Saturday, May 2, 2015

May 2015 meeting details

Date: Thursday May 21, 2015
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm, to chat before the meeting).
Theme: ~ Sets Appeal! ~ (Fountain Pen Sets)

Please bring fountain pen sets consisting of a modern or vintage fountain pen with a matching ballpoint/rollerball/mechanical pencil. In other words, a fountain pen has to be part of the set. Not that we are fountain pen snobs or anything...but we're primarily a fountain pen club and I'm sure we'll see more vintage sets this way as they often included a nice mechanical pencil. I have a vintage Sheaffer Touchdown triple set consisting of a fountain pen, ballpoint and mechanical pencil, so I will bring that with me. Many thanks to Mido for suggesting the theme idea; we actually did this one a few years ago, but we have lots of new members who weren't around back then so I'm glad someone thought of it.

As always, Newest Acquisitions is our secondary topic, so if you have some new-pen related stuff you want to show, please bring it with you. If you don't have anything for the topic--no worries, just come and see what others have brought. Hope to see you there!

Best Fountain Pens Under $50 -- the winners!

Twenty-five members attended our April meeting (including newcomers Alejandra, Bob W, Raymond, and Ben H's young daughter Kelly), whose topic was "Best Modern Fountain Pens Under $50". We had some interesting candidates brought in for our show & tell, as you can see...
(click on photo to enlarge)
From left to right: two Chinese pens made by Jinhao brought in by Charles (one features a dragon and the other a cobra ... with bejeweled eyes!!!), Peter's Pilot 'Metropolitan', Penny's Noodler's 'Ahab' with Goulet 1.1mm italic nib, Barry's Lamy 'Al-Star' (note: Barry removed the black paint from the clip after it started flaking, so the clip is a now gold colour due to the brass material underneath the paint---a very cool effect), Willam's Kaweco 'Sport' demonstrator, my (Maja's) own Pilot 'Metropolitan' and TWSBI 'Diamond 530' (one of the first 300 made!), Leo's Kaigelu fountain pen (purchased in Hong Kong for $15 CAD), Stuart's Lamy 'Loom' and Sheaffer 'VFM', Peter's Noodler's 'Konrad', what looks like a Montblanc 'Jules Verne' LE (which clearly doesn't fit our topic---I believe it was someone's new acquisition ;) and Penny's Lamy 'Safari'

Other fountain pens brought in for the topic included: Catherine's Lamy 'Safari', William's Lamy 'Vista' (essentially a clear white 'Safari' model), Bob Morgan's Lamy 'Al-Star' (essentially an aluminum-bodied 'Safari'...can you tell which pen company was the winner of this theme???), Bill K's Noodler's 'Ahab', Ben H's Pilot 'Prera' and his new Pilot 'PTL-5000A', Ben's daughter Kelly's Pilot 'Metropolitan' and Kaweco 'Sport', Lawrence's Faber-Castel 'Basic', Kristina's Sheaffer '100', Bruce's Platinum 'Plaisir' and Retro 51 'Scriptmaster II', Glenn Marcus' Waterman 'Phileas' (sadly, now discontinued) and Waterman 'Kultur', Ben R's Sheaffer 'Compact' and Sheaffer 'NoNonsense', and a couple of Chinese pens brought in by Wai (a "China 2013" pen and another one---couldn't figure out the manufacturer, though). New members Alejandra and Raymond brought in pens they managed to find for less than $50--a Waterman 'Hemisphere' (purchased by Alejandra for £30 about 15 yrs ago) and a Sheaffer 'Intensity' Raymond found on sale (well done!).

Soooooo, the winner of the Best Modern Fountain Pen Under $50 was....Drumroll, please.... the LAMY SAFARI/VISTA/Al-STAR!! Second place went to the Pilot 'Metropolitan' and Third Place (a tie) to the Kaweco 'Sport' and Noodler's 'Ahab'. Many thanks to all who came to the meeting, whether you brought pens in for our topic or not! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Almost forgot! A big THANK YOU to Bob Morgan for his generosity with regard to the door prize draw held that night. Members who went home with prizes of ink and/or pens included: Kelly, Catherine, Ben R, Bill W, and Bruce. A good night for some brand-new members and one longtime member! ;)