Cambridge, Ontario: A hotbed for people who love fountain pens!

Six members of the London Pen Club hit the road on Saturday, June 13 for a one-hour drive to Cambridge.  We left London at 7:15 am and were in downtown Cambridge at Phidon Pens Limited by 8:30 am.  While the store does not open until 10 am on Saturdays, the owners of Phidon, Baldeep and Mano Duggal, were kind enough to invite us in for a private viewing and light breakfast.

Baldeep & Mano Duggal, Owners of Phidon Pens Limited

The store is a very cozy but chock full of every type of pen, ink, paper and leather goods that you can imagine.

Looking from inside front door to back of Phidon Pens

Looking from back to front window

Many of us brought shopping lists and these were quickly filled – plus extras.  I bought several bottles of ink – Private Reserve Fast Dry Midnight Blues, Diamine Umber, Parker Quink Green and Pilot Blue – a funky fountain pen that was recently released by Faber-Castell – the Mondoro – some Miquelrius paper and finally some art supplies for my daughter.  We were all suitably impressed by the quality and selection and even more so by the attentive and friendly service of Baldeep and Mano.  Mano and Baldeep are just about the friendliest people you will ever meet and try exceptionally hard to make you happy.  Unfortunately, because of time (and monetary) constraints, we had to leave just after 9:30 am; however, we will be back!

Several more pictures can be found here

Next stop, just five minutes away to the Galt View Restaurant for a hearty breakfast and hook-up with the Cambridge Pen Club.  Actually, it took almost as long to find a parking spot at the restaurant as it did to drive there – the Galt View is a very popular spot on Saturday mornings.

Inside, to the back we joined up with between 15-20 Cambridge regulars who were in the midst of enjoying a great breakfast and pens, of course.  The room was a hive of activity with the waitress buzzing in and out and lively conversation, show and tell, sampling inks, you name it – it was busy, busy, busy.  The Cambridge regulars were very happy to see us, with many approaching us to say hello and introducing themselves, showing us their pens and asking us about our interests.  We could not have felt more welcome!  The downside – just not enough time to renew acquaintances with those we knew and meet everyone else.  The only solution is to come back again – very soon!

The Cambridge Pen Club meets once a month.  If you are interested, I suggest that you send an email to Terry Shepherd at terryshepherd@rogers.com.

Chatterley Pens and Pen Time, LLC

As part of the whole fountain pen experience and culture, we have the opportunity to meet and deal with many, many people.  It could be a chance encounter at a pen show, an exchange on a discussion board or a business transaction.  I know that I have learned an incredible amount about those individuals who are reliable,  consistently deliver great service for fair value and most of all, have integrity.  I consider people with these qualities to be the “gold standard” and I will give them my repeat business.  Just as important as my own business, I will refer my friends and colleagues to them.  I don’t do this lightly because when I make these referrals, both of our reputations are on the line.

The list of “Good people to deal with” at the bottom of this blog are people who meet my gold standard.  Another person who meets  my qualifications – whom I have watched for some time on the Fountain Pen Network (FPN) and finally done business with myself - is Bryant (Bry) Greer of Chatterley Pens and Pen Time, LLC.  I recently bought a tan and black marbled celluloid (calico) Platinum 3776 with a music nib (picture below\from Bry) from him and am in the process of buying a Conway Stewart Duro in dartmoor (start here to find out about his May special on certain Conway Stewart bespoke pens – you won’t be disappointed).

Chatterley Pens and Pen Time, LLC has a website and Bry is a regular contributor to the For Sale forum of the FPN.  Not only does Bry provide that rare combination of service and value, he has an entrepreneurial streak.  Working with The Bexley Pen Company, he recently commissioned his second LE pen, the Dionysus in red and green Tibaldi celluloid (pictured below/from Bry) and based on the Bexley Poseidon Magnum.  The first commissioned LE pen, the Romulus (in teal pearl blue and based on the Bexley Poseidon)  sold out quickly.

Ink – a fluid or viscous substance used for writing

Ink – the lifeblood of a pen.  When vintage pens were modern, it was “the black liquor with which men write”, then blue and blue-black.  Today, it’s a completely different ballgame altogether - you can get virtually any colour of the rainbow and with different characteristics – fast-drying, eternal, scented,  and so on.  At the current rate of innovation, I predict it won’t very long before we are able to order our own “custom” ink.

Ink was the theme of yesterday’s pen club meeting.  We have had terrific attendance and participation with the themes and yesterday was no exception.  I for one enjoyed seeing such a large quantity and variety of ink (modern and vintage).  Plenty of discussion about the characteristics and quality of different colours and brands.  I am also sure the other customers in Williams raised their eyebrows and shook their heads as they watched us sniffing ink like it was a fine wine – was this ink still good, smell this Solv-X, doesn’t this FPN Brown smell like paint, etc.  And let’s not forget the assortment of ink bottles – Parker Penman, Levenger, etc.  All in all, another terrific meeting.

As the member of our club who is believed to have the largest collection of ink (especially if it is blue), I was asked a number of different questions about the inks that I prefer, etc… and I suggested the best way to describe my addiction to ink is that it is a cheap thrill – very inexpensive relative to most new pens but the possibilities are endless – you can write with it, sketch with it, mix it and even trade it for another kind.  To me, it is analogous to those who collect Lamy Safaris – very nice pens, wide range of colours and nibs – what more could you ask for?

Finally,  I wanted to mention a number of terrific blogs that feature ink.  I really enjoy reading their comments and marvel at their creativity in presenting the many colours of ink that they are using/demonstrating.  Here is a list of ink- related blogs that have caught my eye – if I have missed one, please let me know.

Ink Quest – brilliant narrative!

Inkophile – amazing imagination and presentation!

Spiritual Evolution of the Bean – The name seems to capture it perfectly!

The Harmless Dilettante – has a digital ink sampler with over 160 reviews!

The Laurel Tree – the latest on Japanese ink and pens!

I posed a question to the author of Inkophile about how they were able to ink so many pens and keep them all clean – http://inkophile.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/how-do-you-keep-up-with-all-those-pens/ .  The author will be happy to know that I ordered my ultra sonic cleaner after I read their response – I have been on the fence about one for some time, the author just pushed me over.

Until next week or sooner!

YIPPIE,

Mike

Levenger Perennial Six Pack of Inks

I have wanted to get my hands on the relatively new Levenger inks for awhile.  Since I just happened to be ordering a retirement gift for a business colleague, I used the opportunity to treat myself to their perennial six pack of inks.  Below are two scans made from on a test page on Nava Notes paper and a glass dipping pen.

A few things to consider when viewing the scans:  

1. I decided to show the back because of the significant bleedthrough.  In my view, it is the paper and not the ink (except for the Skies of Blue as explained below).  
2.  I used a glass dipping pen.  To be honest, I have never had much success or liked using glass dipping pen.  I have tried to smooth the nib without success.  As you can see, my results are mixed, at best.  For some reason, I could not even get the glass dipping pen to write with the Skies of Blue; at one point, a giant blob dripped off the pen, and well, you can see what happened (sorry)!!

I would be interested in hearing which one(s) are your favourites, do you detest, are surprised by, etc.

Some Recent Repair Q&As

Here are a couple of recent repair Q&As exchanged by club members:

Question – Every now and then I seem to get a little bit of paper stuck in one of my fountain pen nibs when I’m writing. I was wondering if anyone else has that happen and any suggestions for cleaning it off.

Answer – I did a bit of research and thinking (based on my own experience) regarding the “paper” in your nib problem.  I think there are a number of possible explanations as set out below:

• How hard do you press on the nib – if it happens on all different types of paper, try lightening up your pressure, let the nib glide along the surface of the paper.
• Check the nib – if the nib is aligned well and smooth, the paper fibers should not get stuck.  So check the nib alignment first – is the slit off-center?  Then with a loupe, check for rough spots, craters, or sharp points on the tipping – it should be smooth and shiny all around – and then check to see whether the inside of the tines have a sharp edge (if so, they may need to be smoothed – don’t try this yourself unless you know what you are doing!).
• If your pressure and nib are fine, you should check the nature and quality of paper that you use – crappy or cheap paper will fiber up and also the coating on “coated” paper specifically for use with Ink jet printers will eventually begin to “clog” the nib.
• It could also be your writing style – some nibs will simply not tolerate significant variations from “standard” writing angles. If you have a writing style other than the typical right handed 50 degree angle, the nib may never work for you properly and needs to be swapped.

You could use a number of items – a piece of brass shim stock (0.002″ thick, available in hardware stores, Lee Valley, etc…), a piece of overhead transparency, a piece of film – all nicely washed in detergent – to floss the nib.

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Question – Do you have any suggestions on how to remove a jewel from a Parker cap (Vacumatic and Parker 51)?  I have a few that have loose clips and find it very hard to remove the jewel to tighten the clip.  What tools do you use?

Answer – Well, I’ve heard of a few things to try but didn’t have any success on the “51″ I had with a loose clip.  I think someone had set the jewel with some sort of adhesive; I probably should have tried a little gentle heat before attacking the cap jewel.  In the end, after recognizing my own shortcomings, I had John Culmer fix it up for me – he had to break the old jewel and replace it with another.
Here’s what I tried for removing a Parker cap jewel:

• Slide a piece of a drinking straw over the clip to keep it from scratching the cap as it turns.
• Try a soft pencil eraser.  Put the eraser on your table or bench and press the cap jewel into the eraser and turn the cap.   The idea is that the soft eraser grips the jewel and allows you to turn it out.
• Try some sticky tack/blu-tack used for hanging papers or posters to a wall.  Put a piece of sticky tack/blu-tack into the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up and then press the cap jewel into the sticky tack/blu-tack and turn the cap.
• Here is what “The Complete Guide To Repair & Restoration” by Frank Dubiel aka “Da Book” says about Parker caps:
  • “The Parker jewel must come off for clip removal.  In theory the jewel is pressed firmly against a rubber surface which is supposed to grip the jewel as the cap is turned.  The jewel may be in too tight.  Heat will help.  An ultrasonic cleaning may help.  Using super glue or contact cement to glue the jewel to a rubber pad and twisting it loose once dry will usually work at the risk of damage to the jewel.”

Fancy pens!

Review of Renaissance Art Folder Holder (by KR)

So, my friend kindly sent me a bottle of Old Manhattan. I fell madly in love with it and absolutely had to find the right pen for the job. Decided that it had to be something black and subdued and preferable not shiny, just like Old Manhattan. Since said friend knows better than I do, he sent me this for my 40th birthday:

Yellow Omas Emotica in the process of being attacked by a snake!

(The pen, not the snake. The snake is in love with the pen. Long story, but the pen is extremely lovely.)

So. We now have the perfect pen/ink combo. Now what? Hm. I seem to have a separate Apica notebook for everything that interests me. I have a New Music Canada/CBC Radio 3 notebook and a History notebook and a NY Times crossword notebook where I write unfamiliar words for further study so that I can kick tail at the 2010 American Crossword Championship and an “Interesting Things I Hear on the Radio” notebook and… You know where I am going. An absolute nightmare to go to the library lugging all of those notebooks.

Enter the Renaissance Art Folder Holder! Excellent! Rather than a whole notebook dedicated to one subject, I can have all of my subjects, plus work, meal planning, grocery shopping, household chores, calendar and personal goals folders with me at all times, everywhere I go. Sweet.

Drat! I use Rhodia pads and they won’t fit in the traditional Folder Holder! No fear, as Arthur the Magnificent from Renaissance Art kindly just made me one that would accommodate A4. Two days later it was in my hot little hands.

Enter the Renaissance Art Folder Holder

The leather is fabulous. Hands down, the nicest leather I have ever seen. It even smells good. For those who ride motorcycles, this leather has the same feel as a Hein Gericke jacket. The stitching and everything exceeded my expectations. Bliss. Now to fill it with lovely, useful things. Because it was purchased to 1) make life easier and 2) look (absolutely!) fabulous with the Emotica and the ink and the Rhodia, yellow, black and orange would figure exclusively.

What a hat trick - Folder holder + Emotica + Rhodia!

I do use different little useful things depending on where I am going, but the folders generally stay the same. When I have finished a page of, say New Music, I take the page out of the folder and put it in a matching folder in my desk. That way, I don’t fill up my Folder Holder too much. There is ample space for extra folders and a Behance Action Pad, which I carry everywhere in case a spontaneous meeting erupts. If you haven’t tried this stuff, you should. Very cool.

Check out the Behance in that folder holder

Anyway, I usually have a Clairefontaine Age Bag address book in the middle pocket (yes, I know my address book is black, not brown. Noodler’s Heart of Darkness and a Q-tip fixed that little problem), Behance Action Pad in orange and a Crane 3×5 card case with a Behance Action Card in the CD pocket. My Mikado fits snugly and happily in the business card pocket (I used to carry a Visconti traveling ink pot there but because of the Mikado’s ink capacity, I no longer run out). The Emotica fits securely and happily in the large pen loop and the material used to make the loop doesn’t stain the yellow rubber. Bliss. Because of a recent development (details below) I now carry a Preppy eyedropper highlighter filled with (wait for it) Noodler’s Orange highlighter ink in the pen loop. Oh. The Rhodia pads have yellow paper. Sigh.

Okay, now we’re cooking. I had a part time job at our local Farmers’ Market and the good bathrooms were upstairs so I used to pass by and chat with an artist who worked up there. Very nice man. One day, I linger a bit longer and take a really good look at one of his little tiny paintings (I had glanced at it every time I went up there, but I hadn’t really looked at it).

Photo otherwise known as “The Gang’s All Here”.

Enter the missing link: Jim Pescott is his website. Amazing stuff and those of you who get the Unicef Christmas cards may see his work this year, as he was selected to participate. This is a very great honour and I am proud to know him.

Now, as all such adventures go, I found that I needed another piece of the organization puzzle. I am a notoriously bad housekeeper. I don’t plan well and I forget that things need doing, such as taking library books back on time, sending birthday cards and cleaning the kitchen. That one constantly falls out of my head. I was using a folder for it in the Folder Holder, but I’d keep forgetting to look in it to tell me to do things like clean the kitchen. I needed something more “in my face”.   Enter the 3×5 card case with composition book!

And gimme one of those card cases too!

While I am not thrilled with the leather used on this one (I got spoiled by the batch used to make my Folder Holder) it is a well made and thoroughly well designed item. I’ll get used to the leather (nothing wrong with it, but I don’t like shiny leather). I scoured the city and have found some composition books that might work. I am still in the process of finding exactly what I want. I may end up cutting the covers of my Apicas and putting those in (the opening is a bit too small).

Everything in its place - Oops, where are my glasses?

So. The Folder Holder and his little brother, the card case have changed everything. Seriously. I can now have all of my various hobbies documented in one place and it is effortless to drop one subject and pick up on another very quickly. I have orange folders for my personal hobbies and yellow for my work projects. The card case serves as a constant reminder of what needs to be done when and how. It is impossible to open it and not see that my copy of Spaced needs to be back to the library on the 25th. I have a running shopping list in there and a myriad of other lists and doodads, with a composition book that is for note taking and is also perforated so I can dispose of my ramblings.

Renaissance Art has been fabulous to deal with (slow answers to emails aside-their spam filter is apparently too efficient) and there is no denying the quality of their goods (shiny leather aside). The Folder Holder and his little brother are extremely cool tools in quieting the frenetic mind (I think the expression is “mind like water”). I have never been more organized, although the kitchen is still a mess. I lost that card, I think. Oh, well.

Thanks to LPC member KR for writing this and taking the great pics!

De Atramentis (Blue) Ink Scans

At the weekly meeting of the London Pen Club this morning, I had the opportunity to swab the De Atramentis inks that I purchased from Laywine’s . As you can tell from the bottles that I purchased, I like blue ink.

In case you can’t read my handwriting on the scan (which was rather poor by my usual standards) the colours are as follows – Petrol, Dark Blue, Indigo Blue, Sapphire, Atlantic Blue and Blue Grey.

De Atramentis Blue Ink

When I passed the scan around the coffee table this morning, the Indigo Blue seemed to attract the most attention (in terms of a favourite) while the Petrol also generated some discussion (the ink and also its name).  I can understand the popularity of the Indigo Blue, however, I am quite pleased with all of them.  I am most curious to see what the Atlantic Blue looks like with different nibs.  I think it has the most variation in colour that should produce some interesting shading with the right nib, such as a Bexley broad stub or a Conway Stewart Italic Broad.

Not Your Typical Green Ink

While my favourite colour of ink is blue, hands-down, I also like certain green inks.  Specifically, I tend toward the blue-green (or green-blue, if you prefer) and darker shades,e.g., evergreen.  For the most part, my preferred green ink has been Conway Stewart CS Green aka Signature Green (why Conway Stewart named their two green inks – Conway Stewart Green (an emerald green colour) and Conway Stewart CS Green (the darker shade that I prefer) is beyond me; I don’t know how many times I have ordered the latter and received the former!).

A few other (relatively new, I think) green inks have attracted my attention – Pilot Iroshizuku “syo-ro”  and De Atramentis “Petrol”.  Both of these inks are difficult to source – the Pilot Iroshizuku line of inks can only be purchased through Japanese suppliers, e.g., eBay sellers such as engeika or ujuku123, while the De Atramentis (DA) inks are even more difficult to find.  They can be purchased directly from Germany or if you are lucky, you might be able to find a local supplier.  Because I am in Canada, I buy my DA ink from Laywine’s in Toronto.  FYI, I know that Laywine’s just received a large order of DA ink, so if you want some, now would be a good time to call or email them.

I have inserted a scan of these three inks below – the paper used for this purpose is Behance Dot Grid book paper which is an 80 lb. premium blend.  To me, the syo-ro appears to have a bit more blue while the CS green is certainly the deepest green.  I am quite fascinated by the Petrol; in hindsight, I wish I would have added some Rohrer & Klingner Verdigris ink for comparison purposes.

All of the inks performed very nicely – nice flow and quick to dry.  The CS Green was the only ink to bleed through and most of the writing with it could be detected on the other side of the page.

Striped Duofolds

The Duofold was retired in 1932 (while it was removed from the Parker catalog, American production continued until 1937) and reintroduced in 1939 as the Geometric Duofold (aka the “Toothbrush” because of the black patten).  The Geometric was quickly replaced in 1940 by the Striped Duofold, which was eventually discontinued in 1948.  The Striped Duofolds were manufactured using a material that Parker called Laidtone in four colours – blue (blue, silver and black), maroon (pink, silver and black), green (green, brown and black) and black – and eight models (Button filler – Dufold and Lady Duofold, Vacumatic filler – Junior, Sub-Debutante, Major, Debutante, Senior and Ingenue).  Black was not available in all models, e.g., Vacumatic – Major, Debutante, Senior and Ingenue.

I was talking to another pen collector a week or so ago about my set of three striped  Senior Duofolds.  I have a set of three Seniors (Blue, Maroon and Green).  The Seniors can be identified by the Blue Diamond on their clips.

Striped Senior Duofolds owned by MAW

When I mentioned that I owned a complete set of three Striped Duofolds, the other collector told me that there was a fourth colour (the black one) and thus, my set was not a complete one.  I had never heard this before, so the completist ( a collector who attempts to collect an example of every item in a particular field) in me began to hyperventilate.  The anxiety subsided (eventually) and I started researching the matter, beginning with the Parker Duofold book by Shepherd and Zazove.  While the book mentioned black as one of the colours, it did not specify whether it was used in all of the models.  A few searches on Google were not helpful so I turned to the smart people on the Fountain Pen Network, where I posted my picture and asked for help.  David Isaacson of Vacumania.com came to the rescue and provided me with the information concerning the models that used black.  Phew, my Senior set is complete!

Of course, there had to be a bit of a twist as David mentioned that a blue diamond black Duofold does exist – a rather scarce high line desk pen was made in black.  Now, where can that one be?  If you have any information concerning this pen, please send me a note.