April meeting pics (topic: Pocket Fountain Pens)

Twenty-six VPC members, including one newcomer (welcome to the club, Ramiz!), came to our April meeting, which was held at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library on Thursday April 17th. This month's meeting theme was "POCKET FOUNTAIN PENS" (suggested by Asifa) and our secondary theme, as always, was "Newest Acquisitions". I snapped some photos during the meeting, so without further ado, here they are!

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

(Left to right) James, Shona, Asifa and Esther. In the background: Stuart, Anson and David L.

Asifa brought a few pocket fountain pens to the meeting, but highlighted the three above (L-R) - a light pink OHTO 'Tasche' and two aluminum Hongdian M2 fountain pens. I didn't photograph it, but Allan brought in a brass version of the Hongdian M2, which was considerably weightier than its aluminum counterpart.

Asifa's beautiful purple Leather Zippered A5 Leuchtturm1917 Notebook Folio case by Galen Leather and some of her new pens (bottom to top) --two Jinhao '10' fountain pens (in "Matt Gold" and "Coffee Gradient") and a couple of pretty Jinhao '82' fountain pens. Michelle also brought her new Jinhao '10' in "Matt Gold" to the meeting (not pictured); both the Jinhao '10' and '82' are very popular, well-made economical fountain pens.

The five pocket fountain pens I brought to the meeting (L-R): a Titanium Ensso 'Piuma Pocket' , a rainbow-coloured Namisu 'Nova Pocket Titanium', a Kaweco 'Liliput'- Copper , a Kaweco 'STEEL Sport'(made of stainless steel) and an aluminum Kaweco Al Sport "Stonewashed" (which Stuart also brought in for our primary topic)

My main criteria for a pocket fountain pen are portability and durability, so the five pens above were purchased for those reasons. All are short and all are made of metal, but in terms of weight, they differ quite a bit (note: all weights below are the weights of the pens when empty). My Kaweco 'STEEL Sport' is 39 grams, which is more than double the weight of my aluminum Kaweco "Stonewashed" Sport (19 grams). The copper Kaweco 'Liliput', though tiny, weighs 24 grams, while the titanium-bodied Ensso and Namisu pens come in at 38 & 39 grams, respectively. The three heaviest pens are very well-balanced when posted, though --the 'STEEL Sport' posts deeply and the Ensso & Namisu pens have threaded barrel ends-- so they're comfortable for me to use. As for aesthetics, I love that the Ensso and Namisu (both wider-bodied pens) have full-sized (#6) nibs. Another design choice I like with them and the Kaweco 'Liliput' (which also has a threaded barrel end) is that when posted, all three become full-sized pens.

The photo above has a mix of pocket pens and new acquisitions - (top to bottom): David L's favourite pocket pen (which isn't a fountain pen ;) -- a copper Bolt Action Pen by Big Design (takes rollerball/ballpoint refills), Yang's titanium Ensso 'Bolt' (a bolt-action fountain pen), David's brass Kaweco 'Sport', Andrii's new vintage Parker '51' vacuum-filler with sterling silver cap, Audrey's yellow Rotring 'Rivette' (a prize she recently won online--congrats, Audrey!👏) and her navy blue Kaweco 'Classic Sport', Lynne's adorable green Moonman Q2 Mini fountain pen, and Kimberly's silver aluminum Kaweco 'Liliput'. Tony also brought in a brass Kaweco 'Sport', but his didn't have the removable clip (sold separately from the pen) that David's pen sported (pun intended ;)

Above: Kimberly's little aluminum 'Liliput'. Weighing in at just 8 grams empty, it's practically feather-light, but it uses the same nib as the one found on the Kaweco 'Sport' line of fountain pens. The size of the nib is perfect for the 'Liliput', but I wish they'd put a slightly larger nib on the 'Sport' pens, just to make the nibs more proportional in size to the pens' bodies.

We also saw some nice vintage pocket fountain pens at the meeting, such as these two navy blue Sheaffer 'Tuckaway' fountain pens, and a interesting pen by the company Welsh...

It might be a bit difficult to see in my photos, but the red Welsh pen actually has a flattened cap and barrel...and no, it wasn't run over by a car--that's just the design!

Shona brought a nice mix of vintage and modern pocket fountain pens -- (top to bottom) a clear lavender Pilot 'Petit1', a swirly Wancai 'Mini', two vintage Kaweco 'Sport 'V16N' piston-fillers (ca. 1970), and two vintage Pilot 'Elites'. There's an excellent document about the long history of the Kaweco 'Sport' (which came out in 1913!!) here.

The Pilot 'Elite' in burgundy (seen above, second from the front) is the older counterpart of the modern Pilot 'E95S', a wonderful gold-nibbed pocket fountain pen.

Jerred also brought a very interesting selection of pocket fountain pens for our primary meeting theme (L-R): an OHTO 'Rook' (a compact fountain pen that becomes a full-sized pen when posted), an AG Spalding fountain pen, a mystery black pocket pen, a Spanish-made Inoxcrom 'Vivaldi', a LIY (Live in You) 'Future' "Enchantress", a black transparent Wancai 'Mini' (2nd gen.), a PenBBS '471' (with a #6 nib--yay!) in the desirable "Amber is a Cat" acrylic, a Kaweco 'Liliput' in Brass , and a vintage Pilot 'Elite'.

Our secondary meeting theme is always "Newest Acquisitions" and Esther brought her new TWSBI Eco 'Irish Green w/Onyx' fountain pen to show us. I love how the dark trim complements the dark green of the cap and piston-turning knob...

The Stone Paper notebook in the photo above has, yes, stone paper in it! Stone paper is a strong and durable (but heavy) paper-like material made from calcium carbonate and high-density polyethylene resin. Jerred said he found the notebook at a local Dollarama store.

Anson also recently acquired a new TWSBI with Onyx trim... but his is this handsome TWSBI '580ALR' "Caribbean w/ Onyx" fountain pen that he purchased from local stationery store Paper-Ya.

Another handsome fountain pen--Paul's amber Visconti 'Pericle'. The pen's distinctive curved clip was modeled after by the helmet worn by Pericles, an ancient Greek general and politician.

Paul's example is the first version of Visconti's 'Pericle' model, which came out in 1994; a revamped model (with a metal cap top and barrel end piece) came out in 2001.

The heaviest fountain pen we saw at our meeting was Paul's new acquisition above -- a Duke '2009 Charlie Chaplin Tribute' fountain pen, which (according to this informative and highly enthusiastic YouTube review here) weighs a whopping 77 grams! The pen's shape was inspired by Chaplin's iconic movie character "The Tramp", and features symbols associated with him (bowler hat, shoes, cane) on the pen's wide cap band.

On the lighter (literally) side, we have Rene's three diminutive vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Bantam' fountain pens (above). Next to them are a pair of vintage Waterman desk pens that Rene recently acquired. The desk pens are part of a beautiful desk set whose metal base features two large elephants (Rene didn't bring the base to the meeting due the fragility of the tusks on the elephant figures).

That's Paul vintage Waterman fountain pen in dark grey, and above it are two very recent acquisitions of David C's -- a brown-striped Pelikan 'M800' "Brown-Black" and a burgundy Pilot E95S  (nice purchases, David! :)

I'm not certain, but I think James brought in this cool BCHR (black chased hard rubber) safety fountain pen; it's a very old fountain pen with a retractable nib and a lovely cap band engraving. The burgundy pen above it belongs to David C. and is a vintage Sheaffer 'Snorkel' model.

(the Sheaffer features an "interesting" cap band engraving... 🤭)

Another new acquisition! The beautiful cream-coloured fountain pen above is Kimberly's Esterbrook 'Estie' TheCoffeeMonsterzCo limited edition, a collaboration between Esterbrook and local Vancouver artist Helen Wang. The brown and cream resin used for the cap band (and the section -- which you can't see because the pen is capped, sorry!) was created by Jonathon Brooks of the Carolina Pen Company for this particular model.

...and speaking of Esterbrook, here's Neil's new Esterbrook 'Cube', a canvas portable carrying case that he purchased from the Vancouver Pen Shop!

It's a well-organized, roomy, zippered case that has slots for five pens, and lots of space for notebooks, gadgets, ink samples (& more!), and it comes in three colours -- Butter, Navy Blue and Green.

Neil also brought some nice pocket fountain pens for our primary topic---a aluminum Kaweco 'Liliput' in green (a limited production colour), a brass TRC fountain pen by the Traveler's Company, and a blue & tan swirly Conklin 'Minigraph' "Blue Baltic". 

Stuart also bought a nice carrying case from the Vancouver Pen Shop--his new Galen Leather 'Writers Medic Bag'!

The bag was the last design of Galen Leather's founder, Zeynep, who, sadly, passed away in 2019. The design of the bag was inspired by a traditional medic kit bag.... 

(top view of the bag's interior) ... and it has compartments for writing instruments and other writing tools, notebooks/journals, and accessories.

Stuart also brought a new fountain pen to show us--his vintage black Parker '51' vacuum-filler with Lustraloy cap. Stuart was intrigued by the "T6." stamped on the pen and wondered if it indicated that the pen was made in Canada ("T" for Toronto??). If you have any info on this, please drop us a line!

Wherever it was made, the '51' came with really smooth gold nib that wrote beautifully...

And here's another classic Parker fountain pen...but this one was made a few decades after Stuart's. It's Beverley's beautiful Parker 'Sonnet' in the "Laque Firedance" finish (ca. 1994) with 18K gold nib.

A quick photo of my newest fountain pen--a modern Sheaffer calligraphy pen (with 3 nib units of varying widths) that I got from Stuart during the meeting (thank you, Stuart!) in a beautiful turquoise (and very "Easter") colour.

(photo above & below courtesy of Sherman)

Sherman couldn't make it to the meeting, but he wanted to share his pocket pen collection, so here are a couple of photos of his collection that he sent in.

Sherman's captions for the top photo:

Here is my pocket pen collection, primarily Kaweco Classic Sports & Liliputs...Very common models except the middle two (the Transparent Kaweco Sport set on the left side of the pen case) -- they’re 20+ years old and came with the transparent pouch above them. A similar one (the pen to the right of the set) was gifted by my buddy in 2018.

The two in the middle of the pen case (Kaweco Classic Sport pens) look like Christmas pens.

The 5 Kaweco Liliputs (on the right side of the pen case) are Copper (on top), and (L-R) Brass, Black, Fireblue and Stainless Steel. 

The blue one (extreme left side of photo) is a Stipula Passaporto Sapphire Blue Eye Dropper. Very smooth.

The orange one next to it is a Campo Marzio Minny Mandarin.  Smooth writer.

The one on the extreme right side of the photo is a rOtring Feather-light Metal 400 Esprit Chrome collapsible ballpoint pen.  A very cute pen when it’s fully extended.

The white one on the bottom is a plastic Sailor Dreamy Perfume 50 Ballpoint Pen. I bought it for concealment fun, inserted inside my socks if I don’t have any pocket!  But the ink was dried out long time ago.  Hopefully I can find the matching refill.

The very bottom one is a Fisher Space Pen Bullet Matte Black.  Bought 4 for the family - 2 blacks, 2 chromes - all under $20 each from 3 different owners!

As for the new ones, I had intended to share the excitement of my latest TENNY Square Circle II Sandalwood (at the very bottom of the top photo), together with the latest 2 Vancouver Pen Club pens (at the very top of the photo).

(above: the same pens uncapped/posted)

Many thanks to everyone who came to our April meeting, whether you had pocket fountain pens and/or new acquisitions to show or not 😀. Special thanks to Paul for donating the Peter Pauper Press bound notebook for the door prize draw (which was won by Amy--congrats, Amy!👏)

*Information about our May meeting will be posted near the end of April*

(~Blog post by Maja~)