My First Fountain Pens

Pens that preceded serious collecting

By LPC member David

M

y first memory of writing with a fountain pen goes back to my pre-primary school, Chelmsford School in Durban, South Africa where as an 8 year old in what we then called Standard 1 (Grade 3), we were to taught to write with a fountain pen. Sadly, I don’t remember the details of the pen, except that it was not a dip pen. While those memories have faded, a small spark was created.

The first pen that I ever owned was a Parker 45 Flighter, the stainless steel super-stream-lined classic given to me by family friends when I was 13 years old. This turned out to be a most appropriate first pen for me, as the Parker 45 and I share birth years, give or take a year. I loved this pen and used it often over my high school and university years, and beyond. This pen still writes as well as it ever did with its smooth medium nib, and like many 45s, the plastic section long ago developed the characteristic bumpy indents caused by the clutch rings of the pen’s cap. These days, I no longer use this pen, preferring others, but it still holds an important place in my collection, where it has been joined by a number of 45 cousins.

When I was in my late teenage years and heading off to university, my father gave me his black aerometric Parker 51, personally inscribed with his name. At that time, he no longer used a fountain pen and I was delighted with this 2^nd addition to, what I did not know then was, my “collection”. This pen, with its simple lustraloy cap was and is a classic, and kindled my love of 51s. I never used the pen very much because it had a fine and scratchy nib. Then, living in Canada, I eventually sent it off to Fountain Pen Hospital to get a new medium nib installed, which transformed the pen into a usable instrument. Subsequently, the pen visited John Mottishaw who fitted it with a stub nib, a transformation which made it an even more usable pen.

My father was not the only 51-owner in my immediate family. My mother, presently a few weeks short of her 90^th birthday, has been doing all of her daily writing with her beloved burgundy aerometric 51 (with gold-filled cap), for over 60 years. And for over 30 years now, I (and my brother) have received a weekly letter from her, penned with no other pen than this burgundy 51 filled with Parker blue ink. One day, I hope to own this pen, something with which my mother concurs, although as she has said, “hopefully not in the near future”.

Prior to starting to collect fountain pens seriously in 2008, three other fountain pens joined my infantile collection. Sometime between 1997 and 1999, I made my first Ebay purchase in the form of a green and gold striped Parker Duofold Junior from 1946; I am not sure what made me buy this pen as I was not “collecting” fountain pens then, but presumably “collecting” was then in its embryonic and inevitable state.

In 1999, I was given a beautiful white swirled Marlen Shuttle with sterling silver cap by friends when visiting them in Phoenix.

Following this, there was a brief dalliance with an orange Rotring Core purchased from the Peel Pen Store, until the collecting hobby was born formally in 2008.

Care of Fountain Pens & Ink in Winter

Great advice from our friends at Pendemonium.  You can sign up for their Inky Greetings and Midnight Madness newsletters on their homepage.

The Deep Freeze & Happy Ink
Thankfully not all of you reading this live in the frigid world like we’ve been in lately. I’d be pleased if it would just get above freezing for a few days. It’s been an especially cold winter thus far and the sooner it ends, the happier I’ll be. But more important than that is what these bitter temps can do to your pens and ink. If you’re in a cold zone, don’t even think about leaving your pens in the car overnight. They stand a good chance of cracking. We’re still shipping ink, but with extra insulation. If your ink arrives frozen, it’s still OK, let it come to room temp before opening. That way the bottles won’t crack causing a huge ink stain! Once again, for those of you in the cold zones, it might be a good idea to have your ink shipped to your office if no one is home during the day to bring it inside. Your ink will be so happy! Remember to wear your mittens.

“First” Fountain Pens

The theme for our FIRST meeting of the New Year was… your “first” fountain pen (FP).  This could mean the very “first” FP you owned (however acquired), the “first” FP you purchased as an adult, or it could mean the “first” FP you chose as a collector, after becoming “hooked” on this hobby.  The notion of “first” in “first” FP was limited only by our small brains.

One of our most distinguished members wrote the following about his “first” FP:

I still have it and it is still one of my most trusty workhorses.  No sequestering it away in a glass case, it is usually stabled in my shirt pocket next to my heart.  In the same fashion as many an infantryman (so I have read) has had his life saved by a musket embedded in his trusty bible, I would expect a bullet aimed at my heart to be deflected by my loyal Sheaffer.

No matter that it has long since destroyed its cap (I have it carefully stored so that when technology advances sufficiently I or a descendent will restore it), I fitted it out with a beautiful classic black one, that fits perfectly.  Indeed, I would go so far as to say that it looks rather more aristocratic than the original.
My Uncle Phil gave it to me when I started high school and I have been training it ever since.  It has learned to respond to my every touch in a way that can only be achieved over a lifetime.  I would guess that if all I ever wrote with this pen was stretched out in a continuous line it would reach from here to the sun!  It is too late for me to be ever able to train another although I do continue to explore vintage pens in the (probably vain) hope that some literate connoisseur may have had a similar relationship resulting in a perfectly molded writing instrument.

I will bring it to the next meeting of the LPC and if you swear to treat it with appropriate tenderness and respect I may even let you write a couple of words.

I don’t think you will find it too hard to pick out this “hybrid” Sheaffer in the picture that follows below!

As for me, I brought three “first” FPs to our meeting.  My very “first” FP, a tortoise Waterman Laureat that I purchased to sign my name on my firm’s correspondence (I used Waterman Florida Blue ink, of course!).  Next, I brought the “first” FP that I purchased online, from Levenger, a beautiful blue Visconti Pericles.  Both the Laureat and Pericles are pictured below.  Last, I brought the “first” vintage FP that I purchased, under the direction of a certain LPC member – a red Parker Duofold Streamline Senior.

Here is a picture of the “first” FPs that were shared at our meeting on January 2, 2010.  From left to right, they are as follows:

1. Parker 51 Special – the “first” FP given by a daughter to her father (very Special indeed!),
2. Uncle Phil’s Sheaffer – as described above,
3. Parker Slimfold – the “first” (and only) FP used by a member’s mother,
4. Parker 75,
5. Esterbrook,
6. Sheaffer Balance in carmine red,
7. Sheaffer Snorkel,
8. Parker Duofold Jr.,
9. Waterman Laureat – as described above, and
10. Visconti Pericles – as described above.

Let us know about your “first” FP!

Keeping Track of Your Valued Pen Collection

Submitted by LPC member Rick (at the insistence of his lovely bride! :~))

Several weeks ago after our meetings on valuing our pen collection I took a look at my pen table and took this quick snapshot.

The desk was a mess – pens, inks, notebooks, repair parts, pens in pieces all over the table with no place to work.  A quick mental calculation figured that there was probably well over $1,000 worth of pens (alone) lying on the table, and more in notebooks and ink.  I have since cleaned up the table, at the insistence of my lovely bride, and have vowed to keep things neater in the future.  I also plan on taking what we learned and doing a proper inventory/evaluation of my collection in the near future.

Here is the link to Rick’s FlickR page where he has tagged everything on his desk

Yet Another Ink Test for Waterproof-ness – Nine Inks in a Soak Test

Submitted by LPC member Rick and also posted on FPN

Once again it is time for another test to see how your favourite ink holds up to a soaking in water. I’ve done a couple of these in the past and it is long past time I made another.

More than a year ago I wrote out on a page of Rhodia lined paper a sample of nine inks that were in my pens at the time – Noodler’s Heart of Darkness, FPN Van Gogh Starry Night Blue, Diamine Blue Black, Parker Penman Sapphire, Parker Quink Washable Blue from a vintage (c 1950s) bottle in my collection, Noodler’s Zhivago, Private Reserve Avacado, Private Reserve Black Cherry and Noodler’s Baystate Blue. As it has been over a year I have no idea what ink was in what pen or what nib size, please don’t ask.

This morning while cleaning off my desk I found that page (better late than never) and scanned it using my Epson Stylus CX4800. For what it’s worth the colours look accurate on my monitor.

Then I cut the page in half

And submerged it in a laundry tub of warm tap water and let it soak for five minutes. I didn’t agitate the page in the tub or run water from the tap over the page.

After five minutes under water I removed the page and carefully hung it to dry

Before taping it back together and once again scanning the page. Again the colours here look accurate on my monitor.

So what have I learned? Once again, as expected, Noodler’s held out the best to my little test.

The HOD looks unchanged, the Baystate Blue looks almost as good, Zhivago lost it’s green tint leaving behind black. The FPN Starry Night Blue (by Noodler’s, but not marketed as waterproof / bulletproof) changed colour to a greyish black but is perfectly readable.

The Penman Sapphire fared the worse this time, it is all but gone, a few more minutes in the water and it may have disappeared altogether.

The vintage Quink Washable Blue is still legible as is the PR Black Cherry.

The PR Avacado surprised me by changing colour from a dark green before the test to a red after soaking, faded but still legible. Red? Maybe need to do some paper towel chromatography on the Avacado to see the colours that are in this ink. But that’s for another day.

Hope you find this little test useful.

New Year, New Look!

Happy 2010 to all of you!  We thought it was time to change/spruce things up a bit.  Let us know what you think – do you like the new format, can we do something better, etc.?  Our goal each year is to provide you with interesting information about anything and everything related to fountain pens.  My personal goal is to post more frequently and regularly over the course of the upcoming year.

Many of the ideas for these posts arise from discussions at the London Pen Club meetings (check out our web page) as well as information that we share with the terrific members of the Vancouver Pen Club and Calgary Pen Club.  If you are not currently a member of a pen club, try and find one nearby.  The opportunity to share this hobby with others of like interests but different experiences and backgrounds will increase your knowledge and enjoyment of it exponentially!

Once again, Happy 2010!  We are always pleased to hear your thoughts!

MikeW

Without Ink

Perish the thought!  I am not writing what would be, for most of us, an unthinkable predicament, that is to find ourself without ink.  Ask the question “Does anyone have ink?” at one of our pen club meetings and there will be 20+ bottles on the table before you can say “Noodler’s”. 

As a seasonal aside, for the past two (?) years, at our Saturday meeting just before Christmas, the London Pen Club  does a gift exchange of sorts.  Everyone brings a gift of ”mystery ink” – ink wrapped up in everything from LCBO bags to men’s underwear (they were clean but for the rainbow of ink stains).  The booty is placed on a table and we each get to pick the package that calls to us.  This year I gifted five FPN sample vials of Noodler’s ink – Borealis Black, Dragon’s Napalm, Blue Upon the Plains of Abraham, FPN Galileo Brown, and one that I did not know (the label was off the bottle).  I received two baby food-size jars, one containing MB Blue – Black and the other Diamine Presidential Blue.  Very nice – but I can’t forget that the MB Blue-black is an iron gall ink.

Back to the scary notion of “without ink”.  Like you, I probably spend too much time looking at and reading about pens and ink on the web.  Occasionally, I come across sites or blogs that catch my eye, such as WithoutInk   The writer describes himself in a way that struck a chord with me - “… even with all this cool technology. i have noticed — life is very different without ink. i used to write a lot. i enjoyed it. now i type a lot… and thats totally different.”  I could not agree more – I wished that I wrote much more and typed less (perhaps after reading this far, you also agree that I should type less!).  The site has a number of pen and ink reviews, each of them are thorough and well written.  I particularly like the template that the writer employs to give the reviews structure and consistency.  In fact, the format and content reminded me a lab report, which makes sense as the writer describes himself as a “tech geek”.  I actually sent the writer a note asking him if he would link our site and send me a copy of the template, which he (Matt) did kindly and promptly.  Matt mentioned that he intends to update the template soon, once he designs it.  I can’t wait.  Thanks Matt, keep up the terrific work!  Your site is now on my regular reading list and others would do well to add it to theirs.

Blue inks from Toronto Pen Show plus

So our club took to the road last Saturday for the Toronto Pen Show.  The show was well attended by both dealers and people like us.  Of course, the show is small by U.S. standards but size isn’t everything – quality counts for something!

Here is a scan of the inks that I purchased from Sleuth & Statesman at the TPS plus a writing sample of Sailor Chushu ink that came with my new Sailor Realo fountain pen (this ink was distributed with the first 500 Realos sold – lucky me!).  The paper is 80 g Rhodia graph paper.

By the way, I had writing sample ready to be scanned this morning, however, as I was a bit rushed to get to the London Pen Club meeting at 9:30 am, I decided to wait and scan it when I returned home.  I passed the scan around the meeting table for everyone to look at (fwiw, Noodler’s Polar Blue was the consenus favourite).  One vintage collector was looking at the writing sample, put it down and then started playing with my Sailor Realo, not realizing that it is a piston-filler. That’s the problem with these vintage people, they think every pen has a lever!  Anyway, he (who shall remain unidentifed except to those present) is the person responsible for the blob of Chushu in the last sample.

Pen Show Fever – Mark your calendars!

The calendar of events listed in the August 2009 issue of Pen World, just off the press,  indicates that the 20th Michigan Pen Show (MPS) will take place on October 3, 2009  (a Saturday) at the Westin Southfield-Detroit while the Toronto Pen Show (TPS) will be on October 11, 2009  (a Sunday) at the Hilton Airport.  The MPS appears to have changed locations (from the Troy Hilton – a quick Google map shows that the Westin is about 20 miles south on I-75 and then west on I-696 from the Hilton); however, the TPS is in the same place.  Neither the Michigan Pen Club nor the TPS website have current information, at the date of this post.

Canadian readers should also take note that the TPS takes place over the Thanksgiving weekend, with Monday, October 12 as our statutory holiday for Thanksgiving.

Fooling around with ink and paper

I recently received a truckload of ink from our friends at Swisher Pens.  I also decided to buy a few pads of the Staples Bagasse paper – made from sugarcane – which seems to be the rage on pen-related discussion boards.

One of the things that I had noticed was the significant drying time for ink used on the Bagasse paper – it just seemed to stay wet forever (imho).  So with Rick ready with his Timex, we compared two inks (Noodler’s Dark Matter and Private Reserve Fast Dry Midnight Blues) on Staples bagasse paper and Rhodia graph paper (from a notebook).  You can see that the Dark Matter took quite a bit longer to dry on the bagasse paper – over 1 minute – compared to just over 15 seconds on the Rhodia paper.  Interestingly, the Fast Dry Midnight Blues lived up to its billing – it dried very quickly on the bagasse paper – less than 15 seconds - and almost immediately on the Rhodia paper.  I should also note that the PR Fast Dry ink was laid down on the paper with a Sheaffer’s Legacy medium nib that has flow like a firehose so we were most impressed with the fast dry qualities of this ink – it was really quite amazing!

One of the other items that has come up for discussion is the apparent difference in the colour of Pilot blue ink – from the bottle and in their V pens.  The proof is in the pudding – as you can see below, the Pilot blue bottled ink appears to be much lighter in comparison to that used in the V pens. 

Finally, I was asked to do a comparison of light blue/turquoise coloured inks for someone on the FPN – here are some of the main brands and the colours on Staples bagasse paper.  I tried to use a blotter on the Dark Matter ink used to label the various blues – you can see that there is a faint line running down the right hand side of the page (yet more proof of the slow drying time of this paper!).