I have been dreaming about this pen for over a year. Some of my best ideas come while sleeping! I finally sat down in the studio, pulled a soldering iron out and decided to see what would happen. After several hours and a few singed knuckles I sat back and looked at two molten brass tubes. Hideous...yes, but also somehow fascinating.
Brass is made of Copper and Zinc. The dark stain seen in the recesses are a “passivation layer” or protective oxide layer caused by accelerated oxidization of the copper (in the brass tubes) when heated. At normal temperatures, this oxide layer looks like a slight darkening, or tarnishing of the surface. The raised silver areas are tin/lead solder slowly built in layers.
Any rough edges were hand sanded with moistened micro sand paper and wiped clean. Several thin layers of cyanoacrylate were painted over the entire surface to stabilize the delicate oxidation layer as well as provide a protective barrier from the lead. If you’re prone to chewing on pencils, this pen isn’t for you!.
The weighty barrels were pressed onto a chrome rollerball with a magnetic postable cap. This pen uses Schmidt 5888 ceramic rollerball refills.