What Else Do You Collect Besides Pens? What Are Your Hobbies Or Are Enthusiastic About?

[Mactechbri]

It seems like there is a forum out there for everything. I have just recently started my exclusive use of fountain pens thanks to a Pilot Varsity I picked up. Now I have a Pilot Metro and a very nice Parker 51 set in a box.

Me personally, I collect CD's. I have a nice collection of Kentucky Derby Pins that is incomplete due to expense. And I enjoy my road bike (like a 10 speed, but modern).

And of course I like cars. I have only one, and a regret for selling a few of the ones I've had in the past. You guys know what I mean.

 

How about you guys?

 

Bri.

[Snargle]

I've been collecting Vintage Safety Razors and Shaving Brushes for the past few years. I've been active on the Badger & Blade shaving forum and they have a sub-forum dealing with fountain pens. That's what led me down the path into pens and a further lightening of my savings account!

[flyshot]

I collect vintage fishing lures, fly rods & reels.

I have so many hobbies...fishing, hunting, gun collecting, stamps,

antiques...my biggest hobby is my grandchildren :-)

[orinix]

I try not to collect too many things (budget and limited space), but I like DIY projects and tinkering with electronics.

[CharlieTurtle]

My hobbies are... strange.

 

We have the typically girly things: card making and jewelry making

 

We have the collections: fountain pens, ducks (long story) and books

 

And then there's re-enactment, where I'm an archer (medieval 'short' bow and arrows) plus Florentine (double) daggers.

[nigeldsouza]

Other than Fountain Pens I collect vintage as well as modern safety razors and shaving brushes. I'd like to add straight razors to my collection, but as far as I know they are illegal where I live.

 

Another hobby is collecting rock samples wherever I go, since I was a Geology major in college.

 

Ive also started, very recently, collecting vinyl records.

[Malice]

I don't know if you can call it a collection but I do have quite a few knives.

Now that I think about it quite a few of my hobbies have something to do with either steel or wood:
I do woodcarving and make wooden weapons for aikido and other martial arts, love to cook, do a bit of tracking and woodcraft, and play the guitar.
For the rest it's biking and running.

M.

[Snargle]

Other than Fountain Pens I collect vintage as well as modern safety razors and shaving brushes. I'd like to add straight razors to my collection, but as far as I know they are illegal where I live.

 

Another hobby is collecting rock samples wherever I go, since I was a Geology major in college.

 

Ive also started, very recently, collecting vinyl records.

Are you sure you're not my long-lost twin brother? I was also a geology major (and have a basement full of rocks to prove it!) and, in addition to my razors and brushes, I also have a decent sized collection of vinyl records (although that's down considerably from when I was seriously dealing used LPs on eBay).

[kilraughts]

Have a liking for clocks particularly early longcase clocks and vienna regulators. Have had interest in clocks long before becoming interested

in pens. Like hearing of others obsessions.

 

J

[Edwaroth]

I used to collect vintage Marantz audio equipment from the 60's and 70's before I got into pens. When I acquired the pieces I really wanted, I just stopped. I needed something to feed my hoarding zombie when a phyisican whipped out one of his Bexley's, zombie said "Coool, feed me!"

Edited June 1, 2013 by Edwaroth

[irrigger]

Woodworking tools. I now have the basis for a fairly complete shop, only a couple more pieces......

[olivier78860]

Do parking fines count ?

[NewFPU]

I like odd watches, they must be analog. I am a purist when it comes to that.

 

 

Myste

[Fabienne]

Besides pens, I collect ink! Heh. Not much else, though. Sorry to be such a bore.

[risingsun]

I have been a collector for years, particularly antique tools and slide rules... I am a big fan of unusual rulers made for specific uses, but all sorts of hand tools amuse me... Fountain pen collecting is just in the infancy stage for me. A few photos (sorry for all the dust and dirt):

[Paddler]

Pens are only a very small part of my life. My wife and I go on wilderness canoe trips. We garden extensively and preserve much of our produce for use later in the year. We are members of three string bands, playing Celtic and Appalachian music for historical reenactments, festivals, and other events. I build radios from scratch. I bake bread from flour I grind myself. All of these activities are the subjects of articles I write for my journals.

 

At 4:30 every morning I am awakened by our eldest cat who wants first breakfast. I awake laughing and ready to start the new adventure of the day.

 

 

[tmenyc]

I am a scale modeler -- 1/24 scale cars and buildings. The cars and trucks are based in kits that I then detail, including the engines, transmissions, and interiors. The buildings I build from scratch, using real plans. Am in the finishing stages of a 400 sq ft (in half inch scale) outdoor workshop, with working windows, doors, and scratchbuilt power tools. Pen repair/restoration worked its way into my workbench and shares the tools.

 

Tim

[jar]

I'm not sure any of these qualify as a collection but I have a few examples of pottery from Seagrove, NC, mostly from Jugtown Pottery or one of the Owens or Cole family members.

 

Then there are a bunch of knives mostly from a few bladesmiths and a few nice old handguns.

[carlc]

I

 

My hobbies are... strange.

 

We have the typically girly things: card making and jewelry making

 

We have the collections: fountain pens, ducks (long story) and books

 

And then there's re-enactment, where I'm an archer (medieval 'short' bow and arrows) plus Florentine (double) daggers.

 

That's not strange - I used to be a Viking.

 

nowadays I've become a little more pedestrian and I'm a birder and have taken up flat green bowling (along with pens, books and my family).

 

I used to collect Villeroy and Boch china until a large amount of it had an accident and then I just couldn't be bothered to start again.

 

carl

[MIHCK]

I collect old guidebooks, which I find a fascinating window in how the past looked to the eyes of contemporaries. I have about 30 Baedekers from before World War I, plus Baedeker competitors (Murray's Handbooks, Terry's Guide to Mexico) that imitated its red cloth cover and easy-to-pocket size. If you want vivid evidence of the observation "The past is another country," get hold of the 1905 edition of Baedeker's Austria-Hungary. The maps alone are worth the price of admission.

 

I'm also a big fan of the American Guide Series to U.S. states and have about a dozen. They were initially commissioned as part of the Federal Writers' Project under the New Deal, and in some cases were updated under new publishers as late as the 1970s (perhaps later, but I haven't seen examples). They achieve incredible levels of detail in historic research; you'll learn things about your state that you never knew before, guaranteed. John Cheever worked for a while as one of the editors of the series.

 

And then there are other curiosities: for example, Havana Manana, a 1941 guide to Cuba authored by Consuelo Hermer and Marjorie May. The blurb on the book jacket notes: "For anyone Havana bound, this book is as essential as a one-way ticket. And now that Europe is closed to tourists, more and more Americans will be booking passage by clipper and boat for the playground of the Caribbean!" [emphasis added] Closed to tourists indeed, though Americans would be heading to Europe just a few years later.

 

So for the sake one's mental health, I guess it's probably good to have one addiction to balance another. And it's immense good fortune to have a spouse who tolerates both.