April meeting pics - topic: Clipless Fountain Pens !

We had good attendance at our April meeting, held on Thursday April 20th at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library - sixteen members, including two newcomers (Jenny and Lauren)! A good time was had by all, seeing and hearing about clipless fountain pens--both modern and vintage-- as well as our members' newest pen-related acquisitions.

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

And here we are!

Front row (L-R) Jenny, Jared, Alejandra, Lauren, Maja and Kelley. Back row (L-R): Hadi, Christopher, Mandy, Stuart, Peter, Vladan, Luc and Rene. Missing from photo: Mindy.
(Many thanks to Nox for snapping the pic! :)

I took some shots of what our members brought in for our informal "show & tell", so here they are (roughly in the order in which we saw them during our meeting) ...

Jerred brought some cool-looking clipless fountain pens for our primary meeting theme (top to bottom)---his aluminum PenBBS '350' (which was sold with a rollerball tip), a swirly Moonman 'Wancai' pocket pen, and a PenBBS '471' pocket pen in a resin called "Amber is a Cat".

The peacock blue Mahjohn (formerly Moonman) 'A2' capless fountain pen at the bottom of the photo--a new acquisition for Jerred--is a faceted, resin version of the popular Mahjohn A1 lacquered metal capless fountain pen. Currently, the A2 model only comes with a clip, but Jerred said he's hoping for a clipless version to be produced.

Above: Jerred's gorgeous urushi Bottegando fountain pen. I hadn't heard of this Italian maker of handmade writing instruments before, but as per their Etsy shop, they're located just outside of Verona, Italy and they produce some unique-looking fountain pens (many of them one-offs).

Two more clipless fountain pens brought in by Jerred -- LIY (Live in You) 'Future' models in the "Enchantress" (top) and "Blue Coral Sea" acrylics. I love the little metal floral roll-stops :)

I forgot to photograph it at an earlier meeting, so I snapped a photo of one of Peter's favourite fountain pens----the Pilot 'Vanishing Point' above---at our April meeting.

 

Above: the interior of one of the beautiful kimono notebooks that Peter's company imports directly from Japan (the Platinum 'Preppy' fountain pen --also made in Japan--is mine :)

Our secondary topic is always "Newest Acquisitions", so Kelley showed us her new Lamy 'Safari' Yellow fountain pen. The green-capped fountain pen next to it is a Pilot 'Parallel' that Kelley brought in for our clipless fountain pens topic (and yes, she shortened the Pilot's long barrel herself lol). 

The Pilot was inked up with a very interesting silvery ink (shown above) made by Dominant Industry, an ink manufacturer from South Korea that entered the highly-competitive fountain pen ink market in 2021. Kelley said that this ink (which she described as looking like "liquid mercury") has both sheen and shimmer...

 

Some new acquisitions + clipless fountain pens, all belonging to Rene (L-R): a vintage Parker '51' flighter model from 1949, three nice vintage Parkers (two 'Vacumatics' and a 'True Blue' flat top), a vintage Wahl all-metal vest pocket model, a Kaweco 'Special Red' (part of Kaweco's 'Collection' line), an early Eagle glass cartridge fountain pen, two vintage Lady Sheaffers, a Benu 'Minima' in "Baikal Ice", and an aluminum PenBBS '323'. A bit of pen-related trivia - Rene won a Facebook contest to name the Benu pen's special resin material!

A closeup of Rene's antique (ca. 1890) Eagle cartridge fountain pen, the world's first cartridge-filling fountain pen! When Rene acquired the pen, it came with an intact glass ink cartridge, which is truly incredible, given the age of the pen and the fragility of the cartridge's material. There's a nice write-up on this early fountain pen model here on PenHero.com

Above: Rene's amazing Eclipse vintage fountain pen & pencil collection (which features several clipless pens).

Above: Three clipless fountain pens belonging to Vladan (top to bottom: Ensso 'Piuma' in black ebonite, a black Franklin-Christoph '46' model with a great Medium SIG---Stub Italic Gradient-- nib, and a Kaweco 'Sport' Brass), and one of his newest acquisitions - a Platinum 'Century 3776'. Vladan also showed his wonderful clipless green Kilk 'Epigram' fountain pen (not shown here, but there's a photo of it in our March meeting report).

Another new acquisition of Vladan's -- a Faber-Castell 'Ambition' Coconut, made of finely-grained coconut wood.

Stuart showed and talked about a few different clipless fountain pens, including the small all-metal Sheaffer above, and a lovely red Lady Sheaffer in the 'Tulle' pattern. He also brought a Kaweco AL Sport in Rose Gold (shown in these old photos.)

Stuart recently acquired this Lamy Safari in "Aquasky" (one of the three brand-new Lamy 'Safari' colours for 2023) from the Vancouver Pen Shop...

...and he purchased this classy German-made ROWI (Rodi & Wienenberger) fountain pen during the meeting from a fellow pen club member!

Here are the clipless fountain pens I brought for our primary meeting theme - (L-R) a vintage first-year (1940) 14k gold-filled Sheaffer 'Tuckaway' (reviewed here) with a sweet inscription, two ENSSO 'Piuma Pocket' fountain pens (in Titanium and Ultem materials), a red version of the metal Delike pocket pen I reviewed here last month, my brand-new PenBBS 323' "Orange Goddess", an ENSSO 'Piuma' in black ebonite, an HYL sparkly demonstrator eyedropper-filler (reviewed here), and a Kaweco 'Perkeo' in "Indian Summer" (another brand-new acquisition).

Above: A couple more of my newest purchases---a light blue Pelikan 'Pina Colada" fountain pen (a new Pelikan school pen model, also available in rollerball form), and a Lamy 'Nexx' in Lime---both of which I will be reviewing here in the near future.

(top to bottom) Christopher's vintage Wyvern 'Pixie', his Eversharp 'Fifth Avenue' fountain pen and Alejandra's clipless Kaweco 'Liliput'. Alejandra also showed some other clipless fountain pens of hers--a stylish Waterman 'Audace' and a Charles Lethaby 'ION' fountain pen made of titanium.

Mindy's current daily user, her trusty Pilot 'Prera' clear demonstrator fountain pen

 Mandy's Staedtler school pen, purchased over a decade ago in Austria

Last but not least, here's what Luc brought to show us...A fountain pen handmade by a small Australian pen maker ...

...a very nice Franklin-Christoph '45' with a SIG nib...

...and a new journal from the Vancouver Pen Shop that caused a lot of excitement because its cover was made from an actual vinyl record! The notebooks come with different vinyl record covers, and they even make covers from 45s (with the plastic spindle adaptor included). How cool is that? 😁


Many thanks to everyone who came to our meeting last Thursday, My apologies for not getting around to photographing everyone's stuff-- brand-new member Lauren's lovely Kaweco 'Sport' in "Iridescent Pearl", newcomer Jenny's elegant Montblanc 'Classique' fountain pen, Nox's cool Jinhao dragon fountain pen, and some stunning vintage writing instruments (a Parker 'Duofold' set in the rare Mandarin Yellow colour, and a Wahl-Eversharp 'Gold Seal' flat-top) belonging to Hadi.

Information about our May meeting will be posted at the top of each webpage on our blog as soon as I confirm the meeting venue and date. Until then, have a great week and enjoy your pens in good health!

(~Blog post by Maja~)