April meeting (on a Saturday afternoon!) mini-report

Our April meeting was held on Saturday the 20th at the Champlain Heights branch of the Vancouver Public Library from 1:00pm to 3:30pm. Twenty-five VPC members showed up to chat about all things pen-related, and among them were six members who'd never attended a meeting before--Angela, Colin, David J., Dominique, Keith, and Nance.

I snapped a few photos during the meeting, as did Marzieh and Sherman, so without further ado, here they are...

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

We'd never used this particular VPL Branch Meeting Room before, but it was spacious and private. I've added captions to the rest of the photos, but there are a couple of members who aren't in those other pics---brand-new member Dominique (center of photo above, facing camera) and Luc (standing by Dominique), who came all the way from Whistler to attend our meeting!

That's me (in the middle) with Marzieh (who used to work at Perks in North Van) and Bill Kempton, one of our club's co-founders. I last saw Bill at our November 2023 meeting, but I hadn't seen Marzieh since the end of 2020. In the background, you can see our youngest member (Emilio) next to his father Chris (photo courtesy of Bill ~ photo taken by Phil)

Bill brought along a few notebooks from his school days in England; the one above was his first, started when he was eight years old.

The two notebooks above are a bit newer; by then, Bill had become a big fan of comedy legend Spike Mulligan.

Above: Sherman's selfie with fellow VPCer Steve, who very generously gave out mystery door prizes (ie. pens, in the envelopes above) to everyone who came to the meeting. Everyone who attended was also given a complimentary bottle of Steve's patented fountain pen flush (which Sherman is holding up) --INKOUT.

INKOUT fountain pen flush is a liquid concentrate --for manual cleaning of fountain pens, mix 3 parts water with 1 part pen flush; for cleaning pens in an ultrasonic cleaner, use 2 parts water to 1 part pen flush (photo courtesy of Sherman).

...And this is what Sherman won---a lime-green Hero '616 Plus' fountain pen! Many thanks to Steve for all the free stuff he gave out! 😃 (photo courtesy of Sherman)

As you can see, the meeting was a hub-bub of activity, with members circulating freely around the room. Several members brought inks to trade, but we didn't have a formal "show & tell", so it was a very low-key get-together. That's new member Colin (seated) chatting with Steve, while Chris (blue t-shirt) tries out the clear demonstrator piston-filler he got in Steve's door prize giveaway.

Seated in the far background of the same photo are (L-R): new member Keith, Melanie (who attended her first meeting in Oct 2023) and newcomer David J . Standing next to them are Collin and myself. At the table in the near background are (L to R): Paul (standing), Bill, Phil, Amy and brand-new member Nance (both standing), and Marzieh.

Jessica (standing closest to Sherman) brought along an assortment of wonderful fountain pens to sell... and she also gave out free pens! Thank you, Jessica, for your generosity, and the gorgeous Penlux 'Grande Masterpiece' "Blue Swirl" fountain pen I bought from you! 😃 In the same photo's foreground are brand-new member Angela (blue-striped sweater), Asifa (pink-striped top, talking to Jerred), David C. (black leather jacket) and Rene (wearing a bright blue Pokemon t-shirt :)

(left to right) Amy talking to David C, Steve and I conversing, and Trevor chatting with Angela (photo courtesy of Marzieh).

Bill (inspecting a pen), with Jerred and Sherman (photo courtesy of Marzieh)

Above: Sherman snapped a photo of the pens he brought to the meeting-- (left to right): Stipula 'Passaporto', three clear demonstrator Kaweco 'Sport' pens, a Kaweco 'Student' in "60's Swing" colour, a purple Retro 51 'Tornado' fountain pen, three Kaweco 'Lilliput' pens and an orange Campo Marzio fountain pen (on the far right is Sherman's "prize pen", the Hero '616 Plus')

We also saw several vintage writing instruments during the meeting, like this handsome Wahl-Eversharp 'Skyline' fountain pen and mechanical pencil set belonging to Phil.

I brought along a few new acquisitions, in a pen roll made by my talented mother-in-law :)

My pens (Left to right): Two Pelikans (M200 "Orange Delight" & M200 "Copper Rose Gold"), two Lamys ('Safari' "Violet Blackberry" & AL-star "Fiery"), a Magna Carta 'Sapphire Grand "Brown Demonstrator" (bought with Christmas money from my in-laws), Majohn 'P138' (a Montblanc lookalike), Eureka 'Symmetry' PEEK fountain pen, Visconti 'Breeze'"Lemon", a handmade pen by Ontario-based Tangent Pens, and my Pelikan 'Ineo' "Fiery Red".

It's fitting that I end this blog post with a book about handwriting! It was borrowed by Paul (from the VPL) on the recommendation of our club's other co-founder, Tim. The book in question is "Marcel's Letters' by Carolyn Porter, an award-winning account of her real-life search for information about the fate of the author of a bundle of WWII-era letters that she found. The letters were written (in French) in a beautiful cursive script that eventually became the P22 "Marcel" font. Paul was raving about the book, so if it sounds interesting to you, look for it at your local public library.

Many thanks to everyone who came to our April meeting (whether you stayed to the end or not -- we're very casual!), to Marzieh & Sherman for sharing their photos, and to the Vancouver Public Library for hosting our very first weekend (and first daytime) meeting.

Please note: Our May meeting won't be held on a weekend, but rather our usual third Thursday evening of the month. Details (including meeting location) about our May meeting will be announced sometime next week, after our venue booking is confirmed. 

(~Blog post by Maja~)

A long time coming (Newest Acquisitions - Virtual "Show & Tell" ~ part 517)

Many thanks to everyone who came to our April meeting last Saturday; I'll post some photos and a mini-report sometime this week. In the meantime, here's a nice write-up about a beautiful vintage Waterman set that Christopher submitted for our blog...

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

Christopher writes:

It is amazing what you can put together in the vintage pen department, given the time. I picked up a gorgeous Waterman ruby oversized first year Canadian 100 Year fountain pen while visiting family in Ontario years ago. Years later, I ran across an appropriate mechanical pencil and, more currently, just the right Waterman presentation box. Combining all of these elements gave me a very attractive and super edition to my vintage pen collection.

The Waterman’s 100 Year line of pens and pencils is definitely unique. I think that the finish in all cases sets these writing instruments far apart from the rest. Whether it is in the transparent emerald green, stunning transparent vivid blue or, as in my case, the transparent ruby red, all of these finishes are truly eye candy. Waterman also made the 100 Year line with a jet black finish, which should not be discounted and, to my mind, looks very smart.

The 100 Year also had extremely attractive 14K gold filled banding, which all added up to Art Deco styling. Of course, if you add in the marvelous Waterman top quality 14K Gold nibs, these 100 Year pens are irresistible. Waterman stuck with their boxed design extremely dependable lever filler for their 100 Year pens and the clip was their standard as with their other model lines. To round out a set, you could not ask for a more attractive casing and if Waterman honoured their 100 year guarantee, my set should be working well 'til 2039. We can only hope.  

Our thanks to Christopher for sharing this lovely set with us!

Reminder re: meeting this SATURDAY! (+ Ink Swap!)

** Please note new date, time and location **

 April 2024 in-person meeting:

Where: the Branch Meeting Room of the Vancouver Public Library's CHAMPLAIN HEIGHTS branch at 7110 Kerr Street (south-east corner of Kerr & East 54th Avenue), Vancouver (official link: https://www.vpl.ca/location/champlain-heights-branch)

Date: ⭐ SATURDAY⭐ April 20, 2024

Time: ⭐ 1:00pm to 3:30pm ⭐

Topics: None! This meeting is a chance for members to chat amongst themselves on a weekend, without the usual time constraints (we *do* have to vacate the room by 3:30pm), something folks have been asking for. We will still do themed meetings in the future, but there will be no formal "show & tell" this month.

Late addition to meeting:

INK SWAP! 😃

If you want to bring inks to trade amongst yourselves, please feel free to do so. This casual meet-up is a good opportunity to swap inks that you might not be using...and it's a good icebreaker for newcomers to our club, or members who might not have attended our meetings in a long time. This is a completely voluntary ink swap, so if you like all of your inks, please don't feel pressured to trade any of them! (many thanks to Nathan for suggesting the ink swap :)

Hope you can make it to the meeting this Saturday! No RSVPs required! 
Any questions? Please contact us at: vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

April meeting info - new date, new time, new place!

(and no, we're not meeting in a forest lol)

We're trying something different this month! 😀 (please note: this is not a permanent new time/date/location)

Information about our April 2024 in-person meeting:

Where: the Branch Meeting Room of the Vancouver Public Library's CHAMPLAIN HEIGHTS branch at 7110 Kerr Street (south-east corner of Kerr & East 54th Avenue), Vancouver (official link: https://www.vpl.ca/location/champlain-heights-branch)

Date: ⭐ SATURDAY⭐ April 20, 2024

Time: ⭐ 1:00pm to 3:30pm ⭐

Topics: None! This meeting is a great opportunity for members to chat amongst themselves on a weekend, without the usual time constraints (we *do* have to vacate the room by 3:30pm), something folks have been asking for. We will still do themed meetings in the future, but there will be no formal show & tell this month.

⭐Late addition: INK SWAP! (see details in this newer post)

Hope you can make it! No RSVPs required! Any questions? Please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

April meeting info - coming soon!

Don't panic!
April meeting info will be posted here (and sent to members via group email) as soon as I get confirmation from the venue! 😀

Update (4/07): the first venue booking fell through, so I'm waiting to hear back from another venue. I should hear back from them in the next day or two (or three). Thanks for your patience!
Update (4/10): the venue contacted me yesterday to say "Branch staff are reviewing your request and will let you know the result as soon as possible."
Final update -- Good news! We booked the venue for our April meeting! All info in this post--> link.

Excellent turnout for our March meeting!

Our March meeting was held on the 21st of the month at the Vancouver Public Library's Kitsilano Branch Meeting Room. Twenty-three members were present, including brand-new member Robert!

This month's primary meeting theme was "Neglected Fountain Pens" (which was suggested by Stuart) and our secondary topic was --as usual-- "Newest Acquisitions". It was a very busy meeting, but I snapped a few photos, so here they are...

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

That's Julian's colourful new Narwhal (Nahvalur) Schuykill 'Asfur Bronze' fountain pen in between Robert's Montblanc '146' (which belonged to his father) and his Graf von Faber-Castell 'Tamitio', Robert's "daily driver" (the orange Crown Mill paper was a gift to me from Stuart).

Peter R's newest acquisition - an elegant Aurora 'Ipsilon Deluxe', a purchase he said was inspired by the pens he saw (VPCer Phil's Aurora 'Ipsilon Deluxe', perhaps? ;) last month, at his first meeting

Grant's modern Parker '51' (a pen he intensely dislikes and, therefore, neglects lol) and his new acqusition, a vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Oxford' (I love that twisted celluloid material!)

(Above) A nice-but-neglected silver Faber-Castell 'Grip' belonging to Emilio, our youngest member (who came to the meeting with his father Chris, whose own neglected fountain pen was a hard-starting Waterman 'Charleston'--not shown-- that was later fixed), and Paul's new Hero and Eagle fountain pens (hope I ID'd them correctly!).

A shiny Lamy 'Al-Star' in Pacific Blue (the 2017 special edition colour for the 'Al-Star'), a new acquisition of Peter H's.

Stuart's Graf von Faber-Castell 'Classic', a lovely pen that he recently acquired from the Vancouver Pen Shop...

Stuart's newest acquisition - a handsome vintage Parker '51' Vacumatic in Cedar Blue, with a 16K gold-filled cap.

For our primary topic, Stuart brought in this classy (but neglected, for some reason unknown to him lol) Sheaffer Legacy Heritage "Palladium Deep Cut" fountain pen...

 (Above) A couple of new fountain pens I recently acquired---a red Pelikan 'Ineo' and my Pelikan M200 'Orange Delight'.

I forgot to photograph a tiny Favorite branded lever-filler (not a ringtop!) that I brought for our primary topic.  It's neglected because of its miniscule size, but it's adorable and I love it. When I first started collecting, I collected mostly vintage fountain pens...actually smaller vintage pens because they were cheaper than full-sized pens. I accumulated quite a few over the years, but they weren't getting used as they were simply too small for my hands (I wound up selling them to the good folks at Anderson Pens at the 2015 L.A. Pen Show).

David L. brought in several interesting things to show us, including a new acquisition, his burgundy Parker "New Slimfold" fountain pen (center of photo above). At first glance, it appeared to be a Parker '45' (or a Parker 'Arrow--essentially a '45' with a plastic cap), but it has a screw-on cap. Below the "New Slimfold" is David's Parker 'Jotter' ballpoint, which is a nice colour match for the fountain pen. Regarding his neglected fountain pens, David said that his Platinum 'Preppy' pens (not pictured) ---his earliest pen purchases-- aren't used as much any more.

The longer pens on either side of the Parkers are ones that David uses for his other hobby ---pen-spinning! David said he really got into pen-spinning...so much that he was actually mentioned in a book (shown above) on the topic.

Vladan brought in his father's green-striped Pelikan '140' --a highly-respected vintage fountain pen-- for our primary topic. The pen was neglected due to leaking issues, but Vladan later discovered that the leak was caused by a broken plastic nib collar. He acquired a replacement part, and happily, the pen was back in action.

The pen above it is a Osmia/Faber-Castell 884 fountain pen. The pen was manufactured after Osmia was acquired by Faber-Castell, so the pen's markings are a bit of an oddity-- the barrel has "Osmia" on one side and "Faber-Castell" on the other side, while the clip says "Osmia."

The bottom three pens are more of Vladan's newest acquisitions -- a Lamy Safari 'Violet Blackberry', a dark green Eureka Ebonite fountain pen with 'Dodecagon Diamond' cap (a very well-made pen, crafted by a small pen maker in South Korea), and a lovely purple Kaweco 'Sport' "Royal Amethyst demonstrator fountain pen (a Goldspot Pens exclusive).

The fountain pen at the top of the photo is Hadi's gorgeous modern Conway Stewart 'Total Blue Elegance' exclusive edition (with a stunning guilloché fox-head pattern, sterling silver trim and a sterling silver section), which he brought in for our primary meeting topic. Hadi told us that he was greatly drawn to the pen's appearance, but ultimately found the pen to be too heavy.

Longtime VPC member Glenn Marcus' own reason for not using his neglected fountain pens was different than Hadi's -- they were simply too skinny for his grip. Glenn started buying fountain pens in the 1970s and 80s, when slimmer pens were in fashion, but he later realized that they were too narrow. Glenn didn't bring his "neglected" pens to our meeting, but you can see the pens he *doesn't* neglect on his excellent website -- GlennsPens.com

Vladan forgot to show us this beautiful fountain pen during our meeting, but I snapped a photo of it afterwards. It's his new Leonardo Officina Italiana 'Momento Zero Grande 2.0' "Galattica" (Palladium trim) fountain pen. The pen was a limited numbered edition (only 300 pieces were produced) that was made in collaboration with the Tailored Pen Company, a well-known maker of high-quality resin blanks.

Andrew's Parker 'Sonnet' (neglected because it was surpassed by his vintage flexy-nibbed Parker 'Vacumatic'!) and Karen's black Knox 'Aristotle' fountain pen, which she purchased from the Birmingham Pen Company's online retail store. Karen says she doesn't use the pen much because it's a hard-starter.

I actually hadn't seen (or heard of) the Knox model before ---you never know what you'll see at one of our meetings! 😁

Karen's pretty pink Visconti 'Rembrandt' fountain pen, above the Knox....

And here's the newest addition to Jerred's amazing Delta fountain pen collection---a glossy Pearl Red Delta 'Journal' (with a "Tech & Web" imprint)! The pens below it are David C's vintage blue Esterbrook 'J' transitional model, and a vintage Parker '51' (I'm not sure to whom it belongs--please let me know if you're the owner :)

A couple of more photos of the really nice pens that newcomer Robert brought in --his Montblanc '146' and Graf von Faber-Castell 'Tamitio'

I'm sorry I didn't photograph Mark's NOS (New Old Stock) vintage pens at this meeting. Mark did a good job of explaining the different filling systems used by the pens; our club has a real mix of modern fountain pen aficionados and vintage fountain pen fans, so not everyone is necessarily familiar with the filling mechanisms utilized in vintage fountain pens.

Many thanks to everyone who came to our March meeting, whether you brought something to show or not. It was so nice to finally meet Jessica in person, and it was great to see Barry and Joe B. again (we hadn't seen them since the pandemic started), as well as Renz, who moved to central Canada last year. If you're reading this and you haven't been to one of our meetings in a long time, please don't be shy---just drop in and see what we're up to these days 😊 (no RSVPs required!)

I'm in the process of booking a venue for our April meeting, but when I do, I'll post the meeting details here on our blog (in the usual place --the top of the home page -- in big red letters). Until then, have a safe and happy Easter long weekend!
Cheers,
~Maja

Sneak peek (new review coming!)

Can you guess what new fountain pen I'll be reviewing next? 😉

(and no, it's not a British-made pen---I just love British sweets :)

Many thanks to everyone who came to our March meeting on the 21st; I'll be posting a meeting report (with photos) later this week!

Happy Spring!

⭐Don't forget -- our next meeting is /this/ Thursday March 21st--all details here! ⭐

(click on image to enlarge)

This is my handmade fountain pen made by Eric Teska at Etturnings using an in-house "pour over" resin. The resin blank (turned by Eric on his lathe to create the pen) was made from several different leftover resins, which were poured into a mold, one layer at a time, over a period of several months. Eric says it took him nearly a year to make the resin blank for this pen. Each pour over resin blank is unique, though, which I think is really cool! Many thanks to Eric for this lovely fountain pen :)

Hope everyone has a happy Spring!
~Maja

A couple of more photos :)

A couple of more photos of my new Pelikan M200 'Orange Delight'  (unboxing in previous blog post) 😊 ...

(photos by Maja ~ click on images to enlarge)

Pelikan M200 'Orange Delight' fountain pen unboxing! (Newest Acquisitions - Virtual "Show & Tell" ~ part 516)

I first heard about the Pelikan M200 'Orange Delight' Special Edition fountain pen (one of two M200 SEs for 2024, along with the M200 'Copper Rose Gold') in January, but wasn't sure if I was going to purchase it or not; I love the colour orange, but I'd overspent over the holidays so I hummed and hawed about it. Meanwhile, my good friend Glenn (a big Pelikan fan who lives in Australia) was avidly researching the best online prices for the pen (lol), and kindly shared his findings with me. I started to get worried about this special edition selling out, so I decided to order one for myself from Pure Pens (formerly Niche Pens), a U.K. family-owned business located in Wales.

I ordered the pen on February 19th and, in less than six hours, it was in the hands of the Royal Mail. In less than 72 hours from then, it was in my hot little hands! That's the fastest non-courier overseas shipping I've ever experienced ---bravo, Royal Mail and Pure Pens!

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

As you can see from the yellow Canada Post sticker on my parcel (above), I owed some money to the Canadian government (Canada Border Services Agency) -- two sales taxes (GST + PST) and a $9.95 handling fee. Even taking those extra charges and the shipping cost into account, what I paid in total for my pen was less than what I would have paid anywhere else, at the time.

It's too bad there aren't any local stores here in Vancouver that carry Pelikan Souverän models (Pelikans' higher-priced pen lines) any more. Aside from Stylo.ca in Quebec, I couldn't find anyone else in Canada selling the M200 Orange Delight online (when I ordered my pen, it actually wasn't in stock at Stylo.ca yet; my FOMO, it turned out, ultimately saved me over $50 CAD!)

Back to the unboxing....

When I opened the parcel from Pure Pens, I found this little gift -- a stick of Refreshers chewy candy in a nice strawberry flavour :)

The presentation box (the G30 model, which Pelikan started using in 2022) is simple, but elegant; I like the hinged magnetic lid, and the matching orange color for two of the box's sides and its interior. This hard cardboard box was well-protected by a outer box made of thinner cardboard (also shown above) with the Pelikan name on it.

Inside the presentation box was a thin, white faux leather pen pouch with the Pelikan name and logo debossed on it, as well as a warranty/instruction booklet (not every retailer fills out the warranty cards, but Pure Pens did :) The pouch has a large opening, but there's a small pouch-within-a-pouch that can hold a larger Pelikan in place (the M200 slips out rather easily, though). Since they only make the pouch in one size, it has to be able to accommodate the larger Pelikan models, but there's definitely room for improvement in the pouch design, in my opinion.

Anyway, you've waited long enough, so here it is!

(isn't it a looker?)

I was glad that Pelikan decided to go with an all-orange colorway for this model (they're usually pretty conservative with their Souverän model colour choices); the cap, section, piston turning knob and cap top finial are all solid orange plastic, while the barrel is clear orange in colour. I also applaud their decision to go with gold-plated trim --it complements the warm orange tones so nicely.

There are many other Pelikan M200 fountain pens, so I won't be reviewing this one in depth. What sets it apart, however, is that it's the only orange M2xx model that Pelikan has released. Actually, there weren't many orange Pelikan Souveräns released at all; as Joshua at The Pelikan's Perch blog (an excellent resource) pointed out, the only others were the M320 Orange Marbled (2004), the M600 Vibrant Orange (2018), the M640 Indian Summer (2009), and the M800 Burnt Orange (2015).

I selected the Fine width for my pen's gold-plated stainless steel nib. I tend to choose Medium nibs, but I love the way this Fine writes; it has a hint of "toothiness" (which I like) and some character (not exactly line variation--because it's not an italic nib--but I can tell it apart from other Fine-nibbed pens I own). The pen feels extremely well-balanced when posted, and it's a really nice length for my hand when I use it that way. The piston-filling mechanism worked smoothly from the get-go, and draws up a generous amount of ink (1.2 mL, according to several sources).

Many thanks to Pure Pens for this "Delight"-ful (see what I did there? ;) fountain pen and for their excellent customer service; this was my first purchase from them, but it won't be my last. If you're thinking of acquiring one of these beauties for yourself, you might want to act quickly as I suspect they'll be a hot seller!

( ~ Review by Maja ~)