Seeing red - February meeting report! (with lots of photos)

February's meeting was our second best-attended (31 is the record) --26 VPC members including seven brand-new members (Akemi, Gurmeet, Lisa, Luc, Mandy, Sally, and Syd -- a new record!) -- came to our meeting at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library on February 16th. I took lots of photos, so without further ado.....

(~please click on images to enlarge~)

Our meeting theme that night was "Your Favourite Red Fountain Pens and/or Red Inks" and we saw many wonderful examples, including these four Italian-made beauties (top to bottom): Jerred's Filcao 'Roxi' (reviewed by Jerred here),  Glenn's brand-new Leonardo 'Supernova' "Star Light", Jerred's modern Conklin 'Nozac' "Toledo Red" and his Delta 'Oblo' ("oblo" being the Italian word for "porthole").

Brand-new member Akemi brought a bright red Jinhao 'X450' and her uber-cool Benu 'Skull and Roses' "Red Rose" fountain pen for our meeting theme!

(From Benu's official website: "Inspired by one of the most popular motifs that represents the eternal struggle of good vs evil, the Red Rose fountain pen has been crafted in the dramatic red color.")

We also saw several very nice vintage fountain pens at our meeting, including this red Esterbrook 'SJ' model (photo above) belonging to Phil ...




We also saw a modern red Esterbrook fountain pen---Julienne's aptly-named Esterbrook 'Estie Oversize' "Sparkle"! Below it is her new London Pen Company 'Christopher 13' fountain pen, made by Sean Allott, a pen maker located in London, Ontario.




Sally--another brand-new VPC member---brought her own London Pen Company fountain pen to the meeting- a 'Christopher 14' model (which is the same length as the 'Christopher '13', but chunkier) in Jonathon Brooks' amazing "Primary Manipulation" resin. Sally's pen is shown sporting a custom (reground) nib.

Above: Julienne's London Pen Company pen next to a stylish burgundy Pilot 'Elite 95S' fountain pen belonging to new VPC member Mandy. The Pilot is a pocket pen, but when posted, becomes a full-sized pen.

Hadi's handsome Pilot 'Custom 845' (made of ebonite and coated with urushi lacquer) which he purchased in Japan...

Rene brought a multitude of red fountain pens to show us, including this stunning Platinum ' 3776 Century Limited Edition - Kinshu" (which came out in 2021), and a vintage flat-top made of mottled red hard rubber.


More of Rene's red pens (top to bottom): a nice mottled red hard rubber vintage pen with a domed cap, a Jinhao '5000' dragon fountain pen, a mysterious hand-painted fountain pen marked "Secap" and "Made in Japan" that Rene found in Paris several years ago, a Kaweco 'Special Red' (part of Kaweco's 'Collection' line) and a vintage Parker '45'.

Alejandra's elegant Pilot 'Decimo', a slimmer version of Pilot's ever-popular 'Vanishing Point' model...

Above: Chris' Pilot 'Custom 74' "Wine Red" and his new Faber-Castell 'Ambition' "Rhombus" fountain pen

Chris' beautiful 'Platinum '3776 Century' "Bourgogne" and my brand-new Platinum '3776 Balance Maestro' in black below it...

They might look very similar but, unlike the '3776 Century' model, the lower-priced '3776 Balance Maestro' comes with a gold-plated steel nib and doesn't have Platinum's "Slip & Seal" cap closure mechanism to prevent the capped pen from drying out (I'll do a review of it in the near future, but I wanted to show it next to its "rich cousin" in this blog post!)

Peter's gorgeous Nakaya 'Long Cigar' Kuro-tamenuri fountain pen , handmade of urushi lacquer over ebonite. The pen has a double broad nib that was ground to a 0.8 mm stub---nice! (Peter actually did a video review of this beautiful fountain pen on his YouTube Channel a few years ago -- link)

Over time, the semi-transparent natural urushi lacquer matures and becomes more transparent, allowing the base layer colour (in this case, a deep red) to become visible --a wonderful, natural transformation...

Next to my new Jinhao 'X450' (top pen) is a Aurora 'Optima' in "Bordeaux" resin that I brought in for the meeting's primary theme (your favourite red fountain pens/inks). I bought the Aurora from a fellow Fountain Pen Network member in 2010, and it was probably the most I'd spent on a fountain pen up to that time. 

Although I have many red fountain pens, the Aurora is among my favourites because of its classic, timeless design... and its slightly-toothy 14K gold nib; Aurora makes their own fountain pen nibs and I've always liked writing with this pen because of the feedback you get from the nib. I forgot to bring it with me, but my favourite red ink is Robert Oster's "Australian Shiraz", a gift from my fellow VPCer Alejandra (thanks again, Alejandra! :)


We also saw some really nice red inks...and ink swatches! Our thanks go out to John for bringing in the swatches above; there's nothing like seeing how an ink looks on paper! (the way ink looks on a screen can be very different, as we all know :/

Anna was good enough to fill her new "Mint Blue" TWSBI 'Eco-T' (oops!) with Robert Oster 'Australian Syrah' ink, so I wrote a few words with it. As you can see, it's a lovely, rich colour...

Our secondary meeting theme is always "Newest Acquisitions" so I brought my new Jinhao 'X450' in spiral red lacquer, and my little orange and white Kaigelu '316 Mini' fountain pen (purchased from one of my favourite sellers on Etsy - 'esybuy')

More new acquisitions brought in by our members! (top to bottom): Jerred's brushed stainless steel Sheaffer 'Targa' with factory italic nib, an Italian-made syringe-filler owned by Rene, a Sheaffer Levenger 'Connaisseur' (not sure whose it is, but it's a very nice pen), and two eye-catching fountain pens recently acquired by John--- a cheery TWSBI 'Eco-T' "Saffron" and an iridescent TWSBI 'Diamond 580' "Iris".

More new pens - (above photo, bottom to top) Anna's new Kaweco 'Sport' in "Smooth Sage" and her black vintage Pilot 'Elite' (which she filled with Diamine "Strauss" ink), Alejandra's vintage Eversharp 'Skyline' and a TWSBI '580 ALR' "Punch Pink" (I can't remember who brought it in, but I own one and love mine!)

Above: Some of Rene's newest acquisitions--two tiny vintage fountain pens, a vintage fountain pen with a snake clip, and a vintage Parker 'Duofold Senior' Lapis" that Rene bought as a "self-gift" for his birthday (happy belated birthday, Rene! :)

A closer look at that cool snake clip...

Alvin's classy stainless steel Pilot 'Elite' with crosshatch pattern, which came out in the 1970s. For more info on Japanese pocket fountain pens, check out this superb article on Richard Binder's excellent reference site.

Phil's modern Kaweco 'Original' (top) fountain pen and Anna's vintage Montblanc '32' fountain pen...


The Montblanc '32' has a 14K inset nib and was first produced between 1946 and 1970, according to the informative CollectibleStars.com website...

Last, but certainly not least--a charming miniature silver notebook and mechanical pencil belonging to Stuart! The inscription reads: "Compliments of Bauman-Massa Jewelry Co. Commercial Building St Louis, MO"). Stuart thinks it was made around the turn of the previous century.

Stuart also brought in some items he previously reviewed for this site --a gorgeous Sheaffer desk base made of Norwegian marble (reviewed here), a Sheaffer ballpoint counter set (reviewed here), a handsome Sheaffer 'PFM V' fountain pen in burgundy (shown here), and one of his Faber-Castell 'Ambition' fountain pens (this one) that he filled with his favourite red ink--Graf von Faber-Castell's "India Red". Stuart also showed us two new fountain pens---a brand-new Parker 'Sonnet' in brushed stainless steel he bought from the Vancouver Pen Shop at their new location's grand opening and a vintage Waterman C/F.

Many thanks to all of our new members for coming to your first Vancouver Pen Club meeting, and for bringing some pens for us to see. I didn't photograph them, but I remember Gurmeet's lovely Parker 'Jotter XL' "Rose Gold" ballpoint, the beautiful vintage (ca. 1929) Morrison fountain pen with gold overlay that Lisa showed us, Luc's marvelous red fountain pens (a Penlux, a Conklin 'Duragraph" "Elements - Fire", and a Pilot 'Vanishing Point'), as well as a wonderful vintage Waterman '52' with gold overlay that Syd brought in.

Thank you to everyone who came to our February meeting ... whether you brought in anything for our topics or not! I'll be posting our March meeting info here on our website --as a blog post, and also at the top of each page in big red letters--- as soon as I confirm the venue and date.

(~Blog post and photos by Maja~)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 234

Today's featured newest acquisition is courtesy of Andy, so without further ado...

Andy writes:

"Hello pen pal friends.

Moonman...a brand well known to most for affordable overseas fountain pens.

They certainly have their share of controversy when it comes to originality.

There is certainly one thing they do right...and that is make a quality pen...even though it looks like something similar.

The Parker Duofold certainly has its share in the spot light and rightfully so. A remarkable pen at the turn of the century.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery in this case for Moonman’s M600S."

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

 
"From top of the cap to the end cap we have the Moonman Duofold.

This would be equivalent to the Parker Centennial in size.

In this photo, the camera only picked up the deep and light blues but didn’t capture much of the purples and browns."

 "Here you can see more colors as it is quite unique in a way.

Most websites and retailers call this model Moonman M600S Blue.

A very underwhelming name and I think it deserves something nicer like “Weather Pattern”

Because it reminds me of something like this..."

 

 "I believe Moonman made an effort with the fletchings on the clip and tried not to mimic the original too much.

This one seems to have more fletching and being noticeably lighter engraved."

 "Factory Moonman nibs are just “ok” in my opinion.

The “F” I had basically just worked...wasn’t too smooth but wasn’t scratchy at all.

I eventually swapped it out with a Kaigelu #6 “EF”.

A little more thinner line, smoother and better looking.

This pen was sub $30 and is a nice little detour from the higher end without sacrificing the higher end.

Thanks

Andy"

Our thanks to Andy for his review and wonderful photos of this handsome-yet- affordable fountain pen! We've featured several other Moonman fountain pen models in our virtual "show & tell" over the past year; to see the rest, just click on the 'Moonman' tag (under "Labels") below.

Fountain pens with animal themes (April 2019 meeting topic)

Our April meeting (held on April 18th at the Terry Salman branch of the Vancouver Public Library) was well-attended, with 24 members in attendance, including three newcomers (Astoria, Ben, and Mary Anne) and one guest member from Victoria, BC (Michael C.)

Our topic/theme for this meeting was "Fountain Pens with Animal Themes" and it was well-represented (see the list at the end of this blog post), but unfortunately I didn't bring my camera. My apologies to everyone for this oversight. I did, however, snap a few photos of my own animal-themed fountain pens at home the next day, so here is what I brought to the April meeting for our theme/topic...
(~ Click on photos to enlarge ~)

 

(Photo below, from L-R): Kaigelu '316', Genius 'Bucky' (with elephant-shaped clip), Namixin dragon pen, Hero hooded-nib pen (with a handpainted crane on it), Crocodile '215' "Cayman Mouth" pen (the nib's hood has two jewels "eyes" and is shaped like a caiman's head), Online 'Campus' in the "Red Dragon" pattern, a no-name Bugs Bunny fountain pen made in India, three Parker Vectors (Taz, Sylvester the Cat, Clownfish), and two rabbit pens by Dianshi (model number DS-980) purchased at a Thinka store:

 

 

Close-up of the Kaigelu's nib, with their kangaroo logo engraved on it:        

  (Photo below, from L-R): Two bear pens by Dianshi (same model # as the rabbits), a vintage Eagle brand lever-filling fountain pen, a vintage Mabie Todd 'Blackbird' twist-filler , a Mabie Todd 'Blackbird' "Self-Filling" fountain pen, Faber-Castell 'e-motion' in "Crocodile Ivory" resin, a vintage Waterman C/F set (fountain pen & ballpoint) in the "Crocodile" pattern, and a Kaweco 'Sport' in the Fox colour. The last two pens in this row are unrelated to the topic, but were recent acquisitions (which is always our secondary topic)---a clear purple Ooly 'Splendid' fountain pen that I found at Buchan's Stationery store in Vancouver, and a lavender-blue coloured Campo Marzio 'Manhattan' fountain pen I found at a Value Village for $2:

He couldn't make it to the April meeting, but longtime VPC member Christopher sent me this photo he took of his beautiful vintage Mabie Todd "Swan" fountain pen, ca. 1946:

List of animal-themed fountain pens brought to the April meeting for our topic by our members:

Jerred: Online 'Campus' Red Dragon, Pelikan 'Pelikano', PenBBS 471 in "Amber the Cat" colour, Fuliwen model with faux animal skin, Retro 51 in 'Marlin' (a lovely blue acrylic meant to resemble the ocean at night), Delta Markiaro 'Posillipo' fountain pen (with a starfish--the Markiaro symbol--engraved on its nib).
Candice: Platinum 'Preppy' "Hello Kitty" model, Pelikan, Jinhao 'Shark', Benu 'Chameleon'.
Rene: Pilot 'Metropolitan' in the "Bronze Lizard" pattern, Baoer 'Eight Horses', JInhao 5000 dragon, vintage Eagle fountain pen set, Platinum 'Century 3776' in the Kanazawa-Haku (gold leaf) Syou-Ru (ascending dragon) Limited Edition (there's a photo of it here from a few months ago), vintage Wyvern fountain pen, Mabie Todd 'Swan', Mabie Todd 'Blackbird' and Mabie Todd 'Jackdaw' fountain pens.
Derek: Mabie Todd 'Swan' black hard rubber fountain pen (ca. 1915), Parker '50' (aka 'Falcon') which was made from 1978-1982, vintage Camel fountain pen (ca. 1930s), a modern Parker 'Snake' Limited Edition fountain pen from 1997 (not to be confused with the legendary vintage Parker #37 'Snake' from 1906)
Dana: vintage Pelikan in "Tortoise" colour, Jinhao 'Shark'.
Justin: Montegrappa 'Game of Thrones' House Targeryan (dragon)
Jenny: Sailor 'Pro Gear' Nonble Kinokuniya Limited Edition (only 100 pieces made) in "Ice Blue" with a penguin engraved on its nib, and Visconti's "Garden of Eden" Special Edition made for Italian pen retailer Giardino Italiano with a hidden snake in the design (there's a nice article on the pen here)
Melodie: a beautiful custom-made fountain pen from 18111.com featuring two rabbits.
Joie: Sailor 'Sapporo Mini' "Hello Kitty" Special Edition.
Julienne: various Spanish school/inexpensive fountain pens in a "Nature" series.
Astoria: Lamy 'Safari' Pikachu" (a mouse :), a 2018 Special Edition only available in China.

Many thanks to all who came to the April meeting, whether you brought stuff for our topic/theme or not, and thanks again to Jerred, who suggested the topic!
(Blog post by Maja)

Best Fountain Pens Under $50 -- the winners!

Twenty-five members attended our April meeting (including newcomers Alejandra, Bob W, Raymond, and Ben H's young daughter Kelly), whose topic was "Best Modern Fountain Pens Under $50". We had some interesting candidates brought in for our show & tell, as you can see...
(click on photo to enlarge)

From left to right: two Chinese pens made by Jinhao brought in by Charles (one features a dragon and the other a cobra ... with bejeweled eyes!!!), Peter's Pilot 'Metropolitan', Penny's Noodler's 'Ahab' with Goulet 1.1mm italic nib, Barry's Lamy 'Al-Star' (note: Barry removed the black paint from the clip after it started flaking, so the clip is a now gold colour due to the brass material underneath the paint---a very cool effect), Willam's Kaweco 'Sport' demonstrator, my (Maja's) own Pilot 'Metropolitan' and TWSBI 'Diamond 530' (one of the first 300 made!), Leo's Kaigelu fountain pen (purchased in Hong Kong for $15 CAD), Stuart's Lamy 'Loom' and Sheaffer 'VFM', Peter's Noodler's 'Konrad', what looks like a Montblanc 'Jules Verne' LE (which clearly doesn't fit our topic---I believe it was someone's new acquisition ;) and Penny's Lamy 'Safari'

Other fountain pens brought in for the topic included: Catherine's Lamy 'Safari', William's Lamy 'Vista' (essentially a clear white 'Safari' model), Bob Morgan's Lamy 'Al-Star' (essentially an aluminum-bodied 'Safari'...can you tell which pen company was the winner of this theme???), Bill K's Noodler's 'Ahab', Ben H's Pilot 'Prera' and his new Pilot 'PTL-5000A', Ben's daughter Kelly's Pilot 'Metropolitan' and Kaweco 'Sport', Lawrence's Faber-Castel 'Basic', Kristina's Sheaffer '100', Bruce's Platinum 'Plaisir' and Retro 51 'Scriptmaster II', Glenn Marcus' Waterman 'Phileas' (sadly, now discontinued) and Waterman 'Kultur', Ben R's Sheaffer 'Compact' and Sheaffer 'NoNonsense', and a couple of Chinese pens brought in by Wai (a "China 2013" pen and another one---couldn't figure out the manufacturer, though). New members Alejandra and Raymond brought in pens they managed to find for less than $50--a Waterman 'Hemisphere' (purchased by Alejandra for £30 about 15 yrs ago) and a Sheaffer 'Intensity' Raymond found on sale (well done!).

Soooooo, the winner of the Best Modern Fountain Pen Under $50 was....Drumroll, please.... the LAMY SAFARI/VISTA/Al-STAR!! Second place went to the Pilot 'Metropolitan' and Third Place (a tie) to the Kaweco 'Sport' and Noodler's 'Ahab'. Many thanks to all who came to the meeting, whether you brought pens in for our topic or not! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Almost forgot! A big THANK YOU to Bob Morgan for his generosity with regard to the door prize draw held that night. Members who went home with prizes of ink and/or pens included: Kelly, Catherine, Ben R, Bill W, and Bruce. A good night for some brand-new members and one longtime member! ;)

Some photos from our May meeting

Many thanks to all who came to our May 17th meeting at Perks pen store. Fifteen VPC members and one out-of-town guest (Jim W. from the Seattle Pen Club) showed up to hear about our topic-- "Pens from Exotic Places"-- which was well-represented with pens from Argentina, India, China & Taiwan. Special thanks to Brian for donating this handsome tome for our door prize won by Wai S (speaking of books on pens, this is a very handy reference site on the subject: BooksAboutPens.com website).

Note: Our next meeting will be on Thursday June 21 at our usual venue (Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC) and the meeting theme will be "Custom & Handcrafted Pens"--ie. pens *not* made by the big pen companies.

Now, here are some photos I snapped at our May meeting:

Photo above (from Left to Right): Charles, Jim from the Seattle Pen Club, Brian, Norm and May. In the background, Christopher R. is talking to Louise (back to camera). Sorry for the poor picture quality--I'm still learning to keep the camera steady!

Photo above: Dave M. (back to camera) and Bob M. in a deep discussion about fountain pens

We had a nice assortment of pens from exotic places brought in for the 'show & tell', including some lovely fantasty Parker 51 pens and caps made by Ariel Kullock from Argentina, as well as pens made in India by Charter, Guider, Ushat and Wality/Airmail and a few from China and Taiwan. Here are the fountain pens I brought relating to our meeting theme (click on pics to enlarge):

(from L-R: Parker '51' fantasy pen, Wality/Airmail models '71J' (3 pens in this particular model), '71JT', '69TL', '69TS', Guider 'Aja' pen made from 60-year old celluloid nitrate, Guider 'Aruna' model (??), ebonite Guider 'Marala I', ebonite pen by Brahman, and a TWSBI Diamond '530' pen

(from L-R: Laban 'Mento' pens in "Celebration Blue" and "Celebration Red" patterns, Kaigelu '316', MB-style pen with ringed pattern, Baoer '388', Hero '616' Jumbo, Hero '336', Hero '200A', Wing Sung '237', ebonite Long Life button-filler pen, hand-painted Hero '343', and the Jinhao 'Long March' pen (one of my favourite Chinese pens).