Thursday, October 31, 2024
Happy Fountain Pen Day ~ Friday November 1st!
How will you celebrate Fountain Pen Day this year? Of course, you'll want to /use/ your fountain pens ... but just in case you want/need an excuse to buy a new fountain pen, you might want to consider supporting these local merchants 😉 - Local Pen Stores (updated list). Have a great FPD 2024!
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
November meeting at Buchan's (on a Saturday night) !
(to the tune of the Bay City Rollers' biggest hit)
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!
😄
November 2024 meeting info:
When: Saturday November 23 from 6:30pm to ???
Where: Buchan's Kerrisdale Stationery, 2141 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver,B.C The store is located on the north side of West 41st Avenue, half a block west of West Boulevard (Buchan's official website/webstore: https://www.buchanst.com/)
Parking behind the store is very limited, but there's metered parking along West 41st (I think after 6pm it's $1/hour, max. 4 hr.stay)
No topics/themes for this meeting! Please feel free to bring any pen-related stuff you want to show other members/staff while you're mingling at this social event. Our thanks in advance to our generous hosts at Buchan's, who also hosted our October 2023 meeting!
Hope you can make it ~ No need to RSVP!
Thursday, October 24, 2024
October meeting photos - part 2 (Sherman's pics)
(all photos courtesy of Sherman ~ please click on images to enlarge) Vladan in the middle, flanked by Sherman and myself (Maja). In the background, you can see (left to right) Colin, brand-new member Lyndon (with glasses), David C, Mmina and Anson.
As I mentioned in part 1 of the meeting photos, Sherman and I did a little pen trade at our October meeting--I got the three nice Sheaffer and Cross ballpoints above, in exchange for the élysée fountain pen in the upper right corner of the photo...
Sherman's élysée 'Laque Lapis' collection, including the fountain pen I traded with him (and the matching ballpoint I gave him a few weeks ago), both on the far left
And here are some nice photos Sherman took of the fountain pen he got from me... It's an élysée 'En Vogue (30 Line) Laque Lapis (1991), and it came in a nice metal box covered with soft felt--classy packaging for this classy German brand!
At first glance, Sherman thought he already owned this model, but when he examined the clip design, he saw that it was an earlier version of one he already had, so he gladly traded me for it. I couldn't believe that he didn't already own this particular model, as I had seen his entire amazing élysée collection at the CFPE picnic last month! (it's in the last three photos of this older blog post)

Above: All the wonderful writing instruments that Sherman brought to show at our October meeting
Sherman told me that his only new acquistion was a Leonardo stainless steel Bock Stub nib for the Leonardo 'Momento Zero' Turquoise-Green fountain pen he bought from fellow VPC member Skye last November. He mentioned that he's very happy with the new nib, which is his first Leonardo Stub. That pen can be seen (with the rest of Sherman's Leonardo fountain pen collection) in the photo above--it's the fourth pen from the left, on the bottom row. The pens in the lower right corner are Sherman's Pilot Custom 743 Black & Pilot Vanishing Point Matte Black fountain pens.
The attaché briefcase is one that Sherman has been bringing to our meetings ever since he joined our pen club in 2020 (note the spotless white cotton gloves that he wears to protect writing instruments he brings to sell or trade :) Sherman told me that his briefcase is from the late 1990s (which some might consider "vintage", esp. with the rise in popularity of soft-sided folio/satchel-style briefcases), but that it was still in such great condition that he decided to keep using it.
As we didn't have a formal "show & tell", our October meeting was a good opportunity to sell/trade inks --in bottles, ink vials or cartridges. Sherman said the clear box + prescription vials was his new set-up for his ink cartridges (and yes, those are all the cartridges he owns!).
At our "unstructured" meetings (casual get-togethers, like October's), our members are encouraged to bring writing instruments they want to show others, and they can be new pens or old, favourites or daily writers, singles or sets. For our October meeting, Sherman brought three sets of his "quads"---writing instrument sets of four-- to show us, starting with the Cross 'Classic Century' (aka 'Century I') Chrome set below...
Above: Sherman's élysée Parthenon (10 Line) Bi-Colour Platinum & 18K Gold quad set. He noted that the “rollingball” (élysée's term for "Rollerball") pen & mechanical pencil were swapped from the original fountain and ballpoint pens, respectively.
Some bottled ink Sherman brought to the meeting to trade (don't worry if you missed it--we'll be having another Ink Swap in December!)
And last, but certainly not least, Sherman's handsome Waterman Carène Black Sea Lacquer GT set!
Many thanks to Sherman for sharing his collection (and excellent photos of it) with us!
(~blog post by Maja~)
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
October meeting photos - part 1
Not even an atmospheric river could deter 24 Vancouver Pen Club members (and a guest from the U.S) from attending our October meeting at the Kensington branch of the Vancouver Public Library on Saturday October 19th!
It was a busy meeting for me, as we had a record-breaking NINE new pen club members (Carola, Catherine, Cynthia, Jenn, Kenneth, Lisa, Lyndon, Lynne, and Rebecca) and one visitor (Loren) in attendance for this casual Fall get-together. I remembered to snap a few photos, so here they are....
(photos by me, Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge)
We didn't have a theme for our October meeting, but I think everyone had a good time. It was the first time we used this VPL branch's meeting room. The room had a lot of windows, and if the weather wasn't so awful, we would have had excellent lighting for all the ink swatching going on 😁
Above: Brand-new member Carola and Anson. Anson brought along several wonderful examples of his own handmade Springfield Pens fountain pens (in his grey pen case above) and Carola brought a lovely assortment of modern fountain pens, including a cool handmade Skogsy Pens fountain pen (which I'd always admired, but had never seen in person).
Above: Two more brand-new members --Catherine (left) and Rebecca (middle)-- sitting with longtime member Dana!
Dana brought along some great fountain pens to show --(left to right): a Kyuseido 'Kakari FS Titanium' fountain pen, six lovely Pelikans, a couple of black Pilot fountain pens, a PenBBS 456 "Lemon Cookie Sandwich" fountain pen, a Pilot 'Vanishing Point' and a fountain pen by Franklin-Christoph.
Sherman arrived late, but I had a good time chatting with him....
...and we even did a little pen trading! (see photo above) I filled a couple of gaps in his amazing élysée collection (more on that in part 2 of the meeting photos) and I got three very nice modern ballpoints from him in exchange --a black Cross 'Townsend' (upper left), a dark green Sheaffer 'Award' and a chrome Cross 'Century II' (I just noticed my inadvertent "shadow puppetry" in the photo above --it looks a shadow dog on the far left lol)
Vladan (left) and Colin had a good time at the meeting. I traded some Blackwing wooden pencils with Colin and we both filled gaps in our respective Blackwing collections :)
Many thanks to everyone who braved the torrential rain to come to our October meeting! Sorry I didn't have time to take photos of everyone's pens, but part 2 of the meeting pics --courtesy of Sherman-- will be featured in the next blog post tomorrow. I hope you can make it to our next meeting (in November)--details will be posted here on our website soon!
Cheers,
~Maja.
Monday, October 21, 2024
Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 531
(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)
Christopher writes:
"Being mainly based in Western Canada, British vintage pens do show up in my neck of the woods. Case in point, a superb Parker 'Super' 17 Duofold, new old store stock in a very attractive presentation box, Circa 1964. What is interesting about this particular vintage pen is its overall makeup. And allow me to add that unlike its Super 17 Duofold predecessor from two years prior, it sports a hooded 14K Gold nib and at the end of the barrel, a gold tassie with matching (to the overall jet finish cap, section and barrel) jewel. This is an injection molded pen, but I think the quality of the plastic the Parker Company used makes up for any lack of quality. Plus, this writing instrument really sits well balanced in the hand. The fittings are 14K Gold filled and the slip-on cap sports a very wide gold banding. Also, the cap clip was a new design, in that there are more tapered feathers at the top end, but the overall length of the arrow is shorter. All in all, a very well-designed vintage pen.
This brings me to the filler, which is definitely aerometric with a transparent ink sack. As for dimensions, this pen posts at 5 ¾ inches but caps back to 5 ½ inches. There is very conservative branding on the barrel in cream that reads, "17 Super" with, further up the barrel, an M for a medium nib. There is also a reference to the pen's place of manufacture -- 'Made in England'-- at the Parker Newhaven plant, and the 1958 released Parker double 'P' back-to-back with an upwards arrow and center halo logo etched into the barrel as well. This logo was, in fact, designed by the Dynamics Company of Chicago.
This brings me to the superb British made presentation box. It has a cream satin insert card to secure the pen. But the covering material on both the inside and the outside of the box lid is an attractive small, pebbled cream offset with small black dots. Also, on the outside of this box top is the Parker name in scripted gold. The bottom of this box is reversed in design with an overall small, pebbled jet covering with small light blue dots. On the top left corner there is L4, which could be the British Parker model of this particular pen container. The box overall is extremely well made, and the fit of the hinged top is superb.
Big points for this UK treasure which has already found favour in my vintage pen collection."
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Next meeting -- this *Saturday* !
Time: 11:30 AM to 2:00PM
Location: The Branch Meeting Room of the Vancouver Public Library's KENSINGTON branch, 1428 Cedar Cottage Mews, Vancouver, BC (map).
Meeting themes: New Acquisitions, Ink Swap (including ink vial samples!) & Socializing 😀 (~ no "show & tell" for this meeting ~ ink swap is 100% voluntary ~)
Hope you can make it! (no need to RSVP in advance). Any questions? Please contact us at: vancouverpenclub@gmail.com
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
New stuff! (from the Vancouver Pelikan Hub & Buchan's)
Our Hubmaster (Vladan) did a great job organizing the Vancouver Pelikan Hub (thank you again, Vladan!). He posted photos from it here on the official Pelikan Hubs Facebook group, and our fellow Vancouver Pelikan Hub attendee Sherman posted his own pics here on the Canadian Fountain Pen Enthusiasts Facebook group (they're both private Facebook groups, so if you aren't on Facebook, you can view Sherman's photos on Dropbox here and the photos I took on my Instagram here).
I met a lot of nice folks at this year's Vancouver Pelikan Hub who weren't in our pen club. If you're one of them (or if you didn't attend the Hub, but would like to join our club :), you're very welcome to attend any of our pen club's meetings--just drop in (no RSVPs required) and see what we're all about! Our next meeting is on Saturday October 19 at the Kensington branch of the Vancouver Public Library from 11:30am - 2:00pm (full details in this post). Hope you can make it!
Best wishes,
~Maja