Initially, my goal was to find out what grip type is the most comfortable. 

Researching what was available online, I found the most common styles were a single large curve, and indented curve, an several small impressions in the grip. I iterated on each design, testing the comfort and making changes each generation, until one style of pen outpaced the others in comfort and control. 

This part of the project was mostly focused on iterative prototyping, Onshape modeling, and 3D printing.

After making the first version of the pen, I had something I could write with that was incredibly comfortable. There were some issues however, as the grip accumulated grease, the caps were glued into place and it was not designed with any aesthetics in mind.

To address these issues, I remade the grip out of TPU in the profile found earlier in the project, and tested several methods to make the pen reopenable. The first was cutting threads into the body of the pen, but the 3D printed PLA at this size was not suitable for the task. I settled on an interference fit cap on the top, however the tolerance limitations of the printer made the overall fit looser than was ideal.

This part of the project focused on Onshape modeling, 3D printing, thread cutting and tolerancing.

Using what I had learned from the two prior attempts, and my experience with callouts while at Sparx, I decided to have my design machined out of Aluminum by Xometry so that the pen would have the strength for threads while maintaining a small diameter.

 To test the viability of Xometry for this project, I ordered two pens with a straight grip. This also allowed me to test out the leather grip system on a simpler profile, while still verifying the internal measurements for the ink placement and tip visibility. 

This part of the project was focused on quality and leatherworking.