Our 100th meeting! (February 2017 meeting photos)

Wow, time flies! I can't believe we had our 100th VPC meeting last month! It seems like just yesterday when we had our inaugural meetup at Moxie's restaurant on Davie Street in downtown Vancouver, back on December 7, 2006....

Though attendance was a bit down for last month's meeting, it was a small-but-keen bunch who met up to talk fountain pens, specifically Esterbrook writing instruments (our primary theme) and newest pen-related acquisitions (our secondary theme). Thirteen members (including newcomer Dana) and one out-of-town guest (Chris T. from the Ottawa Fountain Pen Society) met at the Terry Salman branch of the Vancouver Public Library on February 16th, along with two students from BCIT Radio --- Veronica and Twyla--- who interviewed my pen mentor Brian and I for their radio show (when I get info re: the air date, I'll post it on here).

Now, onto the photos!

(Standing, from L-R: Chris, Brian, Stanley, Ricardo, me (Maja), Barry K, Bruce and Justin.
Seated, from L-R: Richard W, Dana, Glenn M, Jerred, Marzieh and Stuart)

(Many thanks to Veronica for taking the group photos! (Click on photos to enlarge)

A quick photo of Chris' new fountain pen--a gorgeous Signum 'Murano'---that he purchased from the Vancouver Pen Shop during his visit. According to their website , this handcrafted, glass-barreled fountain pen was designed by Signum with the assistance of a glass master craftsman from Murano (Venice, Italy). Each pen barrel takes about four hours to create, and involves using different types of glass to achieve the desired colour and effect. Many thanks to Chris for coming to our meeting again (Chris was at the February 2016 one, as well), and bringing his newest treasure for us to see!

One of our newer members (Stanley) brought in some some amazing new acquisitions to show us (from L to R)-- a Visconti Limited Edition (LE) 'Venetia', a Visconti 'Homo Sapiens" LE demonstrator, a Sailor 'Pro Gear II Realo', a Visconti 'Millionaire' LE, and a Visconti Traveling Inkwell.

Stanley also brought some other pens in his brown leather Franklin-Christoph Six-Pen 'Penvelope' case. I can't see all of them, but I can definitely see a lime-green TWSBI 'Eco' peeking out! This is a very popular economy-priced fountain pen by a Taiwanese pen company that is known for making well-made, well-designed fountain pens that use piston- and vacuum-filling mechanisms (as opposed to ink cartridges or converters). I think this is the fourth 'Eco' I've seen in the last two meetings (and I have one at home :).

Among the other pens he brought to the meeting, you can see Stanley's blue Esterbrook pen in the photo below. I did a short talk on Esterbrook writing instruments and brought my own examples (photos of them at the very end of this blog post):

Another shot of Stanley's wonderful new acquisitions...

Speaking of new pens... Jerred brought in a few interesting new acquisitions, including an all-metal Porsche Design Slim Line fountain pen (bottom of photo), a Japanese-made Pilot Seremo model FCM-500R (an amazing value---a fountain pen with a 14K nib for <$70 CAD on Amazon.ca) , a Jinhao '8802' (a beautiful pen I mis-identified as the '1008' model until its owner kindly corrected me :), and an all-metal Diplomat 'Lord' model.

I'm always fascinated by the large variety of styles of fountain pens that our members own. Pictured below are the pens Dana brought to the meeting (from L to R): Wing Sung '698', Platinum 'Preppy', Pilot 'Prera', Lamy 'Safari', Sailor 'Clear Candy', Pelikan M200 Café Crème (Special Edition), Platinum 'Cool', vintage Esterbrook 'CH' (aka "purse pen"), Pilot 'Decimo', Pilot 'Vanishing Point', and Lamy '2000'.

Newer VPC member Ricardo brought in his brand-new Pelikan M205 in blue marble for us to see...

...and also made some sketches using an assortment of fountain pen inks (nicely done!)....

Finally, a quick shot of my Esterbrook writing instruments. The left side of the pen case has my colourful Esterbrook J, SJ and LJ model fountain pens and a blue ballpoint, as well as an early Esterbrook 'Relief' 2-L pen in black hard rubber with 14K nib (made in England by Conway Stewart for Esterbrook!) and a black bandless 'Dollar' pen (these two pens are in the lower left hand corner of the photo).

Closer view of the other side of the pen case, showing (L-R) three more pens from the 'J' family, a 'Deluxe' model with tan body (it looks yellow in the photo for some reason) and metal cap, a green 'Safari', an 'M2', a 'CX-100', a couple of 'Scribe' ballpoints and an assortment of Esterbrook desk pens.

I missed the very start of the meeting due to my radio interview, but Glenn had brought his new Visconti Wall Street (Chatterley Luxuries Special Edition/Ltd Edition) to show the club. It's a gorgeous pen and I'm sorry I didn't snap a photo of it as well as Justin's new acquisitions---a Pilot Vanishing Point in metallic orange and his new Lamy Al-Star in Pacific. Thanks again to all who came to the February meeting!

Photos from January 2017 meeting

We had excellent attendance for the January VPC meeting, which was held at the Oakridge branch of the Vancouver Public Library----22 VPC members attended, including six newcomers (Angela, Connie, David, Lionel, Ray and Ricardo)!
The meeting theme was "Old Friends"--fountain pens that you haven't used in a very long time, but "rediscovered"--and we saw some very interesting examples, some of which I hadn't seen before at any other meeting. Thanks again to Paul of the Calgary Pen Club for the theme idea.

Now, onto the photos!
(all pics by me, except for the one directly below)

Speaking of old friends....
I was so happy that our club's founder, Tim, came to the January meeting. Tim started the Vancouver Pen Club just over 10 years ago (our first meeting was December 7, 2006) after he and fellow fountain pen aficionado Bill K. discussed forming a local pen club. Here I am pictured with both Tim (on my right) and Bill, at the January meeting (thanks to Tim's friend Lionel for taking the photo):

In all the excitement of our club's 10th anniversary, I forgot to photograph the pens they brought in for the meeting theme---Tim's Rotring 'Core' and Lamy '2000' and Bill's Parker 'Sonnet' --- sorry, gentlemen!

Our secondary meeting theme is always "Newest Acquisitions", so I was happy that June brought some recent purchases (and other newer pens I forgot to photograph in the past). From L-R: Pelikan M600 in striped pink (a Special Edition--SE), vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Doric', Visconti 'Titanic' Limited Edition (LE), Visconti 'Cosmos' LE, Visconti 'Rembrandt' "Merry-Go-Round" SE (made to support the Meyer Childrens' Hospital's Hematology Department in Tuscany, Italy), Visconti 'Ragtime', Visconti 'Opera Elements', two more Dorics and another Ragime. Lovely pens, each and every one of them! (click on images to enlarge)

It was nice to see longtime VPCer Sabrina at a meeting again. She brought some new(er) pens to show, including (from top to bottom) a Pilot 'Decimo', a couple of Pelikan 'Souveran' models, a TWSBI 580, a Pilot 'Prera' and a green vintage Japanese-made crescent filler. Sabrina also brought along a very cool Kaweco 'Sport' in the special edition Lagoon colour (in the Kaweco box) and some new ink acquisitions by Sailor (the 'Jentle' line of inks, and a line made for the Japanese store 'Kingdom Note'--in the black boxes) and P.W. Akkerman:

New VPC member Ray brought in some amazing pens, including several by Montblanc (the gridded 'Starwalker', the Meisterstuck 'Solitaire' with green cap, the massive '149' model, and the small 'Bohème' with its uber-cool retractable nib... among others) and a sterling silver Marlen 'Ariane' fountain pen (far left):

Who needs a pen case? That's Jenny with her Lamy 'Safari' in the photo below :)

For this meeting's theme, Jerred brought along his Rotring 'Freeway' (blue pen) and his Waterman 'Kultur' (clear pen) and a new acquisition---a metal Porsche Design 'Slim Line' fountain pen. He also brought along his mother's Parker '21' (not pictured), an often under-appreciated "cousin" of the famous Parker '51':

Sometimes you literally rediscover a long-forgotten pen when you find it in a cupboard, like Tony's vintage Pelikan 400NN (on left-hand side of bottom pen case)! Pictured with the Pelikan is a TWSBI 'Eco'. The other two pens (in the top pen case) are also TWSBIs:

A handsome vintage Sheaffer 'Crest' set and a modern Sheaffer 'Legacy', some of Stuart's newest acquisitions:

Stuart's new Faber-Castell 'WRITink' fountain pen in black (I wrote about mine here):

New VPCer Ricardo brought along some cool modern pens, including (from L to R): two TWSBIs (a white 'Eco' and the clear '580'), a Monteverde 'Intima', and two modern Platignum 'Studio' fountain pens:

Some of Bruce's Italian beauties---a Visconti 'Wall Street' in gorgeous red stripes, an old-style OMAS 'Paragon' (middle pen) and a Limited Edition Visconti 'Australis' in the Opera Master design:

Some of my recent acquisitions (an Online 'Campus--2nd pen from the left--- as well a large orange dragon pen made by Namixin, a dark gray and ivory Delta Journal and the smaller orange pen---a Regal 'British Museum' model), along with my "old friend" for the meeting theme (my red-striped Pelikan M800) and two pens I brought to show a couple of my fellow VPCers who wanted to try them out (my lime-green Pilot 'Metropolitan and my charcoal Lamy 'Safari' (and no, it's not a special edition---I just scraped the black paint off the clip because I liked the look :):

I didn't snap photos of them, but a few more of our members brought in pens for our themes---Marzieh's Monteverde 'Poquito' fountain pen, Harry's vintage Penol cork piston-filler, Justin's Parker '25' (brought in for our primary theme),TWSBI 'Eco','Gist' fountain pen by Tactile Turn (introduced in a Kicktarter campaign) and Pilot 74 Custom, as well as some really nice pens (incl. some dip pens) and a cool blotter brought in by brand-new member Angela. It was a busy evening, so my apologies for not snapping pics of everyone's pens. Thank you to all members who brought in stuff for our themes, and thank you to everyone who showed up at the meeting and brought their enthusiasm!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ahhhhh, the mysteries of love......

Just a couple of quick shots of my new Faber-Castell WRITink fountain pen, purchased from the good folks at the The Vancouver Pen Shop a few days ago...

The pen comes in different colours; I chose the white cap & barrel with black fingerprint (a very cool design, btw). As far as I know, all models come with a black steel nib, with the F-C logo imprinted on them. My particular pen sports a Medium nib, and it writes very smoothly.

Many thanks to Margot & the staff of the Vancouver Pen Shop for their excellent customer service over the years!
( Click on images to enlarge )

InCoWriMo 2017! (International Correspondence Writing Month)

From the FAQ page on their official site:

What is InCoWriMo?

InCoWriMo is the short name for International Correspondence Writing Month, otherwise known as February. With an obvious nod to NaNoWriMo for the inspiration, InCoWriMo challenges you to hand-write and mail/deliver one letter, card, note or postcard every day during the month of February.


Ok. So you forgot about InCoWriMo 2017 and it's already February 5th already... fear not! You can still "catch up" by writing extra notes/letters/postcards during the rest of February...

Now, I, myself am a wee bit behind in writing... but I *did* write a "Get Well" card to a friend on Feb 2nd--Groundhog Day--with this lovely Bexley Poseidon Magnum:

(click on image to enlarge)

The Bexley has been one of my Grail Pens (along with the Signum Nova pen in my previous post) and I was so happy to have found one for sale and in a pattern I adore (a gorgeous non-production colour called "Admiral Red") on eBay. It is uses a cartridge/converter-filling mechanism and sports a gold-plated two-tone nib.

In the photo above, the Poseidon is being held by Punxsutawney Phil, the weather-predicting groundhog, who predicted six more weeks of winter. Given Vancouver's recent snowy weather, I think Phil was right, so stay warm, everyone :)

National Handwriting Day

Well, National Handwriting Day (which always falls on January 23rd) has come and gone, but I'm really glad I had the chance to put these two beauties to use on that occasion---a Sheaffer ballpoint desk set with a lovely onyx base, and a gorgeous Signum 'Nova' fountain pen in Cinnamon, both very recent acquisitions (~Click on images to enlarge~):

You don't need to use a fancy desk set or write with an expensive fountain pen; this Pelikan 'Style' fountain pen writes smoothly with a well-made steel nib and cost <$22 USD (and I love how the white trim complements the black pen body):

Many thanks to Pendemonium for the Sheaffer desk set, longtime Pentrace & Fountain Pen Network member "ArchiMark" for the Signum, and eBayer "thestationerystore" for the Pelikan!

New venue for February 2017 meeting! (meeting # 100 !!)

I can't believe our club is coming up to meeting #100---wow, times flies! Anyway, here are the FEBRUARY MEETING DETAILS:

When: Thursday February 16, 2017 (ie. we're back to our usual third Thursday of the month)

Where: the TERRY SALMAN branch of the Vancouver Public Library at 4575 Clancy Loranger Way (on the lower level of the Hillcrest Community Center) in central Vancouver (near Queen Elizabeth Park). The meeting will take place in their Community Room (meeting room).

When: 6:00pm (or so) to 8:45pm. The library closes at 9:00pm, so we have to leave the room by 8:45pm.

Theme: ESTERBROOK writing instruments (including fountain pens, desk pens, ballpoints, pencils and dip pens)....and INK SWAP! (the ink swap is 100% voluntary, and partially-filled ink bottles & ink cartridges are acceptable for trade). This will be our 100th VPC meeting and we've never done Esterbrooks before, so I will give a short talk on the topic (I'm not an expert, just a fan) illustrated with some photos. As usual Newest Acquisitions is our secondary topic. There is excellent info on Esterbrooks here:
Profile of the Model J series family of pens.
Profile of the Dollar pens.
Full Esterbrook model history site.

HOW TO GET TO THE LIBRARY:

For those of you taking transit, take the #33 Bus (which says "29th Avenue Station/UBC" on it) that leaves from the SW corner of Cambie & King Edward (ie. directly across the street from the Canada Line "King Edward" Skytrain station) and that bus will take you right to Hillcrest Park, where the Hillcrest Community Center (and library) is located. The bus leaves every 10 minutes during rush hour. The library stop is only 3 stops away---ie. after leaving the Cambie & King Edward stop, the next stop will be Cambie & 27th, then Cambie & 29th, and then the Hillcrest Community Center stop (where you should exit). For those of you driving, there is free parking at the Hillcrest Community Center (oh, and there's a nice snack bar at the Center :)
Hope you can make it to the February meeting! No need to RSVP, and if you don't have any Esterbrooks or New Acquisitions to show, please come anyway!

Recent Acquisitions

A lovely bright red Waterman 'Ici et La' fountain pen from my good friend Glenn in Australia, and a glossy black Italix 'Parson's Essential' (fitted with a great Medium Stub nib) from MrPen in the United Kingdom!

(~ click on images to enlarge ~)

November 2016 meeting photos (finally!)

We had good attendance at the November meeting, held at the Oakridge branch of the Vancouver Public Library; 14 members (Maja, Bruce, Ralph, Glenn M, Harry, Jerred, Christopher, Peter, Stanley, Stuart, June, Bart and newcomers Jenny and Sandra) were on hand to show their new acquisitions and black fountain pens (the latter being November's theme).

Without further ado, here are some of the pens we saw (apologies to those whose pens I forgot to photograph!)~ ~ ~ Click on photos to enlarge ~ ~ ~

Jerred's nice collection of black fountain pens, and two recent acquisitions on the right (a clear Wing Sung 698 and a blue LingMo 'Lorelei' model). The black pens are (L-R): Levenger 'Facets', Waterman 'Charleston', Pilot '912', Rotring 'Esprit', Pilot Custom (model FK-700R), Pilot Seremo (model FCM-500R), Delta 'Markiaro' and Duke 116 (Carbon Fiber):

The first half of Stuart's black pen collection---the black fountain pens are (L-R) TWSBI 'Eco', mystery pen , Sheaffer 'PFM', Sheaffer 'Valor', Sheaffer '100' in the "Friends of Winter--Pine" design, Sheaffer Snorkel (or Touchdown ??), and a Sheaffer 'Taranis'---and some newer acquisitions:

Part two of Stuart's black FP collection (black pens from L-R are: Waterman 'Expert', Kaweco 'Dia2', mystery pen & Montblanc 146) and some cool recent purchases, including a Faber-Castell 'E-Motion' fountain pen in Parquet Resin Brown--a pen model that has a wonderful steel nib (I own one, too!):

Ralph's fine examples of both vintage (Sheaffer PFM in the foreground, Sheaffer Targa in the box on the left) and modern MB Boheme in the box on the right) black fountain pens :

An interesting "Frankenpen" (pen made with parts from various pen models/manufacturers) that Harry brought in. It was put together by a friend of his and sports a vintage Parker 'Duofold' Streamline cap and barrel, a Soennecken clip and a nice vintage Wahl-Eversharp nib:

Here's that W-E nib...

Bruce's collection of black fountain pens---Italian beauties by Visconti (an 'Istos Aracnis' Limited Edition, a 'Divina', and a Limited Edition 'Australis' in the Opera Master design) and OMAS (old-style 'Paragon'), with a couple of German classics by Montblanc (a '146') and Pelikan (an M800) and a Bexley 'Americana' thrown in :)....

Part of my (Maja's) black fountain pen collection (hey, I've been collecting for more than 15 years :)

More black fountain pens of mine...

My parents' vintage Kaweco fountain pens in my Mom's old pen case (she kept that small photo of my Dad in it):

Glenn Marcus' great black fountain pen collection--part 1:

Part 2 of Glenn's collection:

Our secondary topic is always Newest Acquisitions. Here's a hard-to-find older Visconti ink that Bruce managed to acquire recently:

A Sheaffer Triumph that Christopher found in an antique shop, a great vintage find:

Christopher was kind enough to send me some photos (of pens he brought to the meeting) to post on our site: