(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.)
For many people, the path that leads them to make things begins before they were born. Greg Hardy, of Hardy Penwrights, spent time with his brothers in their grandfather’s workshop starting at age 6 or 7, making and fixing things. As a teenager he began carving wood and making jewelry, with a lot of inspiration from an art teacher who was skilled in and enthusiastic about Celtic art forms and uncial calligraphy. “He was the first person I ever saw who used a fountain pen – an Osmiroid that he never cleaned and ended up having to use as a dip pen.”
Despite coming into possession of his great-grandmother’s 1930s Wearever fountain pen at the age of 12 (which he is just beginning to restore), Hardy didn’t move to making pens until ten years ago, when a stressful job as a school superintendent meant he needed to spend some non-working time working with his hands, “a daily challenge to keep my head from spinning. I wanted to apply things I knew how to do in new ways.” He retired five years ago from that job and cut back to merely “seventy hours in the shop” – by which time the shop included five lathes and his son Gavin as fulltime staff. Nowadays, he generally heads into the shop at four or five in the morning, and by lunch time he’s put in an eight hour day and is ready for a nap (he’s a big believer in naps).
What sets Hardy pens apart from some others is the incorporation of metal work, whether it’s a simple rollstop, a beautiful clip, or complex all-over design. “I think every maker tends to move to some area of specialization – for some it’s casting materials or incorporating wood. In our case it’s the metal work.” He chooses a word that echoes Adolphus Smith: “My joy is the metal work.” Having studied jewelry making as a teenager, it quickly became clear to him that there were many aspects of a pen that could be done with metal. “I was no longer limited to a single detail in metal art. I could have many details that formed a series of thoughts or a bigger idea. I now had space to tell a story.”
Hardy Penwrights Secret Garden.
In 2021, his Secret Garden pen won Best Metal Mastery recognition in the Pen World Magazine Reader’s Choice Awards, and a more recent pen is inspired by the many legends surrounding Glastonbury Abbey in southern England. Even a “simple” rollstop like the one on their Traveller model took a lot of research and development, not only to get the weight right but to test that it didn’t roll down his handmade writing desk.
Hardy Penwrights Glastonbury Abbey.
Inspiration? “It would be easier to say what doesn’t inspire me.” Constant reading about art, music, anthropology, theology, and philosophy produces a constant stream of ideas for pens, such as the Glastonbury pen or the pen based on the Scots legend of the selchie. “I’m pretty easily inspired.” Hardy’s favorite pen he didn’t make, a 1937 Parker Vacumatic, provided inspiration for his Retro model. One thing that doesn’t inspire him is a big spread of available inked pens. “We already do a lot of pen washing in the shop, and that’s enough, so I only have two pens inked at once.”
Being in the far north of New York, south of Buffalo, does not in the least take the Hardy shop off the beaten track. “Everyone has sought out another maker to get help at some point, and most of us are quick to help.” Hardy cites Jason Olson of Write Turnz and Troy Breeding of Country Made as early sources of help for him, and intends to be a “good citizen” of the pen community when asked for assistance by others. Most people nowadays come to him with questions about metal work, having already learned to make pens. Rich Paul of River City Pens came and spent a few days learning to do some work with metal; on one of those days, Tim Crowe of Turnt Pen Company joined them, and Rich, Tim, Greg, and Gavin turned out a run of pens together, followed by pizza and beer.
Hardy Penwrights Traveller.
Crowe got his start with some lessons from Hardy, who knew his dad. “When Tim first called me, I thought I was talking to his father also named Tim. I bought my first guitar from Tim’s dad’s music store, and when he went back to school, he student taught in my high school history classroom.” While all pen makers cite close connections with other makers, this has to be one of the tightest. Hardy’s new model for this year honors the company’s tenth anniversary, and is made from a custom resin pour by Crowe.
Despite the joy of creating beautiful pens, that’s not the end-all for Hardy. “I love pens, but I love more what people do with pens. Someone in a workshop builds hammers, and people build cathedrals with them.”
Greg Hardy’s work can be seen at pen shows in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, St Louis, DC, Boston, Detroit, Ohio, and perhaps Raleigh, as well as online at Hardy Penwrights and @hardypenwrights on Instagram.
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