I am back from the Philadelphia Pen Show, 2nd day 26, January, 2008.

I obtained a few "vintage" pens and was able to identify an "unknown pen" from my personal collection. I did not see anyone from the Fountain Pen Network although, I was absorbed into the activities of the Pen Show.

I really enjoyed myself "totally" ; there were plenty of pen loving people at the show and I had a "grand time" meeting people, discussing pens, inks and sharing the feelings with other Fountain Pen lovers.

Hey Richard,

Glad you enjoyed yourself and had a safe trip. While I was not able to make the Philly Pen Show I did stumble upon a garage sale and came across a navy blue and Chrome Parker 45 fountain pen and mechanical pencil set in mint condition for only $10.00. The set was in the original box with warranty papers and had never been inked before! I've quickly come to like the 45s so this new one was a welcome addition to my budding collection (thats makes 2 Parker 45s now).

I was pen shopping as well so I was with you in spirit!



Welcome back!

Spend 2 hours at the show yesterday. Met Bob (the man behind the local club), Elaine, Gerry, Tom L, Al M., and said hi to Ron Z, Richard B. and others which I probably forgot (sorry). Reasonably good crowd. I missed Pendemonium who was not present. Elaine had real life samples of the many colors that she is trying to have Nathan develop for her. The plastics of the new editions of the Penultimate were really beautiful but I was determined not to get any modern pens. I passed by the same table that I detest every year (it had a Parker 45 in happy colors with a price tag of $175 I found a flex nib of my drea ms, a FF5 triumph nib - people have been saying that triuph nibs dont flex. My god that nib was nib was awesome. Despite the very high price tag ($400) I was (almost) tempted only to hear from the seller that .... the pen was not for sale ... Maybe it was for my own good. I did buy one pen, a gorgeous 0512 1/2 overlay (which I will take a photo of soon), and I did drool over a silver over RHR overlay of a 212 1/2 (but the price was way way to much more that I could afford). So I exceeded my budget by 50% but this rule for pen shows. Overall 2 hours well spend in a small but warm pen show in the city of Brotherly Love.

I buzzed in early to the show to get in line for the Binders' table and left after dinner with some of the pen people there. It was a nice show and FPN was represented by Elaine who was ble to show off some of the inks as well as sell some Tulipe Noir. For me, the highlights were seeing the people: It was a pleasure to see Antonios write an example with one of his flex nibs; Watch Richard grind nibs to customer's specs desires; observe Ron Z repair and talk about repairing various pens; chat with Barbara B, Robyn Z, Elaine, David I, Tom L, Joe Cali, Paul Erano, Terry B, Terry Mawhorter and countless others who were gracious enough to spend some of their time to talk about pens, inks and non pen related stuff.
Like Antonios, I was able to escape with only one pen - Dunhill AD2000 that had a cool clip and a very nice nib which was tested and sold to me by Ron Z. I usually buy vintage at these shows, but this one called to me!
Overall, thought it was a good start to the pen show season

I was going to focus on ink and paper this year but wound up leaving the show with:
a Pilot Vanishing Point (blue and silver trim; broad nib)
a Parker Insignia (broad nib, blue marbled finish)
a bottle of the Nooder's FPN Manuscript Brown ink
some Itoya purple gel refills that should fit my Parker Jotter

And I got to meet Elaine, which was cool!

I was there yesterday morning until late-lunchtime. I was able to have my Pelikan M620 Athens nib customized by Richard Binder. It's my very first stub, and I am enjoying it very much! It was my first time at Richard's table, and it was a treat. The table was buzzing with activity.

I also stopped by to say hello to RonZ but didn't chat for long, as he was very busy, too.

My friend/work colleague was at the show, so I browsed the show with him for a bit and compared notes.

The Lamy/Filofax rep lives a few blocks from me, so I chatted with him and his daughter for a while. I asked him if he had any inside information about a new Safari color (last year he gave me the scoop on the black and white editions). He said he was not aware of anything in the pipeline. He did show me the latest Al-Star in the deep blue color, as well as the pearly white Studio.

I didn't buy any pens, but it wasn't for lack of trying. I was thinking of trading a vintage Conklin superflex nibbed pen to see if I could get something similar in a regular sized body (mine's a ringtop size). I dip-tested a dozen Conklins, but in the end, I decided I liked mine the best.

I did purchase a bottle of Diamine Royal Blue ink. With that and my newly-Binderized Pelikan Athens nib, I left the show very happy.

I had a great time

I had a great time as well!

Got a 94 Blue Ripple pen from Rick (Thanks Rick )
DJ 51 in Black with a nice broad nib
A really cool Sheaffer cart. pen demonstrator. Got it with 5 other pens for $10.

I saw some cool Chiltons from Rick. Met with a bunch of others: David I., Bob Novak, Rick Krantz, and many others.

It was a great show. I already miss it!

George

It was my second Philly show, and it was as good as my first!
I, too saw the key players of FPN.

Ron and Robyn Z. are terrific people! Ron repaired three of my vintage pens, and they are as good as new!
I now appreciate the 51 that I own, and why people think so much of it. It was not writing as well as it should.

David I is also very friendly. I informed him that I was relatively new to vintage pens. He offered me a couple of tips and items to look out for on my future shows.

Richard B. was also there. It was great to see him and Ron Z. at adjoining tables (They said they keep each other in check!)
He is just as busy at a show as he is in the shop. If you do not get yourself on a list for repairs early, you will not get to deal with him.

I highly recommend this show to anyone in the Mid-Atlantic region!

I was there Saturday until around 1:30 myself. Had a fantastic time. I took a buddy of mine to his first show. I hope I haven't "infected" him too bad!

I took home a Parker 45 NOS, a vintage bottle of Sheaffer Skrip, and a 2-pen case. I saw lots of things I'll be saving up for.

My only disappointment was not meeting more of you folks. I did meet Elaine and spoke with luckygrandson. I know there has to be a way to better ID ourselves as FPNers as we walk around. Name tags, if even kept on, are difficult to see on someone hunched over a table. I added "FPN member swarden43" to my tag. Did anyone else make mention on thier tags? If you did, I'm sorry I missed it. I would have enjoyed meeting you.

Maybe "Ask me about FPN" T-shirts?

glad I was able to task you with another project. Luckily, with the parts you have, you are closer than I would be with the pen. Good luck on the section, but keep in mind, you have one of the hardest to find parts already.

As George noted, I was there, as well. I went on Sunday, walked around for a bit, talked to everyone, or at least made effort to say HI. One person that George met, was Cliff Harrington, who is a bit of a Wahl Eversharp expert, and I had chance to share George's collection of 51's and watermans with Cliff who was quite impressed. (coincidentally, I was quite impressed, as well....)

I had a good time, but bought nothing. One pen I was going to buy, was a long model (versus the short model) wingflow, in Periwinkle, akak, Starry Night pattern, that is a tough pen. It had a broken clip, but not much of a problem for me. I tried, and the deal fell thru, the owner of the pen, wants to fix the pen and give it a fair shot on the market, which I can respect, so being the good guy I am, told the owner, that I would send them a clip to repair said pen. I guess it makes me feel good that I can at least help rescue a rare one, if I could not own it.

I sold a few pens, did well in that respect, but collecting a specific hard to find brand, it makes it difficult to find examples that you need. So, my trip was mainly a social visit, and that's all good and well.

On a sad note, I brought my floor pen case down to the show for a fellow FPN'er to look at, and I was hoping to have purchase, but it turned out the case was a bit more ambitious of a project than they wanted to tackle. Sad part about it is, the top glass cracked on the way down, so now I got a bigger problem on my hands, instead of just a bunch of veneer coming off the base of the cabinet. Hey, if anyone else out there wants a pen case, let me know. If you're close, I will deliver. It needs work, but nothing a bit of TLC won't take care of...

All in all, a good show. I wish I would have gotten a table, and actually had a good amount of stuff to sell, but I find myself limited on pen stock this year, and cannot keep enough in inventory to make purchasing a table work for me. I'm going to work on it for next year though, since I always felt Philly is a great smaller show, especially for the vintage crowd.

One pen I did see, that I loved, was the Jimi Hendrix LE, I thought the material was fantastic, not much into the LE market, or even the crass commercialism of Jimi, but the pen is a work of art. I guess I will have to troll the for sale boards in a bit to find someone that bought one, and didn't care for it. I think that this would be a great pen material in say, a wingflow?

Oh well, take care all! I will be putting up my remaining pens that did not sell at the philly show for a last chance dance before the big auction on the web. Check for it soon!

Best!
Rick