• Thanks for visiting The Penturners Forum today.

    There are many features and resources that currently you are unable to see or access, either because you're not yet registered, or if you're already registered, because you're not logged in.

    To gain full access to the forum, please log in or register now. Registration is completely free, it only takes a few seconds, and you can join our well established community of like-minded pen makers.

Baron Vs Jr Gentlemen's

Maurice

Full Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Posts
89
Location
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands
I am trying to work out the difference between the Jr Gentlemen’s pen kits and the Baron kits. They look virtually the same and use the same drill sizes and presumably the same bushes. Is one better than the other as they similar in price provided you look at Timberbits.
Turners Retreat also has a Gentlemen’s classic which I would prefer however Timberbits do not appear to do these. They look rather expensive a TR can you get them cheaper elsewhere?

Happy turning
 

Jimjam66

Chief Battonager
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Posts
3,775
Location
Basingstoke, Hampshire
I'm going out on a limb here, but I think the Baron is a T/B exclusive product based on the Jr Gent? I can tell you from experience that the bushings are NOT the same! The difference is about 0.5mm, but it is there nonetheless.

Having made both there is a definite improvement in quality in the Baron, although to be fair I've only used the titanium-plated barons so the difference might be related to the finish. The other difference is that while the Jr Gent has a gold/silver ring sandwiched into the cap band (in between the opposite plating) the Baron has a black one. Ditto for the finial on the cap: baron = black, Je Gent = gold/silver.
 

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
Also the JR bottom blank tapers with two different sized bushings on the same tube ... :bwink:
 

PhillH

Little Grandad
Registered
Joined
Jun 18, 2013
Posts
3,436
Location
Solihull - A Tyke in Exile
First Name
Phill
OK, so I got in the car and went back to the office for you (Yeah right, thank god for webmail :funny:)

From David at TB

"JR Gent vs Baron.

Baron has a 12 facet pen grip, JR Gent has a round grip.
Baron made in Taiwan, JR Gent made in Mainland China.
Baron is better plated , JR Gent is made in Mainland China with not as high level finish.
Baron comes with a rechargeable fountain pen pump piston, JR Gent does not.
Baron comes with a German Made Schmidt refill, and the JR Gent comes with a Taiwan made generic rollerball refill."

Having done both recently I can say that the Baron gives the impression of being a better product. My first JR Gent the thread in the cap failed within a couple of days, might be rough handling to be fair.

At the price I'll be sticking to Barons I think from here on in.

Hope that helps.
 

Neil

Fellow
Joined
May 21, 2013
Posts
3,132
Location
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
First Name
Neil
Baron Jr Gent difference, $6!!!!!!
Correct the Jr Gent is tackier
My younger son will vouch for the aerodynamic properties of the JR G, as he has got through four at school using them as darts and thinks as Dad makes them they must be cheap and he breaks them regularily through blatant abuse.
The plastic insert does fail, I have made a couple of hundred and had about six failures. There was a bad batch in circulation but they seem to have worked their wasy through the system. All plastic/metal centre bands including the Orion from Woodturningz and the SR G from TB suffer from this component breaking, it is the achilles heal of this type of design.
 
Warning! This thread has not had any replies for over a year. You are welcome to post a reply here, but it might be better to start a new thread (and maybe include a link to this one if you need to).
Top