That’s not all. Ian has innovated and iterated the already wonderful Pocket Six design, bringing out new sections that swap from Bock to JoWo compatibility (which I prefer), and offer a smart ‘hooded’ effect to lengthen usable grip without making the pen itself any longer. I bought a few.

Ian was the first to tell me that the finish on the facets isn’t perfect — there are some machining marks visible — but honestly it doesn’t bother me at all. Brass is a finish to patina, and a pocket pen is a pen to live with the rough and tumble of life. This kind of texture will only look better with age.

This is my first experience with one of the brass Pocket Sixes, and the extra heft is noticeable, in a pleasant way. It’s still not a heavy pen — it’s way too small and slim for that — but the weight is noticeable over the aluminium version.

All metalfountain pen

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Hmm. As much as I always though I only needed one pocket pen and was content that Kaweco had filled that brief, you have succeeded. I want one of these now. Lots. MC Hammer clinched it for me.

MachinedFountain Pen

In the absence of the pen show season, he’s started doing virtual pen show consultations over Zoom (Webex would have been better, of course…). I participated a few weeks ago, enjoying a great chat about pens and the opportunity to pick out the exact shade of beautiful new petrol Pocket Six…

Absolutely gorgeous! Congratulations, and a big welcome to the new members of your Schon family… can’t wait to see the new designs. x

Be sure not to miss the second part of the article, where we will discuss about vacuum sintering and sinter-HIP of cemented carbide, as well as the equipment dedicated to those processes!

SchonDSGN ClassicPen

As well as these cool updated finishes for the Pocket Six, Ian gave me a sneak peek at some entirely new designs. I don’t want to steal any of his thunder, so all I can say is that I’m really, really excited to see what comes out of Ian’s workshop next.

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Depending on the wax chemical and physical properties, mainly melting point, boiling point and vapor pressure, several dewaxing methods can be applied, including both partial pressure dewaxing at few millibars or overpressure dewaxing, slightly above atmospheric pressure. In both cases, argon or hydrogen are used as process gas. For MIM parts, containing higher percentages and more complex wax-polymer systems, a solvent-dewaxing step is usually applied prior to thermal dewaxing.

The first step of the consolidation process is always dewaxing. As already mentioned, cemented carbide green parts contain a certain amount of wax/lubricant, often paraffin or PEG, that must be removed before heating the parts to the sintering temperature. Incomplete dewaxing before sintering can lead to the formation of entrapped gas porosity, coming from the evolution of wax vapours inside the parts, and carbon residuals.

Get clear and useful advices to decide the features you need for your next vacuum furnace.Power, isolation, pumping units, heat exchangers and much more explained in simple words for the first time.

I am also thrilled to bits about the JoWo option. It’s given me the option to use my Franklin-Christoph Music nib (which I admit is an unusual choice for a pocket pen), and the Masuyama-tuned F-C nibs I’ve picked up over the years. JoWo nibs simply look better finished and perform better than Bock nibs in my experience.

SchonDSGN Pocket 6

The aesthetics of the hooded sections may not be to everyone’s tastes, but to me they are a triumph. The ribbed texture adds a bit of grip, and now that the profile is no longer concave, the pen doesn’t feel so slim. The extra length is a practical addition. And I do love having bright contrasting colours hiding under the cap of a pen.

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Suitable wax trapping systems must be used to protect the vacuum pumps from contaminations, in the case of partial pressure dewaxing, or to condense most of the volatile organic compound before they can reach the afterburner at the furnace outlet, in the case of overpressure dewaxing. Moreover, a heated jacket can be fitted to pipe connecting the furnace to the wax trap, to prevent condensation of wax before the trap inlet and obstruction of the pipe in the long term.

And don’t forget the O-ring that makes them feel completely trustworthy bouncing around in your pocket. Because of that, I can carry it instead of a pocket ballpoint. I’ve got 3 Pocket 6s, and I’m not yet feeling any regret!

Oh, that’s a shame Ian, I’m sorry to hear it! It might just be the colours that I’ve had in the six I’ve owned, but they’ve all been vibrant with good contrast, in brown, pink, blue, gold, black and silver. If I were you I’d ping Fontoplumo and see if they can let you pick the actual model and swap it. If not, maybe ping Ian?

Carbide, tungsten carbide, hard metal, cemented carbide, and many other registered trademarks are often used indifferently to indicate a very popular material for the production of tools.  To be precise, those terms are not exactly interchangeable. Hard metal, or cemented carbide, refers to a class of materials consisting in carbide particles dispersed inside a metal matrix. In most cases, the carbide of choice is tungsten carbide but others carbide forming element can be added, such as tantalum (in the form of TaC) or titanium (in the form of TiC).  The metal matrix, often referred as “binder” (not to be confused with wax and polymers typically used in powder metallurgy) is usually cobalt, but nickel and chromium are also used. This matrix is acting as a “cement”, keeping together the carbide particles (hence the “cemented carbide” definition). To form hard metal, carbide powders are milled with the metal binder to obtain a powder that is consolidated through pressing, extrusion or metal injection molding (MIM), followed by sintering. In that sense, cemented carbide is not a metal but, more properly, a composite material. If titanium carbide prevails in the composition instead of tungsten carbide, a different material called “cermet” is formed.  If the components are melted and alloyed instead of sintered, stellite is formed; a cobalt-chromium alloy containing tungsten and molybdenum. Now that we have defined cemented carbide, let’s have a look more in detail at their production process, applications and how vacuum furnaces play an essential role in that respect.

… and also a tour of his enormous workshop, including smart innovations like his automatic nib assembly machine. This guy knows how to push my buttons — anything that improves QC consistency is a good thing by me.

Additionally, at TAV VACUUM FURNACES we use our DST (Double Sealing Technology) on hydrogen furnaces to completely eliminate any possibility of leaks on all of the flanges, including the door. Finally, a safety PLC and redundant instrumentation ensures that all the relevant parameters are inside the operational safety level.

After powder compaction, the parts are ready to be sintered, which is necessary to consolidate the starting powder into parts with high density.

CopperFountain Pen

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It manages to pack a full-size #6 nib and a comfortable full-size grip into a pen that makes the Kaweco Sport look chunky. It’s fair to say that the Pocket Six has revolutionised the pocket pen category, and with the never-ending array of funky colour combinations hitting Instagram (and new retailers like Izods coming on board), I can already see the Pocket Six turning into the pen equivalent of Beanie Babies. Buying new ones is almost irresistible. They’re just so cute!

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I describe that in my first review, linked to in the first paragraph of this one :). Essential feature! Keep enjoying the pens ?

Inspired by this I dived in and ordered one from Fontoplumo – got the “red marble” and have to say was a bit disappointed – there’s more solid colour than marbling and in real life it looks a lot muddier a red than in all the publicity photos, even allowing for different monitor settings. Clearly hand made can mean a bit hit and miss on the aesthetics

SchonDSGN Full SizedFountain Pen

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Other than carbides composition, cobalt content and grain size are the main parameters affecting the mechanical properties of cemented carbide.  Generally speaking, toughness improves while hardness and wear resistance decrease with increasing cobalt content. On the other hand, for a certain cobalt level, hardness improves with decreasing WC grain size. Few examples of composition for some typical machining applications are provided in the next table.

It might be counterintuitive when talking about carbides, but an excess of free carbon inside the cemented carbide matrix is seriously detrimental for its properties. The tungsten-carbon-cobalt system in fact exists only when those elements have well defined proportions; too much carbon will form graphite (carbon porosities), too low carbon will form the undesirable η-phase. For that reason, controlling the dewaxing atmosphere and thermal profile is critical to ensure a complete removal of the binder at a suitable low temperature, below the “cracking” point, and avoiding both carburization and decarburization of the parts.

To produce the starting powders, tungsten powder is carburized using different methods to obtain WC, then milled together with the metal binder and, possibly, with other carbides.  In their typical composition, those starting powders contain between 70% and 97% of tungsten carbides, while titanium and tantalum carbides might be present between 0,5% and 20%.  The cobalt content in commercial compounds varies between 3% and 25%. Other metal binders are sometimes preferred for specific applications; WC-Ni and WC-Ni-Cr systems for example are non-magnetic (as opposed to WC-Co) and are also preferred when high corrosion resistance is required. To form the so called “green part” (a part made of powdered material, already shaped but not yet sintered) the starting powders are compacted using different techniques, depending on part size and complexity: cold and hot pressing, extrusion, or metal injection molding (MIM).  In all of the aforementioned techniques a fraction of wax or lubricant is added to allow sliding of the powder particles during pressing and guarantee the necessary strength to the green parts to be handled. This fraction can be very low, for hot pressing as an example, or significant, up to 7-8% in weight; that is the case for MIM. Even though there is no universally accepted classification methods for cemented carbide, different composition are usually defined based on their application. According to ISO standards, cemented carbide for tools are divided into categories (K,P,M and, more recently, N,S,H) and subgroups called grades, denominated by increasing numbers according to the cobalt content. Each grade is specific for a certain workpiece material, machining method and working condition. To each grade a particular grain size is associated. Grain size usually varies between 0,2 μm (nano) to 8 μm (extra-coarse).

Furnaces operating with hydrogen overpressure requires additional systems and safeties, including an electrically or gas fired afterburner to prevent hydrogen accumulation in a confined area.

And now Ian is experimenting with material finishes, too: as well as a multitude of anodised aluminium colour schemes, plus brass, he’s trying out hammered and cut patterns (like my favoured Montblanc Martele and Geometry). Ian sent me a prototype Geometry-style Pocket Six in brass to check out.

Also new is colour-matched sections in the default concave style. The first wave of Pocket Sixes came in amazing colours, but the only section choices were silver, black or brass. Now, the colour of the pen extends onto the section itself, which I think looks fabulous.