Frequently asked questions

By accident, on a photography trip. In 2025 I was in Namibia with a camera and met a carpenter working Camelthorn, a dense, dark desert timber I had never seen before. I came home with a piece of it and the idea that a pen could carry a place with it. I have been at the lathe ever since.

I ran my own business for about twenty years, then sold it. Photography and pen making took over the time that work used to fill. Coming from a background in telecoms and IT support, this is about as far from it as you can get.

My workshop is in Allesley, on the edge of Coventry, in what was once the Forest of Arden. The six pen ranges are named after Arden places: Berkswell, Kenilworth, Warwick, Stratford, Lapworth and Hampton-in-Arden.

It means the material in your pen came from somewhere I can name. A distillery, a cricket ground, a car plant, a hillside in Scotland. Where a pen carries a provenance claim, I can back it up, and the story comes with the pen.

Just me. I turn, finish and assemble every pen myself, one at a time. I am a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen and the International Association of Penturners.

It is how I find most of the interesting materials. Travel for landscape work has taken me to Namibia, Patagonia, Greenland, Bhutan and Nepal, New Zealand and all over Scotland, and I rarely come back empty-handed. You can read more in the journal.

A ballpoint is the everyday workhorse: oil-based ink, no fuss, writes on almost anything. A rollerball uses a wetter, water-based ink, so the line is darker and the pen glides with less pressure. A fountain pen is the slow, enjoyable one: a nib, bottled ink in any colour you like, and a line that picks up your handwriting.

Three of them map to how the pen writes. Berkswell is the ballpoint (from £40), Kenilworth the rollerball (from £60) and Stratford the fountain pen (from £80). Warwick, Lapworth and Hampton-in-Arden are priced pen by pen. Warwick is the pencil range, Lapworth pens have premium fittings such as rhodium, and Hampton-in-Arden pens are fully bespoke, often made with no bought-in hardware.

Mostly the material. A plain hardwood blank and a slab of fordite or a rare burl are very different things to buy, and very different things to turn. Some materials also fail on the lathe more often, and that risk is in the price.

Start with a medium nib and a cartridge, and just write. Hold the pen lightly with the nib's shiny side up and let its own weight do the work. No pressing needed. If you get the bug, a converter and a bottle of ink is the next step.

Yes, if they like writing by hand. If you are not sure, a rollerball gives much of the same smooth feel with none of the learning curve.

Ballpoints and rollerballs are fine for everyone. Left-handed fountain pen users often do best with a finer nib and a quick-drying ink, which cuts down on smudging. Tell me when you order and I will set it up that way, though I may need to buy in a specific left-handed nib.

Timber first: I hold well over a hundred species, from English oak and yew to desert ironwood and a growing shelf of burls. Then resins and acrylics, including original Conway Stewart stock, plus the oddities: fordite, antler, amber and the occasional piece of stone set in resin.

Fordite is old car paint. In the days when cars were sprayed by hand, overspray built up on the racks and booths, layer on layer, and was baked hard every time a car went through the oven. Cut and polished, those layers show as bands of colour, a bit like agate. The factories that made it have changed their methods, so the supply is finite. Some of the fordite I have sourced comes from Corvette cars and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. I also have some rare surfite, its surfboard cousin: resin that built up in layers in surfboard workshops many decades ago.

No, and I would rather say so. Some pens are made from good-quality blanks bought from specialist suppliers. Others are made from material I have collected myself or been given by the place it came from. The pen's own page tells you which, and a provenance claim only appears where I can stand behind it.

A mix of specialist timber suppliers, material I have brought back from trips, and pieces with a history: an old cricket bat, a whisky cask stave, offcuts from somewhere that matters to someone.

No ivory, ever. That includes whale tooth and narwhal, which are covered by the UK Ivory Act. For timber, I check anything unusual against the CITES lists before I buy it, and I turn down material I cannot be sure of.

Conway Stewart was one of the great British pen makers, known for its rich, swirling resins. I hold a good stock of the original rod, acrylic and casein, and I am slowly collecting as many of the old colours as I can find. My pens made from it are my own work, not Conway Stewart pens.

Yes, some. I cast small batches in the workshop, which lets me mix colourways you will not find anywhere else. I am currently working on a number of blanks that reflect the business itself: a house blank in rich green and brass, and a special Camelthorn-inspired blank to celebrate where it all started.

A blank, roughly the size of a fat stick of chalk, is drilled through its centre and mounted on the lathe. I turn it to shape with hand-held tools as it spins, then sand it through finer and finer grits. After that it is finished, polished and fitted with its metal parts and nib or refill.

A simple ballpoint can often be completed in under an hour, and those with a cap and barrel (the rollerballs) normally within two hours. Fountain pens take a little longer. The pens that take the most time are those made from special materials, which often need stabilising (up to 48 hours) and time in the pressure pot (24 hours), followed by careful work on the lathe. Fordite alone often takes four hours or more.

A kit pen uses bought-in metal parts (the clip, the nib section, the mechanism) and I make the body that everyone sees and holds. A kitless pen is made from scratch, threads and all, with only the nib bought in. Most of my pens today are built on quality kit components. Kitless work is where the bench is heading, with my own designs now taking priority.

I like to keep things simple here, so wood will normally have a friction polish applied in many coats after the sanding sealer stage. I like the wood to age naturally, and different woods often improve over years of use. Fordite and resins are sanded to 12,000 grit before being polished on my three-stage polishing set-up. I have used a CA finish on occasion, where the wood needs an extra layer to protect it.

Yes. Grain, figure and paint layers never repeat, so even two pens cut from the same board come out differently. The photos on each pen's page are of that exact pen, not a sample.

Some timbers darken or mellow with light and handling. Purpleheart and padauk are well known for it. It is the wood doing what wood does, and most people find the pen improves.

Very often, yes. A length of grandad's workbench, a branch from a garden tree, a cricket bat, a cask stave: these make the best pens of all. I need a sound, dry piece roughly 20mm square and 130mm long, and more is better in case the first cut finds a crack. Send a photo first and I will tell you honestly if it will work.

It can sometimes be saved by stabilising, which soaks the wood with resin under vacuum to harden it, or by casting fragments into clear or coloured resin. If I think it will not survive the lathe, I will say so before you spend anything. I have done this for wood from an apple tree in Fulham, driftwood from New Zealand, a very rare and significant Scottish oak dating back to 1309, and many more.

The configurator lets you pick a pen style, then a wood or resin from current stock, and sends me the details. Nothing is charged at that point. I reply with a price and a timescale, and work starts once you are happy.

The process will normally take two to three weeks, but I will be upfront if it is likely to take longer for any reason. You will only be charged once I start the commission and invest time in the project.

I can engrave wooden pens only, as acrylic and fordite cannot be engraved. It is something I would have to look at pen by pen, as some woods are easier than others and I would not want to ruin a pen. A safer option is a bespoke message on the pen display box, which can be wood, PU leather or a number of other options.

Yes, and this would be perfect for a special piece of timber relevant to the occasion. I am the only turner, so I would have to look at the numbers involved.

Berkswell ballpoints take a Parker-style G2 refill and Kenilworth rollerballs take a Schmidt-type rollerball refill. Every pen is supplied with one already fitted. They are common sizes, so replacements are easy to find in a stationer's or online, and I can post you spares.

With the kitless pens I prefer to fit Bock nibs in size 5 or 6. Medium is a good starting point, and the nib can be swapped later. Kit pens tend to come with a good-quality iridium-tipped nib, either fine or medium.

Either. My fountain pens take standard international cartridges and come with a converter, a small refillable piston that lets you draw ink from a bottle. Cartridges are tidy and good for travel. Bottled ink is cheaper per fill and opens up hundreds of colours.

All my pens are supplied uninked, so you can choose whatever ink you like. My own day-to-day ink is Parker Quink black, as it is reliable and dries quickly. For my more special inks, I have bought a number from >Meticulous Ink.

Never put India ink, drawing ink or calligraphy ink in a fountain pen. They contain shellac or binders that set solid inside the feed. Shimmer and pigment inks made for fountain pens are fine, but they need the pen flushing more often. If the bottle does not say "fountain pen ink", leave it on the shelf.

First, flush it with cool water and refill it: dried ink is the cause nine times out of ten. Check you are not pressing, and that the nib's flat top faces up. If it still misbehaves, send it back to me and I will look at the nib.

Use it. Wood likes being handled. Keep it out of standing water, hot cars and sunny windowsills, and wipe it with a soft dry cloth now and then. No polish, no solvents, no hand sanitiser on the barrel if you can help it.

These are tougher than wood but they will scratch if they share a pocket with keys. A soft cloth brings the shine back. Fordite is layered paint, so treat it kindly: no drops onto hard floors and no long spells in strong heat.

Antler is a natural material and behaves like one. Keep it away from soaking and from very dry heat such as a radiator shelf, and it will last for generations.

Every few fills, or whenever you change colour, flush it with cool tap water until the water runs clear. Draw water up through the converter and push it out again, a dozen times or so. Dab the nib on kitchen paper and refill. Never hot water, and never washing-up liquid by the squirt: one tiny drop in a glass is plenty if a pen is badly clogged.

For a fountain pen, empty it and flush it first, so ink does not dry in the feed. Ballpoints and rollerballs just need the cap on or the tip retracted. Store any pen somewhere cool and out of direct sun.

For orders of £80 and over, fully insured Royal Mail Special Delivery is included, arriving by 1pm the next working day after dispatch. For orders under that, it is a flat £3.75 for tracked UK delivery. International delivery is charged at cost. I will dispatch stock pens within three working days of an order being placed.

Yes. The charge will be confirmed before shipping, and any customs charges are the responsibility of the buyer. It is also worth checking that your country accepts certain materials, especially natural ones such as antler.

Your pen is supplied in an Arden Pen Co branded case. Engraved cases and special wooden cases are also available, which add a small amount to the total cost. I can include a letter to the recipient if you let me know, which can make it very special. All pens come with a small provenance card describing the materials used.

Stock pens can be returned as long as they are in their original condition, as set out in my returns policy. Returns of commissioned pens are at my discretion, and are covered on the same page.

Tell me. I made it, so I would rather fix it than have it sit in a drawer. I will endeavour to repair it at my expense, as long as the problem is not fair wear and tear or accidental damage. Even then, get in touch and let's see what I can do.

Not the same one, since no two blanks match, but usually something close. Sold pens stay on the site with a link that opens the configurator already filled in with that pen's style, so you can ask for a sister pen in a couple of taps.

Yes. A selection is on the shelf at Warwickshire Artisans, Yew Tree Shopping Village, The Calf Pen & Pig Sties, Henley-in-Arden B95 6BY. Open 10am to 5pm, seven days a week.

Join the signature list. It is an occasional email when new pens come off the bench, and nothing else.

Email me at mike@ardenpenco.co.uk. I answer everything myself, though replies can be slower when I am away with the camera.