Washington DC Pen Show

[D.C. in PA]

Please share with all who would be interested.

Thanks for asking.

D.C. & Janet

[blopplop]

Those inks look great! Can't wait till Saturday.

 

See ya there (Lord willing)

 

Dave

[pen2paper]

Great! Love those colorful inkbottles!

Colorful characters too;)

Hey were's your FPN badges?

Have fun..raise a nibful of ink for all of us Pouters:D

[D.C. in PA]

Early Friday in D.C.

The small room...

 

 

 

The main room from the balcony...

 

 

 

 

Or the calm before the storm.

D.C. in PA/DC

[Jared]

It's surprising to see how full that room gets, and even how it spills out into side rooms and the hall. It really is overwhelming. So many pens...so many inks.

[WendyNC]

Oh, wow. The whole Triangle show was not much larger than the small room. I so want to run up to DC on Saturday and be overwhelmed. *sigh*

[chestertonaccountant]

I can't wait to leave at 6am for the show, another 4 hour drive, hopefully getting there by 10:30am. Drove four hours last night from Western NC but I have been waiting three years for this.

[Ghost Plane]

I'd never leave the ink testing...

[Jared]

I'd never leave the ink testing...

 

That's where I'm heading right now...

[dawoomi]

Wake up and prepare to go.

:embarrassed_smile: See you soon.

[Buzz J]

yippee, off to the airport!!!!

[blopplop]

In so much that I have not had the opportunity to rig up the duck that drops down when the 'secret' word is mentioned....

 

How about folks just introduce themselves and mention they are FPN members.

 

Hell, I'll probably forget the secret word anyway. )

 

Steve

 

 

I can't believe I was at the show for 4 hours today and didn't even run into you, Steve.

 

There's just so much stuff going on there, it's hard to accomplish everything.

 

But I did meet with some FPN members at the ink table. Very cool!

 

Dave

[pen2paper]

sooo...how many at the ink table at 2?

[Saturninus]

has anyone seen any Yard-O-Led Grand Viceroys at the show? I was hoping I would see some, but haven't found anyone selling one. Also looking for an Omas Ogiva Vision, but haven't found one of those either.

 

What is that solid silver pen in the hallway that weighs about a ton? It's on the table across from Swisher. If you've picked it up, you know what I am talking about.

[hexyr]

The pen is a Curtis Austrailia.

I haven't seen any Yard-O-led.

As for an Omas. I thought I saw some. just can't remember where now.

Unfortunately, I missed the meeting at the ink table.

[HokieGeek]

I got back from the pen show a few hours ago. It was my first one and let me just say: WOW! It. was. so. COOL! Being my first, I tried my best to be as prepared as possible. I went there with my camelbak, wallet full of cash and a list of things I wanted to look at. Well, list went out the door almost immediately. There was just so much there. I took this picture with my phone immediately as I walked into the main room and sent it to my wife saying "this is 1/3 of the show!"

Then I walked around some more and realized I was WAY off on that estimation. It was so overwhelming! I must have walked past each table 3 times before I finally bought something! But it was just so much fun to see the vintage pens people have restored. Not to mention the really awesome looking pens that people had made! This particular gem caught my eye early on in the small room:

(The second from left. Black with red)

It was just so unusual and fun! Made by Joe Cali (www.jcalipens.com). When I came back for my second pass, it was already gone!

 

On my list (ha!) I had a Pilot VP - I really wanted to buy one and started to look at one at Richard Binder's table. But then I noticed the Pelikan M205 Blue Demo and next thing I know I'm sitting in front of Richard, having a very pleasant conversation as he binderized the nib of my new M205 to suit my writing style!! I never intended to get a custom nib and I am so freaking happy with this pen and nib that it is already my favorite/edc/workhorse pen! I keep writing with it on notebooks just to see how cool it looks and feels!

 

I talked to a gentleman that had his entire (and fairly complete!) collection of Sheaffer Snorkles - a pen which I had not really appreciated until now! I also met Paul Erano who, unfortunately, caught me as my funds were at their barest minimum and tried to convince me to buy his book. I really wanted to, but really wanted one more pen more! He convinced me though and one of the first things I did when I got home was to go to his site! I'm probably going to sign up for his quarterly too!

 

And the inks! Nothing looked quite as lovely as the ink testing station! I was able to test inks which I had been curious about for a while. I now have an even bigger "to buy" ink list which was a little frustrating because ALL inks were being sold there! I had ever seen the entire collection of Noodler's sold in one place before! (online or off). Unfortunately I spent all of my money on pens so I bought no ink!

 

I spent a long time looking at pens and deciding where to spend my modest budget. I did very little haggling as most vendors were willing to go down on the price before I even suggested anything and in no way felt I got anything less than an amazing deal. For my last purchase, I had understimated how much I had left by a few dollars and even after lowering the price considerably, the vendor was really cool and offered to sell the pen for what I had (I was $3 short). I will remember this man come next year and will definitely buy a pen or 3 from him - no haggling!

 

I spent so much time walking, talking and inspecting pens, that my brain turned to mush. I honestly do not really recall the 30min drive back home. I do recall sitting on the couch just staring at my new pens on a tv table while I waited for my neurons to catch up!

 

So here's my haul. I didn't have much money to spend so it's nothing earth shattering, but all 3 pens are in impeccable condition (nary a ghost of a scratch on the restored ones) and I just love them!

(please excuse the phone pic!)

From top to bottom:

An estie relief fine stub (9314F) nib which I am... still trying to get used to.

Parker Vacumatic Silver Pearl (F)

Parker "51" Vacumatic Filling Double Jewel Blue Cedar (F)

Pelikan M205 Blue Demonstrator with Binder's Cursive left-foot Oblique Italic, 4° 0.7mm

 

Now I need to decide if I want to go back tomorrow! I technically spent all of my budget, but depending on a few developments tonight, I might have enough money for a few more things. Maybe the Parker 75 Cisele I really wanted but didn't budget. Or that wheelbarrow full of inks I always wanted :roflmho: !

[Jared]

sooo...how many at the ink table at 2?

 

Quite a few!

[pen2paper]

Nice haul HG! now you need some Luxury Blue for those pens:)

thanks for sharing the fun/excitement with Us..

[Ray-Vigo]

This was also my first show as well, despite having been collecting fountain pens since about 1996-97 or so. It was a lot of fun. The better half and I arrived about 12:30 and walked around for a bit. Our first stop in earnest was at Steve Braun's table (Allwritenow),where he and John Sorowka [Oxonian] (I think that's how it's spelled) were doing some work on pens and also had a number of modern ebonite eyedropper pens and vintage British pens. I got a British office pen (Alfred Gilbert Manifold) from Oxonian for my work duties, and am pretty pleased with how it handles the marginal card stock we have at work. The ebonite eyedropper pens are also pretty impressive and seem to range in size from massive to extremely small. If you're someone who is interested in ebonite pens or likes eyedroppers, their table would be a good place to visit.

 

After that we headed around and browsed the many tables. We particularly trolled the "junk" and "parts" bins for bargain "fixer uppers". The better half got herself a Lapis Spors glass pen. The coloring is really impressive, though it does need a filler restoration. The nib had a couple small chips, but I've been able to smooth it out using micromesh. When the pen is finally done in full, I'll post pictures since the lapis-white combo is top notch.

 

After walking a bit (and there are several FULL galleries of tables with every sort of pen and ink you can imagine) we made our way to the repair area. Richard Binder and Ron Zorn were there hard at work on various pens for customers. How they manage to fix all those pens, I'll never know-- my wrists and hands would be tired after the first hour or two. We got on the list with Ron Zorn, who checked out the Spors and also a Sheaffer Balance I had with me. He took in the Balance for repairs, since it needed a crack repaired that couldn't be done at the show. He also showed me a sample of his work on an Esterbrook, which was top notch, to say the least.

 

Following our visit there, we headed back into the hallway to the ink table. I've never seen so many inks in one place. I set up at the Diamine area and sampled some different blues and greens. A couple of other guests were there, and we had a pleasant conversation about the different inks and colors available. My girlfriend headed to the Herbin and Noodlers inks, which had some very vibrant colors. What I loved about the ink table was that I got to sample several colors I'd been considering buying, but had held back so far. I made myself a "color card" using the different inks so I could take home with me a key to which color looked like what. I would suggest exactly this sort of thing for anyone interested in getting a look at colors they may want to buy in the future.

 

We left the ink table and also got some of those eyedropper highlighters that you fill with highlighter ink yourself. They were at the Swisher Pens table. They look promising, and we then bought two bottles of Noodlers Highlighter ink in blue and yellow. I think these will be very useful for both of us.

 

After that my girlfriend sat down in the lobby above the pool and rested her feet. With a fair bit of money left, I decided to venture into the main gallery again to buy myself a pen of some sort. I browsed many different tables looking at vintage pens. I spotted a couple of nice Parker Vacumatics I liked, but the nibs were a bit too fine for my tastes. The prices ranged from what I would call "good" to "way too high". I would suggest to anyone attending that if you spot a pen you like but the price seems high, to make the rounds to see if another might be available that is a bit more in range. Most dealers seemed to have what I would call "fair" prices. As time went on I more and more migrated to the often-neglected "junk" bins to see what was available. In one bin I found a complete Eversharp Skyline set, with black barrels and gold filled caps. The cap was ding free and the pen seemed in great shape. The repeater pencil also was in good shape. So, for $60 I got both, deciding to make this pen my first full-on restoration. I've done nib smoothing on various pens I own in the past, and have swapped parts in the past, but I've never done a total ground-up restoration on a pen. Moreover, it was the first Eversharp I'd ever gotten. I had come to the show intending to get something "different" from what I already have (lots of Balances), and I think I did well. My advice to someone coming to the show is not to neglect the "unrestored" or "junk" bins where pens sell for cheap. They're random and may just have the part or the pen you're looking for. At the very least you could pick up a cheapo to learn restoration or how the pens work. The fully restored beauties are what pack the people in, I think, but the "flea market" type bins have some hidden gems if you dig.

 

Anyway, I had no pen sacs, and I had no clue what size the Skyline took. I asked around some, and finally Mrs. Binder over at Richard's table very kindly sent me over to the Pendemonium display at the back of the room. I went there and the gentleman who assisted me was extremely helpful. He picked out the right sized sac, and even advised me on some of the basics of taking a Skyline apart for restoration. His advice was spot on and the pen came apart in no time at home this evening. I picked up two sacs (a spare one always helps) and was on my way. I heartily recommend them if you're looking for pen parts but don't know what you need for your project. Just let them know what you have and they will help you.

 

We also paid locals Bert Heiserman and Lou Woofsy a visit at the Pen Haven table. As always, they were very nice and had a wonderful selection of top notch vintage pens. If you like pristine vintage pens, you really should visit the Pen Haven table. It's always good to see those guys.

 

The show shut down to the public at about 5 PM. We headed out and met a friend over in College Park, MD for dinner, then came home. Everyone we encountered was very helpful and very friendly. I was also astonished at the sheer volume of knowledge at the show that could be had just by talking to people. If you've ever had thoughts about visiting the show, I recommend you visit it. I went today for the first time, and am very glad I did.

[artaddict]

Darn. Missed it again, third year in a row, since I started collecting.

But, we are on the road, moving from NY to IL.

Thanks to everyone for sharing their show experiences.