National Ballpoint Day---June 10th

In case you haven't noticed, I love the colour orange...Orange is the new black ;)

In honour of National Ballpoint Day (which falls on June 10th every year), I bought this cool new orange Faber-Castell 'Grip' ballpoint from Buchan's Kerrisdale Stationery at their new(ish) location (9100 Blundell Road in Richmond), which carries selected Lamy, Faber-Castell and Parker writing instruments. The Grip's triangular body and pebbled surface make it a really comfortable writing instrument to use (its wooden pencil counterpart won a Red Dot design award) and it only set me back $12.99. Incidentally, although we're primarily a fountain pen club, we do have the odd meeting where the theme features other writing instruments, like mechanical pencils, vintage ballpoints, rollerballs and dip pens.

Now, here are some interesting facts about ballpoints & National Ballpoint Day, taken from this page:

History of National Ballpoint Pen Day
On June 10th of 1943, Hungarian brothers Laszlo and Gyorgy Biro walked into a European patent office to declare ownership of their new writing pen design. From this day on, countless ballpoint pens have been enjoyed by writers around the world, and this date has grown into the holiday National Ballpoint Pen Day to celebrate the achievements of these ingenious brothers.

Fun Facts about Ballpoint Pens
In honor of the Biro brothers and National Ballpoint Pen Day, we’d like to share some interesting facts about this incredibly popular pen type:

* Each second of every day, more than 125 ballpoint pens are sold
* An average ballpoint pen will write approximately 50,000 words – or about 100 pages of text
* 4.3 pens are used, on average, by each person in the United States each year
* Ballpoint pens range from about 7-cents each, to over $730,000 for the Mont Blanc ballpoint
* Before acquiring the rights to the ballpoint pen, RAF flyers used feather pens in the cockpit
* The first ballpoint pens sold in New York (1945) cost $12 each – or about a day’s wages
* 3.4 billion ballpoint pens are imported into the USA each year
* 56% of individuals own a logoed or customized ballpoint pen
* 95% of the time, when a person receives a new pen, the first word they write is their name

(~click on photos to enlarge~)

Fast, good, cheap --- pick any two...

There's a old saying in project management---"Fast, good, cheap---pick any two"---and this recent eBay purchase just confirmed its veracity (click on photo to enlarge):

The pens (an all-black Jinhao '15' and a Hero '616' Jumbo) were purchased from an eBay seller in Singapore, who did a nice job stubbing them (ie. modifying their nibs to stub nibs) and who shipped them to me very promptly. They did take over 5 weeks to arrive, though... but for the price I paid ($21 USD + shipping) and the quality of the work, they were well worth the wait.

If it looks familiar, that's because the Hero '616' is basically a Parker '51' clone (nice comparison of the two pens here ). It has a hooded steel nib and uses an aerometric-style squeeze-filling mechanism to draw bottled ink. There is a smaller model of the '616', but I prefer the slightly-larger Jumbo version as it's practically the same size as a full-sized Parker '51'.

The Jinhao '15' reminds me of the Waterman Sérénité (but at a fraction of the price ;) with its tapered body and textured section grip. I was pleased to discover that its cap could be posted, thanks to an indented ring on the barrel end. It can be used unposted (without feeling unbalanced) unless you have very large hands. I hold my fountain pens a bit higher up on the barrel, so the grip area on the Jinhao is perfect for me.

Though they lack the gold nibs that their Parker and Waterman counterparts have, both the Hero and Jinhao are reliable writers that won't break the bank if you're looking for an inexpensive knockabout fountain pen.

Rule, Brittania!

England's been on my mind lately, so I decided to head downtown and purchase a couple of modern British pens from the Vancouver Pen Shop I'd had my eyes on for a while...

Introducing my gorgeous new Parker 'Jotter Premium' ballpoint, and my royal blue Platignum 'Studio' fountain pen (click on photos to enlarge)...

Platignum is an old British brand that started production in 1919 and made many pens used by school-aged children in the 1950s and 60s. The company ran into financial difficulties in the 1990s, but were bought out by Snopake, who, in 2007, started producing fountain pens again.

The 'Studio' is a well-made, lightweight, aluminum pen with a comfy rubber grip section and very smooth steel nib. The pen is nicely balanced when posted and sports a cool nib-shaped black metal clip, which contrasts nicely with the bright colour of the cap and barrel. All in all, a solid fountain pen that looks classy without costing a small fortunte. Well done, Platignum!

From their official site: "First introduced in 1954, the Parker Jotter remains one of the best selling pens in history - over 750 million have been sold worldwide! One of the most important designs of the original Jotter was the rotating refill - still used today. With every click, the Jotter's ballpoint rotates 90 degrees so that the ball wears evenly as you write."

This particular Jotter is the "West End" model (from their 'Jotter Premium' line of 2016), an all-metal pen with a brushed gold barrel and gold-plated cap.

Other colour options are: Bond Street Black, Kensington Red, Chelsea Orange, Portobello Purple, Royal Blue, Victoria Violet, Carlisle Brown, Tower Grey, Stainless Steel Diagonal and Satin Black. The Parker pen company was granted a Royal Warrant by Her Majesty The Queen in 1962, and again in 1990 by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

Photos from our May meeting

Many thanks to Richard Clarke for hosting our May 18th meeting! A good time was had by all twenty VPC members (including two newcomers -- Linda and Jean) who were in attendance to hear about our meeting theme --- "First and Last" (first fountain pens and most recent fountain pen acquisitions). Thank you also to Tim for his donation of two PCA (Pen Collectors of America) magazines for our door prize draws (won by Ricardo, and Alejandra's daughter - Natasha). Last but not least, thanks to Brian J. for his generosity in donating a large stack of "Pen World" and "Stylus" magazines, which were given out to interested members. Merci beaucoup, gentlemen!

It was a busy evening---I brought refreshments to celebrate my birthday (which was the same day as our meeting :)--- so I didn't snap photos of everyone's fountain pens, but here are the ones I did photograph (click on images to enlarge):

Above: Marzieh's first fountain pen---a classic vintage Sheaffer Balance---and lovely red Lamy pen case.

Marzieh brought some recent acquisitions in her pen roll---a Lamy Safari in "Dark Lilac" (Safari's colour for 2016) and Faber-Castell 'WritINK' fountain pen.

New VPC member Linda brought her most recent acquisition---a Sailor Chalana. It's hard to tell from the photo, but this is a very small (and slender) fountain pen. It is no lightweight in the writing category, though, as it sports one of Sailor's high quality nibs. Linda told us that her first fountain pen was an Esterbrook from the "J" series.

June brought both her first fountain pen (a Lamy Accent with Karelia wood grip--a gift from Bart) and her most recent acquisition---an old-style faceted OMAS purchased at the 2017 Los Angeles Pen Show. Bart forgot to bring his first and last pens, but showed us some photos of them---a Kaweco Sport (his first fountain pen) and a Visconti 'Millionaire' LE--Limited Edition (his most recent FP purchase).

A couple of close-ups of June's OMAS...

Jerred brought in some new acquisitions, including an attractive vintage set (possibly a Sonnenblick), as well as (from bottom of photo) fountain pens by Christian Dior, Platinum ('Standard' model) and Delta (unknown model). Jerred's first fountain pen (not pictured) was an inexpensive Chinese pen.

Justin's first FP was the black Montblanc 146 Chopin pictured on the far right of the photo above, while his newest fountain pens were a Conklin 'Duragraph' in the Amber colour and an all-metal pen with a Fude nib. The Fude nib is bent upwards (like a ski tip) allowing for some interesting line variation.

Justin's Pilot Custom 74 (I think :)

From top of photo: Peter's Parker Jotter (a ballpoint!), Pilot '92' (most recent purchase), and black Lamy 'Safari' (first fountain pen).

Above: Some other really nice fountain pen Peter brought in to show us....

Mark's 40-pen case, filled with some great vintage fountain pens. Mark's first fountain pen was a Sheaffer Cartridge pen (aka Sheaffer "School Pen") and his latest fountain pen acquisition was a vintage Montblanc '22'.

I didn't snap a photo of them, but Stuart's first fountain pen was a Montblanc 146 and his most recent purchase was a Waterman C/F. I did, however, take a photo of his Sheaffer 'Tip-Dip Crafstman' (pictured above), which has an interesting filling mechanism.
The 'Tip-Dip' was basically a Sheaffer fountain pen that used the Touchdown-Filling mechanism, but whose feed had a special opening (on its underside) that allowed ink to flow directly into the sac, making filling the pen with bottled ink less messy. There's a good article about them on Penhero.com here .

Finally, my own first and last pens---my trusty red Sheaffer 'NoNonsense' (purchased in the mid-1970s at a Woolworth's store) and my latest acquisition--another gorgeous Bexley Poseidon Magnum in a non-production colour (actually this one is a "Magnum II" model, with an American-made piston-filling system; the original Magnum--which I also own---is a cartridge-converter-filling pen). Red pen case by Campo Marzio.

I'll post a few more photos of my new Bexley later. Also, Ricardo sent me quite a few photos he snapped during our May meeting, so I'll post them here on our site as well.

June meeting info (new date & venue!)

Due to a scheduling conflict, I had to move the meeting date to a Wednesday...but just for this month. Sorry for the hopping around :/ I've had very positive feedback re: the Oakridge library's facilities and its easy access to the Canada Line Skytrain (and free parking), so I thought we'd use it again.

Now, without further ado, here are the full June 2017 meeting details!

Date : Wednesday June 14, 2017
Time : 6:00pm to 8:30pm.
Place : The Community Room (Meeting Room) of the Vancouver Public Library's (VPL's) Oakridge branch (at the back of Oakridge Mall), 650 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver, BC. Oakridge Mall has free parking for 3 hours (or 4 hrs) and the Mall is right by the "Oakridge-41st Avenue" Canada Line Skytrain stop.
Topic: "SUMGAI FINDS" (your very best fountain pen bargains).

As explained here, on Richardspens.com, "sumgai" can refer to "Sumgai" (“some guy”) (who) always visits the antique shop just before you and gets all the good pens (or) a pen acquired at a ridiculously low price." Please try to limit what you bring to 2 or 3 fountain pens, due to time contraints.
Our secondary theme is always Newest Acquisitions, so if you have any new pens, ink or pen-related accessories, please bring them with you to show. Don't worry if you don't have anything for the topics---just come to the meeting and see what others brought! (you might pick up some tips on finding bargain pens :)

Other info:

Pelikan Hubs 2017---- registration deadline is July 17, 2017, so if you are interested in attending, please register now! All info at www.pelikan.com/hubs
VPC Summer Dinner --- coming up in either July or August (date and place to be announced)
Nikaido (gift store in Steveston)---now carrying Diamine ink as well as Robert Oster ink from Australia! I got a bottle from the store and will be posting a review here soon! (store website here)

Side Street Treasures

Vancouver Pen Club member Stephen B sent me an email about a recent trip to a little shop in Hong Kong.

He writes : "On one of the tiny back streets in Yuen Long is a watchmaker, he sits day after day almost motionless. I have decided to actually step inside and have a look at some of his pens ..."

...and this is what he found:

(click on photos to enlarge)

More Postcards from Hong Kong...

Some more recent photos of pen shops in Hong Kong from VPC member Stephen B:

(above) Hop Cheong pen shop, which was featured in this recent blog post.Tiny, but packed to the brim with pens, it is probably the most well-known pen store in Hong Kong.

(above) Chun Kee Stationery Co. Ltd.

(above) Winner pen store, located just a few minutes' walk from Hop Cheong's. Both pen shops are mentioned in VPC member Glenn Marcus' handy list of worldwide pen stores (link here)

(above) Fen Yuan Co.

Many thanks to Stephen for the photos!

New German pens

A few weeks ago, I stopped by one of my favourite gift shops, Nikaido (located in historic Steveston village) to see if they had the new Lamy Safari in "Petrol", the dark bluish shade selected as the 2017 Safari colour.

Happily, the pen was in stock (and in the nib width I wanted--Broad) so I purchased it, along with a Faber-Castell "School+" fountain pen:

The Faber-Castell also comes in red and blue, and is a good starter fountain pen. It's a lightweight writing instrument with a smooth steel nib that uses either ink cartridges or a converter (that allows you to use bottled ink). I only saw the model in black at Nikaido (that may have changed since my visit), but I believe Wonderpens.ca in Toronto sells them in all three colours on their website .

The Lamy Safari in "Petrol" is one of several Safaris I own, and it's as reliable and smooth-writing as the others. I really like the way this colour looks in the matte finish. Well done, Lamy!

(click on photos to enlarge)

Made in China

I picked up some inexpensive Chinese-made pens at the April meeting from Harry---from top of photo to bottom: Jinhao X450, Wing Sung 659 (a smaller, cartridge/converter cousin of the Wing Sung 698 that strongly resembles a Pilot 78G), and two Jinhao 599A fountain pens:

(~ click on image to enlarge ~ )

I have a clear lime-green 599A that has a hooded nib, but these two came with open nibs. I discovered, upon doing some research (and I do realize how incredibly esoteric this is... trust me) that there were three generations of Jinhao 599A fountain pens---the original one with a slide-on nib, followed by one with a traditional friction-fit nib and finally, the latest incarnation with a hooded nib.

Regardless of the nib type/style, all of the Jinhao 599A pens write well and would make excellent fountain pens for beginners. Both the Jinhao 599A model and the Wing Sung 659 (and the Wing Sung 698) are very light pens, and can be used for extended periods of time without tiring your hands. If you're looking for a much heftier, larger fountain pen, give the Jinhao X450 (or its slightly-smaller & skinnier counterpart, the X750) a go.

Cardinal Darkness pen & Double-skull case

A couple of shots of my new pen case (with double-skulls!!!) from eBay and my new Noodler's 'Konrad' fountain pen in the "Cardinal Darkness"---love that name---pattern.

(~click on images to enlarge ~ )

The Konrad is a lightweight fountain pen, but is chunky and very comfortable to hold. It was originally made of a celluloid derivative, but acrylic models and ones made of ebonite (both of which are slightly larger than the celluloids) were later added to the lineup.

All of the Konrad models come with a large, flexible steel nib that can provide line variation. It should be noted, however, that the flex is not quite as dramatic as that produced with some older vintage pens with gold nibs. It's a fun pen to use, though, and if you ever get a hankering to take it apart for a very thorough cleaning, you can do so without any tools.

I have a few Konrads (mostly purchased locally from Perks ) but I got this one online from The Birmingham Pen Company in (...wait for it...) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They come in a multitude of colours and patterns, so if you're looking for a low-budget, well-made, piston-filling fountain pen with good ink capacity (~ 1.1mL), give it a try!