Photos from our May meeting!

Another great turnout! I counted 35 members in attendance at our May meeting (which was held at the Renfrew branch of the Vancouver Public Library on the 21st), including newcomers Kevin and Matthew, as well as a couple of members I hadn't met before -- Angelo and Vena!

This was one of our "themed" meetings with a casual "show & tell"; the primary theme was "Fountain-Pen-Friendly Paper" and our secondary theme was "Newest Pen-Related Acquisitions". This time around, I remembered to get some photos of people to post on our blog (lol), so without further ado....

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

Above: Group photo taken by Vena just before the "show & tell" started (some folks arrived a bit later--which is perfectly fine--so they weren't in the photo)

Above: Happy pen people! (in the foreground, counter-clockwise from bottom left: Dominique, Christopher T, Cindy, Paul, David C and Anson) 

I took a couple of photos to make sure everyone's smile was captured 😄 -- left to right, on the far side of the table--Kyle (who joined our club in March), Jerred, Andrew, Stuart and Andrii; L-R on the near side of the table: Mark (with hat) and Steve K.

It was Steve who originally suggested the primary meeting topic, and he gave a nice talk on his recent trip to China before telling us about his favourite stationery--Maruman's spiral Mnemosyne notebooks.

Thanks to Rumi for snapping this photo of me (on the far right) with the guys (that's Barry K sitting to Steve's right)

We saw some great pens at the meeting, including this Platinum 3776 Century Urushi Maki-e Sansui (above), a lovely modern Japanese fountain pen belonging to Stuart...

..and some attractive vintage Japanese fountain pens (photo above), including these post-WWII Pilot (top pen) and Platinum fountain pens belonging to David C. I forgot to remove it from its gift bag (because the packaging is exquisite), but behind David's vintage pens is a lovely small handmade notebook that Steve got at Joseph Art Space in Tianjin, China on his recent trip there (thank you so much for the gift, Steve! 😀)

Angelo brought some great pens (above) to show...

 

...including a Pilot 'Justus 95' with an FA nib (bottom pen), a Nakaya 'Aya' (middle pen) with a bouncy gold nib that's a dream to write with, and a Lamy '2000' rollerball with a Uniball refill (Lamy pens usually take proprietary refills, so bravo Angelo, LOL!)

Above: Steve trying out Angelo's Franklin-Christoph fountain pen with nib reground by Jose Munuera (of @nib.lab on Instagram)


Now, you might be wondering "Where are the paper/stationery photos??" 😂
Well, I didn't photograph any (including my own-ha!) because you can find photos of them everywhere online, but I did take notes on what everyone's favourite fountain-pen-friendly paper was... and here are the results!

Fountain-Pen-Friendly Paper Popularity (at May 2026 VPC meeting)

Rank	Paper Brand
1st (tie)	Hobonichi/Tomoe River
1st (tie)	Kokuyo
2nd (tie)	Clairefontaine
2nd (tie)	MUJI
3rd	Rhodia
4th (tie)	Traveler's Notebook
4th (tie)	Maruman
5th	Leuchtturm1917

All of these brands can be found in local pen/stationery stores (Buchan's & the Vancouver Pen Shop --both in Vancouver-- and Nikaido in Richmond, among others), so please give a thought to shopping locally to support them. 😊

Many thanks to everyone who came out to the Renfrew VPL branch for this month's meeting (whether or not you brought stuff for the "show & tell" topics :) and to Rumi and Vena for taking some photos! ** June meeting details will be posted very soon!**

 (~blog post by Maja~)

Photos from November meeting at Buchan's!

Many thanks to the good folks at Buchan's Kerrisdale Stationery for hosting our November meeting at their lovely store last month (November 20th, to be exact)! There were refreshments, great prizes, lots of fountain pen eye candy to look at, and the company of our amazing pen club members (and guests), so I think everyone had a good time 😊 Sherman took some photos during the meeting (thank you, Sherman!), so in case you couldn't make it, here's what you missed...

(pics courtesy of Sherman, except where noted ~ click on images to enlarge) "Selfie King" Sherman with (left to right) Linda N, Carmen L and David L.

All smiles! (left to right: Lawrence C, myself/Maja, Nathan, Andrii and Sherman)

Door prize time! That's Buchan's staffer Yugo (who's also in our club :) in the black hoodie recording the prize draws; Yugo made a really nice short video about our meeting and posted it on Buchan's Instagram ➡️ here ⬅️ (thanks so much, Yugo!)

Everyone checking their door prize tickets ... 

Amy H. (above) won one of five Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel Nr.1 "Mix & Match" ballpoint door prizes and got to create her own pen (with Paul --in cap--looking on) ! The separate components (barrel, end cap & nose cone) were in the box of Leuchtturm parts shown above, as well as the ("Parker-style") ballpoint/gel pen refills the pens take. The Drehgriffel Nr.1 "Mix & Match" ballpoints aren't sold in stores or online, but the nice thing about the versions you *can* buy is that they come in a multitude of colours :) Our thanks to Leuchtturm1917 Canada for donating the ballpoints! 👍

Grant (who was kind enough to call out the winning numbers--thank you, Grant!) was one of two winners of a stilform pen! Rumi won the other stilform pen, and Stuart was one of two winners of a bottle of Stilform fountain pen ink, a new product Buchan's is now carrying in their store. Congratulations to everyone who won a stilform or Leuchtturm door prize! 👏

From stilform's website:
"stilform is a design studio based in Hamburg, which is operated by Christoph Bohrer and Martin Wagner. It was founded in 2013 and creates high-end office products and pens. Always with the focus on creating visually appealing products with clear lines and esthetic form language, attributes like emotions, function and innovation are of utmost importance in the design process.

All parts are from high-grade titanium or aluminium. The superb materials are well known for the extremely high durability and exceptional light weight. The unique magnetic mechanism makes it easy to open and close the pen in just one movement.
Stilform received the Design Award in 2019 and 2021."

I also won one of the Leuchtturm ballpoints! (that's Asifa on the far left of the photo, Renz --who came all the way from Winnipeg!-- on the far right of the pic, and Buchan's owner Inna in the bright blue top)

A quick shot of me assembling my custom Leuchtturm1917 ballpoint (Liz R and Amy are also in the pic; apologies for not identifying everyone in the photos--it was a packed house!). There were a ton of possible colour combinations, but I immediately knew which combo I wanted -- orange ("Rising Sun" colour) barrel with black end cap & black nose cone! It's not my first Leuchtturm Drehgriffel Nr.1 ballpoint (I bought my first one at Nikaido) but I've always loved the weight and balance of these capless & clipless German-designed pens, which are made of precision-milled aluminium and brass.

Buchan's also had a "Guess the Inks" contest where you had to identify a set of mystery ink swatches! Linda N and Carmen L both got 6/12 correct (that's my photo of the answer key above), and each won a bottle of Ferris Wheel Press ink---bravo! 👏   Thank you to Sheila L of Buchan's (Sheila is also in our pen club :)  for putting the quiz together!

Sherman brought a few pens to the meeting to show our fellow members (and somehow managed to colour-coordinate them with the lovely Christmas card--in the upper left corner above-- he got from Mark & Sharon at PenDen.ca lol)

Sherman's classy Cleo Skribent Classic Gold Bordeaux fountain pen....

....his Rhodia scRipt ballpoint made of brushed aluminum.....

...and his handsome vintage Waterman '52V' Red Ripple fountain pen!

Above: My mini haul from Buchan's---my prize (and prized, LOL!) Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel Nr. 1 ballpoint resting on a Leuchtturm1917 A6 Forest Green Notepad (debossed with my name on it), and a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku "Shin-kai" ink (** Buchan's has complimentary in-store debossing with Leuchtturm notebook purchase until the end of the year! **)

It might not look busy in my photo above, but I counted over 65 people (at least 60 members & guests plus a few folks I didn't recognize) in attendance! Thank you to everyone who came to our November meeting at Buchan's!!

Our warmest thanks to Buchan's owner Inna for her generosity, store manager Irena, and everyone at Buchan's for their great customer service and warm hospitality! 🙏

Buchan's is located at 2141 West 41st Avenue in Vancouver, BC and they're open Mon-Sat: 10:00 am - 6:30pm and Sunday: 11:00am - 5:00pm for your shopping convenience. Official web store at https://www.buchanst.com/

(** Update--more photos from our meeting at Buchan's were later posted here)

(~blog post by Maja~)

June meeting photos (topic: Newest Acquisitions)

There were 26 of us in attendance for our June meeting, which was held on Thursday June 19 at the Vancouver Public Library's Kitsilano branch. Among those in attendance were three members who attended their very first meeting -- Andrew, Monika and Steve K!

Our evening's topic was "Newest Pen-Related Acquisitions" and we saw lots of really nice fountain pens that night. I snapped a few photos during this busy meeting, so without further ado, here they are...

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

Newcomer Monika brought three fountain pens to show us, starting with this handsome blue Pelikan 'Pura' (above)...

Monika also brought two more (also blue!) German-made fountain pens -- the Kaweco AL Sport in "Stonewashed Blue" (a very nice pocket pen) and a cool Diplomat 'Viper' Blue Guilloche (I love the snakeskin-like etched pattern...)

Some of the cool vintage writing instruments that Mark brought to show, including a really nice boxed vintage Parker '51' set ...

That's Andrew's Pelikan '120' (Merz & Krell version) fountain pen --a "daily driver" pen for Andrew--which was produced from 1973 to 1977.

I brought three recently-acquired fountain pens to the meeting - a Kaweco AC Sport in Champagne (bottom pen), a Baoer 507 "Eight Horses" fountain pen (a pen that Stuart "de-stashed" last month -- thanks, Stuart!) , and a Lamy AL-Star "Turmaline' (purchased from Noteworthy Stationery---an online-only stationery store in Burnaby, BC---using a birthday gift certificate from some of my lovely pen club friends --thank you *so* much! 😊). 

Glenn M. recently returned from Europe and brought back three gorgeous Italian-made fountain pens! The pen directly above is a Stipula 'Etruria Magnifica', one of several beautiful 'Etruria' models Glenn owns (you can see the rest of them on his awesome website - https://glennspens.com/pensofnote/Stipula-Etruria.html)

These two stunning fountain pens are prototypes of a new model from Radius 1934 that Glenn brought back from his trip to Italy. Glenn has known the owners of Radius 1934 (who also own Leonardo Pens) for many years, so he was thrilled to receive the pens from them...

Though they might look like beautiful resin pens, they're actually made of highly polished ebonite (they almost glow in the light!)

A nice mix of vintage and modern! The top pen belongs to Phil and it's a vintage Parker 'Duofold Jr'  in the harder-to-find "blue on blue" Permanite plastic (the pen was only produced in this material for about a year). Phil acquired the pen at the famous Fountain Pen Hospital retail store in New York.

The modern Graf von Faber-Castell 'Guilloche' "Anthracite" below it, the black vintage Craig (which was a sub-brand of the Sheaffer Pen Company) lever-filler, and the sleek black Sheaffer 'Imperial' all belong to Stuart. Stuart got the Craig --which came with its original price tag on it! -- in trade from Mark during our meeting, and he received the Imperial as a gift from a local book store.

Above: A better look at Stuart's new Graf von Faber-Castell 'Guilloche' "Anthracite" fountain pen. This is the seventh "Graf" Stuart now owns, and he got this one (like many of the others) from the Vancouver Pen Shop.

Paul also brought some interesting vintage fountain pens to show--a vintage LeBoeuf (bottom pen), a swirly red, black and grey Wearever, and a demonstrator (clear) Sheaffer Cartridge Fountain Pen. 

Above: A closeup of Paul's lovely vintage LeBoeuf fountain pen....

And now for something completely different-- an eye-catching modern Conklin 'Duragraph PVD Blue' belonging to Jerred! The pen was made from solid brass with a PVD coating on it. And "What is PVD?", you might ask...
From Conklin's official website: "PVD, which stands for Physical Vapor Deposition, is an environmentally friendly coating process that will protect and prolong the life span of each writing instrument to which it is applied."

I love the use of rose gold-coloured trim, which complements the blue so well. Jerred said the pen originally came with a black nib, but he swapped in the yellow gold-coloured Conklin nib seen above...

Another modern blue fountain pen--David L's dark blue Faber-Castell 'Hexo' (above). This hexagonal fountain pen was made using anodized aluminum and features a clever capping design feature; the cap's facets always line up with the facets on the pen's barrel, no matter how you orient the two parts.

We also saw some new Japanese-made fountain pens, like Vladan's Pilot 'Custom Heritage 912' with FA nib....

Vladan had inked the pen and passed it around for us to try; I had a lot of fun trying out its amazing flexy nib...

Above: Another lovely black fountain pen, but this one is a vintage beauty---Catherine's Eclipse lever-filler, which (like Stuart's Craig vintage fountain pen) came with the original retail price tag --a small paper ring-- on it. The pen was likely made in the 1930s, so it's amazing that the price tag survived after so many years (and the pen itself is in fantastic condition).

Anson of Springfield Pens brought along his newest handmade fountain pen model (the swirly pale blue & green one seen above) to show us. Above it is its full-sized counterpart, the model that Anson first started out making. Both are lovely handmade (in New Westminster, BC !) fountain pens...

I just realized we saw a lot of black fountain pens at our meeting lol. The one on the far right is Vladan's newly-acquired Pelikan M200, while the middle one is a vintage Waterman 7 Red belonging to David C. The reddish-orange fountain pen on the far left is the iconic vintage Parker 'Duofold' "Big Red" (a full-sized vintage Duofold), also belonging to David.

Many thanks to everyone who came to our June meeting, whether you brought new stuff to show or not; the most important thing was that you brought yourself to the meeting! 😁

** Information about our July meeting will be posted here (at the top of each web page, in big red letters, as well as a blog post) very soon! **

Brand-new attendance record! (January get-together photos)

Our January 2025 meeting (held at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library on Jan. 16th) set a new record for meeting attendance---at least 36 people were in attendance, including brand-new members Adam, Audrey, and Tony! 😮 (our previous record was 32, set in December 2024)

The meeting was actually an informal get-together (such as those we also have at pen stores once in a while) and not a regular meeting (which is a sit-down "show & tell" with a meeting theme/topic), so if you're wondering what goes on at these casual gatherings, read on!

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

At our informal get-togethers (and at regular meetings, too), you might find some members selling vintage fountain pens ... like Mark (seated, above), who restores the pens himself! The happy bunch behind him are-- from left to right-- Rene, James, Shona and David C.

You also might see some vintage fountain pens that our members recently acquired, such as this nice Parker '51' fountain pen belonging to Andrew that he purchased from Christopher (another pen restorer in our club) earlier that day...

... or this Parker '25' fountain pen that he bought from fellow member Grant during the meeting...

You're guaranteed to see newly-acquired modern fountain pens that our members brought to show others, such as Peter H's new Waterman 'Hemisphere' (far right, above) ... or old favourites and/or daily users, such as his Waterman 'Laureat' (far left) and Platinum #3776 Century fountain pens...

You might even see a member's entire fountain pen collection, such as Alex's Lamy '2000', TWSBI Mini, TWSBI 'Precision' (left side of pen case in the above photo) and "Vivid Pink" Pilot 'Prera' (photo below) fountain pens.

Although we're primarily a fountain pen club, we occasionally see other writing instruments, such as mechanical pencils. Alex brought some of those to show-- his Pilot 'S30' and the two black Rotrings (an '800' and a '600') seen above....

....as well as his Pentel 'Kerry' pencil (above, far left) and collection of Pentel 'Graphgear 1000' pencils that take different lead widths. Sometimes we even see rollerball pens---the black Pilot 'G2' and a bright green no-name (seen above) are what Alex calls his "loaner pens" 😄.

Our club welcomes collectors/users of all types of fountain pens -- from economical pens to their luxurious counterparts (like David J's Pilot 'Custom Urushi' fountain pen above)...and it doesn’t matter if you own one fountain pen or a thousand --- everyone is welcome!

In addition to pens made by big pen companies, we also see fountain pens handmade by small pen makers, such as the beautiful fountain pens fellow VPC member Anson of Springfield Pens makes and sells (above)...

At our casual gatherings, some of our ink aficionados use the opportunity to trade ink samples and swatch them (that's Michelle's ink swatch book in the photo above)...

In any case, there will always be lots of interesting pens to see, and friendly, helpful pen-loving folks that you can chat with, in a relaxed atmosphere....

...so please come to a meeting and see for yourself! 😁 As as our club's President, I try to attend every meeting, so when you come to your first meeting, please find me (that's me--Maja--- on the far left) and say "hi"! If you need a nib tuned or repaired, you can talk to our fellow pen club member Jerred (standing next to me)... and if you're looking for a beautiful handcrafted fountain pen to buy, look for pen maker Anson (far right of photo)!

Many thanks to everyone who came to our January meeting! Information about our February meeting (which will be a regular--ie. themed--- meeting) will be posted by the end of this month.

(~blog post by Maja~)