Some photos from our last meeting

Our October 18th meeting at Perks was well-attended, with 14 members (including two brand-new VPC members---James and Al) braving the wet, miserable weather to see and hear about some very nice fountain pens made in France (the topic of our meeting). Examples of pens made by companies such as Cartier, Dupont, Recife, Stypen, Jean-Pierre Lépine, Reynolds, Gold Starry as well as Parker and Waterman were seen. Many thanks to those who brought pens for our monthly theme, and to everyone who attended!

Here are a few photos snapped by Richard during our meeting (click on photos to enlarge):

(clockwise from far left: Al (in bright green jacket), Dexter, James, Glenn M, Bruce, Bob M, Julienne, Graham, Michael and David S. That's me (Maja) standing on the far right in a green t-shirt (more about that at the bottom of this blog post! ). Ralph and Mark were present, but, unfortunately, not in the photo.

A photo of me in a cool Retro 51 t-shirt, a prize I won in the Retro 51 blog crossword puzzle contest last month (thanks to Julienne for taking the photo, and to the good folks at Retro 51 for the prize!).

Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday November 15th at Perks pen store on Cambie Street (usual place & time) and our theme will be "Sheaffer Fountain Pens--Past & Present". Hope you can make it!

Seattle Pen Club meeting in Bellingham, Washington--updated info

I just reconfirmed with Seattle Pen Club (SeattlePenClub.com) President George Long that their October meeting will be held at the Bellingham Public Market in Bellingham, Washington on Saturday October 20th from 10:30am to 1:00pm. There may or may not be a theme for their meeting---George hadn't come up with one as of yesterday night, and their meetings are even more casual than ours :) I would just say that if you want to bring something interesting (pen-related) to show, please do so. Their members will be bringing a variety of pens, if past meetings are anything to go by. If there is a theme/topic for that meeting, I will post it here on our blog. Alternately, you can contact the SPC via their website (see link above). The address of the Bellingham Public Market is 1530 Cornwall Avenue in Bellingham, WA, and the SPC will be meeting (as usual) in the Food Court area--just look for a bunch of tables pushed together with lots of fountain pens on them :) Update to the update: The theme for the Seattle pen club meeting on Oct. 20th is "Your Oldest Pen and Your Newest Pen". I just got the info from George today (Oct. 18) and he adds "As usual, if you don’t like the theme, bring what you want, it’s all good."

And don't forget about our own pen club meeting on Thursday October 18 at Perks pen store (usual place & time---more info in the blog post below this one). Our theme will be French Fountain Pens, so it should be interesting. Hope to see you there!

Happy Autumn! (October meeting details & more!)

~ Japanese maple (momiji) in beautiful Miyajima, Japan; photo taken November 2008 ~

Many thanks to all who attended our September meeting. It appears the cold & flu season has started up already, as evidenced by some of the emails I've received from members who were unable to attend that meeting. As an aside, there is no pressure to attend all VPC meetings---we realize that not all topics are of interest to everyone, and of course, many members have work & family commitments, etc. Oh, and the only RSVPs we require are for meetings held outside of Perks.

Now, here are the details about our upcoming meeting!

Date: Thursday October 18, 2012
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: French Fountain Pens (note: these can be French brands such as: Cartier, Dupont, Michel Perchin, Recife, Stypen, Jean-Pierre Lépine, Oldwin, Stylomine, Edacoto, Bayard, Unic, Gold Starry, Météore, Mallat & others....OR fountain pens made in France, by companies such as Waterman, Parker, et al.)

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too. Hope to see you there!

Seattle Pen Club -- October meeting in Bellingham, WA: The Seattle Pen Club (SPC) is planning to have their October meeting in Bellingham, WA on Saturday October 20th (pending approval by the Bellingham Public Market, the proposed venue) and Vancouver Pen Club members are warmly invited to attend. Normally, SPC meetings are held in Seattle, but a couple of times a year they have them in Bellingham to make it easier for folks in northwest WA state & the Lower Mainland to attend. The Bellingham meetings are normally held in the morning, usually from 11:00am to 2:00pm or so, but check your Inboxes for details re: exact time & place once I get them from SPC President George Long. Please check their website at SeattlePenClub.com. for more info on this active & friendly pen club.

Future VPC Topics/Themes: "Sheaffer Fountain Pens" will be our November 15th meeting theme/topic, and will include both modern & vintage Sheaffers. We don't have meetings in December due to the holiday season, but we'll be back in January 2013 with some great new topics, such as: Vintage Pencils, Calligraphy Pens, Limited & Special Editions, Demonstrator Fountain Pens and a topic that that Bruce calls "Errors of Commission" (pens which have been commissioned from a maker and sold under a house name). Many thanks to Bob Morgan for October's theme/topic of French Fountain Pens.

Flexy Nibs!

We had a good turnout for our September meeting two days ago---15 members braved the heat & humidity of a late summer's evening (well, it was warm inside the store) to see some very cool fountain pens with flexible nibs.

(first three pics courtesy of Richard, the rest taken--poorly--by myself, Maja ;)

Photo above (L to R): Charles, me, Sam & Graham chuckling as I attempt to fill my ultra-flexy Blackbird twist-filler with ink.

I brought a few pens with flex--an Eversharp Skyline, an English-made Waterman lever-filler, a Parker Vac in the Demi size, a no-name lever-filler with a three-tined music nib, the Blackbird (made by Swan) and a Noodler's Ahab. Sam brought some nice examples of Ti(Titanium)-nibbed pens with flex (or perhaps "with spring" is a more accurate description; there's also some nice 'feedback' with Ti-nibbed pens)---an OMAS Emotica, a Stipula Modello T and a Delta Titanio---and Graham brought some gold-nibbed examples, including his Pelikan M1050, and a couple of steel-nibbed flex pens by Noodler's (the Ahab & Konrad)

Photo above (L to R): Graham, Ralph & Mike M enjoying a well-attended meeting.

Photo above (L to R): Mike M, Dexter, Greg S, Bruce & Anne (in foreground), all watching intently.

Greg brought several examples of vintage fountain pens with very flexible nibs (his three Salz pens) & semi-flexible nibs (Noodler's original flex pen, Noodler's Ahab and a Conway Stewart), as well as some pens whose nibs have little to no flex to them (TWSBI 540, Pelikan M200, Pilot VP), just for comparison. Bruce brought his wonderful CONID bulk-filler with Titanium nib, a recent acquisition.

Greg talking about the pens he brought:

Writing samples of the pens Greg demo'd at the meeting (click on image to enlarge--sorry for the blurry photo!):

Charles brought a pen with an interesting nib (see photo below)-- a Visconti Rembrandt fountain pen with a very flexible 0.5mm italic nib (only available as part of the Visconti Rembrandt calligraphy set) that produced the lovely copperplate-type calligraphy shown at the top of the page:

Thanks to all who attend this meeting! Our next meeting will be on Thursday October 18, 2012 at Perks on Cambie Street (usual place & time). Theme: TBA.

September meeting details

Date: Thursday September 20, 2012
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: Flexible ("Flexy") Nibs!

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too. Hope to see you there!

Meetings are held monthly, on the third Thursday of each month, except December (there is no meeting in December, due to the holidays)...Please check this website for last-minute schedule changes/updates...Any questions? Contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com No RSVPs necessary for any meetings held at Perks pen store. We're a very friendly, casual club with no membership dues or duties. New members are always welcome!

Obscure Fountain Pen Brands

Many thanks to all who came to our August 16th meeting at Perks, and special thanks to May for the ink samples! Despite the heat, we had a good turnout--fifteen members, including four newcomers (Anne F, Greg H, Mike M, and Norman C). In all the excitement, I forgot to take photos, so I snapped this one at home after the meeting:

A photo of three obscure fountain pen brands, all made by J. Harris & Co., which eventually became the Majestic Pen Company (from bottom: Congress, Ambassador & Majestic fountain pens). The Majestic is a fountain pen/mechanical pencil combo. The ink is Diamine Turquoise, which I got in the Ink Swap (thanks, Charles!).

I made a list of the brands that our members brought in for our theme of "Obscure Fountain Pen Brands": Salz, Tombow, Recife, Kaweco, Wancher, CONID, Diamond Point, Celtic Pen, Centropen, Rexpen, Padrino, X-Pen, Marxton, Ottawa, Eagle, Epenco, Majestic, Congress, Ambassador, Stratford, Kolber, American, Eberhard-Faber, Arnold, Jefferson, Waterson, DuBarry, Biltwel, Empire, Ever Ready, Adria Gold, Bankers Pen, Phoenix, Remington, Rex and Superman.

~ Next meeting: Thurs September 20 at Perks! (theme/topic: "Flexible Nibs") ~

Next meeting--Thursday August 16 at Perks

We're back at Perks pen shop for our August meeting, after last month's dinner. Incidentally, this month's meetup will be VPC meeting #50 (if you include our summer dinners) of our little pen club. How time flies! Many thanks to all who have attended and participated at our meetings since our club started in December 2006.

Now, here are the details regarding our upcoming meeting....
Date: Thursday August 16, 2012
Place: Perks pen store at 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: "Obscure Fountain Pen Brands" and our biannual Ink Swap! We're not too picky, but suffice to say, if we've done the pen brand as one of our monthly themes already, it is not an obscure brand:)

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen/ink/paper/accessory to show, please bring it along, too. Regarding the Ink Swap: if you have any bottled ink (or ink cartridges) that you've like to trade with your fellow VPC members, please bring them to the meeting. This is 100% voluntary, of course and no pressure to bring anything if you like all your inks!

Summer Dinner at Moxie's!

The 2012 VPC Summer Dinner at Moxie's Classic Grill on July 19th was well-attended and I think everyone had a great time--I know I did! We will be back to our regular meetings at Perks pen store on Thursday August 16 at 6:30pm, when our theme will be "Obscure Fountain Pen Brands" and our biannual (voluntary) Ink Swap.

Many thanks to Richard Clarke of Perks pen shop for continuing to host our meetings; this dinner was a small, but heart-felt "thank-you" for his gracious hospitality over the past year. We were very glad to see Tim Conklin, our club's founder, at the dinner; Tim managed to make it, despite his busy schedule. Many thanks, once again, to everyone who chipped in for my own meal; it was an unexpected surprise and much-appreciated :)

(all photos below taken by Tim, except for the last one-- Click on photos to enlarge)

(photo above: Top Row (L-R): Greg, Mark's wife Liisa, Charles, Bill K, Maja, Richard, Glenn M, Tim, Bruce; Bottom Row (L-R): Mark, Tristan, Graham, Michael, Glenn C and David S)

(photo above: me (Maja) with Richard, the evening's V.I.P)

(photo above: Richard chatting with Greg, one of our newer members)

(photo above: David S. chatting with Glenn Marcus on the right; Glenn recently came back from Italy, where he visited the Delta Pen factory in Naples. You can read his report here )

(photo above: the "other" Glenn---Glenn C, who has a keen interest in English-made fountain pens)

(photo above: Tristan, pen collector and die-hard Montreal Canadiens fan :)

(photo above: nice portrait of Michael Assaly, a valued contributor to our meetings)

(photo above: Bill K, one of our founding members)

(photo above: our club's founder--Tim Conklin)

VPC Summer Dinner

As per tradition, the VPC summer dinner will be held at Moxie's Classic Grill restaurant on Davie Street in downtown Vancouver on Thursday July 19. VPC members: please RSVP by July 14th, as per the instructions in the Vancouver Pen Club members' group email I sent to members on June 28th. Please note: this is not a regular meeting...We will return to our regular "themed" meetings in August at Perks.

A visit to the Delta pen factory!

~A wonderful report from VPC member Glenn Marcus on his recent visit to the Delta pen factory in Naples, Italy (all photos & text by Glenn)~

"The visit with Delta Pen was very interesting. I have visited the major companies in Italy and France and I must say I was very impressed with the amount of hand work that goes into the pens. Delta has a small factory, with about 45 or so people working to manufacture the pens."



Left to right: Marco Paracenzo (Novelli Pen in Rome), Glenn Marcus, Ciro Matrone (one of the three owners of Delta Pen), Antonio di Maio (Sales Representative). "No one speaks very much English, and when I wrote Marco and told him I would be going to the factory, he offered to come down from Rome to Naples, to be my translator. He also wanted to see the new factory they moved into last year. I would have been lost without his help. Only so many times you can say ci, benne..."

"Delta is launching a new nib, the "fusion" in the next month. They fuse a gold layer onto a steel layer, and the chemical process creates an extremely good writing nib. They presented me with a Dolcevita piston fill fountain pen, fitted on the spot with the new nib. So I truly have a numbered one of a kind pen. I have been using it to write in my travel journal and I can attest to the smoothness and responsiveness of the nib."



"This is a photo of one of the employees filing down the metal to make the lever for the side-lever ink filling part of a pen. At some of the other pen manufacturers there was much more machine based production of parts. With the Delta pen you are truly getting a hand made pen."



"As I walked about the factory the employees would show me the various pens they were working on. Here they tricked me by showing me again the Pompeii Rediscover."



"When I saw the rods of stunning yellow with black streaks... It was one of those must have pens" [note: as Glenn said in a subsequent email: "I now have it"--see photo below]



"My wife, Karen, bought me the Pompeii Rediscover, for our 25th wedding anniversary. They call it the Rediscover because of what they found out about the colour. The first Pompeii pen was produced in a brick red. That is the colour you see today on the walls of the buildings at Pompeii. But scientists have concluded the walls were actually painted yellow, it was the chemical reaction with the lava and gases that changed the colour to what we see today".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Glenn also wound up with another lovely fountain pen on his trip to Italy:]



Glenn writes: "My other Rome pen is the OMAS vintage 360 in red, just 360 pens made, this is #156. Has a great broad nib and writes like a charm".

[note: Glenn had previously mentioned on his blog that this particular pen was on his "wish list". Glad you finally got it, Glenn...and many thanks for your report from beautiful Italia!]