The original Conway Stewart Pen Company (CS) was located in England and in operation for over 100 years. But sadly, they had to shut down their business in October 2014. If you’re not familiar with the company and their pens, they were a British company that had been in operation since the very early 1900’s, with more than two dozen different pen styles to their credit over their many years in business. Their most famous tagline was “they made the pens for the Queen”.

Eventually, the original materials and parts were sold off and made available on the open market. Many of those original materials are still available today. The original manufacturer in the UK is even continuing to make some of the acrylic colors. If you have an interest in having a replica of a CS pen made, please send me an email.

Contrary to what many may believe, the name “Conway Stewart” didn’t come from the name of the company’s founder, but rather it was believed to have been derived from a popular vaudeville act of the day. If you would like to read more into the history of The Conway Stewart Pen Company, you can find additional information at wikipedia.org/Conway-Stewart.

Casein is a base material derived from milk curd. It’s used in making a variety of materials, such as paint and glue, various food products, and medicine. An early form of acrylic was also made from casein. It was also known by the same name. If you’d like to read more about casein and the products derived from it, check it out here Casein – Wikipedia.org.

The most recognizable casein is off-white in color with distinct white pinstripes. The pinstripes form in the material during the curing process. There is also a faux casein made from polyester acrylic instead of casein that is used more widely for pens. The two materials look identical. But so as not to confuse faux casein with real casein, the faux casein is referred to as alternate casein.

The JEB’s Duro is similar in size to the CS Duro. When compared with many of my other pen styles, it’s one of the smaller sizes. The length of mine is about 5.75″, which is little longer than the original. I added a little extra length to the finial and barrel.

On the CS Duro, the finial is shorter than the blind cap. I thought they should be more balanced, so I matched the height of the finial to the length of the blind cap. It didn’t affect the length of the cap, it’s still the same length as the original.

Another change was with the cap’s diameter. The original Duro specs say the cap has a .59″ diameter. I thought that was too large for the .50″ barrel diameter, so I made mine a little thinner at .563″.

I couldn’t find written specs the length of the Duro’s barrel, but based on the overall capped length and the length of the cap, I think the barrel length was about 3″. I always thought 3″ looks too short, so I usually make my barrels 3 1/4″ (not including the threads). So that’s where the rest of my pens overall length came from. But I did keep the original barrel diameter of 1/2″ (13 mm).

*CLIP NOTE: As shown with some of the Duro’s, I now have a small supply of the original Conway Stewart Duro/Churchill clips. So you can now order your pen with one of those original clips while the supply lasts. With the original clip, I’m also able to taper the cap, so the cap style is more similar to the original. However, you can order your pen with either a straight or tapered cap.

Hardware finishes: I’m pleased to announce that JEB’s Duro (and JEB’s Churchill) are now available with rhodium hardware! So now, along with having your choice of materials, you can choose between two hardware finishes (gold or rhodium).

Their aren’t many options or upgrades for the JEBs Duro other than material and inking systems:

Material & color: With material, you could use your imagination and change up the color combination. Maybe swap out the black for another solid color, or really change it up and make the entire pen from the same material.

Inking systems: Change out the stock C/C inking system for a button or lever filler. The pen uses a threaded blind cap on the barrel for the band; the pen is prepped for the upgrade.

Nib options: Upgrade the stock steel nib with a 14k or 18k gold nib to make your pen really special!

Knurled finial. I’ve seen some vintage Duro’s that had knurling on the lower half of the finial. The pattern was the same vertical groove as on the Dandy, but only on the lower half of the finial. It’s a subtle feature that adds a nice touch to the small pen. So if you want an earlier version of Duro, I now have a method of applying a similar pattern with a laser engraver that I think looks pretty close to the originals.

Knurling colors: The knurling is limited to certain colors. I’m using a diode laser to create the pattern, and the laser will only engrave dark materials. So if the material color is too light or reflective, it will just absorb the laser beam rather than allow the beam to burn the pattern. As a result the material may have to be tested to see if the knurling can be applied.