hey everyone!

my name is curtis and i'm a fountain pen lover. i'm a professional chef and i enjoy a lot of different things such as knife collecting, sharpening, cooking, eating, drinking etc. there's not too many things that i'm not open to and i love trying new things, and recently, some buddies of mine have gotten my interest of fountain pens recharged.

i've always been a lover of pens and pencils. i've used fountain pens in school but i never really developed a deep interest as i was trying to keep up with my studies. i have 18k plated cross ball pens and pencils, but i don't use those much. if i need to use ball pens, i usually grab one of my parkers, as i've always been a parker fan.

recently, i just bought a Pilot Namiki Knight


i thought that i would like this one as a starting pen and every day carrier. i've been using it and carrying it with me daily and it works very well.

while visiting my mother, i was jotting down a note and she noticed that i was using a fountain pen, so she says to me, "you like that kind of pen?" i nodded and she ran off, bringing something back.

turns out she had an old Parker fountain pen from the 70's that she wanted to give me! it's a made in france, gold plated xf/m 180.

now, i don't know much about fountain pens, but i know about this one because coincidentally, i've been wanting to buy this pen since i saw my buddy with a silver one! i will be buying the twist converter for this one and get out of the cartrige. i've used it and it's been such a joy to write with! here's some pics:







i've been trying to figure out the name of the pattern of the outside. i'll post these pictures in the parker forum and see if someone can help me out.

but anyways, not to get TOO off topic already, i'm new here and i shall be asking a ton of super stupid questions. thank you everyone for your support and guidance! i hope we can all get along and have tons of fun : D

Hi Curtis, welcome to FPN! The West Coast contingent of KF grows...

That's a cool 180! And a rare one too - Richard Binder identified it as a "gold-plated version with a deeply grooved guilloché finish called Bark" that was a prototype and not put into production as far as he knew (see Richard's website here). Thanks for posting the pics.

Steph

wow! thank you very much for that link and the welcome : )

that website is very cool and informative. i just spent a good amount of time (meaning waaay too much time) viewing it! there's so much to look at.

thanks again!

-c

Welcome and enjoy but be advised there is only one 'pen nut' !!!!! Oh and what do you think of Global knives and whats the best way to sharpen serrated blades?

Welcome I hope your wallet is ready!!

hehe, i didn't realise there'd be a "Pen Nut", but yeah : )

global knives... it would depend on when it was made. the older global knives were made of a harder alloy than the newer ones. i think they switched over around 2003, but i'm not definate.

anyways, global knives aren't bad. compared to german knives (such as wusthoff, messermeister, etc) which is kinda the norm, global is pretty good. their knives feature different alloys compared to german knives. but, there's the issue of weight and weight distribution. global knives have hollowed handles filled with sand to lighten the handle and the knife overall. this tends to get either praise or negative critisism. i, personally, dislike globals.

there's a whole world of kitchen knives and knives in general out there that most of us will never know about. i've been using japanese made knives for most of my culinary career. japanese knives tend to be harder and many are hand forged. most of the german knives are stamped out of a large sheet of metal. while being harder, japanese knives will get sharper and hold sharpness longer. while this is a HUGE plus, with hardness comes brittleness.

but back to globals, if one is willing to spend the money for a global (which aren't the cheapest knives), i'd rather take that same money and spend it on a hand forged knife.

ummm, serrated knives... there's two ways to do it. the easy way is to send it out to someone to sharpen. the harder way is to do it with a thin wooden dowel (about the size of the grooves) and sand paper. bond the paper to the dowel, and file the grooves in between the 'teeth' of the knife.

i hope this helps, hehe. if there's more interest, we can continue knife talk, but yeah, : D

Welcome aboard. Those are some cool pens you have!

What do you think of Shun knives?

Greetings, Chef Curtis. A master of the art of cooking, eh? A fine profession. Everyone loves good food.

I can't place the name, but your Parker looks very familiar.

Hello Curtis...

Welcome to yet another branch of never ending obsession.



That might be a Parker 180 with a duo-point nib? I am just guessing though.

Welcome to the Fountain Pen Nuthouse! You can't ask any stupid questions here, although you may get a few stupid answers. This is a great place with a wealth of valuable information and very friendly people.

Welcome to FPN!

Hello and welcome to FPN. Take a look around there's lots to see.

Kurt

thanks everyone!

shun knives are cool. they're made of an alloy called vg-10, which is a common and a pretty good japanese steel. it features vanadium, molybdenum and tons of chromium in the composition of the metal. for a stainless steel knife, it holds and keeps an edge well.

shun knives is branded by kershaw and is produced by the KAI corporation. while the shun is a good knife, for the price, there are better vg-10 knives. but these are good knives and they are readily available at most culinary stores. my only gripe is that the knives are a bit heavy and chunky, as they were designed for the american market.

Welcome.

Hi! Very nice collection there. That's the way to start!!

MIke

Greetings and welcome to FPNutwork! It's so interesting that you collect knives. The knives I use most of the time are the ones my husband got back in 1971 at a gas station that was giving them away...I find that they are not sharp enough to hurt me when I cook at home.
My best dish and the thing I do best is.....make....reservations!

reservations : D

i not only collect, i use, sharpen and polish my knives. i'm not the only one. there's a whole knife community out there. it's pretty similar to this fountain pen community.

i remember when i was younger, my mother had friends who collected various things like stamps, coins, and even fountain pens! i thought it was pretty silly to collect stamps and coins and pens, but as i grew older, i realised that different people have different interests.

a big regret of mine was sending silver coins to a handle maker and having him turn it into a knife handle decoration. : (

but yeah, here's a few knife pics:

Wow, I am impressed. We have Sabatier knives....does that count? (stainless steel....:::sigh ::: ).

sabatier knives were good. i don't know what they're up to now, but they were good back in like the 70's. i got a chance to use an old one and i really enjoyed it. i've seen some newer ones and they look like they're made poorly.

but bottom line, a knife's a knife, a pen's a pen. it's all in how you use and handle it. you treat a nice knife like (Potty Mouth), it's gonna be a (Potty Mouth) knife : P

Ahh. I see. I need a lightweight knife. And they won't even let you HOLD one of the Shun in any of the stores around here.

I have a Calphalon Katana and that's heavy for me.

Welcome to FPN!! The Parker 180 is very nice!!

Well, that's good to hear. These knives are from the 70's!

Welcome!

a pen's a pen.


mmmm thats how I started !!!! I will give you six months and your view will change

Hi C Dawg,

Love the pic of the pattern-welded blade. Where did you get that one? (I'm a student of Viking Age history, hence the interest).

Curtis, welcome to the crazy, but wonderfully happy world of pen-nuts!!!!
You have a nice collection of pens to begin with, and of course knives.
There a couple of pen clubs in California- I think the Pan Pacific Pen club might be the one nearest to you. Check the Clubs sub-forum- they post Club meeting notices there.

oo, thank you. i'd like to see a pen club! i think it'd be a lot of fun.

skallagrim, all of those knives are hand made. the one with the damascus pattern is here: yoshikane at japan wood worker

they have a ton of other stuff at that website. most of the stuff they carry (in terms of kitchen knives) are pretty quality stuffs. www.japanwoodworker.com

Hi Curtis,

Welcome aboard the FPN forums. That is one very impressive Parker that you've acquired. I agree, I would use the bottled ink converter over disposable cartridges. I always find that ink from the bottle flows a lot smoother from the nib. Nevertheless, I am sure you will love it here.

sharp!

welcome to FPN