Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 450

In a blog post from last week (where I reviewed a pen made by Analog Notes), I alluded to some pens made by another small pen maker and how I'd do a review of them this week. Without further ado, here they are -- three fountain pens handmade by Mike Allen of the Woodshed Pen Co. in Charleston, South Carolina!

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

According to his Kickstarter biography, Mike is a U.S. Air Force veteran who resigned from his job (as a 911 operator, it turns out) in January 2017 to pursue a career in penmaking. He made lots of great fountain pens (and made some of his own resins, too) but, sadly, stopped making fountain pens in the summer of 2022. Mike said it was due to rising costs but that he was planning to switch to making rollerballs (which were cheaper to produce). Unfortunately, he wound up completely shutting down his Woodshed Pen Company a few months later. 

The fountain pens that he did make in those five short years are getting harder to find (especially for a decent price), so I was fortunate to snag these three. I bought the sparkly lime green translucent one (in the green "Shimmer" resin) from Peyton Street Pens for $85 USD, I got the blue one with red flecks --an "Italian resin"-- directly from Mike for $75 USD in his clearance sale, and I got the orange and black pen (in the "Hallowe'en Nights" resin) from an eBayer (it had a $100 USD Buy-It-Now price, but the seller accepted my $85 USD offer ;)

(The fountain pens don't have model names as Mike basically made the same model for all of his kitless acrylic pens)

The green "Shimmer" pen was part of Mike's 2021 Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a CNC lathe (computer-controlled lathe), and was one of eight different colour choices. According to this 'Figboot on Pens' review, the beautiful shimmery resins were made by Mike himself. It's a wonderful material with the sparkles actually embedded in the resin, not applied afterwards. Mike wound up raising enough money via Kickstarter to buy the CNC lathe and he produced a lot of "Shimmer" pens on it, but some (very recent) Reddit posts indicated that some backers were still waiting for their 2021 Kickstarter pens :/ 

I suspect the blue acrylic pen with red flecks was made after Mike bought the CNC lathe as it was sold without a nib/feed/nib collar when he was clearing out his remaining inventory in the summer of 2022. The acrylic was described by him as "an Italian acrylic"; I don't know if the material has an official name ---almost all custom blanks do--- but that's what it was called on the Woodshed website and on his Instagram account.

Dimensions*:
Length of capped pen: 12.8  cm / 5 inches
Length of uncapped pen (nib tip to barrel end): 12.4 cm/ 4.9 inches
Grip section, max diameter: approx. 12 mm

(* = these are the dimensions of the green "Shimmer" pen; the blue/red Italian acrylic is about 1-2 mm shorter capped and uncapped, but has the same max. section diameter)

The pens weigh 15 grams (blue/red Italian resin) and 18 grams (green "Shimmer) when empty, with no converter in place (both pens take either cartridges and/or full-sized international converters) 

A pen mystery... 🕵️

The "Hallowe'en Nights" (orange & black) pen is slightly longer than the other two pens, it tapers towards the barrel end, and it has rounded ends. That puzzled me as I'd heard that all of the kitless Woodshed fountain pens were the same size and shape. Like many small pen makers, the Woodshed Pen Co. didn't put their company name on their pens, so I was a tiny bit concerned that mine wasn't made by Mike. I wanted to check Woodshed's archive of sold pens, but Mike had already shut down his Woodshed Pen Co. website. I then went to check his official Instagram, but he'd taken all the photos off of that account. Oh boy. 

I did some more digging online and found photos of the first Woodshed Pen Co. fountain pen (2017) Kickstarter campaign , and saw that the pens had rounded ends. I then found a Pen Addict review about the early Woodshed Pen Co. fountain pens and how they differed from the later ones --- from that review: "My second, and newest Woodshed Pen, does have a slightly different body shape than my original Kickstarter model. The overall length is shorter by about 1/4”, and there is no taper towards the ends." I did more digging and found another review showing the less-flared section on an earlier Woodshed pen. I now definitely think my "Hallowe'en Nights" fountain pen is an earlier Woodshed Pen Co. pen.

Dimensions of my "Hallowe'en Nights" pen:

Capped: 13.3 cm 
Uncapped: 12. 8 cm.
Grip section, max diameter: approx. 12 mm
Total weight (with no converter in place): 18.3 grams

Pen takes either cartridges and/or a full-sized international converter

I love writing with my three Woodshed pens --- they're short, but they're chunky and beautiful ...and they feel really good in the hand (even though they can't be posted). In his review, Brad Dowdy (The Pen Addict) suggested that the pens were so comfortable to use because of their long sections ... and I agree. The pens are also very well-made, with nicely-turned cap threads, highly-polished surfaces and smooth edges--- excellent fit and finish throughout.

Another thing I love about them is that their barrels are thick; according to one online reviewer, this is because penmaker Mike didn’t want the pens to break if they were accidentally dropped (which is a great idea, actually). Despite the thickness of the material, the pens are still light, and can be used for long periods of time without developing hand fatigue. As far as I know, all of the kitless acrylic Woodshed fountain pens were made without clips; this doesn't bother me (I actually prefer smaller pens to be clipless), but it may or may not be a deal-breaker for you.

Another awesome thing---all of the resin Woodshed pens take #6 size JoWo nibs! 

I don't have anything against small fountain pens with #5 nibs --I love my Franklin-Christoph '45'--- but it's so nice to see a full-sized nib on a really great smaller pen :)  Funnily, none of my three Woodshed pens currently have their original nibs on them --- the lime green "Shimmer" model was bought second-hand and came with a replacement black Franklin-Christoph B steel nib (that I subsequently put into another pen with a darker body), the middle pen was purchased (on clearance from Woodshed) without a nib unit, and the "Hallowe'en Nights" pen came with a silver-coloured F steel JoWo nib (which I swapped out for a gold-coloured JoWo M nib from my Analog Notes 'Maxwell' pen).

I'm sad that production of these wonderful pens ceased last year, but I'm so glad I jumped on the bandwagon in time to acquire mine for (what I think are) very reasonable prices. You can be sure I'll keep an eagle eye out for more Woodshed Pen Co. pens being sold! 

Thanks for reading this review, and my apologies for quality of the photos--I wanted to photograph the pens in natural light, but it's been cloudy/rainy for the last few days. Don't forget that we have a pen club meeting on Thursday (January 12th) at the Kitsilano VPL branch -- see the info in red at the very top of our homepage.

(~Review by Maja~)

Reminder - our next meeting is on Thursday (January 12) !

 

Don't forget our meeting on Thursday January 12th!

It's at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library, from 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM (click here for more info).
Hope you can make it!

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 449

 Continuing on with Part 3 (part 1 here, part 2 here) of Lawrence's thoughts on his favourite fountain-pen-and-ink matchups (or what he calls "Lavalife and pens" lol)....

Lawrence writes: "Okay, finally the pen/ink matching write-up that started it all. I figure with the two previous "practice" sessions, I think I can organize my thoughts better now to tackle this one. 

 This group is the most important for me, anyway, since it includes a good number of my grail pens, and it's also the beginning of my pen-ink matching craziness. The wonderful ink that started this all: Diamine's Syrah:

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

Ironically, Syrah is also the last one to be acquired in the group (I got it just last year); it was out of stock in stores for a while and I basically accumulated a whole bunch of other inks that are sort of close to it, but not quite. So all the rest of the inks in this group are what I have acquired "while working my way towards the Syrah ink". Syrah is what I had in mind as a perfect match for my first grail pen, MB's Daniel Defoe (which I have reviewed here before):

Yes, there are three of them here with different nib sizes. I am not going to dwell on the topic of "bat-s@#t crazy hoarder" at the moment, so we'll just leave it at that LOL. I have always treated them as one pen (maybe to make myself feel less guilty). Anyway, so I had this perfect image of a black pen with burgundy/reddish ink. I am not a "goth" person really, but the combo of black pen with reddish/burgundy ink gives off a gothic vampire vibe, which I think is kind of cool. And of course I can't leave out the "matching" tribute pen for this:

I know it's not the real thing, but whatever, I like it anyway. It looks like the Defoe a great deal but just don't look too close at it. So the Defoe(s) is my default Burgundy pen, and is probably the one that uses this colour the most.

At that time, Syrah was still not available, so I got the most logical one to match my Defoes, which is MB's Burgundy Red. This is also a very nice deep-coloured ink, however, I do find that the ink dries a bit on the greyish/bluish side on certain paper. It does not retain that vibrant burgundy colour when I first put the ink to paper (the picture below shows the ink as it just begins to dry). Regardless, it is still a good match (and I guess an MB pen does go with MB inks, also):

While I waited for Syrah to be available, I also found another ink that I thought would be fine with the Defoe and this is J. Herbin's Larmes de Cassis. As expected of most J. Herbin inks, it has a more washed out effect, but still pretty good. This ink is a bit more purple than MB's burgundy.

In the meantime, I ended up with another black pen, Visconti's Michelangelo (I have reviewed this here as well):

This pen is "black on black on black". At least that is how I would describe it. So I thought perhaps a reddish ink would be perfect. Burgundy works, I'm sure, but I decided to expand the pallete here. So I ended up with J. Herbin's Rouge Opera:

It ended up being a nice bright raspberry instead of red, and of course, it also has this washed out look that is expected of Herbin's inks. The match is okay, though, not perfect but okay. It needs a "stronger" red I think.

By this time, a few other black pens somehow "appeared" in my life (LOL) and I used that as an excuse to search for some more burgundy/reddish ink choices. I found another one that is pretty good: MB's Corn Poppy Red. This ink will go well with the Michelangelo for sure. The contrast will be awesome. It's a very beautiful ink. Nice scathing red. It also seems to retain this colour when the ink dries:

I think Diamine's Oxblood is pretty close to this (I don't have this ink...yet LOL). This ink is also perfect with the Rouge et Noire which "appeared" at this time somehow LOL (I have reviewed this pen here also):

This pen looks like MB's Agatha Christie, so the red ink works very well to give it that "bloody murder mystery feel".

Another ink that I found is Graf von Faber Castell's Garnet Red, although this one has a slight "greyish" look (not sure how else to describe it) compared to MB's Corn Poppy, but this seems to retain this colour when it dries.

This is my largest ink group so far (and I'm still looking to get more). The number of pens in this group is also relatively larger than the rest, as I do have a thing for black pens. Speaking of which, here are other pens in this group:

Visconti Homo Sapiens (a Palladium stub nib, and an 18K F nib....the stub was reviewed here before):

Black and silver Franklin Covey (an impulse buy from Staples):

The TWSBI 580: As mentioned in the last few posts, these demonstrators can take all sorts of different inks. However, because I do love Burgundy/Reddish inks in general, I do fill them up with this ink colour whenever I have the chance.

Montegrappa Ducale: It's not a black pen, and I normally will not feed this pen anything remotely close to red in my OCD world. But I tried the reddish coloured inks on it for fun, and it seems to work well; however, I still prefer another colour with this pen so it will come up again in another (ink) group later on. Occasionally, I do put a reddish ink in it to spice things up..yes I like living on the edge LOL. But no burgundy...just red.

Not to be left out, my Parker 21 (not shown) also tried out this group. But being a "school pen" I tend to stay away from red inks with them. When I was in school, red ink was associated with wrong answers and "nasty" teachers (probably still is)....so....the Parker 21 and I had a "mutual psychological agreement" that we will not revisit childhood traumatic issues. Basically.. any colour except red/burgundy for this pen. This also applies to my other vintage school pens.

Okay that's it for now. The next set will probably be the purples/violets."


Wow - what a great write-up! Many thanks to Lawrence for sharing his thoughts (and photos) on pens & inks with us; I eagerly look forward to the next installment :)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 448

So far, our 2023 blog reviews have covered fountain pens, ballpoints and pen-related accessories... so before we move on to inks (with one of Lawrence's awesome reviews on Monday), I thought I'd post a review of a pretty rollerball pen I acquired a few months ago...

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

Meet my lovely Retro 51 'Tornado Big Shot' "Majestic" Limited Edition made for Freckles Stationery and Gifts in Fulshear, Texas (just outside of Houston)!

I'm a huge fan of Retro 51 writing instruments so I'd heard about this particular limited edition quite a while ago (it was released in March 2021). Due to a huge variety of hurdles (US-Canada border rules re: COVID-19 testing, no shipping option listed for international orders on the Freckles website, my email inquiry about this that wasn't received, the closing of Freckles' brick & mortar store in May 2022, followed by their website being down for two months for maintenance/updates), I didn't acquire the pen until September 2022...but it was worth the wait!

The pen arrived safe and sound (and quickly-- the store's owner, Carla Casey, offered excellent customer service and her emails were very helpful and friendly) ---along with a nice 'thank you' card and a complimentary Freckles notepad:

This isn't the first limited edition (LE) Retro 51 'Tornado' made for Freckles --- there were several others made in different materials and patterns (the "Sweet Stripes", "Sweet Starburst", "Sweet Serendipity", "Bubble Up!" and "Psychedelic Twist" LE models) but they all had one thing in common--- bright, cheery colours and designs. Many of the designs were created by Freckles' owner Carla herself.

The "Majestic" model has an acrylic body, with a mixture of  pearlescent white, pink, blue, purple, and lime green colours, shiny chrome trim, and a pink disc on top. Only 528 "Majestic" pens were made, and no two pens look alike, due to the varying nature of the acrylic material. Each pen is individually numbered, with the number engraved on the metal collar below the turning knob.

The pen was $69 USD + shipping and is only available via the Freckles webstore (they still have a few pens in this model--as well as the "Sweet Starburst"-- left, as of this writing). It can also be found on the secondary market (e.g. eBay).

The "Majestic" and the "Psychedelic Twist" were the only two Freckles Retro 51 models that were made in the 'Tornado Big Shot" size, the largest Retro 51 'Tornado' rollerball size.

The pen has a whopping maximum barrel diameter of 14.5 mm and weighs 37.3 grams; though that might seem a bit unwieldy, it's actually very comfortable to hold and use. It's a capless rollerball and comes with a Retro 51-branded rollerball refill (in black ink) with a one year cap-off time (ie. the refill won't dry out for one year). To use the pen, you simply twist the knurled metal turning knob to extend and retract the refill.

I often find myself reaching for one of my Retro 51 capless rollerballs when I want to jot down a quick note as they don't require uncapping, and the refills lay down a nice, smooth, dark line. If you wish, you can also use a Parker/Parker-style gel/ballpoint refill in them (no hacking required!).

Above: the four sizes of Retro 51 Tornado rollerballs that I currently own (top to bottom): "Big Shot Tornado", "Standard "Tornado", "Slim Tornado" and the diminutive "Elite Tornado". The first three models are all the same length, but they differ in width.

There was also a Retro 51 "Twin Tornado" (a 2-in-1 ballpoint/ underliner/ stylus) model, a "Tornado Touch" (ballpoint with a stylus) model and the "Agenda Tornado" (a ballpoint-only "Tornado Touch"), but I don't own those (yet, heh).

(above: very useful illustration from Retro 51's Facebook account - link)

All Retro 51 'Tornado' ballpoints/rollerballs have decorative discs on top, but some are more more decorative than others. I'm still trying to figure out what the disc on top of my brushed stainless steel 'Tornado'  (seen above) represents--it has an odd-looking black & yellow symbol---so if you know, please drop me a line at our club's Gmail address :)

I love my "Majestic" rollerball from Retro 51, so I was thrilled to see (on their Instagram account) that Freckles are working on future collaborations with Retro 51 😊 Many thanks to Carla at Freckles for this beautiful rollerball, and her great customer service!

(~review by Maja~)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 447

In the last year or so, I really started to get into fountain pens handmade by small pen makers, so I thought I'd do a review of one I purchased in September 2022...

My interest in these kind of pens started with the gorgeous 'Troubleshooter 1313' fountain pen I bought from Ash at Rockster Pens in September 2020 (I reviewed it here), but my interest deepened after I bought a lovely resin fountain pen from Analog Notes at the end of 2021. Analog Notes is owned and operated by Ronnie Shields, an independent pen maker in the American Midwest (Bloomington, Indiana). The pen was an Analog Notes 'Faraday' model (reviewed by me here) that I bought chiefly because of its beautiful swirly red and cream resin. I knew that Analog Notes made other fountain pen models (using a variety of different resins), so I kept an eagle eye on their Etsy store... and when this pen below came up for sale there, I pounced on it...

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

This model is called the 'Maxwell' and the resin is "Calico Koi", made by the well-known and highly-regarded resin-maker Jonathon Brooks

Here are the pen's dimensions, courtesy of Analog Notes' product brochure:

The pen doesn't post, but at 5.0 inches from nib tip to barrel end, it's long enough to hold and use unposted

The pen fills via cartridge or converter, and came with a Schmidt standard international size ink converter. At the time of purchase, I was given a choice of nib width (XF, F, M, B, 1.1 italic or 1.5 italic) and nib colour (silver-or gold-coloured) for the #6 JoWo steel nib...

I chose a Medium gold-coloured nib, but I've since swapped it out for the silver-coloured Medium JoWo steel nib in the photo above. Sometimes it's hard to decide which nib colour best suits a particular pen until you see the pen in real life!

In any case, the original nib wrote very smoothly, with no tuning required. The original gold-coloured JoWo nib was a plain nib---no special engravings on it---but that's fine with me; I don't expect every small pen maker to have their company name on the nibs they put on their pens. If the nibs are customized---great, but if not, it's not a dealbreaker for me.

Above: the 'Maxwell' next to the red and white 'Faraday' model (the first pen I bought from Analog Notes).

The 'Maxwell' is the shorter of the two, but the 'Faraday' is a tiny bit slimmer. When the 'Faraday' is capped, there is a step-down from its cap lip to its barrel -- you can see it in the photo above. The cap on the 'Maxwell', however, is flush with its barrel, and its smoothly chamfered barrel and cap edges are very smooth to the touch---nice!

The uncapped 'Maxwell' is shorter than the 'Faraday', but its section is longer, which may or may not be important to you, depending on where you grip your fountain pens. Neither model can be posted and both pens have the same section diameter, so there's a similar feel when you grip them. At 19.5 grams (Maxwell) and 20.8 grams (Faraday), they're both light, but they don't feel unsubstantial (if that makes any sense). I love using both of these pens; they feel great in the hand and their gorgeous resins are real eye candy (and their sections match the rest of the pen :)

Like many businesses, Ronnie had to raise his prices in 2022 due to rising costs, so the 'Maxwell' (purchased in September 2022) was $135 USD vs the $95 USD I paid for the 'Faraday' back in December 2021. $135 USD is still lower than what most small pen makers in North America & Europe charge for their handmade pens (and $95 USD was a ridiculously low price for the Faraday), so I can't complain.

One cool feature about buying items on Etsy is that you can now use Klarna to pay for your goods. It's another interest-free payment plan --like Sezzle-- that spreads your credit card payments over a period of several weeks (Klarna payments are made at 0, 2, 4 and 6 weeks). I paid $53.56 CAD every 2 weeks (4 payments in total) for my 'Maxwell' pen (incl. shipping), which was less painful than paying for it all at once! (I have no afilliaton to Klarna or Sezzle, but I've used both several times without any hidden charges or other problems)

Many thanks to Ronnie of Analog Notes for another gorgeous, smooth-writing, well-made fountain pen! I'll be featuring a few fountain pens made by another small pen maker next week here on our blog.

(~Review by Maja~)

January meeting information!

What: Vancouver Pen Club January 2023 meeting!

Where: The Branch Meeting Room (located in the basement) of the Vancouver Public Library's KITSILANO branch at 2425 Macdonald Street (between Broadway and West 8th), Vancouver, BC (*this is the same library location we've been using for the last few months*)

Date: Thursday January 12, 2023

Time: 6:00pm to 8:30pm (we have to leave the room by 8:30pm, as per the library's room rental policy).

Topic: Newest Acquisitions

*This meeting isn't on our usual third-Thursday-of-the-month calendar date. We plan to resume our usual monthly meeting schedule in February 2023 but, as always, please check this blog for updates/changes to our schedule. If you have any questions, please contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

Hope you can make it to our meeting! (no RSVPs required)

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 446

Happy New Year, everyone! I thought I'd kick off our 2023 online "show & tell" blog posts with some non-fountain-pen items I recently acquired, because our pen club isn't just about fountain pens (although that *is* our primary focus, by far). The items are similar to some others I previously reviewed here in depth, so this won't be one of my long-winded reviews lol.

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

My new Caran d'Ache '849' ballpoints from 2022's Limited Edition "Colour Treasure" line. As you can see, each came in its own golden metal presentation box, but with different decorative sleeves...

The top ballpoint is the "Cool Rainbow" model (in shades of blue and green) that I purchased from Nikaido in October. The one below it is is the "Warm Rainbow" version (with yellow, orange, red, purple and pinkish colours) that I bought online from Laywine's, which also has a brick & mortar store in Toronto. Incidentally, I paid for the latter via Sezzle, an interest-free, bi-weekly payment plan that many online stores now accept --- very useful, but bad for my pen budget ;)

The '849' ballpoints have been around since 1969 and they come in multitude of colours and designs, but they're all Swiss-made, hexagonal capless aluminum pens with nickel-plated clips and clicker buttons (also known as "knocks"). All accept the supplied Caran d'Ache (CdA) 'Goliath' ballpoint refill, as well as CdA's enconomical 'Swissride' ballpoint refills or Parker's (or "Parker-style") ballpoint/gel refills.

I love the colour-pencil-inspired graphics on the pens 😊 ... and I love the way the pens feel in the hand -- they're the ballpoints that I often find myself grabbing to jot quick notes. These two are limited editions (so their prices are higher than the regular editions) but you don't have to buy a really pricey '849' to enjoy writing with one.

 

Here's my new pen-related accessory -- a leather two-compartment pen case by LONDO in the "Camel" colour...

I reviewed another LONDO leather pen case model back in August, but this one has two compartments to prevent the pens from touching (and its colour is different). The two cases are the same length and width, but (because of its compartments) the model reviewed here is restricted to carrying two average-sized pens (such as my Benu 'Supreme' "Symphony" and blue-striped Pelikan M600 fountain pens above), whereas the other case can fit three very skinny pens.

 

Both case styles are made of soft, supple cowhide leather with flaps that have the Art Deco-ish LONDO logo debossed on them. This two-compartment LONDO case was just under $35 CAD from Amazon.ca with free shipping, and I'm very happy with my purchase (the case in this colour--"Camel"---is currently sold out on both Amazon.ca and Amazon.com)

Stay tuned for my review of a modern fountain pen that I'll post here on Thursday!

(~review by Maja~)

Buchan's store closed due to flooding! (*Online store still open*)

(photos/screengrab from Buchan's official Instagram account---posted December 30, 2022 -- link)

As per their Instagram post, their webstore (https://www.buchanst.com/) is, thankfully, still open for business. Wishing the good folks at Buchan's all the best as they recover from this flood!