Up to now, I didn’t need it. I’ve always used my scratching awl but once you’ve got one… you wonder where it’s been all your life. Well, let’s not exaggerate. But it definitely comes in handy when you work with soft, elastic types of leather! I am talking about a silver pen.
Some kind of pen?
It’s been a while ago when I first saw this little tool. Hermes organized an event where everyone could meet the craftsman of Hermes and see how they make their products. One of those craftsmen was the experienced sir who selected the leather, inspected it for its flaws, cut it to pieces and prepared it for a beautiful set of leather gloves. To indicate some flaws and to mark the pieces of leather he used some kind of pen, which at the time I did not recognize as a silver pen.
Pattern transfer
Previously, I mainly used my scratching awl as I stated above but currently, I am working on a little goatskin which is so soft and flexible that I just wanted to be sure the pattern was transferred correctly. So
How to use a silver pen?
If you’ve never used one, let me quickly explain how you use it. I got it with a penholder (the blue part) and some spare fillings. You can change them when they are empty. Further, you use it actually like a regular pen. But this type of silver ‘ink’ can be erased by just rubbing over it with your fingers, or by a (nature) rubber eraser (or even heard about clear spirit). When it’s erased, as it says, it doesn’t leave a mark behind. So even accidentally pen marks are no problem anymore.
So I thought, let’s share my little splurge of about €1.50 (for the filling and pen holder) haha. Maybe some of you might have heard about it but never knew what it was, or how to use it. Curious about your experiences with a silver pen! And stay ofcourse tuned for my new client-project…
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