Broadwell wishes to clarify the difference between “hand made pens” and kit pens.
Kit pens can be purchased by anyone who has the equipment to to drill a stick
of wood or plastic and then turn that drilled stick into a barrel and a cap.
The kit contains the other components ready made and the pen turner puts it together.
Many of the kits are fairly well made and Broadwell is proud
to have designed some kits for Penn State Industries but these are not
what he considers hand made pens.
The majority of the components of Broadwell’s pens are made in his shop.
He uses a manual lathe and frequently grinds them by hand much like he
does his knives. Generally speaking, the only components that are not his own creation
are the gold nibs that he purchases from Germany for the fountain pens,
the retractors for the ball points, and the ink refills.
All of the other components including the clips are made by Broadwell himself.
He also uses the finest quality of materials available.
This certainly explains the difference in price between a $50 “hand made” kit pen
and an $800 or more Broadwell Studio’s custom pen.
