Here’s a holder I made last year. This is an attempted replica of the famous and much sought after 12″ long Magnusson holders. It was an interesting project as I don’t own a lathe and my hand drill had died some time before this project.
The proportions are figured out from a picture of the original holder and are approximate but they work well in my hand so I guess they are close enough. The long stalk was difficult to do with my bare hands but I got help from a 2″ length of thin bamboo. The bamboo was split and padded with some foam that held rough grit sandpaper on both sides of the stalk – a fair bit of going back and forth resulted in an acceptable finish and size.
I had planned on shaping the end to math the original but like the organic shape that resulted naturally and left it at that. I now feel that it should have been reduced somewhat to keep the weight at the end down.
Magnusson Replica Holder in Dark Walnut
The holder feels surprisingly good and doesn’t feel unbalanced at all. I liked it so much that I made another one, albeit with a shorter stalk and a thicker grip, to accompany it.
Magnusson Replica Holder with Junior version
The idea was to have the thumb, forefinger and the part that rests on the first knuckle in approximately the same relation to each other as on regular shaped holders. It turns out that attention needs to be paid to the middle finger under the holder too – I had originally left that part almost flat but had to shape it so the angle of the nib to paper could be adjusted with the grip. The flat underside limited the angle to a very steep slope that wasn’t very comfortable for me. 
The good news is that the holder works fine i.e. holds the nib properly and does not feel awkward to use. In fact I hardly notice any difference in the feel of it compared to my other oblique holders. I’ve been asked if this is a _custom_ holder only suited to my hand. I didn’t design it to fit only my hand but I suspect the curve might not suit people with hands that are much larger or smaller than mine. Since I have an average sized hand I think it’ll fit most people. The first part of the curving handle was dictated by where I wanted the flat part to rest against the first knuckle. I tightened the curve slightly past this point. I had initially thought about tapering the top part but liked the way it ended up. Here’s another view. I like the shape that came out. 
And I like the nib too – its my new favorite.
