Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 280

Happy Fountain Pen Day!

As mentioned in my little Hallowe'en blog post, I'm a huge fan of orange fountain pens...and here's the latest one I added to my collection:

(~please click on photos to enlarge~)

I got this Elliot Landes / Penmakers resin fountain pen on eBay after I stumbled across it completely by accident (while searching for orange fountain pens :D) I'd never heard of the manufacturer before, but I instantly fell in love with its orange and black swirly resin material. The pen had a very low opening bid and reasonable shipping rates from the U.S, so I placed a single low bid on it (the lone bid, it turned out) and won it.

The colour pattern of the material reminds of my beloved Monteverde 'Prima' fountain pen and ballpoint (although the latter have some white streaks in their resin). Being a medium-sized resin fountain pen, it's not heavy--the weight of the pen (without any cartridge/converter in it) is approximately 19 grams, only a couple of grams more than a Lamy 'Safari' fountain pen.

I found some photos of the rollerball version of my fountain pen (in the same material), but it had a different clip. Despite my extensive online searches, I haven't been able to find any other resin fountain pens or rollerballs made by this manufacturer (the company specialized in wooden writing instruments), so I'm wondering if my fountain pen and its rollerball cousin were prototypes ??

Initially, I couldn't find much information about their maker, either (aside from their old website and some info indicating the company was formed in 1975 and went out of business around 2011) as my pen didn't come with any packaging. I eventually found some online images of the pamphlet that came with their wooden pens, though, and it said: "Elliot Landes has been making writing instruments for 20 years. The Penmakers studio is located in Winters, California, a small town on the west edge of the Sacramento Valley. The business includes several craftspeople that share the design and craft work."

You can't see it from this angle, but the back of the section's trim ring has some wear/corrosion to it, something that's not uncommon in fountain pens with plated metal section trim rings (see these two threads on FPN and Reddit). The damage isn't visible while using the pen, of course, but I thought I'd mention it as some pen people I know steer clear of fountain pens with those type of trim rings.

Approximate measurements: the capped length of the pen is 14 cm / 5.5 inches, uncapped it's 12.5 cm / 5.95 inches and posted, it's 14.5 cm / 5.75 inches long. The cap is friction-fit and snaps on with an audible click. It posts well and deeply, so it's well-balanced when posted, and there's no fear of the cap coming off during normal use. The squiggly clip (best seen in the first photo*) is made of metal and painted black, like the cap ring.

(*Tip: to see even better close-ups of the photos, left-click on a photo to enlarge it, then right-click & select "Open image in new tab" (or "View image"), then left-click on the image in the newly-opened tab)

I fully expected the pen to come with an IPG (Iridium Plated Gold) nib, but the nib it came with was made by Reform, a German company! The Reform nib is a two-tone gold-plated steel nib and it writes well, with some feedback (which I like). Its nib width isn't marked, but it writes like a Medium-Fine.

All in all, a fortuitous eBay find of an unusual pen by a small pen manufacturer, and one I'm very happy with!

(~ photos & review by Maja~ )

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 279

As promised, we're back to our regular (alternate-day) online "show & tell", and today we're shining a spotlight on a gorgeous modern fountain pen belonging to Jessica!

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

Jessica writes: "Just sending you some photos of a somewhat new pen. It’s another Benu. It’s called the Bourbon in their Euphoria line."

"Previously they came out with one called Vodka on the rocks and this is the follow up. So if you know Benu, then you know they are mostly known for the glittered look. Well, with the Bourbon (and Vodka on the rocks previously), they definitely pushed the limit. But really, is there such a thing as “too much” glitter? 😉"

"So the inspiration behind this design is, you guessed it, a nice smooth glass of aged bourbon. It happens to be my favourite poison so naturally when I saw it, there was no doubt it would join my growing line up of glitter pens. 🤩"

"Benu uses Schmidt nibs and can we please just take a moment and appreciate that fact. Schmidt’s aren’t fancy but in my few short months of using the Schmidt nibs and fountain pens altogether, I find them delightful."

"All mine wrote right out of the box, western sized points and wet. (Amazing with sheening inks!) So I am grateful that Benu uses them, which in my opinion also keeps their prices reasonable to a certain degree."

"Sure, there are many more economical, excellent everyday writers but, come on..."

" ... just look at all that glitter!!! 😂"

Jessica adds: "The photos are mostly taken with artificial lighting and the shine is unfortunately hard to capture. Also, this pen is actually more amber in person but appears more golden in the photos interestingly enough." (note: the first two photos were taken in natural light, which, Jessica says, made them "a little more sparkly I think 😄")

This is the fourth Benu fountain pen we've featured in our online "show & tell" since we started it in April 2020, and I suspect it won't be the last :) Many thanks to Jessica for sharing her beautiful Benu with us!

The origin of the Rotring 700 product line

In lieu of a "Newest Acquisitions (Virtual 'Show & Tell')" blog post, I thought we'd kick off the month of November with this impressive, well-researched article about the origin of the Rotring '700' product line, courtesy of Vancouver Pen Club member Anthony. Many thanks to Anthony for sharing it with us!




We'll resume our online "show & tell" on Wednesday, so if any of our pen club members have any new pen-related acquisitions they'd like to share here on our club's blog, please send them in! (thanks in advance :)

Happy Hallowe'en!

"Radar" & one of my many orange fountain pens...  (click on image to enlarge)

It's a mango-coloured Jinhao '159' that I bought from a fellow Vancouver Pen Club member (thanks, Charles!) a few years ago--a scarily massive fountain pen with a replacement #6 size nib (Goulet Pens steel 1.1mm italic) that I love using. You can find '159's for less than $10 CAD shipped on eBay, and even less on Aliexpress (Goulet Pens replacement nibs sold separately).

(~photo & blog post by Maja~)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 278

Here's another great vintage find recently acquired by Stuart! It's an attractive desk set that was part of Sheaffer's "Dry-Proof" desk set line, designed to prevent the set's desk pen from drying out when not in use:

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

Stuart: "Here’s the new baby that was delivered last night! A Sheaffer desk-set, in its original box. This one’s in the 1938 Sheaffer catalog as set F133 GBAZE, and sold for $5.00."( link to 1938 Sheaffer catalog--see page 12).

 

"The box lid is very frail, with glue holding the top panel on at only one side, and some creasing, but the box bottom is still good for storing the set."

"The base is Pedrara onyx, from Mexico, with a brown plastic disc mounted on top, and a matching brown holder and pen. The #3 pen’s sac is kaput, so I’ve swapped a brown White Dot pen from another set in for the time being. 

The name J. J. Janousek is imprinted on the barrel of the set’s pen, and that name appears on the label on the bottom. Mr. Janousek worked for the Hartford Insurance Co., in the Exchange Building, presumably in Middletown, Ohio, where the set comes from. I like the handwritten date - December 27, 1939! With the pen being personalized, I wonder if the label refers to a work order for the job?"

"I like how Sheaffer packed the desk-pen, with the taper removed and the nib protected by a sturdy cardboard sleeve, a great idea! Even at the lower end of their range of desk-sets, Sheaffer provided handsome packaging.

I’m very pleased with this set! The one in the 1941 catalog has a black pen, holder, and disc, so not quite the same. I like the brown colour scheme - very handsome. Sheaffer used black or brown for its desk-pens and matching parts, I guess because they’re the most formal, dignified colours. I’m impressed with how the disc and holder on mine have retained their polished shine over 82 years - Sheaffer quality!" 

Congrats to Stuart on another wonderful addition to his vintage desk set collection!

For more information on the designs (yes, there were more than one) behind Sheaffer's "Dry-Proof" desk sets, check out Roger Wooten's (archived) article: "The Dry Socket Base"

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 277

VPCer Stuart paid another visit to the Vancouver Pen Shop (whose annual sale has been extended--see end of blog post) recently and came back with some very cool items---a beautiful fountain pen made by the Narwhal pen company, and a very special "special edition" ink made for his favourite pen store :)

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

Stuart: "I picked up the Narwhal Key West Key Largo yesterday, and a bottle of the exclusive anniversary ink made for the Vancouver Pen Shop by Robert Oster. Together they offer a striking contrast!"

"The pen’s gorgeous, with its vivid blue colour and prominent sparkles, giving it a starry night sky look which is very beautiful"

"The Medium steel nib is smooth, very nice to write with. The acrylic material of the pen is very slick, making it a little slippery in the hand, but the metal thread section helps with the grip. The cap does not post on the end of the barrel."

"It comes in a very cool box, as can be seen, with the pen inside a black vinyl case embossed with the Narwhal name, and having a snap closure - very nice packaging, especially at the price!"

"The ink is a surprise - a light cocoa colour with hints of green. It shades nicely, with good flow. The only other ink like it is MB’s Swan Illusion Plume. It’s a subtle and sophisticated ink, it catches the eye and is very chic. And it’s only at Van Pen!"

Congratulations to the Vancouver Pen Shop on their exclusive Robert Oster ink, made for their store's 35th anniversary! Due to shipments of product being slow to arrive, the Vancouver Pen Shop's annual anniversary sale (featured in this blog post) has been extended until after Remembrance Day, November 11th (per their FB post), so if you're looking for some good deals, check them out!

Robert Oster inks also celebrated an anniversary recently--their 5th! Their inks are proudly made in Australia and have become hugely popular since they came out in 2016. Narwhal Pens are even younger--they released their first products in 2019. They're an American company (I just found that out a few days ago) whose pens are produced in China. 

This is actually Stuart's third Narwhal fountain pen--his 'Original' and 'Schuykill' models (released in 2019 and 2020, respectively) were both reviewed earlier on our blog. Whereas those two are piston-fillers, the 'Key West' model (featured in today's blog post) is Narwhal's first cartridge/converter-filling fountain pen (all three pens, however, are in the sub-$75 CAD category). Both the Vancouver Pen Shop and Charals pen & gift store (also in downtown Vancouver) carry Narwhal writing instruments.

Stuart--thanks so much for the photos and reviews...and thank you to everyone in our club who' has contributed to our little virtual "show & tell" since we started it eighteen months ago :)

Cheers,
~Maja

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 276

It's currently the top-selling fountain pen on Amazon.ca right now, so it has a ton of online reviews already, but I thought I'd share my own thoughts on my new Amazon Basics fountain pen in this post...

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

Amazon Basics is Amazon's private label brand for household goods, electronics, office goods and many more categories. I find it amusing that the brand's one and only fountain pen is described as the "Amazon Basics Refillable Fountain Pen" on their website & pamphlet... as if the average fountain pen user would assume it's not refillable :)

 

The pen came in a very simple black plastic clamshell presentation box with no manufacturer's name on it. I thought it odd that Amazon didn't put the Amazon Basics name and/or logo on it, just to jazz it up a bit. On the other hand, some buyers might appreciate the lack of branding, in case they want to reuse it as a gift box.

 

Though the box is simple, it cushioned the pen inside very well -- there are even cutouts for the two spare ink cartridges!

According to YouTuber Pen Boy Roy, the pen was made by the Shanghai Qiangu Stationery Company, a Chinese manufacturer that also makes Jinhao writing instruments, among other brands.

It is a narrower fountain pen, but I still find it comfortable to hold. The barrel and cap are made of lacquered brass, and the pen is a very glossy black colour. In fact, the pen is currently only available in black, which reminds me of Henry Ford's quote about the Model T automobile -“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it's black."

 

Dimensions (my measurements): 13.5 cm capped, 11.8 cm uncapped (nib tip to barrel end), and 15 cm posted. The weight of the pen is 32 grams (according to my kitchen digital scale) with no cartridge/converter in place.

 

The pen comes with an unadorned #5 steel nib with only the nib size ("M" for Medium, in this case) stamped on it. It's also available with a Fine nib, but I chose the wider nib as I knew it was a Chinese-made pen and suspected that the Fine would run a little narrow. The Medium nib on mine does, in fact, write like a Medium-Fine, so I'm glad I got a pen with a Medium nib.

At the time I bought it, the Medium-nibbed pen was slightly more expensive, but today the Medium is cheaper. Go figure. The nib on mine is a bit "toothy" and has some audible feedback, but I like that. It has also a bit of spring to it, but no real flex.

It came with three "Amazon Basics"- branded ink cartridges filled with black ink-- two nestled in the presentation box and one in the barrel. The cartridges are branded with the Amazon Basics logo, and although they resemble short standard international cartridges, they have a slightly longer "chimney" (as reviewer Pen Boy Roy calls it). For this reason, standard short international cartridges might not fit the Amazon Basics' section "nipple" properly, leading to ink leakage. Oddly enough, you can't buy the Amazon Basics ink cartridges separately on Amazon (!), but, apparently, Jinhao ink cartridges will fit (not surprising).

As for converters...The pen didn't come with one, so I tried a German K5 international converter (seen in photos above and below) I had at home to see if it would work...

 

...and it fits perfectly, with no apparent leakage!

The clip has the Amazon Basics logo (which incorporates Amazon's famous smile/arrow) stamped on it. Interestingly, the top of the clip (not shown) doesn't have "China" stamped on it, unlike some of the same pens reviewed on YouTube. It's quite a stiff clip, but I've seen worse on other pens. The cap is a snap-on, and it caps with a pleasant, reassuring click.

 
The pen posts very securely, with no wobbling at all, and I find it to be well-balanced when posted. One complaint I've heard from some reviewers is that the polished chrome section is a bit slippery, but I wasn't bothered by it. There is one tiny detail that does bug me, and that is that the cap top is slightly different than the barrel end; the former has two rings, whereas the latter has three rings. It's a very small detail that isn't very noticeable (unless you look for that sort of thing...which I do :) but hey - I like symmetry!

The Amazon Basics fountain pen with Medium nib is currently (10/26/2021) priced at $8.08 CAD on Amazon.ca and the Fine-nibbed version is $11.04 CAD. Both are backed by a 1-year limited warranty from Amazon Basics. I've found Amazon's return policy to be very good and hassle-free, so the warranty is a big "plus" in my book. Yes, it's a pretty nondescript fountain pen, but it feels good in the hand and writes well. Your mileage may vary, as the saying goes, but at $8/$11 CAD with free shipping, I think it's worth trying out.

(~ all photos & review by Maja ~)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 275

A couple of weeks ago, VPCer Stuart sent in some photos of a new pen-related acquisition for our club's virtual "show & tell". It's the newest addition to his ever-growing collection of vintage desk sets--a simple yet elegant example made by a pen company that made many beautiful desk sets...

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

Stuart: "This arrived last night from Michigan! It’s an Eversharp desk set from the 1940’s, with a solid glass base, 7 inches in diameter, and a pen with a 14K Fine point nib."

"The base is heavy, and shows no sign of ever having had felt attached to its bottom - I suspect the designers wanted to showcase the beautiful qualities of the glass."

"The pen’s sac is good, and flushed residue of green ink when I cleaned it. The nib is a beautiful writer, silky-smooth with an even line. The original box came also, but it’s in ugly condition so I didn’t photograph it.

I’m delighted with this set, especially as it was only $28 CDN before shipping! It looks as though it didn’t get much use, everything is clean and shiny."

What a great deal on a great desk set! Our thanks, as always, to Stuart for his ongoing contributions to our pen club's blog :)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 274

From vintage to modern we go with this beautiful fountain pen made by the Sailor Pen Company in Japan! Stuart was kind enough to send in a few photos of his brand-new Sailor that (according to Sailor's official website) was only sold overseas...

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

 Stuart: "Here are the pics of the Sailor Pro Gear Slim “Sunset Over The Ocean” SE (Special Edition)."

"The bright light brings out the sparkles in the blue of the barrel..."

 "...and the iridescence of the red end caps - so beautiful!"

Stuart, thank you so much for sharing your lovely new pen with us---it's a real looker!

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 273

From one wonderful gold pen to another! This is another one of Christopher's recent vintage acquisitions...

(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)

Christopher: "As with so many vintage pens I have run across, the original source on this particular pen was just not available. A thorough going-over with a 20x magnifying loupe produced no clues on either the barrel or cap. And the nib, as fine as it is, only carries the imprinting Warranted and 14K, which I do not think relates to the pen's origin either. Still, a magnificent gold overlay and well worth having. Collectors of vintage pens, for the most part, are usually impressed enough to not pass up on the likes of gold overlays, even without id markings.

This pen is of good size and in just brilliant shape overall. Better still, when filled, it lays down the ink most responsibly. I could not pass up on the opportunity of tying its style and make up in with at least one manufacturer, and what I found with my research is that it seem to be well-connected, at least in part, with Wahl Eversharp in the early nineteen twenties."

There are a couple of nice articles on Wahl's All-Metal" fountain pens from the 1920s on Penhero.com:
-- Wahl Art Deco Metal Pens 1921-1929
-- Wahl Art Deco Machine Engraved Patterns 1921-1929 (the photos are stunning!)

Our thanks, as always, to Christopher for his contributions to our little virtual "show & tell" :)