(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.)
Dave Dollar didn’t think he needed a lathe, but he couldn’t resist a good deal.
“I made jewelry boxes, and furniture – why would I need a lathe?”
Then, a friend was clearing out his uncle’s house, and there was a garage full of tools. “There were over a hundred pen kits, two hundred blanks, a mini lathe, and all the tooling. It was probably a $4000 value and he sold it to me for $500.” He tried making a pen, and was instantly hooked. The motor on the mini lathe burned out fairly quickly and he replaced it with a better one. “The hook was set when I realized I could finish a piece of functional art in a day.”
After making component pens for two years, Dollar found out that Jim Hinze was teaching a workshop in how to make a three part custom pen at the Southern California Penturners Gathering, and it was on his birthday. So he went. The following week, COVID lockdowns began. By the end of the year he was specializing in three part pens.
He also discovered the As The Pen Turns podcast, and he listened to it during the year when there were no pen shows, thinking about what he could do at shows and thinking about his focus. Because of his name, he began searching for coins to use as cap finials, and found great sources of the novelty coins that he still uses.
When 2022 rolled around and there were pen shows again, he splurged on a weekend attendee pass at the Baltimore pen show, and spent time with some of the people he most admires today – Jonathon Brooks, Ryan Krusac, and of course Jim Hinze. “I didn’t know then about vintage pens – I saw them and liked the small sizes of them. At that point I was just making the Liberty, my largest pen, and some of the mid-size Ikes.” Seeing these pens inspired him to make his Mercury model, a slimmer pen.
In October of that year, Dollar attended the Dallas show as a first time vendor, debuting his Mercury model there. “I sold ten pens! That was great!” The Mercury is now his best-selling model. It is convertible, so it can be both a fountain pen and a rollerball that uses the “Schmidt Cartridge-Rollerball System” with a fountain pen ink converter. While some rollerball tips built to work that way have been something of a flop, this one seems to have pleased everyone who has tried it.
His most recent innovation was suggested by his wife Judith, who is an Urban Sketcher. She is fond of the Sailor Fude De Mannen nib and asked for a pen made out of nicer material that she could use with that nib. His Freedom model is a turned cap and body that takes the Fude De Mannen section from a Sailor pen – you can bring your own section, or get one from him. Judith Dollar has begun bringing her postcards and stickers to shows, and offering workshops tailored to urban sketchers and journalists; her most popular one, which is already open for registration at this year’s DC show, is “Make a Pocket Sketch Journal.”
Dollar is endlessly inspired by the possibilities of available pen materials, but that doesn’t mean he wants to make his own. “I’m not tempted. I get materials from thirty-two different sources. I have a proprietary material from Joe Fonseca of Just Joe Pens for my ‘All about the Benjis’ pens. I love micarta and ebonite. When I sell a pen, I put in a card with the name of the material and the maker.” He is looking at doing more pens that mix and pair materials, and has had a request from a customer for color bands. One direction he doesn’t plan to go: “I’m not a wood pen guy. There are already several fantastic wood pen artists!”
Like most makers, Dollar doesn’t have many pens he’s made. “The ones I keep are the ones with imperfections, that I can’t sell.” His favorite pen is a Montblanc Starwalker with a fine nib that he bought in France, but he also loves his Leonardo Momento Magico that he bought at Casa Stilografica in Florence, and his Hello Tello Venice with a Nemosine nib.
“The nib is very important to me, and I’m trying to be more cognizant of it.” He’s fine-tuned his model lineup to offer nib variety: Bock #8 nibs tuned by Kirk Speer and engraved with the Dave Dollar logo, for his larger Liberty model; #5 nibs in his Mercury, which allows him to offer Jowo, Schmidt, and Bock titanium nibs; #6 nibs in his Ike model, which lets him use the Nemosine nibs he has a stock of; and the Fude De Mannen in the Freedom model. He is working on some additions to the Mercury’s capabilities – a customer has requested a pen that will take a vintage Esterbrook nib.
Full-time pen making has allowed Dollar to keep up with some volunteer work that is important to him. For eight or nine years he has coached a youth pistol and rifle shooting team, which has had repeat national championships; he’s taking eighteen kids to the Nationals competition in Columbus, Ohio in July. He’s getting ready to pass that commitment to someone else, since his son has aged out of participating. He’s also been asked to make an elaborate receptionist desk for his church. “There are curves, and inlays… it’s taking months.”
Leaning into the money angle suggested by his last name was a way to begin with something uniquely his own. “You have to have a differentiation of your products, and you have to be a little bit of a salesman too - people love the stories of the coins and the materials. You need to strike out on your own and be original. Seeing what other makers do is fine, but you need to not only think outside the box, but think of how many other boxes there are to think outside of.”
Having been “invited to retire” from his corporate job in 2023, Dollar decided to give full time pen making a go. He is constantly aware of how different this job is from the one he had. “Going from industrial software and corporate strategy, where I was so far away from the end user… Now there is someone right at my table who is going to use this pen. I’m making functional art and people are buying it and loving it. What better validation is there?”
Dave Dollar’s work can be seen on his Instagram, his website Dave Dollar Custom Pens, and at shows in Baltimore, Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas, Arkansas, and the Little Craft Fest in Houston. (He hopes to be able to add San Francisco in 2026.)
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!
