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Chriscb
Full Member
Yes - more traditional pens sell best. When I'm standing at a stall I have a Parker steel pen showed against a Tempest pen made with Walnut, with a question "which would you want?". Yes - buy a pen. No - on your way! Clearly I'm not as rude as that might appear but I do point out that the only difference is one is bespoke and handmade whilst the other is mass produced. To date, over a period of 3 years and 8 'markets' I've sold 34 click pens - the Axminster by far the most popular, but the Tempest is not that far behind. (For comparison I've sold 170 pens over the same period, majority of which were fountain pens.)
Axminster Wavy pen - quite long body great for showing off the wood.
Tempest (Beaufort Ink) - classy two piece with great lines.
Vertex - long body and chunky design.
Stratus - same really - long body and chunky design.
All of the above have good 'click mechanics' - Tempest is maybe the better of the bunch with the Wavy close behind.
No doubt others will have their favorites.
Regards,
Chriscb
Axminster Wavy pen - quite long body great for showing off the wood.
Tempest (Beaufort Ink) - classy two piece with great lines.
Vertex - long body and chunky design.
Stratus - same really - long body and chunky design.
All of the above have good 'click mechanics' - Tempest is maybe the better of the bunch with the Wavy close behind.
No doubt others will have their favorites.
Regards,
Chriscb
Morse
Graduate Member
Have made the Tempest and the Vertex, my preference is the Tempest.
It just looks better and feels better (IMO)
Vertex is easier to turn and finish.
As for selling, can't help as most of mine are "gifted"
Dave
It just looks better and feels better (IMO)
Vertex is easier to turn and finish.
As for selling, can't help as most of mine are "gifted"
Dave
Neil
Fellow
Glen,
Glad to learn you're out and about selling your pens, I hope with great success.
Over the years I have tried to convince myself that there must be a good economical click pen, and on every occasion I fail miserably. The most reliable that I have come across is the vertex, beware of the very similar look a like from a Chinese manufacturer which is used by many eBay sellers. It's crap! The click mechanism in some works well in a trained hand but many buyers treat the sight of a click pen on a stand as some kind of challenge, and subject it to a hundred clicks in a minute endurance test. The click mechanism isn't designed to withstand misuse and most pens on the market don't stand up to as much misuse as twist pens. The artisan click is one of the best but I still had numerous failures which rendered it uneconomical. Having slatted the Chinese supplier, the name of which will be unknown to most so I won't repeat it, they manufacture or supply one called a Warrier which is really reliable. The twist mechanisms are more reliable, I sell three ranges of click pen and they don't sell as well as twist mechanisms.
It is a case of what works for you and personal favourites will always outsell others as the purchaser will get infected by your enthusiasm, hope to see you around at a show, sadly don't get up to the Cheshire show anymore,
Regards
Neil
Glad to learn you're out and about selling your pens, I hope with great success.
Over the years I have tried to convince myself that there must be a good economical click pen, and on every occasion I fail miserably. The most reliable that I have come across is the vertex, beware of the very similar look a like from a Chinese manufacturer which is used by many eBay sellers. It's crap! The click mechanism in some works well in a trained hand but many buyers treat the sight of a click pen on a stand as some kind of challenge, and subject it to a hundred clicks in a minute endurance test. The click mechanism isn't designed to withstand misuse and most pens on the market don't stand up to as much misuse as twist pens. The artisan click is one of the best but I still had numerous failures which rendered it uneconomical. Having slatted the Chinese supplier, the name of which will be unknown to most so I won't repeat it, they manufacture or supply one called a Warrier which is really reliable. The twist mechanisms are more reliable, I sell three ranges of click pen and they don't sell as well as twist mechanisms.
It is a case of what works for you and personal favourites will always outsell others as the purchaser will get infected by your enthusiasm, hope to see you around at a show, sadly don't get up to the Cheshire show anymore,
Regards
Neil
wm460
Grand Master
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2013
- Posts
- 23,104
- First Name
- Mark
Good to see you back Neil.:waver::waver:
Neil
Fellow
Thanks Mark, over two years catching up to do!
Cheers Glen, got it.
Cheers Glen, got it.
Good to see you back and your valued expertise and experience is always appreciated. 
My take on the clicker is much the same as Neil, however we do have the new Beaufort Tempest that has been developed by Phil with reliability in mind. Would be nice to hear how that is going on.
Much the same as Neil, but not on the same scale. I have had people return because of failures and as you can't easily dismantle most clickers without damaging the click mechanism you can never find out why they fail.
The thing I have is that is a customer has the trusted bic pen that fails (rare though it may be) they bin it and buy another. If they have one of your clicks fail then they want it fixed. (Only right it should be)
The difference is that that are paying many times the cost so expect it to continue for a lifetime and beyond.
The quality of pen kits in general (not just clicker) has deteriorated so much and you have to be careful who and where the kits are purchased from.
Even the trusted manufacturers have fallen foul to the cut back and price competivness so are not providing the same quality they used to do.
I used to make the simple clicker pen from craft supplies and it was a very popular pen kit at the time, my BIL has one of the originals that my dad made back in 2002 and it's still working daily today. The platings has worn off and looking tired but works.
Once I get my health situation sorted I intend to trial the Tempest and see how that goes.
Happy reading..
My take on the clicker is much the same as Neil, however we do have the new Beaufort Tempest that has been developed by Phil with reliability in mind. Would be nice to hear how that is going on.
Much the same as Neil, but not on the same scale. I have had people return because of failures and as you can't easily dismantle most clickers without damaging the click mechanism you can never find out why they fail.
The thing I have is that is a customer has the trusted bic pen that fails (rare though it may be) they bin it and buy another. If they have one of your clicks fail then they want it fixed. (Only right it should be)
The difference is that that are paying many times the cost so expect it to continue for a lifetime and beyond.
The quality of pen kits in general (not just clicker) has deteriorated so much and you have to be careful who and where the kits are purchased from.
Even the trusted manufacturers have fallen foul to the cut back and price competivness so are not providing the same quality they used to do.
I used to make the simple clicker pen from craft supplies and it was a very popular pen kit at the time, my BIL has one of the originals that my dad made back in 2002 and it's still working daily today. The platings has worn off and looking tired but works.
Once I get my health situation sorted I intend to trial the Tempest and see how that goes.
The Tempest has been in the market place since October last year. It was developed precisely to overcome the problems with poor clickers in other kits that have been around for years.Good to see you back and your valued expertise and experience is always appreciated.
Happy reading..
My take on the clicker is much the same as Neil, however we do have the new Beaufort Tempest that has been developed by Phil with reliability in mind. Would be nice to hear how that is going on.
Once I get my health situation sorted I intend to trial the Tempest and see how that goes.
The Beaufort Tempest click ballpoint pen kit
The number of kits out there now number in the thousands, and we have not has single report of mechanical failure, or any other kind of failure for that matter.
Thanks for the feed back Phil. Always worth knowing about..