Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 471

For the last couple of years, I've been slowly acquiring fountain pens handmade by small pen makers, like this one made by the Birmingham Pen Company -- their 'Model-A' in "Jurassic Amber" resin...

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

Here's some background about this very small pen manufacturer (which is *not* located in England!), taken from their official website:

"The Birmingham Pen Co. is a tiny family owned & operated manufacturer located just north of Pittsburgh.

In 2008, brothers Nick and Josh entered the fountain pen industry operating from their parents' basement. After a decade of contracting with many of the world's premier fountain pen component and ink manufacturers, Birmingham Pen Co. turned its first house machined fountain pen in 2018.

Today our workshop is in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes north of Pittsburgh. Dad has become the chief pen machinist operating our CNC lathe; he's developed some innovative custom tools that allow us to produce beautiful and unique pen parts efficiently. Mom is incredibly helpful with extra processing work and lends a hand with creative new product names. Now we're entering our fifth year of fountain pen production, with ink manufacturing also in full swing."

From what I've been able to gather, the first fountain pen made by them was the 'Model-A' "Cotton Candy" fountain pen (which started shipping in February 2018). The 'Model-A' in "Jurassic Amber" resin (the pen in this review) was the second one added to the lineup.

Since then, the company has come out with additional models, the Model-C' (a torpedo-shaped model that came with a clip) and the 'Sixth Avenue' (a clipless model with flat cap & barrel ends). The 'Sixth Avenue' is the longest and widest model, whereas the 'Model-A' is the shortest model, but the longest when posted. The 'Model-C' is longer than the Model-A, but it's a bit slimmer. 

  
Specs for the 'Model-A', taken from their official site:

In terms of capped and uncapped length, it's very similar to my Woodshed "Hallowe'en Nights" fountain pen (an early Woodshed model size), although the Woodshed pen can't be posted and the Birmingham Pen Co. can be.

 

Above: A close-up of the beautiful "Jurassic Amber" resin that the pen company describes as "hues of brown, tan, yellow and gold convene in a crystal like pattern resembling a prehistoric amber deposit" on their Instagram account.

 
The pen can be posted, but it's very long; I think it's long enough to use comfortably unposted...and it has a nice grip diameter for my hand. It uses standard international ink cartridges or an international converter.

The pen came with a Knox single-tone gold-plated #6 steel nib (a brand of nib that the Birmingham Pen Company sells on their website). This German-made nib features an engraving of a "lion rampant" (that's a heraldic term ;). The nib width isn't marked on the nib, but it whatever it is, it's a smooth writer. I've since replaced the original nib with a two-tone Knox nib because I think it matches the pen's resin even better.

As I mentioned, the Birmingham Pen Company (BPC, for short) sells Knox nibs (currently only two-tone gold-plated oblique nibs are in stock), as well as silver-coloured steel Nemosine nibs. Both nib brands fit in my BPC 'Model-A' pen (and most likely the other BPC models, as well). Some of the Nemosine nibs being sold on their website are 0. 6mm and 0.8mm stubs, which isn't that common; most factory stub/italic nibs seem to come in wider sizes (like 1.1mm), so it's nice to find a #6 sized stub nib in a narrower nib width.

I got this pen second-hand a while back, and I love using it! It's very well made, feels really good in the hand, and it looks great :) In addition to making their own fountain pens, the Birmingham Pen Company also produce their own line of fountain pen inks (which are very nice, as well). I've bought from them on several occasions, and their customer service was always top-notch.

Late addition to this blog post: I found a nice article on the Birmingham Pen Company in the New York Times! The article was posted online in November of 2022 - link.

(~blog post by Maja~)

January 2020 meeting photos - part 1

Despite the bad weather, twenty-two Vancouver Pen Club members braved the snow and showed up for our first meeting of the new year, held on January 16th!

(~ Click on photos to enlarge ~)

It was a fun evening of pens and people, especially for those who picked up their Vancouver Pen Club Leonardo Officina Italia "Momento Zero" Limited Edition fountain pens (which I later reviewed here) from Glenn that night...

(that's our new pen club pen being excitedly held aloft by some of our members :)

Pictured (clockwise, in photos above and below): Tony (at the very front, wearing glasses), Ricardo, Rene, Barry, Stuart, Isaac, Jim, me (Maja), Daryl, Jenny, Dana, Glenn, Ben, Nathan, Ray, Mindy (hidden, wearing beanie), Alejandra, Bruce, Jerred, Tim and Christopher (group pics by Candice, all other photos taken by Maja)

Our January meeting theme was "White Fountain Pens" (including off-white/light beige pens and pens with a pattern). The idea for the theme came from Jerred, so he kicked it off with two Asian-made fountain pen---a PenBBS 309 piston-filler in the swirly white "Smog" pattern and an inexpensive Platinum Riviere fountain pen:

Two Italian-made fountain pens brought in by Jerred for our meeting theme - a white Delta 'Vintage' fountain pen and an off-white Markiaro 'Posillipo':

That's Tony's own Platinum 'Riviere' (a gift from his daughter) in the photo below. Above the Platinum are two pens Christopher brought in for our "permanent" secondary meeting topic- "Newest Acquisitions" - a NOS (New Old Stock) vintage Sheaffer flat-top in the "pearl" pattern and a Majestic lever-filler with a gold-plated overlay:

Rene's Eclipse lever-filling fountain pen. Eclipse was an American pen company that also had a Canadian subsidiary. Its first factory in Canada was located at 21 Dundas Square (in the historic Hermant Building) in the heart of downtown Toronto...

I forgot to photograph this beautiful fountain pen at December's meeting, so I asked Rene to bring it to January's. It's a Benu 'Minima' in the sparkly "Baikal Ice" pattern (Rene actually won a contest to name this particular 'Minima' finish!):

More cool fountain pens brought in by Rene for our topic - (top to bottom) Jinhao '950' ceramic fountain pen, another Jinhao with a dragon overlay, FPR (Fountain Pen Revolution) 'Himalaya' and a Conklin 'Duraflex' 365 Dayflex Limited Edition. The FPR fountain pen was made in India, and is an affordable fountain pen that comes in a variety of colours and materials (acrylic and ebonite):

(photo below) Stuart's gorgeous Graf von Faber-Castell 'Intuition' fountain pen. From their official website: "The pure black colour, polished to a high gloss, conveys a deep intensity. The finely fluted barrel is made of a single piece of material so that no screw joint interrupts the elegant and pure shape." After seeing it in person at our meeting, this beautiful fountain pen quickly made it onto my Grail Fountain Pens list!

I was pleased to be able to show my white fountain pens (a new collecting focus of mine) at the January meeting. Top row (L-R): Faber-Castell 'Loom', Sheaffer 'Intensity', Daiso all-metal fountain pen, Nemosine 'Singularity', Lamy 'Safari', Faber-Castell 'WritINK', Lanbitou '3059' (a TWBSI 'Eco' clone), TWSBI 'Eco', two Parker 'Reflex' rollerballs, Manuscript 'Curve' and Manuscript 'Trio' (an interesting triangular fountain pen). Bottom row (L-R): Pelikan 'Pelikano', Senator fountain pen, Cross 'Solo', Cross 'Aventura', bunny fountain pen by Dianshi (model number DS-980), Sheaffer 'ION' rollerball, Sheaffer 'NoNonsense', Visconti 'Rembrandt', Stipula 'Etruria', Retro 51 'Scriptmaster', Jinhao 'X750' and Jinhao 'X450':

In November, Rene brought in his new Cross 'Sauvage' 2020 Year of the Rat Special Edition fountain pen. At January's meeting, he showed us his most recent purchase---the same Special Edition in the Cross 'Townsend' model (top pen in photo):

Ricardo's TWSBI 'Eco' in white, customized with Pacman "ghosts", using nail stamps!

TWSBI 'Eco' with Ricardo's Visconti 'Opera Club' in the wonderful "Cherry Juice" pattern:

Isaac's elegant Conklin 'Nozac' Special Edition made for the State of Israel's 70th anniversary:

Another new acquisition of Rene's---a vintage Esterbrook SJ in the striped red "Icicle" colour. The "Icicle" versions are most commonly found in the (larger) LJ size, so this was a neat vintage find:

Speaking of neat new pen-related finds - Daryl's unusual (folk art??) dip pen:

More fountain pens brought in for our topic - another white TWSBI 'Eco' and below it Jenny's PenBBS 471 pocket fountain pen, Dana's Pelikan M200 "Café Crème" Special Edition and Jenny's Lamy 'Safari' "I ❤ Vancouver" special edition:

A closer look at Rene's new Cross "Year of the Rat" Special Edition fountain pens - the 'Sauvage' model and below it, the larger 'Townsend' model:

Rene also recently acquired two new inks (shown below)- a bottle of the brand-new TWSBI fountain pen ink (red cap) and a bottle of Diamine "Les Couleurs du Comte", a special line of inks made for the La Couronne du Comte pen shop located in the Netherlands:

Many thanks to all who came to our January meeting, whether you brought items for our topics or not! Part 2 of the January photos coming very soon...

B & W

I love the black and white aesthetic...

From left to right: Pelikan 'Style', Faber-Castell 'WritINK', Delta 'Journal', Nemosine 'Singularity' and Lamy 'Logo' ballpoint.

(click on photos to enlarge)

British Sweets & Pen Treats

Ok, so I'm on a bit of a pen-buying kick these days....

I'm not sure if it's because of this depressingly-rainy/cloudy weather we've been having (since, well...forever) but I found some really good deals on pens lately and couldn't resist scooping them up. As for the chocolate bars from Britain---I'd never sampled any of them before and had a hankering to try them (and I suspect that hankering was weather-related, too ;) Oh, and the 24-count Crayola box was a recent purchase in honour of National Crayon Day (March 31); I wanted to get one with the recently-discontinued "Dandelion" colour in it.

Without further ado, here's what I bought (click on images to enlarge):

My new white Nemosine 'Singularity' fountain pen, purchased from fellow Pentrace member Marie.

This is a Taiwanese-made fountain pen whose nibs are made in Germany. Mine came with a great 0.6mm italic (calligraphy) steel nib that writes very well.

A wonderful Sheaffer 'Balance II' rollerball in the Amber pattern, bought from Jim Mamoulides at PenHero.com . These writing instruments came out in the late 1990s (1997-1999) and were a tribute to Sheaffer's original 'Balance' pen from the 1930s, which was (I believe) the first streamlined fountain pen ever made.

The Balance II writing instruments are prone to cap cracks so I have to be careful with mine, but it's such a gorgeous pen that I can't imagine not using it. There's some good information on the 'Balance II' line here on Penhero.com and and on this page .

Next up: photos from our March meeting....and April meeting info!

June meeting photos ~ part two

Continuing with our June theme of "Limited Edition Fountain Pens"...here are some photos of a few of Bruce's amazing Visconti LEs. The one on the far left (in the photo below) is the gorgeous Visconti Mudejar Art LE, made of ivory-coloured resin and covered in scrimshaw engravings, released in 2007 (only 600 made), the one in the middle is the Visconti Istos Aracnis, released in 2012, made of black lucite and covered with a Sterling Silver overlay in a web pattern (only 888 made), and the far right one is a Visconti Ripple LE made for Chatterley Luxury. Excellent info on Visconti's Limited Edition Pens (they made a lot of them!) here on Fountain Pen Hospital's website.

~ Click on photos to enlarge ~

An assortment of wonderful Visconti LE's from their Opera range - from L to R: Opera Master LE, a Wall Street LE (2nd gen), the Aida LE, and the Visconti Opera Club Maple Leaf LE.

Bruce holding a Visconti Verona 'Rebecca Moss' LE:

A quick shot of Stuart's newest acquisition----a green-striped vintage Pelikan 140, a piston-filler made from 1952 to 1965. Those old Pelikan gold nibs usually write really nicely (as an aside, I have a 140 with a fantastic oblique medium nib that I absolutely love using).

Many thanks to Mark S for bringing in his extensive LE collection, which is shown in the three photos below. Mark brought in some Montblanc LEs that he'd shown us two years ago when we did Ltd Edition/Special Edition pens, but he also brought us some other lovely LE pens, including a Visconti Titanic LE (shown on the extreme right of his pen case below):

That's Mark holding the Stipula Casa Mila LE, made to honour visionary architect Antonio Gaudi (there's some interesting information on Stipula's Limited Editions --including the Casa Mila LE-- on this page of FPH's website)

A quick shot of my (Maja's) LEs: From L-R: Delta Vancouver Pen Club LE (#07/25), Waterman Carene David Ogilvy LE (not numbered, but the certificate says only 1700 were made, worldwide), Retro 51 Double Eight LE (#075/200), Retro 51 Abbondanza, made for Retro 51 by Stipula (#231/351), Stipula Duetto LE made for Seattle's World Lux pen store (#30/50), Stipula Casa Batilo LE (#147/193),the 2007 Bexley Simplicity LE made for FPN--Fountain Pen Network (not numbered but the production run was limited to 115 pieces, iirc). Top left: Pilot M90 LE (limited to 9,000 pieces). Top right: Stipula Passaporto LE made for FPN (#22/200, marked Moderator as I'm an Hon. Admin there)

Lastly, I asked Ben to take a photo of his two modern Sheaffer Balance LEs because I accidentally deleted a quick shot I took of them, and he sent me this great photo showing the Jungle Green LE on the left and the Aspen LE on the right. Both are stunning patterns!

Many thanks to those who brought in LEs I didn't photograph---Julienne (mentioned in part one of this two-part post), Bill K with his Stipula Passaporto FPN LE in blue marble (one of 200 pieces made for the Fountain Pen Network website in 2011) and Jerred for showing us his gorgeous Delta Dolce Vita Oro and Nemosine Singularity fountain pen in Blue Marble (only 500 made in this colour). Natasha brought her OMAS LE pens to the April meeting, so she didn't bring them to the June meeting but you can read about them in our April meeting report :)
And many thanks to those members who brought in their new aquistions (not photographed)----June with her Pelikan 400NN, Bart with his Pelikan M800 in Burnt Orange, Natasha with her Marlen Aleph, Lamy Safari in the Dark Lilac colour for 2016, Lamy 2000 in stainless steel and her Namisu Nova model, which I believe was part of a Kickstarter.com campaign. This is a simple but very elegant design, made from solid aluminum or titanium, which is now (unfortunately) sold out, but if you can get your hands on one, I'm sure you'll be impressed by the design. One of Bethany's two newest acquisitions brought in for us to see was a Tactile Turn 'Gist' fountain pen, another elegently designed pen that was also part of a Kickstarter campain (the other pen she brought was a very cool Franklin Christoph '65'). And last but not least, our generous door prize donor, Jerred brought in his newest pen purchases---a Stipula Etruria Magnifica, a Parker 180 and some Dollar 7171I fountain pens.
It's great when our members have items to bring in for our monthly theme or show us their newest pen-related purchases....but even if you *don't* have something for the theme or new stuff to show, please come to our meetings anyway. The point of our club is to have fun, learn and/or educate people about fountain... and we're not pen snobs, either ;)