Meet Your Maker: Jim Hinze and Rachel Neal, Hinze Pen Company

(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)

Jim Hinze gets something out of being a pen maker that he doesn’t get out of his demanding but ordinary day job as a software engineering director. “I like the shock and awe of telling people what I do!”

In the mid 1990s, he was in a woodworking guild where he lived at the time in Michigan, mostly making furniture, when he saw a demo at a guild meeting of how to turn a component (“kit”) pen. The demonstrator brought extras, and invited attendees to stay after the demo to give it a try. “I fell in love, and gave up the furniture for making pens – it was so much fun.” After nine or ten years, however, it began to get just a little stale. With the encouragement of the Masters of the Fountain Pen series on YouTube, which featured venerated Japanese artisans, he made the leap from component to custom (“kitless”) pens.

Since that time, the Hinze Pen Company has grown to include two employees. Francisco Lopez is part owner of the company; Hinze says, “He handles the things I can’t stand, that involve talking to people. I’m not really a people person.” Lopez is behind the large number of retail collaborations Hinze has undertaken in the past couple of years. “It took a long time to get a retail presence. Now, if you go to the website of Atlas Stationers or Pen Chalet you can see Hinze in the brand list. It’s the coolest thing.” There have also been collaborations with Dromgoole’s, Vanness, Enigma Stationery, the Gentleman Stationer, Papier Plume, and of course The Pen Addict.

However, this same cool thing leads to the question: “Now, how do we keep up with demand?” They recently shipped over 120 pens to Atlas Stationers alone. “Francisco will come in and polish if we get in a bind but I generally don’t let him near the shop!” Hinze looked no farther than family gatherings for help. Rachel Neal says, “He’s my uncle. He was saying he wanted someone to come learn to make pens. I needed something to do on the weekend, so I said I’d polish. He said “Oh no, you’re making pens.” She soon quit her day job as a phlebotomist to work full time on pens. “I broke everything you can break in the shop the first time, and he didn’t fire me.”

Both Hinze and Neal have tried their hand at making materials, and have ceded that territory to Elyce Longazelle, Hinze’s partner. Hinze says, “My first year officially in business, I did a collaboration with Papier Plume, to make both the resin and the pen. I took two or three tries at the material, and Patrick Rideau just wasn’t satisfied. Elyce was already an artist. She looked at what I was doing, and said, ‘Get out of the way,’ and her first try was exactly what Patrick was after.” Neal says, “I thought it would be fun, last time I tried it came out ok but I made a mess. I can just go to Elyce and she does it. I get more satisfaction out of the pen.” Longazelle now makes materials under the brand Starry Night Resins.

Neal is not the only person who has learned the penmaking art from Hinze over the years. Many makers cite his presentations and lessons as part of how they got off the ground. “For my first four years, I attended kit pen maker gatherings, and as I got better at it I’d do a demo, make a pen in 90 minutes on stage, and do some one on one sessions too.” His presentations are much less frequent these days, and he has a specific set of points he feels it’s important to make to aspiring craftspeople. “If you’re going to make this journey, you’d better know your audience, talk paper and ink and nibs. If a new maker brings me a pen, I ask, ‘Do you really want my opinion?’ because I’m not going to pull punches. The vast majority of them take it to heart.”

Hinze is careful about his sources of inspiration. “I don’t look at other makers’ stuff for ideas. Imitation is a big no-no. There are too many people who won’t use their creative minds. You need to differentiate yourself - if you look at a given row of pens you should be able to tell they were all made by different people.” He derives inspiration from photographs of landscapes and animals, exchanging images with Longazelle to develop materials. Hinze Pens has fifteen core shapes across four platforms, and PDFs on their site show the shapes and sizes. Hinze cites the classical Golden Mean as driving the proportions of their pens. “We make sure when we’re doing something, that it's not just like something someone else is doing.” One thing Hinze has done to stand out is introduce color plating on nibs and clips. They are now selling some of these items to other makers, as well as rarely allowing other makers to buy Starry Night rods.

Current directions for innovation include some filling system variety. Trying to create piston mechanisms that are more durable than the 3D printed ones, they have sourced metal components. They are also working on a vac filler, and a retailer has requested a button filler that uses a sac. “We can’t get into a rut and make the same thing day after day.”

Neal says, “I came in knowing nothing. I grew up in this already established environment. I have my own ideas, though, even though sometimes Jim will say, ‘That’s not going to work!’” In 2022 she created a pen design for Valentine’s Day inspired by those heart shaped candies with silly sayings on them, which came out well and was well received. “I love the everyday side of it – I’m so utterly spoiled here, going from a corporate job to my uncle’s house. If I’m having a bad day, I just put in my earbuds and work. I am making a product I truly love, and sending it to someone who’s going to love it too.”

Hinze says, “The more of a PITA something was to make, the prouder you are when you finish and it’s just like you imagined. I still giggle when I thread the parts and it all goes together. I find it amazing that someone’s willing to pay me for something I made.”

Hinze has two favorite pens he didn’t make himself. He has a Namiki Emperor he writes with most often. And there is also one of Greg Hardy’s metal art pens, called Kiernan after a Celtic forest god, that he knew he had to have as soon as he saw it. Neal hasn’t yet attended many pen shows to acquire pens. After six months working in the shop she attended the Arkansas show, and saw a pen made by Troy Breeding of Country Made pens – it was sage green with a sterling silver overlay. That one got away, being way above her price range. But opportunities to acquire pens are going to increase. Hinze says, “I’m not getting any younger. Eventually Rachel is going to take the reins. This year she’ll attend more shows. I personally won’t attend all of them.”

His retirement isn’t happening really soon, though. “Pens help to keep me sane. Software isn’t something you can take off a shelf and show people. This is a way to leave something tangible, to create something that isn’t digital.”

Hinze Pens has a busy schedule. Their work can be seen on Instagram @HinzePen, their website Hinze Pens Company, and in 2025 at pen shows in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Arkansas, Atlanta, Chicago, St Louis, the Pacific Northwest, DC, San Francisco, Orlando, Dallas, Detroit, and Toronto, as well as at events at Atlas Stationers in August and December, and at two pen turners’ expos.

Meet Your Maker: John Sanderson, Silverburl Pens

(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)

Looking at the intricate workmanship of John Sanderson’s pens, you might find it hard to believe that his very first pen was made from a random stick.

A trained mechanical engineer, Sanderson says that in his twenties he got a job as a service engineer, repairing train locomotives all over the UK. “There weren’t CNC machines in those days or automated equipment, we used lathes and mechanical tools to make parts.” All the driving that came with the job was stressful, so he “jumped on the lathe” in his garage and began making pens for family and friends for stress relief.

But the first one was for his young daughter to scribble with. “I took the refill out of a biro and went out and got a stick and drilled into it.”

After locomotive engines, Sanderson’s professional career took him to work on the tunnel under the English Channel as well as years managing maintenance of paper mill machinery. Despite having to constantly write reports in these roles, he calls himself “probably one of the worst writers.” He’s managed dyslexia his entire life – “it doesn’t ever go away, you have good days and bad days, and on bad days I can’t spell my own name.” So he isn’t a pen maker who’s constantly using and collecting pens in his free time. However, he’s become a supplier of fine writing instruments to others.

Kit pens have never been an important part of his work. “I make kit pens for craft fairs, and don’t include them on my website. People at craft fairs may not understand the idea of fine writing, they want something simple to carry around with them.”

Sanderson sees his pen making evolution as seeking one challenge after another. Resin casting has been one of those challenges – although he uses blanks from other well-known makers, he casts his own as well. In fact, the skill of the others is part of the challenge – “If someone rides a bike fast, you want to ride faster.” The pen I have is made from two colors of resin - to create this, he made a silica mold with a jagged edge and poured the end pieces, then put them into the casting tube and poured the other color on top.

The silver work that is part of his signature look was also one of those challenges. “If I make something and it’s not right, I learn to rectify it.” His preference is for argentium silver as opposed to .925 sterling, for its hardness as well as its resistance to tarnishing. “With sterling, if you make a pen and put it in the drawer, by the time you take it out to go to a pen show you have to polish it. With the argentium, all you do is rub it down.” He makes his mokume gane clips from round silver stock, and heats it and works its first stages with hammer and anvil while it is still red hot.

While he will work with ebonite because there are people who want it, he isn’t fond of it – “I can’t stand the smell!” His favorite materials are silver and wood burl, hence his company’s name. “I find myself going back to wood, that’s all I used in the early days. I have wood in my garage that I’ve had for forty years, collecting all sorts from people who did what I do.” Not long ago he bought some afzelia burl from an older woodworker, and then he found out it is so hard to get in the UK that it might have been the only shop that had any.

Sanderson prefers clips to roll stops – “Do I want to spend time making a roll stop when I don’t like them?” – but also feels that his hexagonal and nonagonal pens might not really need them because they won’t roll. At the same time, “A pen doesn’t look finished to a lot of people unless it has a clip.” And the goal is to make the customer happy - what he likes best about pen making is having satisfied customers. He will do commissions, but does not take deposits, because when a pen is finished it may not match what the customer envisioned. The other side of that is that it then has to be something not too personalized that he can sell to someone else. In general, he prefers to maintain pen stock, and have the commission process be driven by requests for a twist on what a customer sees in the shop.

Because writing has never really been an important avocation for him, Sanderson doesn’t have his own pen collection, and pen making is something that ultimately moves outward. “I don’t make a pen for myself, I want someone else to like it.” If he feels inclined to keep a pen, it’s going to be one made out of wood burl. The one he most wanted to keep was one that was snapped up from his pen show table in the first thirty minutes of a show, and the one he made to replace it just wasn’t quite the same.

Besides pen making, his other passion is wildlife photography, and he’s traveled all over Britain taking photographs, once having a photo he took of an eagle included in a television program. “I look forward to getting out with a camera; but the weather has to be reasonable!”

When he’s not in the shop, Sanderson has been traveling from his home on the coast of Cornwall to visit other makers who have asked him to teach them. Gareth Ritter, of Ritter’s Writers in Wales, is an up and coming maker who will soon be the beneficiary of some lessons in making bands and rings. (He’s also a brass band leader, brass bands being big in Wales.) The two makers get tables together at the London pen shows, and Sanderson sees Ritter as a professional heir of sorts. “When I’m too old to do this, he’ll be able to do it and pass it on to his son.”

As you might guess from the foregoing, Sanderson doesn’t see pen making as a competition – “If someone saw a painting and did a similar one, it wouldn’t actually be a copy” – and he has talked other makers out of buying one of his pens because their pens are fantastic in their own right. He takes inspiration from other makers in a slightly different way – “I see some makers who seem to make the same thing over and over – that would drive me insane!” So he seeks out ways to constantly vary what he's making. This focus on variety serves to keep his own interest, and it helps him maintain the uniqueness of his work as well. “I don’t want to be like others.”

John Sanderson’s work can be seen on his Instagram @silverburl_pens, his website Silverburl Pens, and at pen shows in London and Birmingham.

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In memoriam Greg Hardy, Hardy Penwrights, 1963-2024

(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)

In early October, Hardy Penwrights announced a post-show-season sale of pens on their web shop. When I placed my order, in the order comments I wrote that I’d been thinking I needed another Hardy pen, and here in my inbox was a sale.

I only mention this because of the email I got back the next day: “Speak of the devil and he shall appear!” It’s an example of the wit for which Greg Hardy was well known.

Hardy passed away unexpectedly on October 26th. We talked about his artistry in the shop, and his sources of inspiration, in the Meet Your Maker series in February 2023. I reached out to his friends in the pen maker community for their stories about him as a colleague and fellow maker.

Greg Hardy, left, and Rich Paul.

Rich Paul (River City Pen Co.) said, “In early 2022 having been laid off the prior year I was struggling with things overall. Greg invited me to his home for a long weekend where he, Tim Crowe, Gavin Hardy (Greg’s son,) and I made pens from the first run of Turnt Pen Co. Allegheny River blanks. We made eight of them with each of us working on specific parts. We all kept one and gave one away over the course of the next year to a young person we hoped to penable or felt inspired by. Spending time with Greg away from shows was quite an experience. Greg loved his family and spoke highly of each one. He glowed with pride. Even more so when they weren’t around. He was a very insightful friend. A deep thinker, a comedian, a family man. And his friends were also his family. And he let that be known not so much in his words. But in his actions. I learned a lot of things that weekend. Both about pens. And about life.”

Back (L to R): Rich Paul, Jim Hinze, Jon Tello, Kirk Speer. Front (L to R): Greg Hardy, Elyse Longazelle.

Rich also included a pair of photos from a pen show that show Hardy’s sense of humor. In the first shot, you see Rich, Greg, Jim Hinze, and Braxton Frankenbery apparently just standing around together. In the second shot, you see how the first one was made.

L to R: Rich Paul, Greg Hardy, Jim Hinze, Braxton Frankenberry.

Jim Hinze (Hinze Pen Co.) said, apropos of that photo, “He would always call me ‘little buddy.’ He was one of the few people outside of immediate family that could get away with calling me Jimmy. From him it seemed natural. He was one of the kindest people I knew. He was ALWAYS willing to help anyone in the pen world whether it be a maker, a collector, an aspiring pen addict.” His way of helping me at a pen show was to always know the count of independent makers who were exhibiting there.

Tim Crowe (Turnt Pen Co.) remembered getting his start as a maker through connecting with Greg. “I came across an ad for Hardy Penwrights, a company I’d never heard of, and being interested in the pen, I messaged the maker. A fella named Greg responded and started talking to me as if we’d known each other for years. That night, l got another message from Greg. It turns out that he thought I was my dad (also Tim Crowe). Through that conversation, I found out that he lived right up the road in Scio, NY, and that my dad had student taught in Greg’s classroom. I told my dad about it and he lit up. He had so many hilarious stories from both student teaching and the ten years they worked together afterward.”

“A few months later, I had the idea that I wanted to try my hand at making pens. I posted in a random Facebook pen turning group asking if anyone could point me toward some resources to get started. Within an hour Greg had messaged me and invited me to his shop to teach me. On February 18, 2020, Greg stood next to me for about ten hours and guided me through the entire process, start to finish. He let me use his tools, his materials, and most importantly, his time. I left that night with the very first custom pen I’d made myself, but more importantly, I’d gotten to know the man who would act as my friend and mentor (I’d often call him pensei, my pentor, or Obi Wan Penobi). Every time I had a question, an idea, or needed some guidance, Greg was there. Whenever I ran into a problem, whether with pens or in education, Greg was happy to help. Ultimately, our friendship went way beyond pens. He and his wife Carlene opened their home not just to me, but to my entire family.”

Pierre Miller (Desiderata Pens) said that a couple of years ago at the Chicago pen show, he fell into conversation with Greg about the dish of candy he always kept on his table. It related to his background in education administration and was a tool for communicating with students: “He said even kids who were behaving poorly, if you gave them a piece of candy they’d shut up.” He didn’t say whether or not this was applicable to his pen show customers.

Cheers, my friend.

Greg’s influence on the pen community will be lasting, both in the qualities of his friendship and in the intriguing metalwork that led to his pens receiving multiple nominations in the Pen World Reader’s Choice Awards and one award for Best Metal Mastery. He will be missed by everyone who knew him, and his pens will call him to everyone’s mind whenever they are put to use.