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Green Ebonite Fountain Pen

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OscarHallStudios

Full Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2024
Posts
15
Location
Bristol, UK
First Name
Oscar
I really need to improve my photography skills as I never feel like the photos I take do the pen justice. Loving ebonite at the moment. I spoke to a few pen makers at the London Pen Show on Sunday and it seems that most people don't like working with ebonite, which is odd, because I really like it. It feels much easier to work with than acrylic, to me anyway. I know it stinks to the high heavens but it is very soft and feels to me less brittle than acrylic. The look and feel of the material is so premium. Funnily enough, this is the first ebonite pen I've ever owned. It feels nice in the hand, posts securely if you are firm with posting it. Being a smaller pen that posts to full size, this only required a single 200mm ebonite rod from Beaufort.
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RobR

Full Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2022
Posts
111
Location
The wilds of Norfolk
First Name
Robert
Really nice pen. How did you find threading the ebonite?

Reference the photography a lightbox, even a cheap amazon one helps enormously. I use a section in my storage unit that I've lined with cut up whiteboard from hobbycraft with a thin card background. I use an off-camera flash but a smartphone would work too. As you can see, I did experiment with LED strips, but the colour balance was tricky to get right.
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Results

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OscarHallStudios

Full Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2024
Posts
15
Location
Bristol, UK
First Name
Oscar
RobR said:
Really nice pen. How did you find threading the ebonite?

Reference the photography a lightbox, even a cheap amazon one helps enormously. I use a section in my storage unit that I've lined with cut up whiteboard from hobbycraft with a thin card background. I use an off-camera flash but a smartphone would work too. As you can see, I did experiment with LED strips, but the colour balance was tricky to get right.
Click to expand...
Thanks Rob! I found threading the ebonite to be very easy, feels less precarious than acrylic, perhaps because it feels less brittle? Being rubber it has a tiny amount of give to it and it is also quite soft to cut into, the thread cuts much easier and requires less force than acrylic.

Thanks for the recomendation re photography, my mum has one she uses for photographing ceramics that I am going to borrow to see if I can improve on my current setup, I expect you're probably right about it making a big difference with pen photos too!
 
Bammer

Bammer

Fellow
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
Posts
1,482
Location
Cambridge
First Name
Brad
Personally I love Ebonite, even get a kick out of the smell.

I have found that the chinese ebonite is much more forgiving than the japanese or german. By that I mean softer.

1st is Japanese, 2nd is chinese

Kitless Yellow Black Rippled 5.jpgKitless Green and Yellow 5.jpg
 
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OscarHallStudios

Full Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2024
Posts
15
Location
Bristol, UK
First Name
Oscar
Bammer said:
Personally I love Ebonite, even get a kick out of the smell.

I have found that the chinese ebonite is much more forgiving than the japanese or german. By that I mean softer.

1st is Japanese, 2nd is chinese
Click to expand...

They look great! I don't know much about the material itself, I've only used what Beaufort ink have so far. I should explore the world of ebonite!
 
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