Our October meeting was held on Thursday October 20th at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library. Fifteen enthusiastic VPC members were on hand for a fun evening of pen, ink and paper talk. Our theme was "Newest Acquisitions" and "Pen-related Stuff You Haven't Shown Us Before" and we saw a ton of amazing writing instruments. Happily, we had four brand-new members to share in the excitement --Amy, April, Hadi and Phil!
Without further ado, here are some of the things we saw that night!
(all photos by Maja, except where noted ~ please click on images to enlarge)Above: Hadi's Pilot 'Custom 823' fountain pen, a beautiful vacuum-filling fountain pen. Hadi loves this Pilot model so much that he has more than one in his collection (with different nibs, of course :)
That's my brand-new Caran d'Ache '849' Limited Edition "Color Treasure - Cold Rainbow" ballpoint (purchased from Nikaido)
resting on an Endless 'Recorder' notebook.
The notebook was designed and made in India, and uses the wonderful (and fountain-pen friendly) Tomoe River paper. We saw lots of great stationery at the meeting, much of which was brought in by Yugo (who acquired most/all of it from Buchan's Stationery in central Vancouver,
I believe).
Interesting fact: the decision to make the Midori MD notebook cover-less was a conscious effort on the part of the manufacturer to show the quality of the paper as soon as it was picked up
My beautiful new blue-striped Pelikan 'M600' fountain pen atop Yugo's SIWA notebook cover. The cover is made of soft naoron, a paper-like material developed exclusively
for SIWA by the Japanese company
Onao (makers of Washi paper)
Above: a Hobonichi Techo Planner & Cover (day
planner) that Yugo also brought to our meeting. Hobonichi Techo books also use Tomoe River paper, which has very little/no bleed-through or feathering. The paper is also very thin and because of its thinness, it keeps the overall weight of the notebook down (I read on JetPens.com that a 400+ page Hobonichi Techo notebook weighs only 7.3 ounces!)
Alejandra also brought in a Hobonichi planner, but hers is a 2023 Hobonichi Techo Weeks planner in the cute Bow & Tie: Bunnies design, shown above.
The planner is resting in her lovely Hobonichi Techo Weeks cover in Liberty Fabric's "Betsy (Neon Beige)" material (which I forgot to photograph separately, oops :( The exterior of the cover is made of cotton fabric from the
British brand Liberty Art Fabrics, and the interior is made of natural
leather and has a pen loop and several pockets.
Alejandra's Galen Leather Zippered Single Pen Case for
Kaweco - Pocket Pen
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Alejandra also brought a handsome vintage Parker '21' desk set with a lovely marble base
Christopher showed us his beautiful vintage Waterman '552V' Smooth Gold Overlay (ca. 1919) fountain pen, as well as a very modern pen-- a Monteverde 'Tool' fountain pen! The pen doubles as a multi-function tool with a touch-screen stylus, Phillips and flat head
screwdrivers, a built-in level, a ruler and three
different scale functions
Christopher's two Pelikans--a modern 'R200' rollerball (top pen) and a vintage fountain pen (a '140'?)--and a vintage blue Sheaffer fountain pen
Brand-new member Phil is also an admirer of vintage pens! That's his handsome vintage Parker '61' fountain pen in the photos above and below...
Phil also brought his Italian' made Pineider 'Avatar UR' in Neptune Blue:
Brand new member Amy brought a multitude of nice fountain pens: 
Above: Pilot Kakuno (top pen), then L-R: Sheaffer '300', Moonman 'A1', Platinum 'Preppy', Nahvalur 'Original Plus' in "Melacara Purple", and a Esterbrook 'JR Pocket Pen' in "Purple Passion"
April (another brand-new member of our club) brought along a variety of fountain pens, including some whose nibs she swapped out -- the two Jinhao '100' fountain pens and a Moonman 'T1' in the photo above. April fitted a FPR (Fountain Pen Revolution) nib into the top pen, and JoWo nibs into the bottom two pens
This is a stunning cigar-shaped urushi pen in Aka Tamenuri finish owned by April. It was made by a talented Chinese
urushi artist called 夫子喝了一壶酒
April swapped a Pilot 743 FA nib with an ebonite feed from
Flexible Nib Factory into the pen
Above: An untipped 'Flex' fountain pen, from a Singaporean brand
called BlueDew, also belonging to April. Its nib is similar to a dipped nib, except it
doesn't corrode because it's made of stainless steel (chocolate truffle in photo courtesy of Buchan's ;)
Kelley's Jinhao 'X750' in Shimmering Sands
material and her Jinhao 'Nature Rose Wood'
Kelley swapped a Zebra nib into the top Jinhao. I learned something new at the meeting from Kelley -- nib swapping with Jinhao fountain pens is referred to as "Jinhacking" (lol)
Above: A close-up of the Zebra nib Kelley installed on the top pen; the Jinhao on the bottom has its original bent (Fude) stainless steel nib on it
Alvin's very cool assortment of modern pens...and all with JoWo nibs!
From top to bottom: Gravitas 'Pocket Pen' in raw copper, Retro 51 'Hot Coffee' fountain pen (a Goldspot Pens exclusive), a Leonardo 'Momento Zero Pura' with iridescent trim and nib, an Opus 88 Stilo & Stile Special Edition 'Demonstrator', and a Leonardo 'Momento Zero' Blue Hawaii
Alvin also brought his Leonardo 'Momento Zero Grande Pura' in Anthracite Gray (top pen in the photo above)
Jerred showed us several beauties made in Italy that we hadn't seen at an in-person meeting before - (top to bottom): Invicta 'Murano' (basically, a rebranded Signum 'Murano'), two modern Conklin 'Nozac' fountain pens in "Toledo Red" and "Ohio Blue", and an Invicta 'Bolt' fountain pen that Jerred believes was made by Montegrappa (based on its very close resemblance to a Montegrappa 'Fortuna'). 
Above: Stuart's lovely Caran d'Ache gold 'Ecridor' with chevron pattern that he bought at the Vancouver Pen Shop and reviewed on Sunday on this blog. Stuart also showed us his vintage Parker '51' desk set in lucite at the meeting; he also reviewed it on our site on Sunday.
I
was so busy chatting with VPCer Vladan about his recent trip to Europe
and the fountain pens he bought there that I forgot to photograph them!
Vladan was kind enough to snap some photos of them at home and send them in, after I emailed him:
This green fountain pen is his brand-new Pelikan 'Pura' in Forest Green with medium nib...
The 'Pura' is an aluminum fountain pen that feels really good in the hand and (to me) is very well-balanced when posted. In fact, I liked it so much that I ordered one for myself after the meeting :)
The 'Pura' model initially came out in 2006 in two colours--Silver and Blue-Silver. The Black-Silver version was added in 2011, and the Forest Green, Bordeaux, Petrol, Mocha and Anthracite colours were added to the 'Pura' lineup in 2020
The Pura's nib resembles a Pelikan Pelikano/Twist/Future nib, but it's actually a slightly different shape
This is the other pen Vladan purchased on his European trip--a Leonardo 'Momento Zero' in the gorgeous "Prugna" resin
Vladan's fountain pen came with a Leonardo Pens "Elastic Fine" nib (shown above).I didn't photograph all the great ink samples that Julienne gave out for free, but I left with some very nice inks by Diamine, Levenger, Noodler's and a brand I hadn't heard about before--Egoistar. (thanks for the ink, Julienne :)
Many thanks to everyone who showed up for our meeting last week. Our next in-person pen club meeting will be held on Thursday November 17 at a different location, so make sure you check back here for more details!
(~ Blog post by Maja ~)
