pens so can experiment as much as I like.

Ray
 

mervyn cadman

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Jun 19, 2013
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86
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Colchester - Essex
Ray,
don't want to dampen your enthusiasm but in my opinion, for what it's worth they are @@@@! The colour is on the surface of the blank and they easily chip off, I bought fifteen when they were launched and ended chucking most of them away. The wife liked the look of one, I gave her a blue sierra and it lasted three days in the handbag. Suggest that you may want to finish the blank with a coat of CA and it might last.

I have never bought carbon fiber blanks I always made my own - so easy to make - I dont understand how the colour is on the surface or why they would do that.

Merv
 

Bluefoxy

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Jun 26, 2013
Posts
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If I've still got one of the defective ones I'll post a pic when back in the uk

Neil, I am convinced that the blanks posted above are covered in clear resin. I have I blank left, in black, if you pm me with your address I will gladly post it to you so that you can compare it with the blank you have. You sell a lot of pens and judging by the reaction of the girls in my family I would have thought these, particularly the coloured ones, would be a good seller amongst the ladies. David in TB describes them as being cast in resin and he doesn't usually tell fibs.

Ray
 

Neil

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Ray,
that's very kind, but I have had six on my stall for over a year and a half and they don't sell! whilst they do look good, when a amongst real wood or other acrylic they look very unspectacular. I disassembled those that I had left and replaced them with wood blanks and put them back into my wood pen stock last month.
 

Neil

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May 21, 2013
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Location
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
First Name
Neil
I have never bought carbon fiber blanks I always made my own - so easy to make - I dont understand how the colour is on the surface or why they would do that.

Merv

Merv and all,

Here is a picture of the carbon fibre blank.



The dust on the paper is the paint chippings that came off the surface of the blank, I scrapped it off with a finger nail, nothing sharp! It won't last a day in a handbag.
 

edlea

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Aug 1, 2013
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Blackpool
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Ed
They look good but I think I would want to put more work into a pen that just assembling it.
 

Bluefoxy

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Jun 26, 2013
Posts
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Location
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They look good but I think I would want to put more work into a pen that just assembling it.

Fair comment but the joy for me in this hobby is to experiment with all the materials available to us as pen makers no matter what they are or where they come from.

Neil,

I reiterate my offer to send you the spare sierra blank that I have. It is not the same as the one pictured above. Did you get yours from Timberbits ? Please pm me with your address. I have tried the fingernail test and all it did was break a fingernail!

Ray
 

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
Merv and all,

Here is a picture of the carbon fibre blank.



The dust on the paper is the paint chippings that came off the surface of the blank, I scrapped it off with a finger nail, nothing sharp! It won't last a day in a handbag.

That is poor quality, and if i was to buy any of this material in the future then i would surely be giving it the finger nail test ... :whistling:
 

Bluefoxy

Full Member
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Jun 26, 2013
Posts
173
Location
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As promised I sent the remaining blank that I had to Neil. He has since pm'd me to say that they are far superior to the one that he showed. In fact they are made in the same way that Mervyn Cadman makes his. So they can be used to supplement the other materials you use to make your pens for sale. I am not snobbish about the materials we use to make pens. I know many people only advocate wood as a legitimate pen blank material. That is their right but I have made pens from wood, acrylic, acrylester, corn cobs, brass, aluminium, buffalo horn and deer horn. I don't sell my pens, I give most of them away. To me this is pure hobby only and I love to experiment with as many different materials as possible. Different attitudes breed different opinions I suppose.

Ray
 

Neil

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Neil
Ray,

Thanks for sending me the blank and, yes, it is far superior to the one that TB sent me, I think we'll put that down to a bad batch. My blank was one of the first that they sold and I suspect that it was a fault they detected and put right quick. Whilst they are superb on both service and quality of goods, I am sure that they wouldn't put their hands up to a problem that many didn't have and as such kept reseanably quiet. Cant blame them on that score.

Neil
 
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