Friday, November 18, 2011

Vintage Ballpoints--November meeting topic


(click on photo to enlarge)

Many thanks to all who attended our meeting yesterday! Special kudos to Michael for giving an excellent talk on the history of the ballpoint. Our meeting theme was well-represented with various examples of vintage ballpoints from the mid-1940s to the late 1970s.

I took a quick shot of my collection during the meeting (see above), which includes a Reynolds "Packet" ballpoint ca. 1948 (pen #1 in upper LH row), three Eversharp CA ballpoints ca. 1946-1947 (pens # 2-4 in the same row) as well as a Sheaffer Stratowriter ca. 1946--Sheaffer's first ballpoint (pen #10 in same row). The pens are in the lovely Sheaffer 48-pen case that Richard presented to me at the last meeting---I forgot to mention that earlier. Many thanks, once again, for the gift!

I fitted the Eversharp CA pens with replacement Bic refills (scavenged from those cheap Bic pens you find in hotels) and the Stratowriter with a modern Sheaffer refill with the help of a brass 'widget' purchased from www.pendemonium.com. All of my vintage Papermate pens work using modern Papermate refills---a wise move on that company's part! The Esterbrook "Scribe" pens work using a shaved-down Lamy M16 refill (thanks to Michael for the idea). If anyone knows of a modern refill that will fit the Esterbrook "J" series ballpoint, please let me know (contact email at top of homepage). It's a great feeling when you can get an old, neglected & forgotten pen---ballpoint or fountain pen---working again :)

~~~~ Our next VPC meeting won't be 'til Thurs January 19, 2012~~~~

~~~~Best wishes for a happy holiday season!~~~~

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Last meeting of 2011! (details re: November meeting)

Since we don't have meetings in December, this will be our last meeting of 2011 . (fear not, though---VPC meetings will resume in January 2012!)

Now, for the details of our upcoming meeting.....
Time: Thursday November 17, 2011
Place: The usual place---Perks pen store at 5844 Cambie Street (@ 42nd Avenue), Vancouver, B. C.
Time: 6:00pm-6:30pm "Meet & Greet"..... 6:30pm-8:30pm Meeting.
Theme: Vintage Ballpoint Pens (as always, "New Acquisitions" is our secondary topic)

This is the first time we've had ballpoints as our meeting theme, so if you have any older ballpoints to show (let's say pre-1980), please bring them along to the meeting (and it doesn't matter if they work or not!). I have some from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s to show, and a few from the 1970s (which is when I first started using ballpoints myself).

Many thanks to all who attended the October meeting---I posted some photos taken by Richard a couple of post down from this one (Richard apologizes for the blurry photos :)