2016 DC Pen Show Events

If like me, you could not attend the 2016 DC Pen Show, I have collected some links. Have fun living vicariously through some great people in the pen community.

Starting with the #dcpenshow2016 Instagram tag generates mouth watering lust for the beautiful pens, inks, and other goodies. You will also discover pictures of the people that really make the shows great.

You will find more pictures and a nice write-up by Ana at the Well Appointed Desk. Ana’s post highlights some of the interesting people.

At the Gentleman Stationer,  2016 DC Pen Joe has broken his report into two posts, both loaded with pictures. Start with 2016 D.C. PEN SHOW RECAP: FRIDAY AND SATURDAY and finish up with 2016 DC PEN SHOW RECAP: SUNDAY AND OVERALL IMPRESSIONS.

Fountain Pen Quest also has a Washington DC Pen Show 2016 Recap.

The Inkdependence mega post shows many, many pens and goodies along with the people making, selling, and buying them.

My favorite write-up comes from Father Kyle waxing poetically at Reverenced Writing. For example:

Rolling foothills of Sailor Bungbox Norwegian Wood and Caran d’Ache Delicate Green meeting the Visconti Turquoise sky made most of our drive a pleasure.

If you get tired of reading, these video posts could be for you: Figboot on Pens and The Purl Bug.

Reading and watching all these reports differs greatly from actually going to the show. Sometimes it is the best you can do. Take the time and enjoy the show from a distance.

Write down your upcoming plans for connecting with pen people.

 

Desk Pens

Two Sheaffer Snorkels Desk pens adorn my desk at work. Desk pens on a desk, imagine that. I didn’t want them to be only decorative so I keep them inked. These pens have been restored but being from the 1950s, like me, they can be a little finicky, again like me. They screw into the trumpets so they don’t dry out too bad. I try to use them at least a little every week to keep them flowing. I have Anderson Pens Green Bay (a great name for an ink from a Wisconsin-based company) in one and DeAtramentis Alexander Hamilton in the other. I will point out that I had Hamilton ink before the musical became a sensation.

I plan to keep these in service. I don’t want them to be just show pieces. So no desk pens to eliminate. But next up is pens just inked so I have color choices. Maybe I can cut down those.

Since these are vintage pens, write to the oldest person you know.

Good Writers

I am not talking about people who are good writers, but pens that write well. A few of my pens I think of as primarily good writers. I like keeping them ready for a card, letter or note. Each one of these pens deserves a quick mention.

My Karas Kustoms INK with a Franklin-Christoph Masuyama cursive italic nib writes great. The combination of heft, flow, and italic often matches my mood for quick card or note.

 

I often reach for my smooth writing Edison Nouveau Premiere with a stub nib when writing a letter. This beauty is the Majestic Pine special edition from Goulet Pens. This light weight pen produces less fatigue in longer writing sessions.

My next good writer is a Sheaffer Legacy with a 14k fine nib. One of my first fountain pens, I bought it new in 1995. The fine line writes smaller than the cursive italic or stub nibs.

Another good writer, my Lamy Studio, belongs in this category. I know this medium nib is the same as a Safari or AL-Star, but something about this Studio I really like. I tend to keep DeAtramentis Sherlock Holmes in it which matches the pen nicely.

My last good writer is my Pelikan M205 Amethyst. Another medium nib, it lays down a nice amount of ink. So far I have only tried Edelstein Amethyst ink, but any ink with shading or sheen should look nicer coming out of this Pelikan nib.

 

 

These five give me choices for most normal writing tasks. If I were to pare it down, I could alternate between the INK and Nouveau – cursive italic and stub – and also between the Lamy Studio and the Pelikan M205 – both medium nibs. Of course, that would only give me 3 color choices instead of 5. Having many colors available is what I will talk about next time.

Read more in this series: Currently Inked

Pick up one of your good writers and write someone a letter.

Note Taking Pens

While I will use any pen and ink that catches my fancy for note taking, I have two pens specifically configured for this task: a Franklin-Christoph Model 02 and a Pilot Vanishing Point. Right now I have a blue-black in both but typically I keep a black ink in the 02.

The Franklin-Christoph Model 02 is the Anderson Pens Edition. It has a marble blue finial and section. This pen helps me realize I prefer a medium diameter, light weight pen. The XF nib works well but after testing the different Franklin-Christoph nibs at pen shows, an even finer nib is in my future. I foresee outfitting this pen with a 14k Masuyama needlepoint nib and laying down a very fine line, perfect for small notes.

My other note taker is a Pilot Vanishing Point Blue Carbonesque purchased at the 2016 Atlanta Pen Show. I immediately took it to Mark Bacus for an architect grind. The architect grind excels when printing and for me note taking involves a lot of printing. The retractable nib is handy when taking notes. Summer time finds me using this pen less. The Vanishing Point is a natural for a shirt pocket. Alas many of my short sleeve shirts lack a pocket.

Pilot Vanishing Point Blue Carbonesque

While I have been experimenting with various black and blue-black inks, I have decided to emphasize note preservation. In particular one incident leads me to deciding on a permanent ink. So far for permanent, or at least water resistant, black I favor Noodler’s Heart of Darkness. The search for a good blue-black continues.

Reducing the note taking pens I keep inked from two to one, would involve alternating between the Franklin-Christoph 02 and the Pilot Vanishing Point. The Franklin-Christoph 02 takes a long time to deplete a convertor of ink. The Pilot Vanishing Point, not near as long. So alternating would not be very even. I expect to try it as an experiment, but I suspect I will miss having the Vanishing Point available while waiting to empty the Franklin-Christoph.

So far, I am not doing much to reduce the number of inked pens. Perhaps tomorrow’s category, good writers, will produce better results.

Read more posts in this series: Currently Inked

Pick a favorite pen and take some notes today.

Pocket Pens

I am examining the number of pens currently inked. Today I will look at the pocket pens. 

I almost always carry a pocket pen. Slipped in my front right pocket, a pocket pen settles in deep and safe. I can quickly access it on demand. Currently, three pens, including two fountain pens, fill this role.

I primarily choose my Franklin-Christoph Pocket 40, an ice model. I prefer to keep a bright colored ink in it because it is just so much fun to tilt back and forth and watch the ink. Curre
ntly, I am enjoying watching OMAS turquoise. The Pocket 40 ranks as my number one favorite pen. The 14K Masuyama cursive italic nib contributes to the
top ranking. Several times I feared the Pocket 40 was lost. This freaks me out, so I need an alternative.

I recently purchased a new Kaweco Sport, a good fountain penalternative to the Pocket 40. But what ink? Currently the Sport is filled with Cross Blue. I bought the Cross Blue ink on the same trip and I wanted to try it. The Sport holds ink in a small cartridge which I fill with a syringe. Even with the Sport’s fine nib the ink empties quickly. Since I would rotate ink quickly, the Sport makes a good pen to try new inks.

For the most rugged conditions, I pull my Fisher Space Pen out of its special spot in my computer backpack. Small, tough and always ready to write on any surface describes the Space Pen.

 

So will I reduce the pocket pens I keep inked up? I think the two fountain pens with the Space Pen backup works for me. I like using a fountain pen but there are time I don’t want to put my favorite pen at risk. Having the Sport for those times, means I still get to use a fountain pen. I can save the Space Pen for the most challenging conditions.

Maybe I will find a pen to eliminate in the next group – note taking.

Get out your pocket pen and write down what is on your mind.

How Many Pens Must I Ink Up?

Recently I started writing a line with each of my currently inked pens. The completed list contained twenty pens and inks. Keeping twenty fountain pens writing properly proves difficult. I decided to reduce this number. Documenting why I inked each of these pens inked gives me some insight into how to reduce this number.

Pondering the various uses for my pens, I distilled it into the following categories:

• pocket pens
• note taking
• desk pens
• good writers
• color choices

Some pens fit into more than one category but I assigned each to the predominate category for its use.

Here is the list of pens and inks in the order I picked then up. I will be talking about each category soon and finish with a post discussing what I learned and modifications to how I ink my pens.

• Pelikan M205 medium nib – Edelstein Amethyst
• TWSBI 580 extra fine nib – Diamine Florida Blue
• Waterman Expert medium nib – Caran d’Ache Vibrant Green
• Waterman Expert medium nib – Iroshizuku tsuyo-kusa
• Waterman Expert fine nib – Caran d’Ache Infra Red
• Pilot Metropolitan fine nib – Sailor Shigure
• Edison Nouveau Premiere – Setz-Kreunznach Dark Orchid
• Franklin-Christopher 02 – Franklin-Christopher Blue Denim
• Sheaffer Legacy f nib – Ackerman 23 Bekakt Haags
• Retro 51 Postmaster medium nib – R&K Sunfower
• Aurora Style medium nib – Lamy Blue
• Pilot Vanishing Point – Mont Blanc JFK
• Lamy AL Star fine nib – Lamy Copper Orange
• Lamy AL Star medium nib – Edelstein Adventurine
• Lamy Safari extra fine nib – Lamy Dark Lilac
• Karas Kustoms INK Masuyama cursive italic – Lamy Green
• Kaweco Sport fine nib – Cross Blue
• Sheaffer Snorkel Desk Pen medium nib – Anderson Pens Greensboro Bay
• Sheaffer Snorkel Desk Pen medium nib – DeAtramentis Alexander Hamilton
• Franklin-Christopher Pocket 40 – OMAS Turquoise

Check back for more in this series.

Pick up one of your pens and write someone a letter.

All Fountain Pens, All the Time?

I was listening to Brad and Myke on the Pen Addict episode 202 and was intrigued by the pre-fountain pen discussion. Almost every thing I had at my desk was a fountain pen.

* Franklin-Christoph 02
* Pilot Vanishing Point
* Franklin-Christoph Pocket 40
* pair of Sheaffer Snorkels in a desk set

I did have my iconic Retro 51 Jack, a Karas Pen Co EDK, and a Palamino Blacking Pearl readily available. But what I had been using that morning were fountain pens. So I had the feeling that gel pens, roller balls, pencils, etc. were not part of my daily use. But as I paid attention to the rest of my day, I discovered I was wrong.

The first things that happened was I realized that my A5 notebook, used for a mix of work and personal items, did not have all the pages numbered. In fact I had used lots of pages past the pages I had numbered. Since I keep the first page as a table of contents to important items, this is a problem. So I decided to number them. A fountain pen is too slow for this because it takes much longer to dry than to turn the page and number the next one. So I turned to my EDK for this duty. Score 1 for roller balls.

Next, when I got home my lovely bride was planting some new plants. I helped her with the last couple and then when to get my landscaping notebook to document it. For that I use a Uni Style Fit with 3 gel refills: brown, green and red. Score 1 (or is it 3?) for gel pens.

Later in the evening, my phone reminds me to test the aquarium water. Working around the aquarium and water samples I use a Write In The Rain notebook. I used to use a Fisher Space Pen for that but have switched to a 0.3 Hi-Tec C in black to allow smaller writing. Score another 1 for gel pens.

This got me to thinking and I found a Sharpie Pen, 0.38 Signo DX in brown/black and a Kura-Toga mechanical pencil at the ready in my computer bag. I also remembered a 0.7 Uni Power Tank blue ball point in both our vehicles. The Power Tank is known for working even after months in a hot or cold car. It can be found with a original Field Notes in the glove box.

So while I use fountain pens a lot, I still have plenty of uses for my other pens.

Life and Death of a Pocket Notebook

Once upon a time, May 2015, there was a beloved pocket notebook. Well maybe I didn’t love it, but I was quite fond of it. And rightfully so. It was a nice blue Two Rivers edition Field Notes notebook. It dutifully travelled in the back pocket of my jeans. Daily I made various notes in it, some transitory like a grocery list, and others so deeply profound they could change the course of history. By August the notebook was almost full. Then, in a moments inattentiveness, the beautiful notebook was left in my jeans pocket as the jeans made their traditional trek into the wash cycle.

What came out of the other end of the wash cycle was truly sad, even tragic. The notebook paper did not hold up well to its return to its origins as a watery pulp. Still it had not completely disintegrated. After letting it dry, the pages of this once handsome Two Rivers notebook could be teased apart.

 

 

 

The survival of the ink was more varied. Some was completely erased. Some was faded to someplace between faintly visible to illegible. But some writing survived intact.

I noticed that the surviving writing was all in black. Surveying my modest store of ink, I discovered there was only one black ink in use. An ink that I had chosen based mostly on the cleverness of the name – Heart of Darkness. I hope my thinking that is clever is not too telling on my personal outlook. I will right here claim an ironic streak to my tastes, like the ringtone for my wife of 26 years being Victim of Love. But back to the Heart of Darkness, the ink I mean. I did know that some inks hold up better to water. Some are more tamper resistance. Some are permanent. So I went to checkout where Noodler’s Heart of Darkness fell on these scales. Turns out it is considered water resistant or even bulletproof. I am not setup to shoot a bullet through the writing to test this last assertion. Although it occurs to me now that it means bulletproof as a measure or permanence. That label I can vouch for. It was more than a match for Gain detergent, a top load Samsung washing machine and all the water thrown at it.

Unfortunately none of the deeply profound, history changing notes, were written in Heart of Darkness. They are tragically lost to humanity.

Chicago Pens

One thing I used to do before so many things were online, was to browse through the magazine section of large bookstores. I would look for less common titles that looked interesting. You might come across things and think, I can’t believe there is a magazine dedicated to this. The exciting ones were magazines that seemed interesting to me. That is how I discovered Pen World. Then as now, Pen World skewed to the really expensive pens. But it did show me just how much existed.

I had a business trip to Chicago coming up, this was about 20 years ago, and I found a few pen stores. I came home with a Sheaffer Legacy (the first year it was released)  and a Waterman Expert from a shop who carried the latest stuff. The Legacy is black lacquer with a 23k gold inlaid fine nib and a silver cap with gold clip. The Expert  is also a fine nib and the body and cap are Dune Red. I am currently using both of these pens quite a lot. The Legacy is my normal letter writing pen.

I also picked up a few of older pens from a place that was a little hard to find. An older gentleman was working on pens and sitting at a desk with lots of little storage cubbies around him. He was working on pens when I came in and when I left. I ended up getting an Esterbrook Desk Set which I use these days.

I also picked up three pens that were fine 20 years ago but now need more work.

One is a Sheaffer Imperial with a gold cross hatched pattern. Unfortunately late last year a part of the section threads broke.

The second pen is a Parker black rubber ring top button filler. I was recently told that it does not seem to have the original nib. Several people think a Lucky Curve nib would be correct on it. This is my oldest pen and seems to be from around 1916.

The third pen is a Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph which seemed clogged the last time I tired to use it. I’ll say more about each of these pens in the future.

This could have been the start of nice collection which could have grown over the 20+ years, but it did not work out that way. Next time, I will share what did happen.

Thanks for reading,

p.s. Write a loved one a letter.

Looking Back: A New, To Me, Kind of Pen

At some point I was wandering through a local shopping center and went into a stationary store. This particular one is gone now but they had lots of gifts and greeting cards and probably did most of their business in invitations. But the thing I was drawn to was a display of interesting pens. I tried some and a couple were a whole new writing experience – smooth, clean , dark lines. I didn’t know it at the time but they were roller balls. Plus they were cool looking – metal and modern.

Tombow Object Rollerball

Lamy Swift Rollerball

One was a Tombow Object and the other a Lamy Swift. The Object was a capped pen and the Swift is retractable but with a cool extra. When you click the knock to write the clip retracts to make a smooth body. It also keeps you from clipping it into your pocket with the rollerball still exposed and ruining your clothes.

Clip out and rollerball retracted

Clip in and rollerball ready to write

I guess I was not the only one to like these since they are still made. I have used both of these a fair amount but the Tombow always seemed tough enough to just throw in the bottom of my computer bag. It shows the wear but has held up well.

Well worn but still good

Next, an inexpensive habit leads to some real spending.