(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.)
Pens were what happened while Logan Merrill was making other plans.
“Pens were kind of an accident. Knifemaking was my childhood passion, and is likely something I will try my hand at in the future. That was actually indirectly responsible for a lot of what I do today, as I learned blacksmithing for that purpose, which then led me to take a welding program, which introduced me to the carpentry and electrical courses and robotics team, and resulted in me getting an engineering degree!” The Merrills moved from Maine, where he grew up, to North Carolina, and suddenly he didn’t have a garage full of tools. “I’d been working on larger items – countertops, barn doors, decks. I had to redirect, so I got a little wood lathe – I was going to learn to turn bowls.”
The guy that was selling the lathe threw in a few pen kits. “I thought it was a good way to learn to control the tool. It was way more fun than I expected! I ran out of kits and got more.”
Pretty soon, he started taking his pens to craft fairs “to pay for more kits.” Trying to match the writing experience of his favorite Sharpie gel pens, he upgraded his kit pens to Schmidt Easy Flow refills and set out to make that a selling point. “Nobody at the fairs understood pens. I still didn’t know about fountain pens but I was excited to upgrade these refills. I started setting out a pad for testing. If people compared the Schmidt refill to the others, I’d have a sale.”
The first bespoke fountain pen Merrill saw was being made by Jason Miller of Jason Neil Penworks, on his Instagram live. “I decided to try that. That’s when it turned into a business instead of something to keep me busy. I sold my motorcycle to pay for tools. I had also found that I would rather be home with my girls than out riding, and I always enjoyed working on it more than riding it anyway.”
Things escalated quickly. At their former home in Maine, Merrill redid the countertops in resin, so casting blanks did not seem like a big leap. “And making mistakes when prototyping on blanks I’d bought got expensive!”
The whole family has become involved in the business. Because he works full-time as an electrical engineer for a company that makes and sells tools for testing power grid equipment, he is on the road about half the time, and it became difficult to keep up with the inventory. His wife Em is now handling at least half of the polishing as well as the online presence of the business, and their daughters aged 3 and 5 have discovered they like vacuuming up the resin shavings from the shop. A CNC machine is a recent acquisition to further speed things up. Living one state over from Jonathon Brooks meant it was possible to have Brooks come spend a day helping set it up. Merrill spotted differences in their approaches to pen making. “He has way more of an artistic approach, I’m more of an engineering approach.”
Engineering may be the dominant mindset, but when it came to naming the business, Merrill went in a different direction. “Little Hollow is actually the meaning of my name, from Scottish Gaelic, which ties back to where my family is from. We decided it was a good way to sign my work without literally putting my name on it! It also represents a naturally sheltered habitat where we’re free to live and dream and create.”
The Merrills have been taking their show on the road, with a presence at a few pen shows. “I fully expected it to be hard for the girls, but they love pen shows – even though they hide under the table. In Miami they were reaching out and grabbing people’s ankles, so we have to strap a board to the front of the table so they won’t do that!”
Anyone who saw the Little Hollow table at this year’s DC pen show saw the Monster Finger pen. Where on earth did THAT come from?? “I’ve always been fascinated with blacksmithing. Knife making is one source of inspiration – it can’t just be art, it has to be durable art.” After seeing some knife handles made in an alloy called “gem bronze,” he contacted the maker of the alloy, @mikes_metalworking of Portland OR, and asked for a rod of it. “Mike experiments with a ton of really cool alloys, and we have a lot of conversations regarding which materials are most compatible with pens, and Mike sends me rods of them.”
It was Mike that put him in touch with the metal artist Virg, of The Abyss Looks Back @theabysslooksback001 (formerly called Toothurty). At the time, Virg was focused on motifs involving teeth. “If you know D&D, there is this thing called a Mimic – it copies the appearance of a different object. I sent him a Mistress model in solid brass, and he created a masterpiece! This is the Mimic of fountain pens.”
“The Monster Finger was a style he was carving previously as an EDC piece, and after seeing how well the carved pens were received, he asked if I could make a pen that would work with that carving style. I had to design the pen specifically to allow the joints to fall in areas that could be hidden in the finger carving, and redesign the section with a threaded sleeve to allow the nib to be rotated, so the Monster Finger was in the works for awhile.”
There might be more madness forthcoming. “We collaborated on three pens before the Monster Finger, which all sold before they were completed. I keep him supplied with material, and see what comes out of his head.”
Those who dared to hoist the weight of the Finger and unscrew the cap would have seen a Schon Design Monoc nib. “I justified the Monoc to put in that pen – you couldn’t just put an ordinary Jowo in it.” Metal work like that produced by Schon, or pens with wood and metal, are Merrill’s favorites. “I get far more excited by the natural materials.” He’s enjoying a koa wood pen from TriStar Studios, and he’s been coveting the “Old Ironsides” pen made in a limited edition, out of wood from the ship, by John Greco of GW Pens. “Old Ironsides was one of my favorite topics to research in school. After the Empire State pen show, I’m now the proud owner of pen 2/10!” For a nib, he prefers a needlepoint grind by Kirk Speer, and he’s assembling a collection of maker pens. “I haven’t really been drawn to manufactured pens…yet.”
Even though Little Hollow is a fairly young business, Merrill doesn’t foresee a time when he loses interest. “I love a challenge! And there are so many challenges. I don’t see myself getting bored. One of my favorite challenges is making sure that each of my designs is crafted in a way that allows me to reliably repeat the result. That way if something does go wrong (we all drop pens at some point), I can make replacement parts or repair existing components.” He’s been experimenting with rotary engraving, as well as delving into the engineering of pen components. “There are so many details about fountain pens. You can branch out into the technical details of nibs, feeds, housings – all of that can be made. I always have a new thing to learn. I can go wild and create something, and then take it to shows and get feedback and adjust the end product.”
Merrill sees the nature of pen making as part of sharing his values with his children. “My work is on the computer. The kids don’t see me making or doing anything – to go to work, I either sit at the computer or leave the house. I want them to understand the amount of work that goes into different things. Maybe it will inspire them to make something themselves.”
Logan Merrill’s work can be seen on his Instagram @littlehollowcustoms, his website Little Hollow Customs, and at pen shows in Atlanta, California, Miami, New York, and St Louis.
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