A few photos from our July meeting

We had a good turnout for our July meeting, held at the Renfrew branch of the Vancouver Public Library on Thursday July 16; I counted at least 34 people in attendance, including newcomers Chris, Daphne, and Sam L! It was just a casual get-together with lots of pen, ink and statoinery chats going on, so I had a bit of time to take a few photos of the items our members brought to show others....

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

That's Andrii's new Enigma notebook by Taroko (with fountain-pen-friendly Tomoe River paper) and a Waterman 'Hemisphere' fountain pen he got from a pen friend.

Andrii told me that when he got it, the pen wouldn't write, so he removed the feed and discovered it was inserted incorrectly at some point; apparently, the feed is keyed (but very subtly so) and has to be put into the section at exactly the right orientation or the incorrect nib-feed alignment won't allow for the ink to flow. Well done, Andrii!

Stuart's brand-new Sheaffer '300' "Coffee Edition" in Matt Brown with Regal Brown Trims.

From Sheaffer's official website: "This beautiful pen features a rich dark coffee brown hue, accented with a refined cup and heart emblem on the cap." 😊 Stuart recently bought the pen from the Vancouver Pen Shop downtown. Sheaffer was sold to William Penn (an Indian luxury writing instruments retailer) in 2022 and it's good to see its new owners coming out with cool new stuff like this special edition fountain pen.

Jerred recently acquired a red and black marbled Filcao 'Columbia' fountain pen, shown above next to its larger counterpart, the Filcao 'Atlantica' "Lapis". The 'Columbia' model came out in 2004 and was followed by the 'Atlantica'; both pens use a button-filling mechanism. Jerred did a nice review of the 'Atlantica' on our club's website a few years back (posted here).

One of our newer members, Richard P, brought two lovely Pelikan fountain pens he recently acquired--the M200 'Orange Delight' and a M205 'Star Ruby'!

(I took this photo on the hood of my car, in the library parking lot, after the meeting lol)

I purchased the beautiful Galen Leather x NOCK Lookout pen case in Deep Cognac (part of their Legacy Collection) from Buchan's Kerrisdale Stationery earlier this month, and I love it! The leather is supple and gorgeous-looking, and the inside of the case is lined with silk.

The three fountain pens I had inside the case are (left to right) a wonderful Stipula fountain pen with a Titanium nib that I bought from Mark & Sharon (in our pen club) of PenDen.ca, a Levenger 'Plumpster' in "Tides" resin, and a Narwhal (Nahvalur) Voyage Cult Pens exclusive (made specially for the well-known UK retailer) that I got from a dear pen friend (that you so much, Bonnie! 🙌)

Our thanks to everyone who came to our July meeting at the Renfrew VPL branch this month!
Information about our August meeting is in this post: https://www.vancouverpenclub.com/2026/07/august-2026-meeting-meet-up-at.html

(~Blog post by Maja~)

April meeting pics (topic: Pocket Fountain Pens)

Twenty-six VPC members, including one newcomer (welcome to the club, Ramiz!), came to our April meeting, which was held at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library on Thursday April 17th. This month's meeting theme was "POCKET FOUNTAIN PENS" (suggested by Asifa) and our secondary theme, as always, was "Newest Acquisitions". I snapped some photos during the meeting, so without further ado, here they are!

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

(Left to right) James, Shona, Asifa and Esther. In the background: Stuart, Anson and David L.

Asifa brought a few pocket fountain pens to the meeting, but highlighted the three above (L-R) - a light pink OHTO 'Tasche' and two aluminum Hongdian M2 fountain pens. I didn't photograph it, but Allan brought in a brass version of the Hongdian M2, which was considerably weightier than its aluminum counterpart.

Asifa's beautiful purple Leather Zippered A5 Leuchtturm1917 Notebook Folio case by Galen Leather and some of her new pens (bottom to top) --two Jinhao '10' fountain pens (in "Matt Gold" and "Coffee Gradient") and a couple of pretty Jinhao '82' fountain pens. Michelle also brought her new Jinhao '10' in "Matt Gold" to the meeting (not pictured); both the Jinhao '10' and '82' are very popular, well-made economical fountain pens.

The five pocket fountain pens I brought to the meeting (L-R): a Titanium Ensso 'Piuma Pocket' , a rainbow-coloured Namisu 'Nova Pocket Titanium', a Kaweco 'Liliput'- Copper , a Kaweco 'STEEL Sport'(made of stainless steel) and an aluminum Kaweco Al Sport "Stonewashed" (which Stuart also brought in for our primary topic)

My main criteria for a pocket fountain pen are portability and durability, so the five pens above were purchased for those reasons. All are short and all are made of metal, but in terms of weight, they differ quite a bit (note: all weights below are the weights of the pens when empty). My Kaweco 'STEEL Sport' is 39 grams, which is more than double the weight of my aluminum Kaweco "Stonewashed" Sport (19 grams). The copper Kaweco 'Liliput', though tiny, weighs 24 grams, while the titanium-bodied Ensso and Namisu pens come in at 38 & 39 grams, respectively. The three heaviest pens are very well-balanced when posted, though --the 'STEEL Sport' posts deeply and the Ensso & Namisu pens have threaded barrel ends-- so they're comfortable for me to use. As for aesthetics, I love that the Ensso and Namisu (both wider-bodied pens) have full-sized (#6) nibs. Another design choice I like with them and the Kaweco 'Liliput' (which also has a threaded barrel end) is that when posted, all three become full-sized pens.

The photo above has a mix of pocket pens and new acquisitions - (top to bottom): David L's favourite pocket pen (which isn't a fountain pen ;) -- a copper Bolt Action Pen by Big Design (takes rollerball/ballpoint refills), Yang's titanium Ensso 'Bolt' (a bolt-action fountain pen), David's brass Kaweco 'Sport', Andrii's new vintage Parker '51' vacuum-filler with sterling silver cap, Audrey's yellow Rotring 'Rivette' (a prize she recently won online--congrats, Audrey!👏) and her navy blue Kaweco 'Classic Sport', Lynne's adorable green Moonman Q2 Mini fountain pen, and Kimberly's silver aluminum Kaweco 'Liliput'. Tony also brought in a brass Kaweco 'Sport', but his didn't have the removable clip (sold separately from the pen) that David's pen sported (pun intended ;)

Above: Kimberly's little aluminum 'Liliput'. Weighing in at just 8 grams empty, it's practically feather-light, but it uses the same nib as the one found on the Kaweco 'Sport' line of fountain pens. The size of the nib is perfect for the 'Liliput', but I wish they'd put a slightly larger nib on the 'Sport' pens, just to make the nibs more proportional in size to the pens' bodies.

We also saw some nice vintage pocket fountain pens at the meeting, such as these two navy blue Sheaffer 'Tuckaway' fountain pens, and a interesting pen by the company Welsh...

It might be a bit difficult to see in my photos, but the red Welsh pen actually has a flattened cap and barrel...and no, it wasn't run over by a car--that's just the design!

Shona brought a nice mix of vintage and modern pocket fountain pens -- (top to bottom) a clear lavender Pilot 'Petit1', a swirly Wancai 'Mini', two vintage Kaweco 'Sport 'V16N' piston-fillers (ca. 1970), and two vintage Pilot 'Elites'. There's an excellent document about the long history of the Kaweco 'Sport' (which came out in 1913!!) here.

The Pilot 'Elite' in burgundy (seen above, second from the front) is the older counterpart of the modern Pilot 'E95S', a wonderful gold-nibbed pocket fountain pen.

Jerred also brought a very interesting selection of pocket fountain pens for our primary meeting theme (L-R): an OHTO 'Rook' (a compact fountain pen that becomes a full-sized pen when posted), an AG Spalding fountain pen, a mystery black pocket pen, a Spanish-made Inoxcrom 'Vivaldi', a LIY (Live in You) 'Future' "Enchantress", a black transparent Wancai 'Mini' (2nd gen.), a PenBBS '471' (with a #6 nib--yay!) in the desirable "Amber is a Cat" acrylic, a Kaweco 'Liliput' in Brass , and a vintage Pilot 'Elite'.

Our secondary meeting theme is always "Newest Acquisitions" and Esther brought her new TWSBI Eco 'Irish Green w/Onyx' fountain pen to show us. I love how the dark trim complements the dark green of the cap and piston-turning knob...

The Stone Paper notebook in the photo above has, yes, stone paper in it! Stone paper is a strong and durable (but heavy) paper-like material made from calcium carbonate and high-density polyethylene resin. Jerred said he found the notebook at a local Dollarama store.

Anson also recently acquired a new TWSBI with Onyx trim... but his is this handsome TWSBI '580ALR' "Caribbean w/ Onyx" fountain pen that he purchased from local stationery store Paper-Ya.

Another handsome fountain pen--Paul's amber Visconti 'Pericle'. The pen's distinctive curved clip was modeled after by the helmet worn by Pericles, an ancient Greek general and politician.

Paul's example is the first version of Visconti's 'Pericle' model, which came out in 1994; a revamped model (with a metal cap top and barrel end piece) came out in 2001.

The heaviest fountain pen we saw at our meeting was Paul's new acquisition above -- a Duke '2009 Charlie Chaplin Tribute' fountain pen, which (according to this informative and highly enthusiastic YouTube review here) weighs a whopping 77 grams! The pen's shape was inspired by Chaplin's iconic movie character "The Tramp", and features symbols associated with him (bowler hat, shoes, cane) on the pen's wide cap band.

On the lighter (literally) side, we have Rene's three diminutive vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Bantam' fountain pens (above). Next to them are a pair of vintage Waterman desk pens that Rene recently acquired. The desk pens are part of a beautiful desk set whose metal base features two large elephants (Rene didn't bring the base to the meeting due the fragility of the tusks on the elephant figures).

That's Paul vintage Waterman fountain pen in dark grey, and above it are two very recent acquisitions of David C's -- a brown-striped Pelikan 'M800' "Brown-Black" and a burgundy Pilot E95S  (nice purchases, David! :)

I'm not certain, but I think James brought in this cool BCHR (black chased hard rubber) safety fountain pen; it's a very old fountain pen with a retractable nib and a lovely cap band engraving. The burgundy pen above it belongs to David C. and is a vintage Sheaffer 'Snorkel' model.

(the Sheaffer features an "interesting" cap band engraving... 🤭)

Another new acquisition! The beautiful cream-coloured fountain pen above is Kimberly's Esterbrook 'Estie' TheCoffeeMonsterzCo limited edition, a collaboration between Esterbrook and local Vancouver artist Helen Wang. The brown and cream resin used for the cap band (and the section -- which you can't see because the pen is capped, sorry!) was created by Jonathon Brooks of the Carolina Pen Company for this particular model.

...and speaking of Esterbrook, here's Neil's new Esterbrook 'Cube', a canvas portable carrying case that he purchased from the Vancouver Pen Shop!

It's a well-organized, roomy, zippered case that has slots for five pens, and lots of space for notebooks, gadgets, ink samples (& more!), and it comes in three colours -- Butter, Navy Blue and Green.

Neil also brought some nice pocket fountain pens for our primary topic---a aluminum Kaweco 'Liliput' in green (a limited production colour), a brass TRC fountain pen by the Traveler's Company, and a blue & tan swirly Conklin 'Minigraph' "Blue Baltic". 

Stuart also bought a nice carrying case from the Vancouver Pen Shop--his new Galen Leather 'Writers Medic Bag'!

The bag was the last design of Galen Leather's founder, Zeynep, who, sadly, passed away in 2019. The design of the bag was inspired by a traditional medic kit bag.... 

(top view of the bag's interior) ... and it has compartments for writing instruments and other writing tools, notebooks/journals, and accessories.

Stuart also brought a new fountain pen to show us--his vintage black Parker '51' vacuum-filler with Lustraloy cap. Stuart was intrigued by the "T6." stamped on the pen and wondered if it indicated that the pen was made in Canada ("T" for Toronto??). If you have any info on this, please drop us a line!

Wherever it was made, the '51' came with really smooth gold nib that wrote beautifully...

And here's another classic Parker fountain pen...but this one was made a few decades after Stuart's. It's Beverley's beautiful Parker 'Sonnet' in the "Laque Firedance" finish (ca. 1994) with 18K gold nib.

A quick photo of my newest fountain pen--a modern Sheaffer calligraphy pen (with 3 nib units of varying widths) that I got from Stuart during the meeting (thank you, Stuart!) in a beautiful turquoise (and very "Easter") colour.

(photo above & below courtesy of Sherman)

Sherman couldn't make it to the meeting, but he wanted to share his pocket pen collection, so here are a couple of photos of his collection that he sent in.

Sherman's captions for the top photo:

Here is my pocket pen collection, primarily Kaweco Classic Sports & Liliputs...Very common models except the middle two (the Transparent Kaweco Sport set on the left side of the pen case) -- they’re 20+ years old and came with the transparent pouch above them. A similar one (the pen to the right of the set) was gifted by my buddy in 2018.

The two in the middle of the pen case (Kaweco Classic Sport pens) look like Christmas pens.

The 5 Kaweco Liliputs (on the right side of the pen case) are Copper (on top), and (L-R) Brass, Black, Fireblue and Stainless Steel. 

The blue one (extreme left side of photo) is a Stipula Passaporto Sapphire Blue Eye Dropper. Very smooth.

The orange one next to it is a Campo Marzio Minny Mandarin.  Smooth writer.

The one on the extreme right side of the photo is a rOtring Feather-light Metal 400 Esprit Chrome collapsible ballpoint pen.  A very cute pen when it’s fully extended.

The white one on the bottom is a plastic Sailor Dreamy Perfume 50 Ballpoint Pen. I bought it for concealment fun, inserted inside my socks if I don’t have any pocket!  But the ink was dried out long time ago.  Hopefully I can find the matching refill.

The very bottom one is a Fisher Space Pen Bullet Matte Black.  Bought 4 for the family - 2 blacks, 2 chromes - all under $20 each from 3 different owners!

As for the new ones, I had intended to share the excitement of my latest TENNY Square Circle II Sandalwood (at the very bottom of the top photo), together with the latest 2 Vancouver Pen Club pens (at the very top of the photo).

(above: the same pens uncapped/posted)

Many thanks to everyone who came to our April meeting, whether you had pocket fountain pens and/or new acquisitions to show or not 😀. Special thanks to Paul for donating the Peter Pauper Press bound notebook for the door prize draw (which was won by Amy--congrats, Amy!👏)

*Information about our May meeting will be posted near the end of April*

(~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~