April meeting (NEW TIME, old location!) information

April 2026 meeting details:

When: ⚠️ SATURDAY April 18, 2026

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, BC.

Time: 1:00pm - 3:30pm ⚠️

This is one of our popular twice-yearly (Spring & Fall) "Social Saturday" meetings that we started having in 2024 to allow folks to attend a meeting if they couldn't make it to our Thursday night ones. There won't be any "show & tell" at our April meeting, but there will be a themed meeting (with "show & tell") in May!

Hope you can make it to our April meeting! No need to RSVP, but if you have any questions about it (or questions about our pen club), please feel free to email us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com  😄

March meeting pics!

We had a good turnout for our March meeting (held on the 19th at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library) with thirty members in attendance, including six (!) newcomers - Chris, David M, Geoff, Kyle, Lemo and Mariana. There was no topic/theme for this month's meeting, but it was a good opportunity to chat about pens/inks/stationery in a casual setting with tables and chairs (thank you, VPL!). Quite a few members did bring some new acquisitions to show each other....

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

...starting with Stuart, who recently acquired this vintage Parker 'Jotter' first-year (1954) stainless steel "Flighter" ballpoint (the dating is based on its "trough clip", which was replaced by Parker's famous Arrow clip in later years). The ballpoint sports an advertisement for a corticosteroid cream/ointment called Aristocort^®. What a cool find!

Another nice vintage find of Stuart's -- a "Forest Green" Parker '51' Demi fountain pen (which is resting on a Moleskine planner I got from Paul at the meeting--thank you, Paul!) ... 

A couple of new acquisitions of my own---a maroon Sailor 1911 Profit Standard 21 (which came with a 21k gold nib) fountain pen, and a cute Esterbrook 'Peanuts' pouch (with Charlie Brown's sister Sally on it) that I got from Amy H (thank you so much, Amy! :)

Though he's a massive fan of vintage fountain pens, Grant told me he's enjoying using this modern Esterbrook 'Camden Composition' fountain pen in “Back to School Black”. Grant won the pen in the door prize draws held during at our February meeting at the Vancouver Pen Shop (prizes generously donated by our awesome Pen Shop hosts :)

The speckled pattern on the 'Camden Composition" pens (which also came in the “Spring Break Fluorescent Green" colour) was inspired by the famous Composition notebooks. These durable cloth-bound notebooks (which lie flat -- a nice feature) have been used for over a century by students and artists, and are still going strong.

A vintage Sheaffer double-desk set recently purchased by Paul. It has a handsome clock in the base and two different writing instruments--a Sheaffer Touchdown-filler fountain pen (with a so-called "dolphin nib"), and a ballpoint.

And here are two modern pens Paul purchased--Waterman 'Allure' fountain pens in "Pastel Yellow" & "Pastel Pink". Paul said he got them from a local London Drugs store for under $40 CAD each (looks like they're currently selling for $29.99 + tax).

Back to vintage -- a handsome black German-made 'Mercedes' fountain pen owned by Dominique. I love the fine chased design on the cap and barrel :)

Lyndon's Pilot Custom 912 FA nib fountain pen (on the left) and Allan's new Junlai '930' fountain pen...

The nibs are both interesting, but for different reasons--the Pilot (left) has a 14K gold nib with side cuts to increase its flexiness. while the Junlai came with a huge #9 size steel nib!

One last photo from the meeting---a closeup of the nib on Sheila's Pelikan '481' fountain pen, a model which was the predecessor of the famous Pelikan 'M200' model. The '481' was only made from 1983-1985 and lacks the Pelikan logo on the cap top -- early 481s had the logo underneath the blind cap, while later ones didn't have any logo on the body. Excellent information on this Pelikan model (and many more models) at https://www.pelikan-collectibles.com/en/Pelikan/index.html

Many thanks to all who came to our March meeting! Information about our April meeting will be posted on our website before the end of this month :)

(~blog post by Maja~)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 564

Happy Spring! 🐣 🌷 Many thanks to everyone who came to our March meeting last night at the Kitsilano VPL branch; I'll post some photos from it early next week. In the meantime, here's a new review from Christopher for you to enjoy! :)

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

Christopher writes:

The beginning of the 1940s saw another generation of Vacumatics being introduced by the Parker company. This time, their Lock Down filler that had seen them through on this fine line of pens since 1932 had been modified and simplified to be a better and easier to use option. The 'Speedline' as Parker had branded it, remained fully extended out of the back of the barrel when not in use. It also could be applied with just one hand. Still, two requirements were prime in support of this new filler, and one was quite elementary and that was a longer blind cap. But at the same time, to keep the length of the pen just right, a slight shortening of the barrel was called for. There was also some redesigning of the Parker arrow clip in that the feathers were split, and the Parker name was, in turn, run vertically up the center. The effect was noteworthy and well received by customers, but otherwise the Vacumatic remained more or less the same.

This particular pen came to me in parts to be reassembled accordingly. But the end result was a very attractive vintage Parker pen. The model is a second-generation silver pearl Vacumatic Junior identified by its double cap banding. The fixtures are silver and this is a double jewel model, the jewels being black. The section is also black and firmly holds a superb 14K Gold Parker arrow nib. Both the nib and the barrel have US markings and on the barrel, these marking are followed by the Parker date coding of .1., or the second quarter of 1941. All of these markings are clear and sharp where applied. As for the barrel transparency, other than red amber, I would have to say it is about a C8. The length of this pen posted is all of 6 inches, but it does cap back to full pocketable inch to five responsibly.  Overall, this pen is in just remarkable condition with a real brilliance and luster to the exterior finish. It is also a very good writer laying down the ink in a consistent and even fashion. So, I guess the question remains, will I keep this superb example and do Parker proud? Well, I would be hard pressed to say anything but yes.

 Our thanks to Christopher for the review! Have a nice weekend, everyone!