Photos from our January 2026 meeting

Our first pen club meeting of 2026 was held on Thursday January 15th at the Renfrew branch of the Vancouver Public Library with 40 members in attendance, including six newcomers (Cindy, Elle, Enkay, James Y, Joe, and Samuel)!

The format of this month's meeting was a casual "show & tell", and the topic was "Newest Pen-Related Acquisitions". I think the two-minutes-per-person show & tell time limit moved things along nicely and gave us extra time to chat amongst ourselves after show & tell was over. Many thanks to Amy, Mark, Paul and Sheila for the door prizes they generously donated (3D-printed ink vial holder, wooden pen display case, Crocodile fountain pen set, hardbound books, Platinum Carbon Black ink), which were won by James Y, Shona, Mindy, Kerwin, and Samuel respectively! 👏

It was a busy meeting, however, I did remember to take some photos for our blog, so here they are...

(all photos by Maja ~ please click on images to enlarge) The meeting was very well-attended (more people arrived after this photo was taken!) and we saw a multitude of new acquisitions brought in by our members, such as ...

(Above, left to right) Liz R's TWSBI Eco 'Cosmos' fountain pen, Vladan's two Stabilo 'Grow' fountain pens (Beech (Blueberry Blue) and Oak (Moss Green)), Liz's TWSBI '580 ALR' Caribbean w/ Onyx (a special edition which came out in November 2024), Stuart's new-style MUJI aluminum fountain pen, two vintage Waterman C/F fountain pens,  his Sheaffer Imperial Triumph, and Jinhao X450 in matte black. 

Some cool facts about the Stabilo 'Grow' model (taken from its Amazon listing): 
The Stabilo 'Grow' is a climate neutral product (saving approximately 70 percent CO2 emissions in raw material compared to a filler made of conventional plastic; the remaining CO2 emissions are compensated by a certified climate project) with a shaft (barrel) made from 100% FSC-certified wood from Germany, an ergonomic grip made from almost 100% renewable raw materials, and a cap made of conventional plastic partially replaced with natural fibres (sunflower seed shells). The renewable raw materials used are waste products from the food and paper industry and therefore ethically harmless. 

(Above, top to bottom) Fred's black Pilot 'Custom 74' fountain pen (with a BB nib Architect grind done by CY of Tokyo Station Pens), Asifa's new red Jinhao '20' fountain pen and Jerred's light green Online 'Icone' model resting on Aumbrine's ink swatches (and lovely calligraphy) ...

A close-up of the Online 'Icone' fountain pen (which includes a stylus tip).... 

(Above, left to right) Stuart's Otto Hutt 02 sterling silver fountain pen, Vladan's Stabilo 'Grow' Plum Red (Cherry) fountain pen, an elegant vintage Lady Sheaffer "White Tulle" set belonging to Jerred, Yang's dazzling Benu 'Euphoria' "Vibrant Summer" fountain pen (a Cult Pens exclusive), and a beautiful Montegrappa rollerball owned by Aumbrine. Kai's new Akkerman "Zuiderpark Blauw-Groen" (Blue-Green) ink is in the upper left corner of the photo. 

(Above, top to bottom) Aumbrine's maroon Sailor fountain pen, and then a mystery pen I'm trying to identify (lol), Aumbrine's Visconti 'Rembrandt' "Khaki Green Ops" fountain pen, and Asifa's Jinhao '20' glittery clear demonstrator with rose gold trim (a limited edition). Several of our members (Asifa, Amy, Allan, Mindy, and myself) brought their new Jinhao 20s for the topic; due to its low price, it's quickly become a very popular fountain pen (and it's available in a large variety of colours!).

(Above) James D's handsome Springfield Pens fountain pen (with a modified Architect nib done by fellow VPCer Jerred) resting on Liz R's colourful ink swatches...

(Above, top to bottom) A wonderful four-pen cloth case handmade for me by fellow VPC member Amy (thank you again, Amy! 😊 ), my new Asvine C80 in "Galaxy" (which comes with a #8 size steel nib), a Springfield Pens fountain pen (in an unnamed poly-resin material) that I recently acquired from its pen maker (Anson), my Champagne Pink Pilot 'Decimo' and my new limited edition "Ice Blue" Jinhao 20 with rose gold trim (the Pilot Decimo isn't new, but I brought it in to show its similarity to its clone, the Jinhao 20 :)

(Above) Sheila's brand-new (she did a quick unboxing during her "show & tell"😂 ) Pelikan 'M300' fountain pen in Pelikan's classic striped green. The M300 is the smallest model in the Pelikan Souverän lineup, but it's as beautiful as its larger counterparts...

(Above) Last but not least, that's Phil's brand-new Springfield Pens fountain pen in Inlace Acrylester material. The pen is a 'Robin' model that was handmade by Anson and finished the day of our meeting!

Thank you to everyone who came to our January meeting, whether you brought anything to show or not; you brought yourselves -- that's the main thing! 😀 I had fun at the meeting, and I hope you did, too. Information about our February meeting will be posted very soon!

(~ blog post by Maja ~)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 184

In honour of World Stationery Day today, we're featuring what some call stationery's best friend-- fountain pen ink! This particular ink is from the Netherlands and was recently acquired by VPCer Andy, who shares his impressions (and some very nice photos :) of it in this blog post.

In Andy's own words:
 
"Good day pen friends.

This week I would like to share my experience with Akkerman inks.

I believe this is the company's full name...........P.W. Akkerman Bij Koninklijke Beschkking H Of Leverancier Den Haag........oh good grief!?!

With this being my first bottle, I searched the pen forums and it seems one of the most popular blues is their #5 Shocking Blue.

Here are my thoughts:

(all photos courtesy of Andy ~ please click on images to enlarge)

A+ for presentation.

Gift wrap, Coffee candy, Business card

...nice touch!

A very sturdy box that houses the 60ml bottle Akkerman is famous for. 

And this is the famous bottle with the glass marble stopper thing-a-ma-jiggy.

A uniquely shaped bottle with a wide base for stability.

I can't quite place the bottle shape but is sure looks familiar.......Hmm......looks like Barbara Eden might pop out of it if I rub it too hard.

  Here's a writing sample with my trusty PenBBS 308 Blue Cloud with a fine nib. 

 

Ok.....is the Akkerman #5 Shocking Blue........well......shocking?

No....not really.....it's just ok in my books.

There are similarities in shade and contrast with Waterman Serenity Blue or Iroshizuku Asa-Gao.

I would much prefer the latter two inks.

At 32.23 Euro ($49 CDN) shipped to my door, it is the most I've spent on one bottle of ink. 

There is an upside to this transaction.

The Netherlands make damn fine coffee candy!!!

Thanks,

Andy"

Our thanks to Andy for another great review! (to see Akkerman's ingenious ink bottle in action, check out this segment of a YouTube video review).

Great Attendance for our April meeting! (photos)

We had excellent attendance for our April 19th meeting, which was held at the Vancouver Public Library's Oakridge branch, with 26 members showing up (including three newcomers-Binal, Jamie and Ron) !

The topic for the evening was "Your 3 Favourite Inks" and I think everyone had fun seeing what other members brought (especially since there are seem to be so many new ink companies these days!)

René's current top 3 inks are featured in the photo below (Left to Right): Pilot Iroshizuku "Kiri-same" (Autumn Shower), Sailor Jentle "Rokyu-Cha" (part of their Four Seasons line of inks) and Montblanc "Leo Tolstoy" (a Limited Edition ink, in a sky-blue colour):

In addition to some lovely inks, we also saw some beautiful fountain pens, such as these three brought in by Dennis---a orange modern Conklin "Crescent-Filler", a demonstrator (clear) pen by SKB, and a green Delta "Vintage" model fountain pen
(~Click on images to enlarge~) :

Longtime VPC member Dave M always brings in some great vintage fountain pens from his collection to show us, and these vintage writing instruments by Eclipse (a U.S. pen company founded in 1903 that later had a Canadian subsidiary) are no exception:

A pen by another vintage pen company---Esterbrook. The example below is a transitional "J" model in blue from the 1940s, belonging to René:

Ruth-Erin's modern Conklin fountain pen with a very interesting nib---the "Duraflex" model with its black "OmniFlex" nib, which allows for some line variation when the user gently presses down on (ie. flexes) it while writing:

My (Maja's) pen case (L to R): three generations of Sheaffer "NoNonsense"/Calligraphy pens filled with my top three inks (Diamine "Oxblood", Akkerman "Shocking Blue", Sailor Jentle "Miruai") and some new(ish) acquisitions -- a Lamy "26P" model, a Lecai transparent Acrylic pen, THINK Confetti "Shag" pen, a Lamy "Aion", PenBBS '308' Gradient "Hawaii", Martemodena "Techno" ballpoint, Martemodena "Freedom" pen, Shanghai M&G pen, and a Retro 51 "Betsy" rollerball (side note: I reviewed a few of these pens earlier on our club's blog :)

(photo below) René's very cool-looking hand-painted vintage fountain pen. The pen is marked "Secap" and "Made in Japan" but René is having problems finding any additional info on it, so if you have some info to share, please drop us a line at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

More interesting vintage FPs belonging to René:

Several nice vintage pens in René's case were made by (so-called) 2nd-tier and 3rd-tier pen companies, and we'll be featuring those pen companies at our June 21st meeting :

Well, that's all the photos I managed to snap at the April meeting! Sorry for the delay in posting them here on our club's website.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the most popular fountain pen inks among those who attended the April meeting! I jotted down the names of everyone's favourites and tabulated the results, so here they are (in no particular order). Drumroll please...

• Pilot Iroshizuku "Kon-Peki" and "Kiri-Same"
• Sailor "Miruai"
• Diamine "Ancient Copper"
• Waterman "Serenity Blue"
• Lamy "Dark Lilac" (sadly, a limited edition colour that is very hard to find now :(
• Rohrer & Klingner "Alt-Goldgrün"

Many thanks to all came to the meeting in April! Meeting info about the June 21 meeting is here in this blog post !

Photos from January 2017 meeting

We had excellent attendance for the January VPC meeting, which was held at the Oakridge branch of the Vancouver Public Library----22 VPC members attended, including six newcomers (Angela, Connie, David, Lionel, Ray and Ricardo)!
The meeting theme was "Old Friends"--fountain pens that you haven't used in a very long time, but "rediscovered"--and we saw some very interesting examples, some of which I hadn't seen before at any other meeting. Thanks again to Paul of the Calgary Pen Club for the theme idea.

Now, onto the photos!
(all pics by me, except for the one directly below)

Speaking of old friends....
I was so happy that our club's founder, Tim, came to the January meeting. Tim started the Vancouver Pen Club just over 10 years ago (our first meeting was December 7, 2006) after he and fellow fountain pen aficionado Bill K. discussed forming a local pen club. Here I am pictured with both Tim (on my right) and Bill, at the January meeting (thanks to Tim's friend Lionel for taking the photo):

In all the excitement of our club's 10th anniversary, I forgot to photograph the pens they brought in for the meeting theme---Tim's Rotring 'Core' and Lamy '2000' and Bill's Parker 'Sonnet' --- sorry, gentlemen!

Our secondary meeting theme is always "Newest Acquisitions", so I was happy that June brought some recent purchases (and other newer pens I forgot to photograph in the past). From L-R: Pelikan M600 in striped pink (a Special Edition--SE), vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Doric', Visconti 'Titanic' Limited Edition (LE), Visconti 'Cosmos' LE, Visconti 'Rembrandt' "Merry-Go-Round" SE (made to support the Meyer Childrens' Hospital's Hematology Department in Tuscany, Italy), Visconti 'Ragtime', Visconti 'Opera Elements', two more Dorics and another Ragime. Lovely pens, each and every one of them! (click on images to enlarge)

It was nice to see longtime VPCer Sabrina at a meeting again. She brought some new(er) pens to show, including (from top to bottom) a Pilot 'Decimo', a couple of Pelikan 'Souveran' models, a TWSBI 580, a Pilot 'Prera' and a green vintage Japanese-made crescent filler. Sabrina also brought along a very cool Kaweco 'Sport' in the special edition Lagoon colour (in the Kaweco box) and some new ink acquisitions by Sailor (the 'Jentle' line of inks, and a line made for the Japanese store 'Kingdom Note'--in the black boxes) and P.W. Akkerman:

New VPC member Ray brought in some amazing pens, including several by Montblanc (the gridded 'Starwalker', the Meisterstuck 'Solitaire' with green cap, the massive '149' model, and the small 'Bohème' with its uber-cool retractable nib... among others) and a sterling silver Marlen 'Ariane' fountain pen (far left):

Who needs a pen case? That's Jenny with her Lamy 'Safari' in the photo below :)

For this meeting's theme, Jerred brought along his Rotring 'Freeway' (blue pen) and his Waterman 'Kultur' (clear pen) and a new acquisition---a metal Porsche Design 'Slim Line' fountain pen. He also brought along his mother's Parker '21' (not pictured), an often under-appreciated "cousin" of the famous Parker '51':

Sometimes you literally rediscover a long-forgotten pen when you find it in a cupboard, like Tony's vintage Pelikan 400NN (on left-hand side of bottom pen case)! Pictured with the Pelikan is a TWSBI 'Eco'. The other two pens (in the top pen case) are also TWSBIs:

A handsome vintage Sheaffer 'Crest' set and a modern Sheaffer 'Legacy', some of Stuart's newest acquisitions:

Stuart's new Faber-Castell 'WRITink' fountain pen in black (I wrote about mine here):

New VPCer Ricardo brought along some cool modern pens, including (from L to R): two TWSBIs (a white 'Eco' and the clear '580'), a Monteverde 'Intima', and two modern Platignum 'Studio' fountain pens:

Some of Bruce's Italian beauties---a Visconti 'Wall Street' in gorgeous red stripes, an old-style OMAS 'Paragon' (middle pen) and a Limited Edition Visconti 'Australis' in the Opera Master design:

Some of my recent acquisitions (an Online 'Campus--2nd pen from the left--- as well a large orange dragon pen made by Namixin, a dark gray and ivory Delta Journal and the smaller orange pen---a Regal 'British Museum' model), along with my "old friend" for the meeting theme (my red-striped Pelikan M800) and two pens I brought to show a couple of my fellow VPCers who wanted to try them out (my lime-green Pilot 'Metropolitan and my charcoal Lamy 'Safari' (and no, it's not a special edition---I just scraped the black paint off the clip because I liked the look :):

I didn't snap photos of them, but a few more of our members brought in pens for our themes---Marzieh's Monteverde 'Poquito' fountain pen, Harry's vintage Penol cork piston-filler, Justin's Parker '25' (brought in for our primary theme),TWSBI 'Eco','Gist' fountain pen by Tactile Turn (introduced in a Kicktarter campaign) and Pilot 74 Custom, as well as some really nice pens (incl. some dip pens) and a cool blotter brought in by brand-new member Angela. It was a busy evening, so my apologies for not snapping pics of everyone's pens. Thank you to all members who brought in stuff for our themes, and thank you to everyone who showed up at the meeting and brought their enthusiasm!

Akkerman ink

A couple of photos of some Akkerman ink I acquired from an online store in The Netherlands last November with the help of Ken C (thanks again, Ken!). The ink bottle has an elegantly simple system for trapping the ink in the upper part of the bottle, thus allowing for easier filling.

From their official website : "To mark our 100 years of existence, PW Akkerman introduced in 2010 his own ink line. This ink’s came in large 150 ml bottles, these large bottles are now completely sold out.
 
Due to the worldwide success of this unique bottle we decided to continue, but now with a smaller sized bottle with a content of ca 60 ml. The new bottles will be available in the same 31 colors as before. The Akkerman inks have been given names related to the city The Hague."

Here's my bottle of "Shocking Blue" ink:

(click on images to enlarge)

My Akkerman ink, my favourite pen case (by Delta) and two of my all-time favourite pens, the orange and black Delta Dolcevita Slim I received as a present from Delta Pen, and the special limited edition Delta Dolcevita that was made for our pen club in late 2014 in a gorgeous chocolate light and dark brown celluloid. :

I reviewed these lovely fountain pens here and here.