Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Happy holidays!

Wishing you & yours all the best this holiday season and in the New Year 2015!
(Levenger 'True Writer' Silver Anniversary fountain pen, a recent acquisition from one of my favourite eBay pen sellers, Bob Speerbrecher--aka "Speerbob")

Next VPC meeting: Thursday January 15, 2015, usual time (6:30pm) and place (Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC)
Theme/Topic: Fountain Pens Marketed To Specific Genders (e.g. Sheaffer's "Pen for Men", Parker's "Lady Duofold").

Please bring any examples of this theme to the meeting. Many thanks to Stuart for this interesting topic idea! Our secondary topic is (as usual) New Acquisitions, so if you have a new pen/ink/accessory to show, please bring it with you. Hope to see you there!

Friday, November 28, 2014

VPC Members' Marketplace

Quick reminder to Vancouver Pen Club members:

VPCers who wish to post pen-related items for sale/trade/wanted to buy may do so by leaving a comment in the VPC Members' Marketplace on our club's website. The link is below the Perks logo on the left-hand side of our homepage (or by clicking on this link). Peter and Al recently posted some nice pens for sale, so please take a peek at their sales offerings!

Wow! (record attendance at our November meeting!)

We broke our previous record for attendance (25 people, back in November 2012) at our last pen club meeting on Thursday November 20th. A total of 31 (!!) VPC members showed up at Perks to listen to members talk about Flagship Pens, our topic for the evening. Many thanks to all who attended, including new members Harry, Mario, Penny, and the two Williams.

We saw some excellent examples of flagship pens, both vintage and modern, including: Glenn M's Montblanc 149, Pelikan M800, Waterman Man 100 & Edson pens, Glenn C's vintage Parker Duofold 'Big Red' & Parker '51', as well as a lovely vintage Conway Stewart '100' model, Bruce's OMAS Paragon & Visconti 'Divina', Nick's Delta Dolcevita , Maja's Lamy '2000, Sheaffer PFM & Legacy, Louise & Norm's oversize Wahl Doric, Barry's vintage Parker '75' in sterling silver 'cisele' pattern, Jeff's Waterman '100 Year Pen' and Maja's vintage Conklin Crescent-Filler + Bill K's modern incarnation.

Please note: Our next meeting will be on Thursday January 15, 2015 at our usual place (Perks on Cambie Street) as we do not hold meetings in December. Topic: To Be Announced.

Some photos from the November meetup (group photos by Richard):
Barry K's Parker '75' fountain pen, a flagship model for Parker, and his new Levenger pen case
Tony transferring some Caran d'Ache ink into an ink sample vial (photo by Barry K.)
Peter's Pilot 742 with FA (flexy) nib

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Fountain Pen Day 2014 ~ Friday November 7th!

From the official website :
Taking place on the first Friday in November each year, Fountain Pen Day is celebrated by enthusiasts worldwide as a time to embrace, promote, and share the use of fountain pens.

How will you celebrate Fountain Pen Day? :)

Monday, November 3, 2014

November meeting (and Ink Swap) info!

Our last meeting of 2014 is coming up (we don't hold meetings in December), so here is some info about it:
Date: Thursday November 20, 2014
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: Flagship pens

This theme idea came from longtime VPC member Bruce Reeves, who described it thusly: Flagship pens are the model that epitomize a brand and can legitimize a manufacturer's lesser, though much higher volume, lines. I'm thinking of the Montblanc 149, Visconti Divina Proporzione, Pelikan M1000, Pilot 845, etc. Works for vintage pens, too.
Our secondary theme is always "Newest Acquisitions", so if you have any new pen-related stuff to show, please bring it along. Don't worry if you don't have any examples of either theme to bring to the meeting----just come and see what others have brought---it'll be fun and (hopefully) informative!

We will also be having our twice-annual Ink Swap at the November meeting, so please bring any unwanted inks or ink samples to trade with other VPC members during the meeting (you can do this before the meeting starts or at the end of the meeting---it's up to you). Oh, and the inks can be in bottles (which do not have to be 100% full), cartridges or small plastic sample vials. This Ink Swap is completely voluntary, so please don't feel obligated to bring any ink if you like all the ones you already own :)

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Pilot & Jinhao

My wonderful new fountain pen ink ---Pilot 'Iroshizuku' "yama-budo" (which translates as "crimson glory vine")---- and my lovely ivory Jinhao X450 fountain pen. The ink was recently purchased at Nikaido in Richmond, and the Jinhao from Tyler Dahl of Tyler Dahl Pens a while back. Tyler modified its nib to a really nice 0.7mm stub, and it has become one of my favourite writers. Many thanks to Sara & Joe at Nikaido, and Tyler for the excellent customer service!

Monday, October 20, 2014

October meeting photos

Our latest meeting was held on October 16th, and fifteen members (including two newcomers---Arvin and Nathaniel) showed up to hear about the topic "Stubs & Flexy Nibs". We also had a special guest from overseas---Sandy Choo from the Singapore Fountain Pen Lovers group (their Facebook page is here). Perks' owner Richard was kind enough to snap some photos for us:
From L-R: Maja, Bruce, James, Barry, Stephanie, Patti, Stuart, Glenn Marcus, Tony, new member Arvin, Mike M. and Anne. That's Sandy wearing a hat (and a big grin) at the bottom of the photo.
Sandy was good enough to bring some pens for the evening's topic, and did some handwriting examples with a modified Noodler's "Konrad" fountain pen (there is a close-up of the pen further down this post).
Photo above: (L-R) Mark, Anne, Brian and Sandy.
Bruce (far right) watches intently. I didn't snap any photos of the fountain pens he brought, but Bruce has an amazing collection of Italian pens with lovely nibs. Many of his unmodified Visconti B (Broad) and BB (Double Broad) nibs have a stubbish quality to them.
This is the Noodler's "Konrad" fountain pen I mentioned above. Sandy had it modified to make the nib ultra-flexy. As you can see, the results are pretty amazing...
Lots of stubs and flexy nibs on display!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our last meeting of 2014 will be held on Thursday November 20 at the usual place---Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie St, Vancouver, BC. Topic: To Be Announced!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

October meeting info

Date: Thursday October 16, 2014
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: Stubs and Flexy Nibs! Bring your favourite fountain pens that have a stub nib or a flexy (flexible) nib...or pens that have a nib that is both a stub & flexy!!

Our secondary theme is always "Newest Acquisitions", so if you have any new pen-related stuff to show, please bring it along. Don't worry if you don't have any examples of either theme to bring to the meeting----just come and see what others have brought---it'll be fun and (hopefully) informative! Hope you can make it!

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

September meeting photos

Nineteen VPC members (including four newcomers---Dipak, Ellen, Nick and Rick) showed up at Perks for our September 18th meeting. The topic of the meeting was "Back to the Drawing Board", which was about fountain pen models that have changed/evolved over the years. Here are some quick photos taken at that meeting (~ click on photos to enlarge ~)
(Tony shows us his Montblanc 149 (or was it his 146?) fountain pen, a model that has had subtle design changes over the years)
(Bruce and some of his fine Italian pens, including some OMAS Arte Italiana pens that were redesigned several years ago)
(Glenn Collins showed us three very old English fountain pens made by Onoto, and their design progression. These pens featured the original plunger-filling mechanism. Very interesting stuff--thanks for bringing them in, Glenn!)
(That's me--Maja--with some pens I brought for our topic. The pens in the top row are some Sheaffer Balances (both vintage & modern) and Cartridge Pens, and in the bottom row are (L-R) two Parker 21s, some Pelikan Pelikanos and then some modern pens and their vintage counterparts with the same model names---two Sheaffer Crests, two Conklin Crescent Fillers, two Conklin Gliders---and lastly, a vintage Wahl-Eversharp Skyline. I brought the 1995 Skyline model too, but forgot to photograph it).
(Peter showed us his newest acquisition, a lovely handcrafted pen coated with urushi lacquer, made by the Japanese manufacturer Nakaya)

I'll post info about our next meeting (on October 16 at Perks) later today. Hope you can make it!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

One more photo.....

This one was taken by a mutual friend of mine and Bill Kempton's---Glenn Garside from Australia. Glenn is an avid collector of fountain pens and has a special fondness for Parkers. Since he was in town, Bill and I invited him to our pen club's summer dinner and we're so glad he came to it :) Thanks for the photo, Glenn!
(Back row (L-R): Bill Kempton, myself (Maja), Richard and Glenn Marcus (yes, we had a lot of Glenns in attendance that night!). Front row (L-R): Aaron, Anne, Stuart and Sienca)

Saturday, August 30, 2014

September meeting info

Date: Thursday September 18, 2014
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: "Back to the Drawing Board"---fountain pen models that have changed/evolved over the years .

To give you an example of our theme...The Parker 'Duofold' fountain pen started out as a vintage button-filler back in 1920, but was reintroduced in 1988 as a modern cartridge-converter-filling fountain pen. Another example is the German-made Pelikan 'Pelikano', a popular school pen that came out in 1960, and has had a long history of subtle (and some not-so-subtle) changes--take a peek at its history here. It's still being produced, but does it ever look different now! These are just a couple of examples of fountain pens that were redesigned, but which still remain popular to this day. Please bring examples of fountain pens that match this theme to our meeting, if you have any. There are many more examples---e.g. the Eversharp 'Skyline', the Parker '51', Sheaffer's 'Balance', just to name a few.

Our secondary theme is always "Newest Acquisitions", so if you have any new pen-related stuff to show, please bring it along. Don't worry if you don't have any examples of either theme to bring to the meeting----just come and see what others have brought! It'll be fun and (hopefully) informative :) Hope you can make it!
Late note: Many thanks to longtime VPCer Bruce Reeves for this excellent meeting theme idea!

Photos from our 2014 Summer Dinner

As you can see, we had good attendance (19 people) for our summer dinner at the White Spot inside Oakridge Mall on August 21. This annual event is our small-but-heartfelt way of saying "Thanks!" to Richard Clarke of Perks pen store, our pen club host since 2007. Many thanks to Ralph for taking the photos below!

(click on photos to enlarge images)
Photo above: That's me (Maja) next to our Guest of Honour, Richard.
Longtime VPC member Glenn Marcus (center), flanked by Stephanie & Charles to his right, and Glenn Collins to his left.
That's Stuart on the far right, sitting next to Sienca.
Mike & his wife Kathy enjoying their dinner at White Spot.
From right to left: Barry K (wearing the white & yellow striped shirt), Peter, Aaron, Anne, Stuart, Sienca and Glenn C.
A toast to Richard!!
Above: Peter chillin', while my friend Glenn Garside (with orange shirt) from Australia snaps some souvenir photos. I think Glenn definitely earned the "Traveled Furthest to Attend This Event" award this year! ;)
Richard and Glenn discussing (what else?) -- fountain pens!
Though the dinner wasn't a regular meeting, many members brought fountain pens (new acquisitions, mostly) to show their fellow VPCers. That's another one of our longtime members, Bruce (far left) trying out a pen while Peter, Glenn C and Sienca look on with interest.
Isn't it handy having a tablet to look up pen-related info? Barry and Mike think so :)
Just realized I didn't identify a couple of members in the photo above. That's Marey (one our newer members) in the lower left-hand corner, and Bill Kempton (one of our founding members) sitting between Glenn Marcus and Glenn Garside. My apologies for the oversight!

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Report on the 2014 Portland Pen Round-Up!

Three members of our Vancouver Pen Club (Brian, Dave M and Aaron) attended the 2014 Portland Pen Round-Up! which was held on July 12th, so I thought it would be of interest to our members to post a report written by Round-Up! co-organizer Michael McNeil of the Portland Pen Club. The Portland event is the closest thing to a mini pen show in the Pacific Northwest, and it's a good opportunity to meet other pen people, as well as buy, sell & trade writing instruments. There are plans for a 2015 Round-Up! and I will post info about it here when I get the information from the show organizers (probably not until next year, though).

Without further ado, here is Michael's report.....

Hi all,
The 2nd Annual N.W. Pen Round-Up! was held on July 12th in Northwest Portland, Oregon.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the pens and there was quite a bit of commerce going on. I enjoyed the event. Part of my fun is finding pens to buy and I bought quite a few fountain pens and a couple of mechanical pencils. I know others were buying pens as well. Some of us found pens and mechanical pencils the day before, at the antique show.

I met quite a number of people who attended, that I had some long discussions with them, and felt like I spent most of the day talking. It was very good to see longtime friends, also. Rick Propas and his wife Sharon were here in Oregon on vacation and touring around parts of the state. Another friend, from the San Francisco Bay area, came by for a time and I was quite surprised to see her! A couple of our friends from British Columbia brought pens and sold at the event.

It looks like we will plan to have the 3rd Pen Round-Up! In 2015. We would like to invite everyone reading this to attend, whether you live in the Northwest U.S. or not!

I would like to share a link to Rick Propas’ “The PENguin Blog”: http://thepenguinpen.blogspot.com/
Rick has posted articles and some fantastic photos of their trip here to Oregon.

I would like to thank Rick, John Gram and John Schwab for the use of their photos taken at the N.W. Pen Round-Up! We would also like to thank Pen World International for donating a large stack of the June edition of Pen World magazines. I would also like to thank all of those who helped with advertising, getting the word out and made the event come off without a hitch, especially Stuart! Also thanks to Mike Rosen, who originally had the idea and gave it a name!


(~~~ Report by Michael McNeil ~~~)

A couple of photos of the show floor:
Photo below, from L-R: Show co-organizer Michael McNeil, Beau and his father Bud (both from the Seattle Pen Club) and Rick Propas.
Photo below, from L-R: Show co-organizer Stuart Hawkinson, Dave M. from our Vancouver Pen Club, Portland Pen Club member Ron Church, and an unidentified gentleman.
Photo below: VPC member Dave M. peruses the wares for sale.
Photo below: Vancouver Pen Club's Brian J. (in blue t-shirt) attended the show...


To see more photos from this year's event (and some from 2013's), go to http://s1208.photobucket.com/user/MacPenz/library/Pen%20Round-Up?sort=3&page=1 and click on individual photos to enlarge. Many thanks to Michael for the show report, and to Rick Propas, John Gram and John Schwab for the photos!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

VPC Summer dinner - Thursday August 21st

The summer dinner for VPC members will be held on Thursday August 21. VPC members - please RSVP me no later than August 19th, as per the instructions in the members' group email I sent on July 28th. Please note: this is not a regular meeting...We will return to our regular "themed" meetings at Perks on Thursday September 18th (theme: to be announced). Have a great summer, everyone!

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Photos from our July meeting

Attendance was a bit sparse at our July meeting (an ill-timed breakdown of the local rapid transit system was the likely culprit) but the thirteen VPC members who came to Perks had an enjoyable time! (Group shots courtesy of Richard of Perks pen store---click on photos to enlarge)
(from L-R: Charles, Glenn Marcus, Peter, Julienne, Maja, new member Mark S, Tony and James)
(clockwise from far left: Julienne, Maja, Aaron, Patti, Tony, Bruce, James, Marey, Mark and Peter)
Julienne and Glenn chuckling about an OMAS Limited Edition owned by Julienne that is currently missing from Glenn's extensive collection (don't worry---he has one on order ;)

Our topic that night was Special Edition (SE) & Limited Edition (LE) Fountain Pens , and we saw a wide variety of examples. I forgot to take photos of Bruce's great collection of Italian LE/SE pens (sorry, Bruce!) but many thanks go his way for suggesting our July topic!
(Photo above: Mark brought in an amazing collection of Montblanc Limited Editions, as well as some lovely LE/SE pens made by Stipula, Pilot, Bexley, Conway Stewart, Delta and OMAS)
(Photo above: My photo doesn't do justice to the beauty and craftsmanship of the Italian pens Glenn brought in for our topic. If you want to see really nice photos of them, check out his blog http://glennspens.com/)

Ok, I cheated and took a photo of my own LE and SE pens at home :)
(Photo above: From L-R: my Sailor Procolor 500 in the Special Edition Winter (Shikisai Hoshikuzu) pattern, Pelikan M640 Niagara Falls SE, the 2007 Bexley Simplicity SE made for the Fountain Pen Network, the 2011 Stipula Passaporto LE made for FPN, a Stipula Duetto LE made for the World Lux pen store in Seattle, a Waterman Carene SE made to honour the late advertising wizard David Ogilvy, and two Sheaffer Special Edition pens (the 1996 Imperial Triumph Holly and the 1997 Prelude Snowflake)

Next month we will be having our annual VPC Summer Dinner on Thursday August 21st at the Oakridge White Spot restaurant in place of a regular meeting. I will send out RSVP requests to members next week so please check your Inboxes, and let me know if you can or can't make it.

Monday, June 30, 2014

July meeting info

Date: Thursday July 17, 2014
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: Special Edition & Limited Edition Fountain Pens
If you have any new pen-related stuff to show, please bring it along as New Acquisitions is always our secondary theme. No RSVPs required for regular meetings!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Orange is the New Black



Some photos of my gorgeous new Delta Dolcevita Slim fountain pen, which I received at our June meeting. This beautiful pen is hand-turned from solid bars of orange and black resin to create a dramatic & bold effect. The cap ring is made of sterling silver, hand-engraved with a decoration that was found in old paintings from Pompeii. I can honestly say that the pen looks even more stunning in person...and it writes like a dream. Many thanks to the Delta Pen Company for this generous gift!



Look at that gorgeous Fusion nib! Patented in 2012 by the Delta Pen Company of Naples, Italy, it was made by fusing a layer of 18K gold to a steel alloy to create a unique nib with enhanced ink-flow properties. The nib on mine is a Fine, but it writes a bit more like a Fine-Medium, which is perfect for me.
~~~~~~ Review by Maja Furlong ~~~~~~