Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 521

Happy August! As promised in our July meeting report (link), here's Christopher's write up about the lovely vintage OMAS he brought to that meeting (thank you, Christopher!)...

(Photo & text below courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)

"Over the years I have heard tell that Omas pens are the ‘Bee’s Knees’ in fine writing instruments. Sadly, it was a line of pens that didn’t come into my sights until quite recently. And I think what interested me the most was a write up I read that said that it was questionable as to which came first in a faceted pen design -- the Doric or the Omas ‘Extra’ line of pens. Strictly by dates of production, I would have to say that it was the latter. Then again, the design was so much of the times, which was Art Deco, it was no wonder both lines of pens shared a similar look! Still, my interest has always been in the vintage -with few exceptions- and if there was to be an Omas pen in my collection, I wanted it to have some age to it. Well, as luck would have it, a superb Omas ‘Gentlemen’ came my way and definitely ticked off all the Omas boxes which include a smooth-as-glass Omas Lucens 18K Gold nib. 

I am not going to get into the history here, because there is enough of it with this line of pens to fill a book. Saying that, this pen was hand produced in the early 1960s, more as a tribute to one of the company’s first major sellers. But unlike the Omas pens that followed the Gentlemen, it was the last Omas pen to be fabricated out of celluloid. The newer Omas pens were made from vegetal resin, which does not --from what I understand-- have the stability. It wasn’t until the 1990s that this was changed to the more modern special resin, that does have the strength of finish to endure. Also, and just for the record, the Omas Company, just to make things a wee bit confusing, produced a 2cm smaller version, but instead of calling it the ‘Gentlemen’ branded it the Omas ‘Gentleman’, marketing it at a lower price. The Omas Gentlemen is a piston filler, and a fine working one at that, with a blued transparent ink view window. Regardless of just how things came down, I personally am quite enamoured with this fountain pen and subsequently, it will find a place in my vintage pen collection."

Photos from our July meeting!

Our July meeting was held at the Vancouver Public Library's Terry Salman branch on Thursday July 18th. There were 22 members in attendance that night, including one brand-new member (Esther) and two visitors from India and Japan (Abhijit and CY)!

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

L-R (standing): Stuart, Abhijit, Asifa, David C, James, Rene, Glenn M, Shona. myself (Maja); L-R (seated): Jerred, MMina, Esther, Grant, Christopher, Phil, Paul, Rumi and Vladan. Not pictured: Dana, CY, Yugo. Many thanks to Liz for taking the photos!

Our meeting topic was "Birthday Pens" and we saw some very nice examples. The topic was inspired by the recent birthday of our youngest pen club member, who turned 10 years old last month😊

I didn't get a photo of her birthday pen, but newcomer Esther showed us a Caran d'Ache 849 ballpoint that she got for her birthday (love those ballpoints!). Esther told us that her first fountain pen was a Lamy 'Safari', but that she subsequently bought others, including a Platinum 'Preppy' and a MUJI fountain pen. Her most recent purchase was a Sailor dip pen.

Stuart brought this handsome Montblanc '146' fountain for our primary meeting topic; he later told me that it was given to him on his 21st birthday. Stuart has brought this fountain pen to our meetings a few times (for various topics) and it's obvious how much he cherishes it :)

Our secondary topic is always "Newest Acquisitions" so Stuart showed us his new vintage black Parker '51' with Lustraloy cap. The shiny golden Sheaffer 'Imperial Triumph' Touchdown fountain pen was given to Stuart's maternal Grandfather on his 65th birthday, in 1963.  His Grandmother purchased it at Woodward’s Oakridge, and paid $35 for it, a high price at the time!

A couple of Asifa's recent purchases--a TWSBI 'Eco' Indigo Bronze (filled with Robert Oster's wonderful "Blue Denim" ink) and a purple Pilot 'Metropolitan' with a Pilot "Calligraphy Medium" (marked "CM") stub/italic steel nib on it. I can't remember what ink was in the 'Metro', but I know that Asifa likes to match inks with pens of the same/similar colour :)

Vladan's handsome green-striped Pelikan M800 was a recent acquisition....

...as was his new Retro 51 'Tornado' 'Tesla' fountain pen. This model was a tribute to the famous Serbian engineer/inventor and the pattern was inspired by Tesla's spiral coil, used in his wireless power experiments. Vladan also showed us his new Pilot Custom '912' (not pictured).

David (who’s a really big vintage Parker fan) used a birthday gift card to the Vancouver Pen Shop to purchase this Platinum '3776 Century' fountain pen (you can't go wrong with a modern classic like this pen!)

...and speaking of David's love of old Parkers---he recently bought the "Blue Pearl" striped Parker 'Vacumatic' above. The top pen in the photo is another classic vintage Parker fountain pen--a Parker 'Duofold' in "Chinese Red" belonging to Grant... and it's the first fountain pen he restored himself (yay, Grant!).

The middle fountain pen is an Inkograph 'Mickey Mouse' fountain pen with images of the iconic cartoon character on the cap band. It belongs to Christopher, who wanted a Mickey Mouse fountain pen ever since he saw one as a kid. I didn't get a chance to photograph it, but Christopher also brought in a tiny Peter Pan fountain pen with a 14K gold overlay (late ed - Christopher sent in a photo and review of the pen and it was posted here a few days later).

Christopher's beautiful vintage OMAS 'Gentlemen' (above) was a recent acquisition (another late edit - this was initially labelled a 'Gentleman' model, but Christopher sent a nice write up about it after the meeting, which I later posted here).

Above: Liz's impressive Namiki 'Emperor', one of pendom's largest fountain pen models…

Another eye-catching pen belonging to Liz--a Schon dsgn fountain pen in Ultem material. The pen sports a very cool Schon-designed Monoc nib. The entire nib and collar are made from a single block of Grade 5 Titanium, and there is no tipping material added to the end of the nib.

I'm sorry I didn't photograph Liz's Opus 88 and the Turnt Pen Co. fountain pen she got/bought for her birthday (I think it was a 'Bardugo 13' model in "Ocarina Abalone"), but she brought them--and other two pens-- all inked up for us to try, along with this note showing what ink was in each pen (thanks, Liz!).

Above: My haul from the recent Pacific Northwest Pen Show, held in Portland, Oregon (I did a report on the pen show & the stuff I got in the blog post before this one)

(Left to right: Nahvalur 'Voyage' Pride 2024 special edition, Zodiac Pen Co. 'Taurus' in "Polar Cenote", Newton Pens 'Moody' (Medium size) in "Ivory Roses", Mike's Pen Fun handmade fountain pen in "Full Tilt Boogie" resin, Karas Pen Co. 'Vertex' Baltimore Pen Show special edition and Waterman Harley- Davidson 'Combusition'. Top: Retro 51 Tornado rollerball "Good Dog Sheldon" special edition made for Dromgoole's pen store. The Zodiac Pen Co. 'Taurus' pen was a belated self-gift for my May birthday. The cool Rickshaw Bagworks six-pen roll features a design by our pen club's own Richardo!

I saw Shona & James at the Portland pen show and at the meeting, Shona told us about the things she bought there--a special nib by The Good Blue (and another by JoWo) and a handmade fountain pen from Mondu Pens (mondupens.com). James showed a lot of restraint (lol) and didn't buy anything at the show.

The most recent acquisition of mine -- a vintage Sheaffer 'Reminder' ballpoint with perpetual calendar, a gift I got from my fellow VPCer Paul just before our meeting.

It's called a 'Reminder' model because you can't clip the pen onto a shirt pocket (and possibly staining the fabric) unless the pen tip is withdrawn by pressing on the clip. Sheaffer came out with a modern version of the 'Reminder' a few years ago, but I prefer the old-style. All my vintage version needed was a modern Sheaffer ballpoint refill (which I had at home) to get it up and running again :) Thanks again, Paul!

It wouldn't be a Vancouver Pen Club meeting if Jerred didn't show us another addition to his wonderful Delta fountain pen collection, and this meeting was no exception. The bright orange model in the middle is a Delta 'Dolce Vita Oro' (mid-size), flanked by his Montblanc '149' and Jerred's new A.G. Spalding pocket fountain pen.

Paul recently acquired some vintage fountain pens, including a Sheaffer 'Fineline' model (top pen) and the vintage Esterbrook 'M2' model below it.



Above: Another vintage Sheaffer that Paul recently acquired...

That's Abhijit trying out the elegant Montblanc 'Noblesse' fountain pen Paul bought for himself as a "self-gift". Abhijit came all the way from Calcutta, India to attend our meeting, and it was a pleasure chatting with him about pens and the pen community in his city/region.

This is Paul holding his newest acquisition---an oversized store "dummy" fountain pen (advertising pen) that he won in our July meeting's door prize draw! (congratulations to Paul and thanks to Christopher for donating the prize). Paul had made some dip pen ink from black walnut and brought samples to give out to our members, so his door prize win was rather karmic lol

Rumi brought some lovely new acquisitions to show us (top to bottom): a beautiful handmade Springfield Crafts (now Springfield Pens) resin fountain pen made by our fellow VPC member Anson, a purple Pilot 'Decimo' and a Leonardo 'Momento Zero' "Hawaii". The 3-pen case at the top (a Rickshaw Bagworks 3-Pen "Coozy" case) was a limited edition, specially made for the Canadian Fountain Pen Enthusiasts (CFPE), a Facebook Group Rumi belongs to.

Phil showed us some newest acquisitions, including two pens he bought in Trondheim, Norway (!)  -- a bright blue Pilot 'Explorer' (Phil said this one takes international cartridges, which is unusual--turns out that versions of this model sold in the EU are like this) and a Lamy 'Safari' Strawberry. I believe the beautiful fountain pen at the bottom is Mmina's Sailor Shikiori (in the "Dragon Palace" colour, I think...).

Another fountain pen Phil recently acquired --this one from a pen shop in Greece!--- a gorgeous new-style OMAS 'Bolonga' in the "Grigio Luminoso" material. The pen is made of Diamondcast resin, and the cap band features the city of Bologna's famous porticoes.

I forgot to photograph another handsome Italian fountain pen that we saw at the meeting--Glenn's amazing Scribo 'Feel' Mosto fountain pen. The pen was a "birthday pen" and was featured on Glenn's excellent website here: https://www.glennspens.com/pensofnote/Scribo-Feel-Mosto.html

Dana came to our meeting with lots of wonderful modern fountain pens, including these soft pastel-coloured Sailor 'Realo' fountain pens that had Zoom/Music nibs on them...

...as well as this elegant vintage Sheafer 'Targa'  with a factory italic/stub nib on it (I tried it and it's a wonderful writer :)

Above: One of Rene's recent acquisitions--a Platinum '3776 Century' "Sands of Komodo" fountain pen. The rose gold trim was inspired by the pink sand beaches (and  the pen’s colour by the tropical waters) surrounding Indonesia's Komodo Island.

And here are some birthday fountain pens Rene showed us--a Cross 'Townsend' "Year of the Rat" Special Edition (in the box) -- every year, Cross comes out with a new pen based on the year of the Chinese Zodiac (hopefully they'll have a Year of the Snake for my birth year!)---as well as a brushed stainless steel Lamy 'Studio' and a handsome Mabie-Todd 'Swan' fountain pen from the 1930s.

Above: More of Rene's recent acquisitions ... but they're playing peek-a-boo (I ran out of time to take them out--it was a really busy meeting). Among other new acquisitions, Rene showed us two pens he got in Switzerland--a Parker 'Vector' "Le Petit Prince" fountain pen and a Waterman 'Laureat' (not pictured).

And last, but not least--two lovely pen cases belonging to Rene that were made by Rickshaw Bagworks specially for the Canadian Fountain Pen Enthusiasts (CFPE) Facebook Group. These are the most recent Rickshaw cases made for the CFPE; Rumi's Rickshaw case (the bright green/yellow Northern Lights case further up this blog post) came out last year.

Many thanks to everyone who came to our July meeting, whether you brought anything for the topics or not! Information about our August meeting will be posted on our website (please check the top of each website for that info in big red letters) as soon as the date/time/venue are finalized!

(~blog post by Maja~)

June meeting photos!

Many thanks to everyone who came to our June meeting (at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library) on the 15th. We had fourteen members in attendance, including two newcomers (Asifa and Harris). Our thanks also go out to Christopher for donating the Cross Soft Tip 12K gold-filled pen which Chris M. won as a door prize! The primary theme for our June meeting was Vacation Pens & Ink (which 3 fountain pens and ink you’d take with you) and, as usual, our secondary topic was Newest Pen-Related Acquisitions.

Since it's related to vacations, I thought I'd kick off this meeting report with a photo of an elegant old postcard that Stuart found while cleaning out his storage unit...

(all photos by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge)The postcard was sent from Antwerp, Belgium in 1908 (!) to Stuart's maternal grandmother in Canada by a friend of hers who’d travelled to Europe. The recipient's address takes up most of the other side of the postcard, so the sender's message was written on the front. There’s no slick, glossy paper to deal with, as you do with modern postcards! (I tend to write them with ballpoints ;)

Here's a pen accessory that instantly caught my eye during the meeting---a gorgeous handmade leather three-pen case belonging to brand-new member Asifa! The case was handmade in Turkey by Galen Leather.

Inside the case are Asifa's three vacation fountain pens peeking out (left to right) - a Lamy Safari in "Strawberry" (one of the 2022 'Safari' colours), a Faber-Castell 'Loom' in "Metallic Violet", and a TWSBI 'Swipe'.


Now, here's a fountain pen you don't see every day....

It belongs to another brand-new member, Harris, and it's his Pilot 'Custom Urushi', the largest of the Pilot 'Custom' family (there's a good comparison shot of the Pilot 'Custom' models here). I believe it's currently the largest fountain pen in Pilot's lineup (ie. not including the Namiki-branded models) -- an impressive writing instrument that's also a wonderful writer.

The pen is made of Japanese ebonite, hand-finished with pure urushi lacquer that's applied in layers --over a period of several weeks or even months-- a painstaking process expertly done by Japanese maki-e artisans. The lacquering technique used for this Pilot model line is Roiro Urushi, a black urushi lacquer.

The Pilot 'Custom Urushi' has a huge 18K gold two-tone nib (seen above). In the comparison photo I mentioned earlier (this one), the nib appears to be 25% larger than the Pilot 'Custom 823' nib, and about 40% larger than the nib on the popular Pilot 'Custom '74' fountain pen.

More lovely black fountain pens belonging to Harris! These two handsome Italian-made OMAS fountain pens are the iconic 'Paragon' old-style  (a faceted pen), and the equally-iconic '360' (a triangular pen) below it.

That's Jerred's new Delta 'Unica' Limited Edition in orange celluloid (made exclusively for retailer Goulet Pens) in the photo above. Jerred recently acquired this eye-catching Italian-made pen from a member of the Calgary Pen Club. The PenBBS '268' fountain pen below it is Jerred's choice of vacation fountain pen. It's a clear demonstrator vacuum-filler that has an ink shut-off valve,  a very useful feature if you are traveling by plane (where air pressure changes might cause ink leakage).

For his vacation ink, Jerred said he'd take some Higgins 'Fountain Pen India" Non-Waterproof Black (ie. washable) ink, available from Michael's craft supplies store for less than $7 CAD (Note: make sure you get the one made for fountain pens as there are other Higgins inks that are /not/ made for FPs)

Here's a handsome new acquisition that new owner Hadi said he'd be taking on future vacations-- a CONID 'Minimalista' Bulk-Filler! It was made in Belgium by CONID, a small subsidiary of a company called Komec that designed and made machines for the pharmaceutical industry (Komec was later acquired by a Swiss multinational called Lonza). Hadi said the demand for this pen was very high, as only a small handful were released (they sold out very quickly).

Three great modern German fountain pens that Stuart would take on vacation-- his "Graf von Faber-Castell 'Guilloche' model in "Gulf Blue", his Montblanc '146' and his Lamy '2000'.

Stuart's Montblanc '146' is resting on a notebook that he recently bought at the Vancouver Pen Shop--a Penmanship Notebook by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild (photo of notebook's interior here).

My own three travel fountain pens (L-R)---Ensso 'Piuma Pocket' fountain pen made in Ultem (a very durable plastic used in the aerospace industry), a red-orange Jinhao '100' (whose nib I swapped out for a steel Knox nib), and a brushed stainless steel Waterman 'Graduate'.

The ink I'd take on vacation is my Noodler's Black (shown above, and inside the Ensso pen, too) because I love doing crossword puzzles and Noodler's Black dries quickly and doesn't feather on newsprint.

Some of my newest acquisitions (L-R): an ebony wood Jinhao '9056' fountain pen, a taupe-coloured Sailor 'Lecoule' fountain penin "Safari Gray" bought at Nikaido in Steveston (Richmond), a Retro 51 'Honey Bear' rollerball and two ballpoints --a Lamy 'Xevo model in burgundy, and a chrome Sigma 'Olympian' chrome silver ballpoint that my Dad recently gave me :)

Julienne selected two fountain pens that are great choices for vacation pens because of their high ink capacity--her grey Opus 88 'Demo' demonstrator and a Mooonman 'C1' clear demonstrator!

Above: Julienne's "Mature" ink made by Wearingeul, a Korean company that claims to "re-interpret(s) novels and poetry with colors"; this particular ink was inspired by the novel 'Demian' by Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse. Julienne also showed us her very cool Wearingeul Lit. Collection Wonderful Wizard of Oz Spell Book inks, complete with bottles of Glitter Potion that you can add to the inks.

This pretty pen roll belongs to Joie and it has some of the fountain pens she said she'd take on holidays with her -- a Pelikan 'Pelikano Up' in "Champagne" colour (the second pen from the left), a Lamy Safari in 'Neon Lime' (I think that's the colour...it's the pen in the middle of the photo...obviously lol), and a Pelikan 'M205' in Aquamarine.

Kelley's trusty black Pilot 'Falcon' fountain pen and her uber-cute Fountain Pen Revolution 'Himalaya V2" (version #2) in "Candy Pink". Kelley said she likes using Noodler's "Rome is Burning" and Platinum "Sepia" inks in her pens, as well as inks by Organics Studio.

Kelley likes to sketch on vacation, too, so she brings along this mini paint kit (shown above), as well as a water brush.

Christopher showed us a couple of nice vintage fountain pens and a ballpoint he likes to take on holidays (top to bottom of photo)--a Parker 'Jotter' ballpoint in the ladies' size, his Parker '51 Vac Demi' fountain pen and his Parker 'Vacumatic' Slender fountain pen in "Emerald Pearl". Christopher said he takes some Diamine "Meadow" ink with him on vacations, as well as his Visconti Travelling Inkwell.

The pen at the very bottom of the photo is a new acquisition of Christopher's -- a vintage Waterman '502' that we'll be featuring in the next blog post.

Like Christopher, Chris M. also travels with a couple of "non-fountain" pens ---this Montblanc rollerball engraved with his name on it (classy!), and a full-sized Parker 'Jotter' ballpoint (not pictured). As for vacation fountain pens, his lovely Pilot Custom 74 in "Wine Red" (not shown here, but photographed at our February 2023 meeting) would be Chris' first choice.

You can't see the nib on this checkered Jinhao 'X750' fountain pen, but Amy added some noticeable flex to it, using a Dremel tool. Well done, Amy!

Amy also worked on the Medium steel nib on Marisa's TWSBI Eco fountain pen (not shown) and reground it to a Cursive Medium. Marisa said she'd take her trusty Sailor fountain pen and some J. Herbin ink on vacation (sorry I didn't get a photo of them, Marisa :/

This is Luc's Opus 88 'Omar' demonstrator fountain pen, which uses a "Japanese-style" eyedropper-filling system to minimize the chances of the pen leaking or drying up. Although the 'Omar' model is a large pen, it's very comfortable to hold and use. It's filled with an aptly-named (for our meeting theme) ink called "Road Trip" ink by Standard Bindery, a stationery store that was located in Brisbane, Australia (now permanently closed).

Luc also showed us two more fountain pens (not shown in my photos) that he'd take with him on vacation--his equally-aptly-named Traveler Company's brass pocket fountain pen, and his TWSBI '580'.

Some vintage pens and pencils (all restored by longtime Vancouver Pen Club member Christopher) that he brought to sell after our meeting!

Christopher has been repairing & selling vintage pens and pencils for several years now, so if you are interested in his repair/restoration services (or wish to buy or sell pens), here's his contact info: 

 

Thanks again to everyone (new members and old) for coming to our June meeting, and bringing some nice pens and inks for us to see and talk about :)

~Blog post by Maja~