Guy Harvey

There are two things I’ve learned since I started making handmade pens. First, you can never have too many pieces of wood. Second, apparently, there is such a thing as having too much wood. I’m still working on that second one. Walk into my workshop, and you’ll find pieces of timber that I have bought because I had a particular pen in mind, pieces I bought because they were too beautiful to leave behind, and pieces that I’m still not entirely sure what I’m going to do with. That is one of the...

There is something rather satisfying about taking a simple block of material and turning it into a pen. At the beginning, it doesn't look much like a pen at all. It might be a piece of beautiful wood, a colourful acrylic blank, a block of resin, or one of the many unusual materials I use in my workshop. At this stage, it is essentially a small rectangular lump with potential. By the end, hopefully, it is something someone wants to pick up and write with. Getting from one to the other involves...

There are few things I enjoy more than talking about fountain pens. I love making them, writing with them, talking about them, looking at them, and, on occasion, staring at a particularly nice piece of wood for far too long while wondering whether it would make a good pen. But over the years, I’ve also been asked quite a few questions about fountain pens. Some are sensible. Some are surprisingly sensible. And some make me question mankind, and I end up wondering whether people think fountain...