A few more photos from our February meeting

A few more photos from our February meeting, these courtesy of Ricardo (Thanks, Ricardo!) (~Click on images to enlarge~)

(L-R): René, Rizelle, Tyler, Barry, Christopher and Stuart:

Christopher did a wonderful presentation on the Parker 'Vacumatic' as part of our "Iconic Pens" theme for the meeting. We're continuing with that theme at our March 15 meeting, but we'll be featuring some different pen models, specifically the Parker '45', Parker 'Sonnet' and the Pelikan M800 (March meeting details here)

Stuart's vintage Wahl-Eversharp 'Fifth Avenue' fountain pen and mechanical pencil set, complete with original box....and original warranty!

The "Fifth Avenue" came out in late 1943 and had a "love-it-or-hate-it" Art Deco design, so the model didn't sell particularly well (Art Deco having fallen slightly out of fashion at the time). More info about the model here on Penhero.com and in Richard Binder's excellent article.

Ray and Mairi listening to Christopher's presentation:

Ray's Krone "Masters Tournament" Limited Edition fountain pen, produced for the Augusta National Golf Club:

The pen has a handpainted barrel, and and only 100 pieces were produced worldwide:

That's me (Maja) in the middle, flanked by Stuart and Ruth-Erin, who brought in her brand-new Lamy Al-Star in "Vibrant Pink" (their new colour for 2018) and a lovely Lamy 'Safari' in the Neon Coral colour (not pictured):

That's the vintage Osmiroid fountain pen Jerred recently acquired. Note the funky oblique italic nib, great for calligraphy!

A nice close-up of Tsung-Yen's glossy new Sailor ProGear:

(L-R): Sabrina, Dana, Tsung-Yen, Carmen, René, Tyler, Rizelle, Barry and Christopher:

Well, between Ricardo and myself, I think we managed to photograph everyone who came to the meeting :) Thanks again to everyone who showed up---hope to see you at a future VPC meeting!

February meeting photos!

Thanks to all who came to our February meeting at the Kitsilano branch of the Vancouver Public Library, and thank you to the VPL for letting us use their meeting room downstairs. Eighteen members were in attendance (including four newcomers---Chris B, René, Rizelle and Tyler) to hear the presentations on the Parker 'Vacumatic' and the Lamy Safari "family", the two models featured in our "Iconic Pens" theme at this particular meeting. Last but not least, many thanks to Christopher R for his excellent presentation on the 'Vac'!

Now, onto the photos (all photos taken by me---Maja---except where noted...click on images to enlarge photos)....

Group shot: (counter-clockwise from lower left) Jim M, Ricardo, Jerred, Sabrina, Dana, Chris B, René, Tyler, Rizelle, Barry K, Stuart, Maja (photo taken by Ray):

Photo taken from the other end of the table (that's Ray at the far end):

A few members arrived a bit late, so they're not in the group shots (Carmen, Christopher, Mairi, Ruth-Erin and Tsung-Yen) but we're so casual, so there's no problem if you can't arrive at our "start" time....or if you have to leave early :)

I started the evening with a talk on the German-made Lamy Safari/Al-Star/Vista/LX models (which are essentially the same design, but made of different materials). The Safari came out in 1980 and was designed by Wolfgang Fabian and Prof. Bernt Spiegel, with input from experts in youth psychology as Lamy wanted to create a product that would appeal to students aged 10-15. Many features of the Safari reflect how well-suited it is for this target market: its durable ABS plastic material (the same material used in LEGO pieces), the flat-sided barrel design which prevents it from rolling off a desk, the moulded grip section that ensures the fountain pen is held at the proper angle for writing, and the handy ink-view window which allows its user to see if the pen's ink supply is running low (very handy when you're taking notes or writing an exam!).

A lot of thought went into the creation of the Safari (which won an iF design award in 1994) and the fact that it has been in continuous production for over 37 years reflects its enduring appeal and popularity. There's some good info on the Lamys on this website , as well as the official Lamy website, and some useful info comparing the models above here on GouletPens.com.

The photo below shows the Lamys I brought in for my talk (note the custom-made red-marbled barrel in the top row---made by Penchetta Pen & Knife in Arizona), as well as five Parker 'Vacumatic' writing instruments I brought in for Christopher's presentation, and four new fountain pens I recently acquired:

Our secondary topic is always "Newest Acquisitions" so I brought some of my newly-acquired fountain pens: (L-R) Rotring 'Core', Senator 'Windsor', Pilot 'Kakuno', Pelikan 'P10' and a Parker 'Vector' in a Batman design. All are what I'd call "school pens"--fairly light, inexpensive, but reliable writing instruments:

Jerred's new Pilot Deluxe Urushi fountain pen:

More of Jerred's newest acquisitions: (top to bottom) three colourful fountain pens by PenBBS---a '309', a '323' and a beautiful '308'--- and a black Osmiroid '65':

Ray's classy Pelikan M800 'Golf' Limited Edition, which came out in 1996. Production was limited to 2500 pieces worldwide:

Ray's new Porsche 'TecFlex fountain pen (the braided metal is the same material that is used to protect high-performance brake lines) and Ricardo's opaque Franklin-Christoph '45', which uses international ink cartridges but can also be used as an eyedropper-filler:

Mairi's vintage Art Deco-styled Fount-O-Ink inkwell. This neat-looking vintage inkwell was made by the Gregory Fount-o-ink Company, which was located in southern California (Los Angeles):

A couple of very nice new acquisitions belonging to Tsung-Yeng--- a Sailor ProGear (bottom pen) and a Pelikan M200 in the Smoky Quartz Special Edition colour (Smoky Quartz was Pelikan's "Ink of the Year" in 2017):

One of René's "Grail Pens"---a gorgeous British-made Yard-O-Led 'Viceroy Standard' made of sterling silver in the lovely "Victorian" hand-engraved (hammered) design:

(top to bottom) A nice mix of modern and vintage fountain pens: René's Pelikan M805 "Stresemann" (another one of his Grail Pens!), his Wearever 'Zenith' fountain pen, Christopher's black hard rubber vintage Waterman '52' (with an intact latex ink sac imprinted "Waterman 52"!) and René's vintage all-metal Eclipse fountain pen:

Dana's newest fountain pens--a Wing Sung 698 clear demonstrator with golden trim, a very cool vintage all-metal Twinpoint mechanical pencil/fountain pen "combo" and a marbled Waterman '3'---and Christopher's vintage grey Osmia fountain pen:

(Photo below) Jim's Lamy Al-Star fountain pens in the "Copper Orange" colour and "Pacific Blue" colours, which he brought in for our topic of "Iconic Pens".

The Lamy Al-Star models came out in 1997 (17 years after the Safari) and are made of aluminum. They are slightly heavier (22 grams vs. 17 grams) than the Safari and have a slightly larger diameter, but come with the same nibs. Like the Safari, the Al-Stars were made in a multitude of colours, including several Limited Editions, which first came out in 2007 (the first Safari LE came out in 2004---it's the orange pen in the top row of my 24-pen case near the top of this blog post).

(photo below) Part of Christopher's amazing Parker 'Vacumatic' collection, which he brought in for his very interesting and informative presentation on this iconic pen. For a detailed description of the pens in the photograph, please click here to see the complete list, along with a higher-resolution image.

There's an excellent profile of the 'Vac' here on RichardsPens.com . Parker 'Vacumatics' are classic vintage American writing instruments that were made from 1933 to 1948 . They featured a vacuum-filling mechanism (which gave the model its name) where the fountain pen's barrel served as the ink reservoir. The Vacumatic came in five horizontally-striped laminated plastic colours, three marbled colours, a lovely "Golden Web" design, five vertically-striped colours (the so-called "Shadow Wave" Vacumatics) and others. If you are looking for Vacs in the wild, make sure you check for small cracks in the barrel... and expect to pay a premium for examples with high barrel clarity (which enabled its user to see how much ink was left in the barrel).

(Photo below) A corner shot showing the items brought in by a couple of our newest members. You can see Rizelle's clear Lamy 'Vista' (basically, a demonstrator version of the 'Safari' model) in the middle of the photo, along with René's 'Colorverse' inks. This new line of Korean inks are made from natural pigments and dyes of plant origin.

That's Barry in the upper-left of the photo, trying out a fountain pen. He didn't bring it in for our topic (he did bring in his shiny black Safari), but Barry has a charcoal Safari with an oddly-coloured clip---the pen originally had a black clip, but when its black paint started peeling off, he removed the rest of paint, exposing the brass metal underneath. I think it contrasts very nicely with the pen's charcoal colour. The Lamy 'LX' line (a fancier-looking cousin of the Safari/Al-Star/Visa) has a model with a metallic-yellow clip, but I wish Lamy would make a dark-coloured Safari/Al-Star with a gold-coloured clip :)

(Photo below) Sabrina's beautiful green-striped Parker 'Vacumatic' fountain pen and mechanical pencil set in original box. This colour was officially called the "Emerald Pearl" and was made from 1935 to 1948. The least-common version of the striated Vacumatics is the "Burgundy Pearl" model, which was only made for eight years (1933-1941).

Jerred's handsome Delta Dolcevita 'Federico' with faux piston-filling mechanism (which is really a captive converter):

Hope to see you at our March meeting, which will be at the Oakridge library on Thursday March 15---all details here! (no RSVPs required for any meeting not held at a restaurant)

March 2018 meeting info

March 2018 Vancouver Pen Club meeting info:

Date: Thursday March 15, 2018
Time: 6:00pm to 8:30pm.

Place: The Community Room (Meeting Room) of the Vancouver Public Library's Oakridge branch (at the back of Oakridge Mall), 650 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver (ie. where we had our January meeting).

Oakridge Mall has free parking for 3-4 hrs and the mall is right by the "Oakridge-41st Avenue" Skytrain stop (on the Canada Line) so it's very convenient to get there by local transit. No food or drink (except water) allowed in the library, but Oakridge Mall has a nice food fair :)

Topic: "ICONIC FOUNTAIN PENS" - specifically the Parker 'Sonnet', the Parker '45' and the Pelikan M800 --- Armando will talk about the Sonnet, Jerred will be discussing the '45' and Glenn Marcus will do a short talk on the Pelikan M800
If you have any examples of the above pens---they can be fountain pens, rollerballs, ballpoints and/or mechanical pencils---please bring them with you!
Our secondary topic is always Newest Pen-Related Acquisitions, so if you have a new pen/ink/paper you'd like to show us, please bring it with you.

January 2018 meeting photos-Part 2

As promised, here are some of the shots snapped by Ricardo during our January meeting at the Oakridge VPL branch.... (click on photos to enlarge)

Stuart (in long-sleeved dark blue shirt) kicked off our presentations on "Iconic Pens" by doing a nice talk on the vintage Sheaffer 'Balance'....

(that's Glenn Marcus of GlennsPens.com on the far right of the photo below---he'll be doing a short presentation on the iconic Pelikan M800 at our March meeting)

Stuart's talk was followed by Ray's very interesting presentation on the Montblanc '149' and '146' pens:

Some of the Montblancs Ray brought in for his talk, including a Montblanc '146' in the lovely (and now-discontinued) burgundy colour (far left):

The last presentation of the evening was my little talk on the Esterbrook 'J' pens....

Christopher R. brought in several examples of his own 'J' series writing instruments, including this nice set in copper colour:

So shiny.... Who would think these pens are 70 years old?? They look like they just came off the production line!

Going around the table, counter-clockwise (L-R): Linda, Armando, Ray, Alejandra, and Justin. Armando has kindly volunteered to do a talk on the famous Parker 'Sonnet' at our March meeting.

L-R: Ray, Alejandra, Justin, Jim, Paul, new member Carmen, Mindy (hidden), Dana, and new VPC member Claire.

L-R: Justin, Jim, Paul, Carmen, Mindy (still hidden!), Dana, Claire, Maja, new member Jean-Claude, Jerred, Tony, Stuart, Joe (hidden). Jerred will be doing a presentation on the Parker '45' at our March meeting.

Sometimes you see the most unexpected things at a pen club meeting...like this wonderful collection of dip pen nibs that belonged to Eteef's grandfather...

All of the nibs were carefully labelled and included a writing sample. This must have been a labour of love :)

From the old to the new! Ruth-Erin's beautiful Aurora 88....

Many thanks to Ricardo for the great photos, and to everyone who came to our January meeting! I'll be posting shots from our February meeting this week.

January 2018 meeting photos-Part 1

Many thanks to the 22 VPC members (including five newcomers--Ateef, Carmen, Claire, Jean-Claude, and Ruth-Erin) who came to our meeting at the Vancouver Public Library's Oakridge branch on January 18th. Very special thanks to Stuart and Ray, who did short talks on two "Iconic Pen" models --- the Sheaffer 'Balance' and Montblanc '149'/146' (I also did a talk on the Esterbrook 'J' model).
Here are some photos I took during the meeting (click on images to enlarge):

Three handsome Sheaffer 'Balance' fountain pens Stuart brought in for his excellent presentation. The pen on the far right has a so-called military clip, a design which allowed the pen to fit in a buttoned shirt pocket, thus meeting strict U.S. military regulations regarding their dress code:

The Sheaffer 'Balance' came out in 1929 and was the very first streamlined fountain pen. It came in a wide variety of colours and patterns, as well as two different filling systems--first, the lever-filler and then a plunger-filling system patented by Sheaffer as the Vacuum-Fil®. As you'd expect---based on their name---vintage 'Balance' fountain pens are very comfortable to hold, due to their ergonomics (the pen being weighted towards the nib-end of the barrel), as well as their overall light weight.

The vintage 'Balance' also came in several different sizes, so it was nice to see the largest model in person, for comparison. That's Christopher's oversize Sheaffer 'Balance'--sporting an odd clip seen on some Canadian models--- above my (Maja's) standard version in the photo below:

A better look at the two models; the top one (the oversized version) has a wider diameter....

...and a much larger nib!

I brought in a modern Sheaffer 'Balance II' (which came out in the late 1990s--now discontinued) for comparison. That's it on the left in the photo below, next to Christopher's oversized vintage 'Balance':

After Stuart's presentation, Ray did a great talk on the venerable Montblanc '149', a model whose appearance has remained basically unchanged since 1952. At 14.7 cm in length and 14.8mm in diameter, it is the largest model in Montblanc's Meisterstück (German for "masterpiece") series, the name given to their flagship line of writing instruments.

Ray also talked about the Montblanc '146', a '149'-lookalike that is smaller in all dimensions.(photo below) Ray's Montblanc '149' (left) and Montblanc '146'. The '149' is a massive fountain pen, so many people-including Ray-prefer the '146'...

From left to right: Montblanc '149', Montblanc '147' (aka the 'Traveler' model) and Montblanc '146'. The 147/Traveler is a cartridge/converter- filler (the '149' and '146' are both piston-fillers) and is slightly longer than the '146' model. Ray also brought in a burgundy M146, but I forgot to photograph it. This particular 146 colour is discontinued, making it now much sought-after by '146' fans.

A handsome Montblanc '146' fountain pen.....??

Nope, it's a highlighter! (aka a Montblanc "Document Marker" ;)

For my (Maja's) talk on the Esterbrook 'J' (the earliest members of that "family" were first made ca. 1943), I brought my entire collection:

Photo below: a copper-coloured mechanical pencil, a blue ballpoint (I have yet to find a modern refill which fits in it!) and then three differently-sized fountain pens.

The pen at the very bottom is the "J" model, the largest and widest model in the family. Above it is a red "LJ" model (which is actually the same length as the "J"--I didn't line them up properly!--but thinner). Above the "LJ" is a grey "SJ" model, which is the same thickness as the "LJ", but shorter (confused yet? ;).

Looked at in isolation, it can be difficult to tell the three fountain pen models apart, but here are a couple of tips: (a) the distance between the end of the metal lever and the barrel end of an "SJ" is a bit shorter than the length of the lever itself and (b) the black cap 'jewel' on the "J" model is larger than its barrel jewel, whereas the "LJ" and "SJ"'s cap & barrel jewels are the same size. This is handy to know if you happen to be hunting for pens "in the wild" (antique shops, flea markets) or on eBay, where you might not have have a "comparison" pen.

All of these models, regardless of size, are great "starter" vintage pens because they are very well-made, sturdy, dependable writers that are easy to fill and have lots of nib options. They are also among the easiest lever-filling pens to resac (with a replacement latex ink sac) because they're so durable.

Photo below: Some of Christopher's vintage Esterbrook collection: (bottom to top) Esterbrook "SJ", a later version of the 'Deluxe' (a model that came out in 1955--after the 'J' pens) a rare "Cracked Ice" 'Dollar Pen' (the predecessor of the 'J' models), and the smallest member of the Esterbrook 'J' family---the Esterbrook 'CH' (aka "Purse Pen") with its original packaging.

The small box (in the foreground) holds one of the many (over 60 different types!!) interchangeable Esterbrook Renew-Point® nib units that fit all of the pen models in the photo above. The nibs were very easy to change --- you simply unscrewed the existing nib, and screwed on the replacement nib of your choice.

Christopher's blue Esterbook 'J' set---fountain pen (top) and mechanical pencil. Esterbrook had a clever design for the cap jewels which enabled the user to quickly select---by touch alone (e.g. from a shirt or jacket pocket)--- the desired writing instrument form: the fountain pen has a convex jewel, the pencil sports a concave jewel, and the ballpoint has a pointed jewel!

(photo below) A nice NOS (New Old Stock) Esterbrook 'M2' set, also belonging to Christopher. The M2 was an aerometric-filling fountain pen that came out in the late 1950s :

New VPC member Jean-Claude's lovely modern Wahl-Eversharp 'Skyline' fountain pen...

Jean-Claude's leather pen case, filled with some great fountain pens, and his three-ink Pilot "Iroshizuku" ink sampler set:

Jerred's blue Cross 'Calais', new member Ruth-Erin's Aurora '88 Minerali' in the green "Diopside" colour, and Mindy's Sailor Profit "Nagasawa" demonstrator with black trim (made by Sailor for the Japanese retailer):

New VPCer Claire's red Lamy Safari, a very popular first fountain pen:

Ruth-Erin's Aurora '88' (in a special colour not available to North American retailers), and Ricardo's gorgeous new Visconti 'Opera' rollerball:

A close-up of the lovely blue marbled pattern on the Aurora '88':

Jerred's new PenBBS (model '323') in blue marbled resin, handmade in China:

Christopher's Sheaffer 'Triumph' fountain pen, a recent acquisition:

One of Stuart's newest purchases- a cool Waterman 'Taperite Crusader' triple set---fountain pen, mechanical pencil and ballpoint---in its original box:

Ruth-Erin's leather pen roll made by "Superior Labor" in Japan, filled with various writing instruments:

New member Carmen's pen chest (a repurposed wooden cigar box) and several one-pen cases (which were originally used as comb cases!)

Information about handcrafted pens made by Aaron P. Lau of Honolulu, Hawaii (from Christopher's recent trip there):

Ricardo snapped some photos during the meeting as well, but I'll post them in a separate blog post...