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 update

(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), so 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"!

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

A few photos from our May meeting

We had excellent attendance at our May meeting, which was held on Thursday May 15th at the Vancouver Public Library's Renfrew branch. At least 32 people (including brand new members Janet, Jennifer and Frederic) were present for a casual gathering where our members chatted about, traded, bought and sold all things pen-related. It was a busy night, but I remembered to snap a few photos during the get-together, so here they are...

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

I forgot to take a photo of it at the April meeting (which featured pocket fountain pens), so I'm glad that Allan also brought his brass Hongdian 'M2' pocket fountain pen to our May meeting. It's a very nice (and affordable) pocket fountain pen with some heft to it; there's also an aluminum version of the 'M2', if you prefer a lighter pen...

Andrew brought a newly-acquired vintage fountain pen to the meeting -- his Parker 'Duofold' Jr. in shiny red 'Permanite' (Parker's name for their patented plastic). The 'Junior' model first came out in 1922, a year after the introduction of its full-sized counterpart. Doesn't it look great for a 100-year-old pen? 😁

Vladan brought a beautiful new modern fountain pen to the meeting -- a Graf von Faber-Castell that he recently bought from Charals. Sadly, Charals announced that after 39 years in business, they will be permanently closing their lovely store this summer 😢 (link to their Instagram announcement from April here)...

On a happier note, during our meeting I managed to acquire a pen I'd been seeking for a very long time. It's one of the two colours I was missing from my Signum 'Orione' fountain pen collection --the dark green with yellow flecks model (on the far right above)--and I bought from Hyung-Gu, a local pen aficionado (thank you, Hyung-Gu!)

Phil also brought some newly-acquired pens to the meeting ---a black and teal Pelikan 'M75 'Go!' model (top pen) and a vintage Pelikan '120'. The '120' was a piston-filling fountain pen made from 1955-1965, while the M75 was only made from 1992-1996 and came in two forms--piston-filler or cartridge/converter filler.

Larry B, a local penmaker, came to our meeting with lots of lovely handmade kitless resin fountain pens to show and sell...

Among the ones Larry was selling was this gorgeous teal and brown swirly fountain pen (with matching pen stand!)

We also saw some new accessories at our meeting, such as Asifa's cool new Peanuts-themed laptop holder (converted to a pen and notebook case)...

It's not a new acquisition, but it was newly discovered by Stuart --a handsome burgundy vintage Sheaffer 'Tuckaway' Touchdown-filler that he very recently found in an old desk drawer at home!

This is Rumi's cute pen roll by TheCoffeeMonsterzCo (a local artist) with four colourful fountain pens on top of it --(left to right): a Jinhao '10' in yellow/green gradient, a Gravitas 'Entry' in the wonderful "Skittle" finish and two PenBBS fountain pens. The one on the far right is a model '266' that Rumi purchased from fellow VPC member Jerred during the meeting.

Several members of our club who are avid ink swatchers attended our May meeting---that's Catherine's ink journal closest to the camera...

...and this is a page from Michelle's ink journal (the Vinta ink is one that I bought at Buchan's Kerrisdale Stationery just before the meeting and showed to the swatching gang).

My apologies for not taking more photos during the meeting--I wanted to take a posed group shot, but I didn't want to interrupt all the fun everyone was having 😀. Thank you to all who came to the meeting!

(~Blog post by Maja~)

Don’t forget - meeting this Thursday! (note *location*)

MAY MEETING INFO:

Where: The Branch Meeting Room of the Vancouver Public Library's RENFREW branch at 2969 East 22nd Avenue, in Vancouver, BC. The library is located on East 22nd Avenue, between Renfrew and Nootka.

Date: THURSDAY MAY 15, 2025

Time: 5:00pm to 7:30pm

Primary/Secondary Topics: NONE!
This meeting will be just a casual get-together, so no "show & tell". It's a great opportunity, though, to buy/sell/trade pens/inks/paper as the meeting room at Renfrew is large and has lots of tables & chairs (it can accommodate up to 48 people). Feel free to bring pen-related things to de-stash (give away); we'll set up a table/area for that purpose in the meeting room. Hope you can make it!
Any questions? Please email us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 546

Here's a very interesting vintage fountain pen that Christopher recently acquired and wanted to share with us (thanks, Christopher!).... 

He writes:

"Every once in a while, I acquire a pen lot and put aside the pens which I definitely will be selling. And in this particular case, the one pen which had little interest for me, at first glance, was marked 'Columbus' on the barrel. Mind you, this pen was also filthy, and I think that was one reason why I really didn't notice the finish or some of its outstanding points. Plus, the only Columbus pen company I knew of was an Italian firm. And did I want an Italian seemingly non-descript pen? Well, after dealing with the pens in the rest of this lot, finally, I got around to the Italian number. But on closer inspection, it really didn't look like a pen made in Italy. So curiously, I set to and cleaned it up and serviced it. So, what was I, in fact, left with?"

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

"Well, as it turned out, this pen was actually of superb quality. Starting with the cap, it is quite substantial and sported a beautiful 14K Golden arrow chased clip, complete with finely crafted feathers and a slightly turned up pointed end. The chasing just mentioned, is both exacting work and of jeweler quality. This is a ring clip held securely in place with a jet black, slightly domed clip screw. Below this cap clasp is a double 14K Gold filled banding and the cap is inscribed on the one side running vertically "NIOS" Studio, with a small company logo between. The barrel has quite a lengthy ink view window which is red ambered but still holds a reasonably good transparency. Below this ink viewer, the barrel is marked with both the company branding, Columbus, and model number of 1515 and in turn, finished in the most exquisite green pearl with jet accents. Below this lovely, finished barrel area, is the housing for a piston filler. At its end is a tapered flat screw on blind cap, covering a very well-made filler mechanism knob. This knob screws both forward and back to effectively ink the pen quite impressively. I should mention that there is a "M" inscribed on the filler, which I believe refers to medium.

Moving on to the business end of this writing instrument, the barrel sports a healthy grip, which is easily handled for writing. And fully secured in this grip section, is a beautifully designed feed, over top of which is a Rakete/Columbus No.4, 14K Gold good sized nib. This nib, I would have to add, is a general writing medium flex model very well ground. And just in case there is a question about the inscription on this nib and the other branding on this pen, Rakete and Columbus were two parts of the same South German company, a German pen manufacturer located near Nuremberg. As for dimensions, this fine pen posts well balanced in the hand at a full 6 ¼ inches, but caps back to just under 5 inches. Admittedly, I do not have a great number of German pens in my collection, but this one sure fills the bill."

May meeting info (NEW LOCATION!)

MAY MEETING INFO:

Where: The Branch Meeting Room of the Vancouver Public Library's RENFREW branch at 2969 East 22nd Avenue, in Vancouver, BC. The library is located on East 22nd Avenue, between Renfrew and Nootka.

Date: THURSDAY MAY 15, 2025

Time: 5:00pm to 7:30pm

Primary/Secondary Topics: NONE!
This meeting will be just a casual get-together, so no "show & tell". It's a great opportunity, though, to buy/sell/trade pens/inks/paper as the meeting room at Renfrew is large and has lots of tables & chairs (it can accommodate up to 48 people). Feel free to bring pen-related things to de-stash (give away); we'll set up a table/area for that purpose in the meeting room. Hope you can make it!

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 545

A few photos of Sherman's recent acquisitions that he didn't have a chance to show at our last meeting as he was on vacation in Asia...

Sherman writes:

"During my trip to Japan, I didn’t have any impulse purchases. But my beloved wife and 2 boys gave me a surprise and led me to Ancōra Stationery Shop where I could select the parts that I preferred, and they assembled it for me immediately.

(all photos courtesy of Sherman ~ please click on images to enlarge)

I bet it’s a Sailor 1911 Profit kind of pen. Not a high end pen, but I treasured the gift even more.

...I picked up my Radius 1934 VPC LE pen from Glenn once it was ready, 'cause I knew I couldn’t attend the club meeting (and) I'd just like to share my photos of it. It’s a wonderful pen indeed.

I didn’t buy any pen in Hong Kong until I was brought to Muze Pens by my pen buddy. The sales rep recognized me from their local Facebook Pen Group – which surprised me so much 'cause the other members don’t like to reveal their faces! She also let me play with the Giant Kaweco Sport, so I was totally high, and eager to buy something there... 

 I already had many common brands, but when I found out that TENNY was a Taiwanese brand (I actually preferred European brands)...and with the wooden square shape and the name of it, I couldn’t hold back any longer. So it became one of my favourites now. Wish I could share the meaning of this pen:
https://www.muzepens.com/products/tenny-square-round-fountain-pen-sandalwood
https://shop.tenny-tw.com/product_view.php?id=11567&cat=870 “

(Our thanks to Sherman for sharing his great pen acquisitions with us :)