July meeting info (special presentation on vintage fountain pen repair!)

July 2025 meeting info: 

When: Thursday July 17, 2025 

Where: The Branch Meeting Room (in the basement) of the Vancouver Public Library's KITSILANO branch at 2425 Macdonald Street (between Broadway & West 8th) in Vancouver. 

Time: 5:00pm - 7:30pm 

Meeting topic: A special presentation on vintage fountain pen repair (and a lever-filler repair demo) by Grant! 🖋️🛠️ Grant has generously volunteered to do a talk on vintage fountain pen repair for our July meeting, and he'll also restore (resac) a vintage Waterman lever-filling fountain pen! 

Please note: 
--We have the use of the room from 5:00pm, but Grant's presentation will start at 6:00pm to allow folks more time to get to the library in time for his talk. 
-- After Grant's talk, you can use the remaining time to socialize and chat amongst yourselves--there will be no "show & tell" at this meeting**

Hope you can make it! No RSVPs required. If you have any questions, please email us at: vancouverpenclub@gmail.com 

June meeting photos (topic: Newest Acquisitions)

There were 26 of us in attendance for our June meeting, which was held on Thursday June 19 at the Vancouver Public Library's Kitsilano branch. Among those in attendance were three members who attended their very first meeting -- Andrew, Monika and Steve K!

Our evening's topic was "Newest Pen-Related Acquisitions" and we saw lots of really nice fountain pens that night. I snapped a few photos during this busy meeting, so without further ado, here they are...

(all photos by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge)

Newcomer Monika brought three fountain pens to show us, starting with this handsome blue Pelikan 'Pura' (above)...

Monika also brought two more (also blue!) German-made fountain pens -- the Kaweco AL Sport in "Stonewashed Blue" (a very nice pocket pen) and a cool Diplomat 'Viper' Blue Guilloche (I love the snakeskin-like etched pattern...)

Some of the cool vintage writing instruments that Mark brought to show, including a really nice boxed vintage Parker '51' set ...

That's Andrew's Pelikan '120' (Merz & Krell version) fountain pen --a "daily driver" pen for Andrew--which was produced from 1973 to 1977.

I brought three recently-acquired fountain pens to the meeting - a Kaweco AC Sport in Champagne (bottom pen), a Baoer 507 "Eight Horses" fountain pen (a pen that Stuart "de-stashed" last month -- thanks, Stuart!) , and a Lamy AL-Star "Turmaline' (purchased from Noteworthy Stationery---an online-only stationery store in Burnaby, BC---using a birthday gift certificate from some of my lovely pen club friends --thank you *so* much! 😊). 

Glenn M. recently returned from Europe and brought back three gorgeous Italian-made fountain pens! The pen directly above is a Stipula 'Etruria Magnifica', one of several beautiful 'Etruria' models Glenn owns (you can see the rest of them on his awesome website - https://glennspens.com/pensofnote/Stipula-Etruria.html)

These two stunning fountain pens are prototypes of a new model from Radius 1934 that Glenn brought back from his trip to Italy. Glenn has known the owners of Radius 1934 (who also own Leonardo Pens) for many years, so he was thrilled to receive the pens from them...

Though they might look like beautiful resin pens, they're actually made of highly polished ebonite (they almost glow in the light!)

A nice mix of vintage and modern! The top pen belongs to Phil and it's a vintage Parker 'Duofold Jr'  in the harder-to-find "blue on blue" Permanite plastic (the pen was only produced in this material for about a year). Phil acquired the pen at the famous Fountain Pen Hospital retail store in New York.

The modern Graf von Faber-Castell 'Guilloche' "Anthracite" below it, the black vintage Craig (which was a sub-brand of the Sheaffer Pen Company) lever-filler, and the sleek black Sheaffer 'Imperial' all belong to Stuart. Stuart got the Craig --which came with its original price tag on it! -- in trade from Mark during our meeting, and he received the Imperial as a gift from a local book store.

Above: A better look at Stuart's new Graf von Faber-Castell 'Guilloche' "Anthracite" fountain pen. This is the seventh "Graf" Stuart now owns, and he got this one (like many of the others) from the Vancouver Pen Shop.

Paul also brought some interesting vintage fountain pens to show--a vintage LeBoeuf (bottom pen), a swirly red, black and grey Wearever, and a demonstrator (clear) Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen. 

Above: A closeup of Paul's lovely vintage LeBoeuf fountain pen....

And now for something completely different-- an eye-catching modern Conklin 'Duragraph PVD Blue' belonging to Jerred! The pen was made from solid brass with a PVD coating on it. And "What is PVD?", you might ask...
From Conklin's official website: "PVD, which stands for Physical Vapor Deposition, is an environmentally friendly coating process that will protect and prolong the life span of each writing instrument to which it is applied."

I love the use of rose gold-coloured trim, which complements the blue so well. Jerred said the pen originally came with a black nib, but he swapped in the yellow gold-coloured Conklin nib seen above...

Another modern blue fountain pen--David L's dark blue Faber-Castell 'Hexo' (above). This hexagonal fountain pen was made using anodized aluminum and features a clever capping design feature; the cap's facets always line up with the facets on the pen's barrel, no matter how you orient the two parts.

We also saw some new Japanese-made fountain pens, like Vladan's Pilot 'Custom Heritage 912' with FA nib....

Vladan had inked the pen and passed it around for us to try; I had a lot of fun trying out its amazing flexy nib...

Above: Another lovely black fountain pen, but this one is a vintage beauty---Catherine's Eclipse lever-filler, which (like Stuart's Craig vintage fountain pen) came with the original retail price tag --a small paper ring-- on it. The pen was likely made in the 1930s, so it's amazing that the price tag survived after so many years (and the pen itself is in fantastic condition).

Anson of Springfield Pens brought along his newest handmade fountain pen model (the swirly pale blue & green one seen above) to show us. Above it is its full-sized counterpart, the model that Anson first started out making. Both are lovely handmade (in New Westminster, BC !) fountain pens...

I just realized we saw a lot of black fountain pens at our meeting lol. The one on the far right is Vladan's newly-acquired Pelikan M200, while the middle one is a vintage Waterman 7 Red belonging to David C. The reddish-orange fountain pen on the far left is the iconic vintage Parker 'Duofold' "Big Red" (a full-sized vintage Duofold), also belonging to David.

Many thanks to everyone who came to our June meeting, whether you brought new stuff to show or not; the most important thing was that you brought yourself to the meeting! 😁

** Information about our July meeting will be posted here (at the top of each web page, in big red letters, as well as a blog post) very soon! **

The 2025 Pacific Northwest Pen Show is in Portland next month! (July 11-13)

Just a reminder that this year's show is coming up soon! 😃

The show goes from Friday July 11 to Sunday July 13 (inclusive) and everything you need to know about it can be found on the show's official website (https://pnwpenshow.com/) and their official Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/pnwpenshow) !

Charals store closing date (and sale!) extended to end of July 2025!

(*this is an update to an earlier blog post here*)

I visited Charals  on June 19 and was happy to hear that the store will close no sooner than the END OF JULY! This is an extra month for you to visit the store in-person, but don't wait too long to pay the store a visit before it closes permanently!

One thing I noticed at the store yesterday was that almost all of the writing instruments and inks had bright red sales stickers on them, whereas the online prices for these same items had a mixture of sales prices and regular prices, so I highly recommend shopping IN PERSON for the best deals. 

Charals is located at 171 Robson Street in downtown Vancouver (less than one block from B.C Place). The store's regular hours are: Mon-Fri: 10am – 5:30 pm and Sat 10am - 5pm; closed Sundays and all public holidays. Charals' web store will remain open after their physical store closes, so if you can't visit them in person before they close, you can still shop their online store at https://charals.com/  
 

Reminder - meeting this Thursday!

June 2025 meeting info:

When:  Thursday June 19, 2025

Where: Branch Meeting Room (in the basement) of the Vancouver Public Library's KITSILANO branch at 2425 Macdonald Street (between Broadway and West 8th) in Vancouver

Time: 5:00pm - 7:30pm

Meeting theme/topic: A special presentation on vintage fountain pen repair (and a lever-filler repair demo) by Grant!🖋️🛠️PRESENTATION CANCELLED

*NEW* meeting theme/topic: "NEWEST PEN-RELATED ACQUISITIONS"! (*please try to limit your 'show & tell' to a maximum of 2-3 items per person, due to time constraints*)

Hope you can make it to the meeting and don't worry if you don't have any new things to show---please come anyway! (and no need to RSVP, either :) If you have any questions, please contact us via email at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

Happy National Ballpoint Day! (June 10th)

Happy National Ballpoint Day! 

Today is a day to celebrate "that other pen" (just kidding--our club members *aren't* fountain pen snobs 😉), so here are some photos I took of a lovely handmade twist-action ballpoint I recently acquired. The pen is the "Copper Diamonds" model and it was made by Dylan Swain of The Pen Den in Gatineau, Quebec...

(click on images to enlarge)

Since I don't know the first thing about making handmade ballpoints, I'll let Dylan explain how he made this lovely writing instrument: "I designed the mold for this pen, printed it in white resin, and cast copper and pearlescent black mica before shaping and polishing to a high gloss."

Dylan adds: "I like how the black is reminiscent of marble and the copper has depth and captures the light very nicely." He's correct on all counts, and I hope my photos captured the beautiful colours and depth of the materials. I'm so glad that Dylan chose metal trim with an "antique" finish---it goes so well with the rest of the pen :)

Dylan's pens can be found for sale in his Etsy online store - ThePenDenShop. I've bought several handmade ballpoint pens from him over the years (they're featured in this post) and I've never been disappointed. Dylan--thank you again for another great handcrafted one-of-a-kind ballpoint!

(~Blog post by Maja~)

Pen repair presentation/demo at June meeting cancelled!

Due to an unexpected change in his work schedule, Grant's special presentation on vintage pen repairs (at our June meeting) has been CANCELLED. Grant really wants to do the presentation at a later date, though, so we'll reschedule it for another month. 

In the meantime, our June meeting is still on (same date, time and place as originally announced), but we'll be doing Newest Acquisitions as an informal "show & tell". I've amended the original post about the meeting, which you can find here.

Charals store closing 😔 (*info below updated June 19*)

(announcement posted on Charals' Instagram account on April 2, 2025)

Sadly, after 39 years, Charals will be closing their store sometime this summer 😭.
I got in touch with Charals' owner Shelina earlier this week, and she told me that the store might close as soon as the end of  this month (June), **UPDATE** When I visited the store on June 19, I found out that Charals will close no sooner than the END OF JULY! This is an extra month for you to visit the store in-person, but don't wait too long to pay the store a visit before it closes permanently! 

Charals is located at 171 Robson Street in downtown Vancouver (less than one block from B.C Place). The store's regular hours are: Mon-Fri: 10am – 5:30 pm and Sat 10am - 5pm; closed Sundays and all public holidays. Charals' web store will remain open after their physical store closes, so if you can't visit them in person, you can visit their web store at https://charals.com/   
 
Our warmest wishes to Shelina & her family, and thanks to everyone at Charals for 39 great years! 🥹 

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 547

With so many students graduating this month, I thought it'd be a good time to post Christopher's write up about a ballpoint that ties in with his own school days. It's a modern ballpoint with a lot of sentimental value, and here's the story behind it...

(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)

Christopher writes:
"Admittedly, I am not a die-hard collector of ballpoint pens, but do have a select few in my pen collection. One in particular, that has somewhat of a story to tell, is a pen which actually came to me as a sample, with the hopes of the provider to have me order a good number of them.

But the story behind this pen is somewhat interesting otherwise, because it involves a British style boys' private school that thrived in the Kerrisdale district of Vancouver, BC between 1940 to its closing in the fall of 1973. At its peak, it was the largest boys' school of its kind in British Columbia, with an enrollment in the early 1960s of some 265 boys. The school also had boarding facilities and could provide hot meals to day boys, if needed. I personally attended the school from 1953 through to its highest grade 9, coming away in June of 1964. But in 1973, when the school closed, strangely, it disappeared right off the map. Not only was the school torn down, but all the school's records disappeared as well. In 1998, I came up with the idea of incorporating an old boys' society in honour of the school and, at the same time, writing a book on the school's colourful history. This magnum opus, in turn, became several books, one of which was acknowledged by the Federal Government as an official BC history book. But while all this was taking shape, I was approached by a novelty company with a sample which exemplified the School and in turn touched my heart.

The school was, in fact, Athlone School for Boys' and, to this day, the pen that commemorates it quite rightly, has a special place in my pen collection."

Christopher--thanks for sharing your memories and some background about this historic BC school!

June meeting information (UPDATED!)

⚠️ **Due to an unexpected change in his work schedule, Grant's presentation on vintage pen repairs (originally scheduled for our June meeting) is cancelled. Our apologies for any inconvenience -- please see updated meeting info below** ⚠️

June 2025 meeting info:

When:  Thursday June 19, 2025

Where: Branch Meeting Room (in the basement) of the Vancouver Public Library's KITSILANO branch at 2425 Macdonald Street (between Broadway and West 8th) in Vancouver.

Time: 5:00pm - 7:30pm

Meeting theme/topic: A special presentation on vintage fountain pen repair (and a lever-filler repair demo) by Grant!🖋️🛠️PRESENTATION CANCELLED

*NEW* meeting theme/topic: "NEWEST PEN-RELATED ACQUISITIONS"! (*please try to limit your 'show & tell' to a maximum of 2-3 items per person, due to time constraints*)

Hope you can make it to the meeting! Don't worry if you don't have any new stuff to show---please come anyway! No need to RSVP, either! If you have any questions, please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com