6th Annual Northwest Pen Round-Up! (Portland, OR event)

Here's some info from co-organizer Michael McNeil about a fun, one-day pen extravaganza being held in Portland, Oregon next month. It's free, it's open to everyone and it's the closest pen event to our fair city, so I hope you'll try to attend! (photos from previous Round-Ups can be found here and here)

The 6th Annual Northwest Pen Round-Up! will be held on Sunday July 15th, 2018 at the Lucky Labrador Brewing Co., 1945 N.W. Quimby St., Portland, Oregon, from 12:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m.

It is the same weekend as the largest antique show in the Northwest, the Christine Palmer Antique Show.

Note that the show has moved from Saturday to Sunday due to scheduling conflicts.

The show is free to attendees and there is a nominal fee if you would like a table or tables to sell pens or other items.

If you plan on selling, I would suggest that you book a table ASAP, as the space is limited and tables book quickly. For tables contact Stuart Hawkinson e-mail: s.hawkinson@comcast.net

Photos from our May meeting

(all photos by Ricardo, except where noted ~ Please click on images to enlarge ~)

Our May meeting theme was "Nib Tuning" and featured an excellent presentation by VPC member Jerred:

Jerred's "Introduction to Nib Tuning" presentation was done in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and a live demo.
The Nib Tuning Powerpoint presentation can be viewed here: Jerred's Introduction to Nib Tuning (Powerpoint Presentation)

We had good attendance for our meeting---17 members, including one newcomer (Kelley) showed up. From L-R: Jim M, Mark S, Dana, Justin, Mark H, Natasha, Grace, Joie, Maja, Christopher R, Barry K, Sabrina, Jerred:

Jerred's talk was thorough, informative and entertaining, and had many very useful tips & techniques for both the beginner and more advanced "nib tuner"...

Jerred setting up the camera for the live nib-tuning demonstration:

From L-R: Dana, Justin, Julienne, Mark H, Natasha, Grace, Kelley, Joie, Maja, Christopher R, Barry K, Sabrina, Jerred:

Live fountain pen nib-tuning demo!

(photo below) Jerred demonstrating some nib-smoothing techniques using Micro-Mesh Sanding Discs (available from Lee Valley Tools here). Lee Valley Tools also carries the Micro-Mesh Pen Sanding Pads here.
Please note: for nib smoothing purposes, only the 6000, 8000 and 12000 grit are recommended. Coarser grades can be used for nib reshaping, but that topic was not covered at our meeting.

Jerred's invaluable Nib Tuning Demonstration notes can be found here: Jerred's Nib Tuning Demonstration Notes


As usual, our secondary topic is Newest Acquisitions, so Ricardo snapped a few of them, including Sabrina's lovely Pelikan M805 "Ocean Swirl":

(below) Ricardo's orange TWSBI 580 AL and someone's new Pilot Decimo fountain pen. I can't remember who brought it, so please let me know if you're the owner :)

Mark's wonderful vintage Parker 'Duofold' in Mandarin Yellow:

Now, a few more photos from our May meeting, these courtesy of Christopher's camera...

Happy VPCers (L-R) Alejandra, Mark H, new member Kelley, Maja and Christopher:

Alejandra between the "two Marks"---Mark S (left) and Mark H (right)

Barry holding a classic vintage American fountain pen---Mark's Parker 'Duofold' in the prized Mandarin Yellow colour (there's a nice writeup on this famous pen model here):

More new recent acquisitions....

Christopher R's Waterman Taperite Crusader set, Circa 1953
(~Click on images to enlarge~)

Christopher writes: "(This) Crusader set is a Canadian one differing from the usual model with a higher quality stainless steel brushed and lined cap. This model was produced in the Waterman Quebec plant and is considered a better pen than the US aluminum cap model." It's a somewhat rare pen, and Christopher's particular fountain pen even has a wonderfully-flexy nib, so congrats to him on this great find!

Christopher's Waterman Taperite Stateleigh, Stars & Stripes model Circa 1945:

Christopher's notes that the Stateleigh has a clutch grip in the cap to catch on the section ring (very similar to the Parker 51 which Waterman was trying to copy and/or compete with), whereas the later Taperite Crusader model went back to a threaded cap/barrel.

That's all the photos from May's meeting! Our sincere thanks to Jerred for his great talk :)

(Photo by Barry K)

Hope to see you at the next meeting, which will be held later today - Thursday June 21st- at the Terry Salman branch of the VPL from 6:00pm to 8:45pm---all info here!

June 2018 meeting details

JUNE MEETING DETAILS:

When: Thursday June 21, 2018 from 6:00pm (or so) to 8:45pm

Where: Where we met in May --- the TERRY SALMAN branch of the Vancouver Public Library, 4575 Clancy Loranger Way, Vancouver (on the lower level of the Hillcrest Community Center) by Queen Elizabeth Park & Nat Bailey Stadium.
The meeting will take place in their Community Room (meeting room). Tips on how to get to the library via transit are in this old post.

Theme: Pens/Pencils made by 2nd-Tier and 3-Tier Vintage Pen Companies.
We last did this theme in February 2014 and I've had some requests to bring it back, so I hope it's a popular one!

So, what do we mean by 2nd-tier/3-rd tier vintage pen companies? Well, according to Richard Binder's excellent reference site, 'second-tier' is a "term applied to a pen of moderate or high quality from one of the lesser manufacturers...Among the second tier of U.S. manufacturers were companies such as Aikin Lambert, Chilton, Moore, and Morrison" whereas 'third-tier' is a "term applied to a pen of relatively poor quality, made with thin celluloid or other body material, with thinly plated furniture and almost always having an untipped steel nib... Many third-tier pens were made with remarkably beautiful celluloids. Among the third tier of U.S. manufacturers were companies such as Arnold, Majestic, Stratford, Travelers, and Welsh."

If you have examples of vintage fountain pens/pencils made by 2nd-tier or 3rd-tier pen companies, please bring them with you to show. Other examples of these companies would be Esterbrook, Wearever, Eclipse et al. (Note: "first-tier" vintage pens were those made by companies such as Parker, Sheaffer, Wahl-Eversharp,
L. E. Waterman and Conklin...but they are not the topic of our June meeting.
Also modern pens & pencils will not be included in this month's theme---it'd be too vast a topic---just vintage pens/pencils).

Our secondary topic is always NEWEST ACQUISITIONS (pen-related)---eg. new pens/inks/paper/pen cases/other accessories/etc, so if you have any you wish to show, please bring them with you. No need to RSVP for this meeting. Hope you can make it!

Great Attendance for our April meeting! (photos)

We had excellent attendance for our April 19th meeting, which was held at the Vancouver Public Library's Oakridge branch, with 26 members showing up (including three newcomers-Binal, Jamie and Ron) !

The topic for the evening was "Your 3 Favourite Inks" and I think everyone had fun seeing what other members brought (especially since there are seem to be so many new ink companies these days!)

René's current top 3 inks are featured in the photo below (Left to Right): Pilot Iroshizuku "Kiri-same" (Autumn Shower), Sailor Jentle "Rokyu-Cha" (part of their Four Seasons line of inks) and Montblanc "Leo Tolstoy" (a Limited Edition ink, in a sky-blue colour):

In addition to some lovely inks, we also saw some beautiful fountain pens, such as these three brought in by Dennis---a orange modern Conklin "Crescent-Filler", a demonstrator (clear) pen by SKB, and a green Delta "Vintage" model fountain pen
(~Click on images to enlarge~) :

Longtime VPC member Dave M always brings in some great vintage fountain pens from his collection to show us, and these vintage writing instruments by Eclipse (a U.S. pen company founded in 1903 that later had a Canadian subsidiary) are no exception:

A pen by another vintage pen company---Esterbrook. The example below is a transitional "J" model in blue from the 1940s, belonging to René:

Ruth-Erin's modern Conklin fountain pen with a very interesting nib---the "Duraflex" model with its black "OmniFlex" nib, which allows for some line variation when the user gently presses down on (ie. flexes) it while writing:

My (Maja's) pen case (L to R): three generations of Sheaffer "NoNonsense"/Calligraphy pens filled with my top three inks (Diamine "Oxblood", Akkerman "Shocking Blue", Sailor Jentle "Miruai") and some new(ish) acquisitions -- a Lamy "26P" model, a Lecai transparent Acrylic pen, THINK Confetti "Shag" pen, a Lamy "Aion", PenBBS '308' Gradient "Hawaii", Martemodena "Techno" ballpoint, Martemodena "Freedom" pen, Shanghai M&G pen, and a Retro 51 "Betsy" rollerball (side note: I reviewed a few of these pens earlier on our club's blog :)

(photo below) René's very cool-looking hand-painted vintage fountain pen. The pen is marked "Secap" and "Made in Japan" but René is having problems finding any additional info on it, so if you have some info to share, please drop us a line at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

More interesting vintage FPs belonging to René:

Several nice vintage pens in René's case were made by (so-called) 2nd-tier and 3rd-tier pen companies, and we'll be featuring those pen companies at our June 21st meeting :

Well, that's all the photos I managed to snap at the April meeting! Sorry for the delay in posting them here on our club's website.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the most popular fountain pen inks among those who attended the April meeting! I jotted down the names of everyone's favourites and tabulated the results, so here they are (in no particular order). Drumroll please...

• Pilot Iroshizuku "Kon-Peki" and "Kiri-Same"
• Sailor "Miruai"
• Diamine "Ancient Copper"
• Waterman "Serenity Blue"
• Lamy "Dark Lilac" (sadly, a limited edition colour that is very hard to find now :(
• Rohrer & Klingner "Alt-Goldgrün"

Many thanks to all came to the meeting in April! Meeting info about the June 21 meeting is here in this blog post !

Keep Calm And Carry A Fountain Pen

I took a couple of shots of one of my recent eBay acquisitions - a fountain pen made by the Shanghai M&G Stationery company in China- and decided to try some quick photo editing (~click on images to enlarge~)

Its hooded steel nib writes smoothly and the pen fits comfortably in a pocket, so it's a great little pen to carry with you on trips :)

Photos from our April and May meetings will be posted in the next few days!

May 2018 meeting info!

MAY MEETING DETAILS:

When: Thursday May 17, 2018 from 6:00pm (or so) to 8:45pm
(the library closes at 9:00pm, so we have to leave the room by 8:45pm).

Where: the TERRY SALMAN branch of the Vancouver Public Library at 4575 Clancy Loranger Way, Vancouver (on the lower level of the Hillcrest Community Center) near Queen Elizabeth Park & Nat Bailey Stadium. The meeting will take place in their Community Room (meeting room). Tips on how to get to the library via transit are in this old post.

Theme: NIB TUNING-presentation by VPC member Jerred!
Many of you have requested this topic, so we're fortunate that Jerred agreed to do a presentation on it (complete with visual aids). Thank you, in advance, Jerred for your time and effort!

Our secondary topic is always NEWEST ACQUISITIONS (pen-related)---eg. new pens/inks/paper/pen cases/other accessories/etc, so if you have any you wish to show, please bring them with you. No need to RSVP for this meeting. Hope you can make it!

Seattle Pen Club meeting in Bellingham!

The Seattle Pen Club will be having their April meeting in Bellingham, Washington on Saturday April 21 in the Bellingham Public Market's Meeting Room from 10am to 2pm---Market address: 1530 Cornwall Ave, Bellingham, Washington, USA (map on this page)

The SPC meets in Bellingham twice a year to make it easier for pen folks in northern WA and Vancouver, BC to attend. It's free, the SPC folks are super-friendly, and they always bring some interesting pens to show :) No topic or theme for this meeting--just a casual get-together with pen talk around a big table, so bring some new/favourite pen-related stuff to show everyone.
All Vancouver Pen Club members are welcome to attend (attendance isn't compulsory, of course) and no RSVP's are required!

Don't forget our own Vancouver Pen Club meeting this Thursday April 19 at the Oakridge library. All details are here in this post. Hope you can make it!

Barry's antique sale find

It wasn't photographed at the March meeting, so I asked him to send me a quick pic...

It's one of the new acquisitions Barry K brought to that meeting----a Parker '51' fountain pen and mechanical pencil set in burgundy, ca. 1949, purchased at a local antique sale...

And how much did Barry pay for this lovely set?
A mere $ 30.
(well done, Barry!)

April meeting information (and Ink Swap!)

Date: Thursday April 19, 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 March meeting).

Topic: YOUR 3 FAVOURITE INKS....and our twice-annual INK SWAP!

We did this topic back in 2010 (!) but given how many more ink companies there are now,
I thought it'd be interesting to reuse the topic after Carmen suggested it (thanks, Carmen!).
If you can, please bring inked pens (ie. 3 pens filled with your 3 favourite inks) to the meeting. They can be cheap pens, and if you don't have 3 favourite inks, you can bring fewer than that :)

Ink Swap---this is completely voluntary, so if you don't want to trade any old inks, you don't have to. If you want to participate, please bring inks that you want to get rid of and hopefully someone will have something in trade that you like (buying & selling inks is ok too, so I'd suggest bringing cash if you're looking to buy ink).
Ink cartridges are fine for the swap....and the ink bottles do not have to be full.

Our secondary topic is always Newest Pen-Related Acquisitions, so if you have a new pen/ink/pen case you'd like to show us, please bring it with you. Hope to see you at the meeting! Any questions/concerns, contact us at vancouverpenclub@gmail.com

Martemodena "Freedom to Love" fountain pen

My newest Martemodena pen----the beautiful "Freedom to Love" fountain pen:

I've developed a soft spot for this off-shoot of Italian penmaker Delta, so I put in a bid for one of their "Freedom" models, specifically the "Freedom to Love" pen in gorgeous marbled red acrylic with rose gold trim :

It has a nice big gold-plated steel nib that writes very well:

The model name is engraved on the cap, along with a serial # (mine is #287):

In the same Martemodena auction, I won a Martemodena Techno USB ballpoint...

...which has a handy 4GB USB flash drive:

Comparison shot of my current Martemodena "stable" (L-R):
'Chronicle' "Country" fountain pen, 'Dolcevita Federico' "Oro" rollerball, 'Freedom to Love' fountain pen and 'Techno USB' ballpoint
(~click on images to enlarge~):