VPC Announces November Meeting

The Vancouver Pen Club announces its November meeting as follows:

Date: Thursday 20 November 2008
Time: 6:00 for "happy hour" (meet & greet) and 6:30 for meeting start
Location: Perks Pens on Cambie @ 42nd across from Oakridge Centre
Theme: Deserted Island Pen/Ink/Paper -- if you were marooned on an island with only one fountain pen, some paper and one bottle of ink, which would you hope to have with you?

Alternatively, bring your look alikes. You know, those "off-brand" pens that were designed to look just like a more famous pen. Probably the most imitated pen is the Parker 51. How many other pen manufacturers tried to copy the design features of that pen? Let's see what you've got.

Hope to see you all next Thursday. -- Tim Conklin

a tip from the Bellingham trip

I'm sure more will be said about our Bellingham trip to meet members of the Seattle Pen Club, but I just wanted to pass along this tip, given me by Arvin Chaikin. I had a Parker Vector with me, suffering from a tight nib: the ink wouldn't flow evenly, and kept drying. Arvin said try this: using a thumbnail pressed against the nib from the back, flex first one side upwards, then the other side. Push it straight up from the plastic portion of the ink regulator in the direction shown by the arrow - very gently. This increases the gap between the nib and regulator, and also very slightly spreads the two sides of the nib. Just do it a tiny bit, try the pen, and repeat if necessary. Twice was enough on my pen, and now it writes perfectly. Thanks Arvin!

Who's Going to Bellingham?

At least two members of the VPC are planning a trip to Bellingham Saturday the 18th of October to attend the Bellingham meeting of the Seattle Pen Club. If you are interested in going down, please contact Tim Conklin at wordgauge7000@gmail.com.

The meeting will start around 10:00 and will meet at the public market in downtown Bellingham.

VPC Announces October Meeting

Our next meeting will take place as follows:

Date: Thursday 16 October 2008
Time: 6:00 for meet & greet or 6:30 for meeting start
Location: Perks Pens on Cambie Street @ 42nd Ave across from Oakridge Mall
Theme: Non-fp writing instruments -- bring writing instruments that are not fountain pens

Hope to see you there! -- Tim

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Just found these photos (taken by Richard) from our October 2008 VPC meeting and thought I'd post them here
~Maja

(from L to R: Amanda, Brian, Maja, Dave M.)


(from L to R: Tim, Brian, Amanda)



(from L to R: Mike, Graham, Dave M.)

Vancouver Pen Club Meets at Perks on Cambie.

Here's a recent photo from our September meeting.

Still Life in a Coffee Shop

Still Life in a Coffee Shop
Originally uploaded by Tim Conklin

Here's a random photo I took way back in November 2005. It shows one of my favourite pens, in fact, it is probably the most reliable and hard-working pens I own. This photo comes from my flickr.com photo sharing site, and it's the most popular of my photos. I guess people like to look at it. -- Tim Conklin

VPC Invited to Bellingham for October Meeting of Seattle Pen Club

The VPC has been invited to attend the Bellingham meeting of the Seattle Pen Club October 18th. The meeting will get going around eleven o'clock at a downtown grocery store/coffee shop. Let's discuss this at our September meeting and perhaps we'll be able to organize a fieldtrip down south. Do give this some thought. It would be fun if we could get a group together to attend this Saturday meeting.

VPC Announces September Meeting

The next meeting of the VPC (and the first of the 2008/09 season) will be Thursday 18 September at Perks Pens on Cambie @ 42nd across from Oakridge Centre. If you come at six o'clock, you'll have time to grab something to eat and drink before our official 6:30 start time. We will try to finish up by 8:30.

Because September is back to school month, the theme for this meeting is school pens. Please bring a pen that you think would be an ideal "school pen". Any other pen or recent acquisition you would like to share is, of course, always welcome, as well.

Hope to see you there! -- Tim Conklin, VPC Prez

A Picture from our Last Meeting

From left to right: Richard Clarke, Kirsten O. , Amanda B. , Maja Furlong, Sabrina Sasaki, Tim Conklin. Photo was taken May 15th, 2008 at Perks Pens.

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Here I am doing serious research for VPC in Brisbane, Australia. Yes I'm wearing a coat, because it's still winter there in August. I didn't buy much there because it's darned expensive, but it's interesting to see what they have and we don't. See you all at the September meeting and I'll show you what I did get.