Some photos from our March meeting (theme: Skinny/Slender Fountain Pens)

Happy first day of Spring! We had our March meeting on the 16th, and although there were only nine members in attendance (possibly due to Spring Break vacations), we had a great time discussing our newest pen-related acquisitions, as well as our March meeting theme -- Skinny/Slender Fountain Pens. I snapped some photos during the meeting, so without further ado, here they are...

(please click on images to enlarge ~ all photos by Maja, except where noted)

Jerred (who suggested our meeting theme--thanks again, Jerred!) kicked off our "show & tell" with two slender Delta fountain pens--a gold-plated one he reviewed here, and one with a lacquer finish that resembles the "thuya lacquer" used on some Parker '75' pens. Jerred also showed us an ultra-slender fountain pen --not photographed--- that he reviewed here three years ago. 

Jerred also brought his Faber-Castell 'Neo Slim' fountain pen for our meeting theme. He pointed out that it was actually made in China (check under the top of the clip), which surprised me as so many of their fountain pens are made in Germany. I always learn something new at our meetings!

Above: Jerred's Pilot Grandee Urushi, a slender, elegant fountain pen made of ebonite and coated with urushi lacquer. Jerred reviewed the pen here on our blog a couple of years ago.

Stuart brought in some slender vintage fountain pens, including these two handsome Sheaffers  - a black 'Snorkel Valiant' and a green 'Craftsman TM (thin model)' Touchdown-filler.

The Snorkel has a beautiful conical, two-tone gold nib, while the 'Craftsman' has an open gold nib. I think the gold trim really suits the pens' colours.

And this is the pen Stuart bought for himself for his birthday earlier this month---a very short, very skinny brass Kaweco 'Liliput' pocket fountain pen!

The pen has a 1.mm italic nib and posts by screwing the cap onto the end of the barrel

This is the slender fountain pen Stuart bought last October during the Vancouver Pen Shop's annual sale--a Graf von Faber-Castell 'Guilloche'. Its barrel is made of rhodium-plated guilloched metal, and the pen sports a 18K gold nib. Stuart also brought in a new desk set, which we will be featuring in Wednesday's blog post.

Mandy brought two skinny pens to our meeting for the evening's theme--a Pelikan 'Steno' and a Traveler Company's brass pocket fountain pen that was made in Japan. The Traveler has a clip that can be removed to make it even more portable.

Above: A photo of all the skinny fountain pens (and one not-so-skinny) that I brought for the meeting's topic. From L-R: Sailor Chalana, Pilot Birdie, Pilot Juliet, Cross 'Century'/ 'Century I' (which I reviewed here), Cross 'Metropolis', Montblanc 'Noblesse' (first generation), Lamy 'cp1', Jinhao 65 (reviewed by me here), Diplomat 'Traveller' "Flame" (I did a review of that one, too -- link), Sheaffer 'Slim' Targa and a standard Sheaffer 'Targa' (to show people the big difference in width).

I also showed four new pens (not photographed for this blog post)--a Benu 'Talisman' "Foxglove" & Platinum 'Preppy'(that I bought at Buchan's the day of our meeting), a Conklin 'All American' "Rainbow" Limited Edition (a purchase inspired by the one Kelley brought to our January meeting---thanks, Kelley!) and a Kaweco 'Liliput' in brass (like Stuart's, but with a different nib). I will be reviewing my Kaweco 'Liliput' next week here on our blog, and the Benu probably next month.

My tiny Sailor 'Chalana' below my Cross 'Century' (a/k/a 'Century I', to distinguish it from the slightly-girthier 'Century II)'

Look at the difference in their nib sizes! (and yes, that's a gold nib on the little Sailor)

A tiny Sailor converter on the tiny Sailor 'Chalana'...

That's Phil's vintage Conway Stewart 'Dinkie' ringtop fountain pen below my Sailor. The Conway Stewart pen came with its original box, which was in fantastic condition for its age.

Above: Two more slim fountain pens Phil brought for our meeting theme---a modern Diplomat 'Magnum' and a grey vintage Esterbrook 'SJ' lever-filler that he found at the Vancouver Flea Market for $5! Phil also showed us his new Sheaffer Triumph 440.

Our meetings' secondary themes are always "Newest Acquisitions'. Those are Julienne's two lovely new Pilot fountain pens in the photo above--a black Pilot 'Custom 742' and a blue Pilot 'Custom 74', both purchased during her recent trip to Japan. Julienne also brought a chrome-plated Caran d'Ache 'Ecridor' for our meeting theme.

This is Vladan's gorgeous new Kilk 'Epigram' fountain pen. The resin is a beautiful shade of green and the pen looks even better in person, believe it or not! Oh, and in case you're wondering why we didn't have "Green Fountain Pens" as our March meeting theme, it's because we'd done that theme (at least) four times already :)

The Kilk fountain pen was designed and manufactured in Turkey and has a Latin motto on its sterling silver cap band--“Vincit Omnia Veritas”, which translates to “Truth Conquers All Things.”

Vintage fountain pen lover Christopher brought several slender fountain pens for us to see, including this Moore BCHR (black chased hard rubber) fountain pen (which he reviewed here) and the Webster ringtop below it.

He also brought along a very interesting Parker ringtop and a beautiful vintage all-metal fountain pen (bottom two pens)...

(photo courtesy of April)

I was so distracted by the /amazing/ nibs on April's fountain pens that I forgot to photograph them, but she was kind enough to snap a photo of them for this blog post.
Photo above, top to bottom: Pilot 912 with AF nib, Jinhao 100 with replacement Wing Sung 629 nib, vintage Waterman 12 PSF in black hard rubber.

April also included some notes about the pens' wonderful nibs:

--Re: the Pilot 912 FA nib, April writes: "...(it has a) Spencerian grind (adding flex and regrinding to needlepoint) by Nibs.com (not by John Mottishaw himself but his students) - It has a lot of tipping materials left as a needlepoint grind, which I find very interesting."

 --Re: the Waterman 12 PSF:"It's a XXF nib with full flex capacity. The lever was replaced with a 3rd party part. That’s why it’s a different color than the clip. The 12 PSF was made between 1915 - 1917 and "PSF" stands for Pocket Self Filling, which was how Waterman called their lever filling system at that time. Later on, Waterman changed the naming system and used #5 on the decimal point to represent lever filling system. This 12 PSF was the precursor of the widely known Waterman 52 model."

--Re: the Jinhao 100 with replacement Wing Sung 629 nib that was modified by her friend in China: "The (nib's) flexibility was achieved by both chemical and physical modification. It was first chemically treated then it was reduced in thickness. Part of its shoulder was also cut off to increase flexibility."

(photo above & all photos below courtesy of Sherman)

Sherman couldn't make it to our meeting, but he's obviously a fan of slender fountain pens, as you can see by the group photo that he sent in for this blog post!

From left to right:
élysée Jewelry (90 Line) Bi-Color Barleycorn Gold & Platinum
élysée Jewelry (90 Line) Laque Intarsia Antique Greek Black
élysée Design (80 Line) Rolled Gold
élysée Design (80 Line) Laque Jade
élysée Design (80 Line) Laque Coral
élysée Classique (70 Line) Laque élysée
élysée Classique (70 Line) Laque Brown
élysée Classique (70 Line) Laque Cobra
élysée Classique (70 Line) Carré Gold
élysée Classique (70 Line) Barley Silver
élysée Spherical Finial (60 Line) Damascene Globetrotter Stainless Steel
élysée Spherical Finial (60 Line) Dynamic Steel GT (Gold Trim)
élysée Spherical Finial (60 Line) Dynamic Steel CT (Chrome Trim)
OMAS 88 Slim Line Champaign Black
Montblanc Slim Line Satin Black
Montblanc Slim Line Satin Blue
Montblanc Slim Line Satin Burgundy
Montblanc Slim Line Brushed Stainless Steel
Sheaffer® TRZ Model 63 Matte Burgundy
Cross Classic Century Chrome
S.T. Dupont Classique Laque de Chine
Waterman Exclusive Tortoise Shell Lacquer GT

Sherman adds: "I'd like to draw to your attention that the OMAS 88 (above) is really, really tiny and slim. It’s a really cute pen indeed. But if I knew it was that slim, I wouldn’t have bought it, I believe. But I was at the very beginning stage, so I didn’t even know the size impact even though the seller did reveal the measurements!"

(Above):"The nib of the Montblanc Slim Line did have at least two versions from my collection...

I like the one with the Montblanc logo on the nib."

"The Sheaffer TRZ (the stickered pen in the photo above) is also very slim; I had a hard time in finding a converter or cartridge. Glad that I bought both of them from Peyton Street Pens.

For the élysée, I would say the Design Line is quite small when you hold it. I did not take measurements, but I'm just sharing a handfeel. Maybe I should try to measure them, to validate my saying this.

In any case, I have all these as my slimmest collection so far. Enjoy." 

Thank you, April and Sherman, for sending in photos and notes about your pens, and many thanks to everyone who came to the meeting last week! It was great to see so many fountain pens that matched the meeting topic/theme, but please remember--even if you don't have anything that matches our monthly meeting themes (or any new acquisitions), come to the meetings anyway --they're all about having fun seeing, learning and talking about pen-related things in a casual setting!

**The date and venue of our April meeting will be posted on our blog as soon as I confirm them. Meeting information will always be posted at the top of each page on our website (in big red letters, so you can't miss it :)

(~ Blog post by Maja ~)

Belated Happy St. Patrick's Day pens

A couple of pics of some nice green pens, courtesy of Sherman, who writes: "Took a family photo of my green collection. Wish everyone had a fun St Patrick’s Day. All the best! "

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

Our thanks to Sherman for sharing his collection with us! ☘️

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 469

At our February meeting, Jerred (unexpectedly) gave me this lovely little fountain pen as a 'thank you' for an inexpensive pocket pen I gave him. In my excitement, I forgot to photograph my new pen during the meeting, so I thought I'd post a few photos of it that I took earlier this month. I'll be posting photos from our March meeting (which was held last Thursday) early next week, but in the meantime, here's the pen I got from Jerred:

(please click on images to enlarge)My new Rosetta 'Napoleon' pocket fountain pen in "purple marble"! 

This diminutive fountain pen is a Taiwanese-made cartridge/converter-filler with an Italian acrylic body and shiny chrome trim. Because of its short length, the pen can only accommodate one standard international cartridge, or a mini converter in its barrel.

Despite it being a smaller pen, it has some heft to it -- 26 grams, according to the manufacturer. When capped, it's 4-1/2″ (11.5 cm) long....

...and with its cap posted (via screwing the cap onto the end of the barrel), it's the size of a full-sized fountain pen (5-3/4″ or 14.6 cm), and very comfortable to hold and use.

(I love the resin's purple shade and depth :)

My new Rosetta 'Napoleon' fountain pen immediately reminded me of my two Jean-Pierre Lépine 'Mini Indigo' fountain pens, which also post via a threaded barrel end. After I composed this review, I discovered that Stephen Brown (SBREBrown) had posted a comparison of the two models on his YouTube channel here !

The pen originally came with a monotone steel IPG (Iridium Point Germany) Medium nib which wrote smoothly, but I thought this replacement #5 size two-tone steel nib (above) by Dryden Designs would look even better on this classy little pen; the gold colour in the nib goes very nicely with the purple resin, and I like the interlocking double D logo engraved on it. The Dryden nib writes smoothly, with no adjustment(s) necessary.

Side note: The Dryden nib was part of a 3-pack of identical nibs, sections and converters that I got for the ridiculously low price of $6.97 via Amazon.ca last March. Unfortunately, they are sold out there. Amazon.com is still selling them (link), but for $20.50 USD (incl. shipping to Canada) for a 3-pack :/

(image from: Rosetta's official blog )
Rosetta launched their 'Napoleon' model in June 2012 and it originally came in seven different colours (photo above) -- Rose Marble, Lemon Ice, Blue Marble, Onyx Black, Tortoiseshell, Red Marble, and Purple Marble. You can still find some new old stock online (iPenStore.com carries the Onyx Black version in fountain pen form).

Well, that's it---a short review of a short fountain pen! Many thanks to Jerred for this great pocket pen and his generosity:)

Buchan's Kerrisdale Stationery is open for business again!

After extensive renovations (as a result of the store being flooded in late December), Buchan's reopened on February 8th! 😀

(image source)

I visited their shop in Kerrisdale today and was impressed with the renovations (which included new lighting that can also be dimmed to create a pleasant ambience for evening shopping), new display arrangements that make the store seem even more spacious, the selection of fountain pens and other writing instruments (at every price point), the wide array of fountain pen inks, fine paper and notebooks...and, of course, the friendly and helpful staff :) I bought a few things during my visit and will be posting reviews of them in the near future, so stay tuned...

You can check out the selection at Buchan's virtually (link to webstore), or in person at 2141 West 41st Avenue in Vancouver (their brick & mortar store is open 7 days a week).

Reminder re: March meeting tomorrow! (Thursday March 16)

Don't forget our in-person meeting *tomorrow* - Thursday March 16 !
It's at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library from 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM! (click here for detailed info). 

Any questions? If so, please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com
Hope to see you there! (and no RSVPs needed!)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 468

Today we're featuring a couple of new fountain pens that Stuart brought to our last meeting, along with his thoughts on them....

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

Stuart writes: "(This is) my Faber-Castell Ondoro with the smoked oak barrel, a handsome large pen. The Fine steel nib is a smooth and precise writer."

"The closeup shot (above) shows the beauty of the grained wood, which is nice in the hand, warm and textured."


"Here's the Parker Sonnet I bought at Van Pen’s January grand reopening celebration.  It has a brushed stainless steel barrel and cap with gold-plated trim and a black section, a very handsome and traditional look."

"The nib, stainless steel with gold plating, is smooth, and the pen is very comfortable in the hand."

Our thanks to Stuart for his ongoing contributions to our pen club's virtual "show & tell!" I'll be posting a review of my own recent acquisition later this week.

***Don't forget our in-person meeting this Thursday (March 16)--- details here!

Travelling with a complement of vintage pens & mechanical pencils

(~Blog post & photos courtesy of Christopher~)

"Every year my wife, Chris and I spend time at our condo in Hawaii. Admittedly, I have found that it is hard, if not impossible, to be without at least some of the vintage pens which have become a major part of my daily life. Still, travelling with pen and ink can be a problem. So, over the years I have developed a safe and satisfying pen and ink travelling case and outfitted it to keep me happy.

I started with a designer sunglasses case. A case that was big enough to contain all of the following elements, essential to being able to enjoy my vintage pens when out and about:

1. Parker Demi Jotter ballpoint. 2. Parker Vacumatic Slender, Circa 1936 3. Parker Vacuum Filler, ‘Stubby’, Circa 1932 4. Bottle of Diamine Meadow ink, small. 5. Salz Bros, Peter Pan, Gold Overlay, tiny. 6. Aikin Lambert 14k retractable, Circa 1882 7. Crystal x20 open magnifying loupe. 8. Needle nose fine point tweezers. 9. Three surface triangular metal file. 10. Plastic straw, short. 11. Linen cleaning cloth, soft. 12. Bottle of polishing liquid, small. 13. Sheet of 8000 Micro mesh polishing cloth 14. Polishing brush, two different ends. 15. Polishing cloths, 2 different types . 16. Buffing cloth, coarse weave.

 (~click on images to enlarge~)

For a number of years, this traveling pen case was enough but, in the years that followed, I found that I needed more support items! To this end, I secured a medium sized lady’s two sided cloth and clear plastic cosmetic bag, just perfect for all of the additional items! I outfitted it with the smaller pen travelling case kit plus the following:

1. A set of disposable Bic fountain pens. 2. A handful of Q tips. 3. A jar of Brasso polish, small. 4. Visconti inkpot full of Waterman purple ink 5. Lady’s Wahl pen/pencil set Circa 1928. 6. Eversharp Bantam Circa 1933. 7. Bottle of Diamine Cherry Black, small. 8. Folding glasses in small case. 9. Designer 14k Gold & Cream thin ballpoint. 10. Parker Vacumatic Standard Circa 1952. 11. Parker Vacumatic Debutante Circa 1945. 12. Parker 51 Vacumatic Deb. Circa 1947. 13. Vasoline, miniature bottle. 14. Linen napkin, soft. 15. The Illustrated Guide to Antique Writing Instruments, softcover book 16. Miller Guide to Pens, Softcover book.

I suppose any vintage pen collector would comment “What next, the kitchen sink?” (editor's note: did you notice the sink in the top photo? ;) and sure, if you are only traveling for four or five days, the smaller pen traveling kit would be just fine. But on the other hand, if your vacation is more like weeks or even a month, then the larger package is more realistic . Face it --and especially when it comes to vintage pens-- variety is the spice of life."

 Our thanks to Christopher for sharing his "travelling companions" with us!