Charals store closing sale extended to end of July 2025!

(*this is an update to an earlier blog post here*)

I visited Charals  on June 19 and was happy to hear that the store will close no sooner than the END OF JULY! This is an extra month for you to visit the store in-person, but don't wait too long to pay the store a visit before it closes permanently!

One thing I noticed at the store yesterday was that almost all of the writing instruments and inks had bright red sales stickers on them, whereas the online prices for these same items had a mixture of sales prices and regular prices, so I highly recommend shopping IN PERSON for the best deals. 

Charals is located at 171 Robson Street in downtown Vancouver (less than one block from B.C Place). The store's regular hours are: Mon-Fri: 10am – 5:30 pm and Sat 10am - 5pm; closed Sundays and all public holidays. Charals' web store will remain open after their physical store closes, so if you can't visit them in person before they close, you can still shop their online store at https://charals.com/  
 

Reminder - meeting this Thursday!

June 2025 meeting info:

When:  Thursday June 19, 2025

Where: Branch Meeting Room (in the basement) of the Vancouver Public Library's KITSILANO branch at 2425 Macdonald Street (between Broadway and West 8th) in Vancouver

Time: 5:00pm - 7:30pm

Meeting theme/topic: A special presentation on vintage fountain pen repair (and a lever-filler repair demo) by Grant!🖋️🛠️PRESENTATION CANCELLED

*NEW* meeting theme/topic: "NEWEST PEN-RELATED ACQUISITIONS"! (*please try to limit your 'show & tell' to a maximum of 2-3 items per person, due to time constraints*)

Hope you can make it to the meeting and don't worry if you don't have any new things to show---please come anyway! (and no need to RSVP, either :) If you have any questions, please contact us via email at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

Happy National Ballpoint Day! (June 10th)

Happy National Ballpoint Day! 

Today is a day to celebrate "that other pen" (just kidding--our club members *aren't* fountain pen snobs 😉), so here are some photos I took of a lovely handmade twist-action ballpoint I recently acquired. The pen is the "Copper Diamonds" model and it was made by Dylan Swain of The Pen Den in Gatineau, Quebec...

(click on images to enlarge)

Since I don't know the first thing about making handmade ballpoints, I'll let Dylan explain how he made this lovely writing instrument: "I designed the mold for this pen, printed it in white resin, and cast copper and pearlescent black mica before shaping and polishing to a high gloss."

Dylan adds: "I like how the black is reminiscent of marble and the copper has depth and captures the light very nicely." He's correct on all counts, and I hope my photos captured the beautiful colours and depth of the materials. I'm so glad that Dylan chose metal trim with an "antique" finish---it goes so well with the rest of the pen :)

Dylan's pens can be found for sale in his Etsy online store - ThePenDenShop. I've bought several handmade ballpoint pens from him over the years (they're featured in this post) and I've never been disappointed. Dylan--thank you again for another great handcrafted one-of-a-kind ballpoint!

(~Blog post by Maja~)

Pen repair presentation/demo at June meeting cancelled!

Due to an unexpected change in his work schedule, Grant's special presentation on vintage pen repairs (at our June meeting) has been CANCELLED. Grant really wants to do the presentation at a later date, though, so we'll reschedule it for another month. 

In the meantime, our June meeting is still on (same date, time and place as originally announced), but we'll be doing Newest Acquisitions as an informal "show & tell". I've amended the original post about the meeting, which you can find here.

Charals store closing 😔 (*info below updated June 19*)

(announcement posted on Charals' Instagram account on April 2, 2025)

Sadly, after 39 years, Charals will be closing their store sometime this summer 😭.
I got in touch with Charals' owner Shelina earlier this week, and she told me that the store might close as soon as the end of  this month (June), **UPDATE** When I visited the store on June 19, I found out that Charals will close no sooner than the END OF JULY! This is an extra month for you to visit the store in-person, but don't wait too long to pay the store a visit before it closes permanently! 

Charals is located at 171 Robson Street in downtown Vancouver (less than one block from B.C Place). The store's regular hours are: Mon-Fri: 10am – 5:30 pm and Sat 10am - 5pm; closed Sundays and all public holidays. Charals' web store will remain open after their physical store closes, so if you can't visit them in person, you can visit their web store at https://charals.com/   
 
Our warmest wishes to Shelina & her family, and thanks to everyone at Charals for 39 great years! 🥹 

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 547

With so many students graduating this month, I thought it'd be a good time to post Christopher's write up about a ballpoint that ties in with his own school days. It's a modern ballpoint with a lot of sentimental value, and here's the story behind it...

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

Christopher writes:
"Admittedly, I am not a die-hard collector of ballpoint pens, but do have a select few in my pen collection. One in particular, that has somewhat of a story to tell, is a pen which actually came to me as a sample, with the hopes of the provider to have me order a good number of them.

But the story behind this pen is somewhat interesting otherwise, because it involves a British style boys' private school that thrived in the Kerrisdale district of Vancouver, BC between 1940 to its closing in the fall of 1973. At its peak, it was the largest boys' school of its kind in British Columbia, with an enrollment in the early 1960s of some 265 boys. The school also had boarding facilities and could provide hot meals to day boys, if needed. I personally attended the school from 1953 through to its highest grade 9, coming away in June of 1964. But in 1973, when the school closed, strangely, it disappeared right off the map. Not only was the school torn down, but all the school's records disappeared as well. In 1998, I came up with the idea of incorporating an old boys' society in honour of the school and, at the same time, writing a book on the school's colourful history. This magnum opus, in turn, became several books, one of which was acknowledged by the Federal Government as an official BC history book. But while all this was taking shape, I was approached by a novelty company with a sample which exemplified the School and in turn touched my heart.

The school was, in fact, Athlone School for Boys' and, to this day, the pen that commemorates it quite rightly, has a special place in my pen collection."

Christopher--thanks for sharing your memories and some background about this historic BC school!