Favourites!

Twenty-one VPC members (including three newcomers---Sherry, Mido & Kiyoshi) attended our March meeting, whose theme was our favourite pens, inks, paper, and pen + ink combos.

Pen favourites included: Lamys (Bill Kempton's 'Studio' & Greg's '2000' models), Pelikans (several different Souverän models brought in by Bruce, Greg, Maja, Sienca and Stuart), Sheaffers (Anne's 'TRZ' and Maja's 'Legacy'), assorted modern Italian brands (Bruce's OMAS Paragon, Glenn's OMAS Extra Lucens 2013 LE shown here, Maja's beloved Stipula Duetto & Signum Orione pens, Glenn's Montegrappa "Extra 1930", and Bruce's Visconti Australis), as well as the ubiquitous Parker '51' (a favourite pen of Derek and Greg). Tony brought his trusty TWSBI 'Mini' and Mark showed us his Wahl-Eversharp 'Doric' desk set, a stunning vintage piece.

A fun time was had by all, as you can see by the photos taken by Derek below. Many thanks to all who attended, and especially to Richard Clarke of Perks for hosting our meeting at his wonderful pen store!

(click on photos to enlarge)

Maja (far left) listens with rapt attention as Greg (who chose this month's theme) talks about his favourite pens & inks, while Julienne watches intently and Tony snaps a photo with his own camera.

Sienca gave a nice talk on her favourite pens (Pelikans) and paper (Banditapple). Clockwise from lower left: Sherry, Julienne, Glenn M, Tony, Kiyoshi, James, Ken, Sienca, Bruce, Maja, Brian and Greg.

In the foreground, you can see Greg's favourite fountain pens--a couple of Lamy 2000s, two Pilot Vanishing Point pens, a Pelikan M805, a Parker '51---and inks ( Pilot "Iroshizuku" and Rohrer & Klingner "Alt-Goldgrun"). Also visible are Stuart's favourite inks (Diamine's Mediterranean Blue & Conway Stewart's Tamar), and a small bottle of Sanford's 'Penit'- a vintage fountain pen ink brought in by Derek.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday April 17 at 6:30pm at Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street in Vancouver (i.e. the usual time & place) and our topic (chosen by Bruce) will be 'Constant Comment' - Pens that evoke interest/comments whenever you pull them out. Bonus points for pens which attract attention from non-aficionados. Hope you can make it! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at vancouverpenclub@ gmail.com

Cheers ~Maja

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The pen in the photo above is a green Parker UK Duofold, a somewhat lesser-known (and underrated) vintage Parker fountain pen. For more information on this fountain pen model, check out this page on Tony Fischier's awesome Parker pens reference site.

And, just a quick reminder that our next meeting is this Thursday March 20 at 6:30pm at Perks pen store (5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC). The meeting theme is "Our Favourite Pen, Ink, Ink+Pen Combo and Favourite Paper", so I hope you can make it. No need to RSVP---just drop by and see what our club is all about. New members are always welcome!

March meeting details!

Date: Thursday March 20, 2014

Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC

Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm, to chat before the meeting).

Theme: Our Favourite Pen, Ink and Ink+Pen Combo. Oh and paper! (~theme chosen by Greg~). In Greg's words: That's right folks, it's pen, ink and paper time! I would really like you to bring along your favourite pen, favourite ink and your favourite pen & ink combo. Note that the pen + ink combo doesn't have to be your favourite ink in your favourite pen, it could well be a particular combo that just works brilliantly together that you love. Of course if you're split and can't decide between a few favourites bring a few!. As a side note if you do have a specific paper that you find amazing bring a sample along for us to see and hear about.

As usual, "Newest Acquisitions" is our secondary topic so please bring any pens/inks/paper or pen-related accessories you've acquired recently. If you don't have any stuff to bring for either topic, don't worry---just come and see what other members have brought! No RSVPs required for any meetings held at Perks. Hope to see you there!

Sumgai Find ~ Sheaffer Pen For Men (PFM)

I brought this lovely vintage fountain pen to our January meeting (when our topic was Sumgai Finds ) but forgot to post a photo of it. It's a glossy black Sheaffer PFM (Mark I) that I acquired on Craigslist late last year:

(click on image to enlarge)

You never know what you can find at garage sales, antique stores, eBay or Craigslist until you look (and keep looking!). Best of luck finding your own "sumgai" pen!

~ blog post by Maja ~

Second- & Third-Tier Pens

Thanks to everyone (all 21 of you!) who came to Perks for our February meeting last night. The topic of second- and third-tier vintage fountain pens was well-represented with examples of Esterbrook, Wearever, Eclipse & Morrison pens and many others. Many thanks to Charles for the theme idea & short talk on the topic, as well as to Brian, who brought a large variety of beautiful & colourful pens.

(from right to left: Ben, Bill K, Charles, Greg, Brian, Stuart and Louise)

One of the pens Brian brought in to show us was this gorgeous WASP (short for W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company) Large 'Clipper' De Luxe made by Sheaffer under the imprint of their sub-brand WASP :

(click on images to enlarge)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our next meeting will be held on Thursday March 20th---details (including theme) to follow, so watch this space!

It's (almost) that time of year again---InCoWriMo month!

Yes, it's the eve of InCoWriMo (International Correspondence Writing) month , so prep your pens, inks, blotters, postcards, stationery, envelopes and stamps if you wish to accept the InCoWriMo challenge to hand-write and mail/deliver one letter, card, note or postcard every day during the month of February. Best of luck!

More info on this fun event here: http://incowrimo.org/

February meeting theme finalized!

We've finalized the theme for February's meeting and it will indeed be Second- & Third-Tier Fountain Pens, but I think we will limit our theme pens to vintage pens only; we've never had this theme before and I'm sure there will be tons of examples to see. If you're not a fan of vintage pens, you might be convinced to give some of these "underdog" brands a try because their prices are often much lower than their first-tier counterparts and they can be easily found on eBay & elsewhere.

Hope you can make it to the meeting on Thursday February 20th. No RSVPs required!

Sumgai Finds!

A couple of photos from our meeting last Thursday, which featured "Sumgai Finds" or pens acquired at ridiculously low prices (definition/origin of the term "sumgai" on this page). Many thanks to all 24 VPC members who showed up for the meeting! Now the photos.....

Louise's amazing vintage pen finds---from L to R: Wahl-Eversharp 'Doric', Parker Duofold Geometric (“Toothbrush”) , Waterman 52½V, Sheaffer BCHR flat-top, Sheaffer flat-top in jade Radite, Sheaffer Balance, Parker Duofold 'Big Red'. Louise also brought a nice Parker Vacumatic, but it's not in the photo above. I'm sorry I didn't keep track of how much Louise paid for each pen, but it wasn't much!

(click images to enlarge photos)

Maja's bargain finds--from L-R: Wahl All-Metal ringtop, Lamy cp1, Lamy Ratio 47P, another Lamy Ratio 47P, a no-name lever-filler with 14K three-tined stub music nib, Sheaffer PFM I, Bexley Scheherazade (rollerball), Rotring 'Core'. The pens cost me (from L-R): 10¢, $10 total for the three Lamys, $20, $30, $9.95 and 25¢. Many thanks to my mother for finding the Wahl and Rotring for me (great finds, Mom :)

Our next meeting will be on Thursday February 20 at Perks pen store on Cambie Street, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm (ie. usual place & time). Meeting theme/topic: to be announced soon! THE TENTATIVE MEETING THEME WILL BE "2nd- & 3rd-tier Fountain Pens". I need to reconfirm something before finalizing this, but I will update this post, and create a new blog post, in the next few days.

The 2nd Annual N.W. Pen Round-Up! (July 12th~Portland, Oregon)

Posting the message below on behalf of my pen friend, Michael McNeil, who co-organized the first Round-Up in 2013 (of which I blogged about here and here). Hope you can make it to this year's Round-Up! It sounds like a lot of fun! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s official, the 2nd Annual Northwest Pen Round-Up! will be held on Saturday July 12th, 2014, at the Lucky Labrador in Portland, Oregon, from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. It is the same weekend as the largest antique show in the Northwest, the Christine Palmer Antique Show.
We had quite a turnout last year. We hope to make this event even bigger this year.There were people there from B.C., Washington state, Oregon, California, Wisconsin, Iowa, and possibly from states that I was not aware of. There were plenty of fountain pens, mechanical pencils, desk top items, items from typewriters to cameras. There was plenty of commerce in writing instruments and plenty to buy, sell, trade,admire, learn about and discuss.
All pen collectors and users are invited, wherever you are. We do not limit this event to just people from the Northwest or the West Coast.
Admission is free. We only charge a nominal fee for vendors who want to set up. If you would like table space, please contact us early, as space is very limited. If you would like to reserve table space please contact Stuart Hawkinson (s.hawkinson@comcast.net) or me Michael McNeil (michael@northwestpenworks.com)
The address for the Lucky Labrador Brewing Co. is 1945 N.W. Quimby Street, Portland Oregon, U.S.A. The Lucky Lab offers very reasonably priced food and libations in a converted industrial space, near downtown Portland with easy freeway access.
Anyone coming should consider taking in the Christine Palmer Antique Show (http://christinepalmer.net/), at the Expo Center. It is the oldest and largest antique show in the Northwest. Early admission to the antique show is Friday and the show is Saturday and Sunday. The Summer show is the largest of their shows and has many booths indoor and outdoor. The weather in Portland is usually very mild compared to the rest of the country in the Summer. There are lots of things to do in Portland and it is often voted one of the more livable cities in the country. 

A couple of photos from last year's inaugural N.W. Pen Round-Up:

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Above: VPC member Charles (foreground) talking to longtime pen seller and founding member of the Pan Pacific Pen Club Alan Brooking (Photo by Mike Rosen)

 

Alan and the many writing instruments he brought to sell...

Happy New Year!

THINK fountain pen in the lovely "Giraffe" pattern, a Christmas 2013 gift from my parents' wire fox terrier, Chandler, thus the small dog figurine. Update: Sadly, Chandler passed away on January 5, 2014 at the age of 14, but this wonderful fountain pen will always be a reminder of him. He was a great little dog.
Hope to see you at our next meeting, which will be on Thursday January 16, 2014 at the usual place (Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC) from 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm, to chat before the meeting). Our theme will be "Sumgai Finds!"(pens acquired at incredibly low prices--e.g. garage sale finds, great deals, etc )and, as usual, "Newest Acquisitions" will be our secondary topic..... No RSVPs required!