Mabie & Todd Brand Forum?

[Gedion]

Is there any interest in beginning a Mabie & Todd Brand Forum? It seems there are relatively

frequent comments on various parts of the network. I've been reading and collecting for the past 6 months

and could sure use any wisdom, lore, and experience those older and wiser, or younger and wiser have to share.

[watch_art]

we need a lamy and twsbi forum, too.

[Pippin60]

:embarrassed_smile::ltcapd:

 

 

Sorry, perhaps you should search on "Lamy forum" and see those results.

[Pippin60]

we need a lamy and twsbi forum, too.

 

:roflmho::clap1:

[Lefthand_Smudge]

we need a lamy and twsbi forum, too.

 

Given the level of veneration TWSBI gets on the forum we will might see this...

[watch_art]

No no. It was a joke.

[niksch]

I think this is worthy of consideration. I like M&T pens.

 

Is there any interest in beginning a Mabie & Todd Brand Forum? It seems there are relatively

frequent comments on various parts of the network. I've been reading and collecting for the past 6 months

and could sure use any wisdom, lore, and experience those older and wiser, or younger and wiser have to share.

[Lefthand_Smudge]

No no. It was a joke.

 

I know it was .

 

But just because he wanted to get to the other side doesn't mean the chicken didn't cross the road.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I don't think so...like not setting up a Lamy forum...there would be hardly any one writing in General with Lamy gone.

 

Not enough folks know about Swan/Swallow/Blackbird etc of Mabie & Todd or even much about them.

 

Swan has great nibs, in regular flex, semi-flex, slightly flexible and full flex.

 

I'm not an expert, but I doubt if we get more than two Marbi -Todd, Swan threads a month, on an average, or I'd learned about them a lot longer ago.

 

Once my money bush makes it back over the Alps in it annual migration; I'm going Swan hunting.

Edited January 15, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[soapytwist]

Hopefully a Mod will chime in (as they usually do when talk of needing a new forum is raised) to explain why there can only be a limited number of subsets to the board.

 

I would, however, like to see the site reflect its international flavour a bit more. Currently there are Cross and Wahl Eversharp sub-fora with only 800-odd topics in each which is paltry in comparison with the others, and about half the number of replies of the next least-frequented forum.

 

What I would like to see is:

 

 

Sheaffer, Parker, Pelikan, Montblanc, Esterbrook and Waterman to remain.

 

Cross, and Wahl Eversharp to merge and become an "Other US Pens" forum which would also allow discussion of lesser-known makers.

 

Conway Stewart forum to merge into a "UK Pens" forum, to allow defunct and lesser-known makers to be discussed. I'm also not sure why CS should get preferential treatment over other modern makers, such the new Onoto company in the UK or Bexley in the US.

 

The addition of an "Other German Pens" forum - this seems to me to be the forum most lacking on the board, considering the number of makers this would encompass (and I didn't even mention the L-word!).

 

I hope I'm not treading on anyone's toes as I own examples of all the makes mentioned above, I'd just like to see a more rounded choice of places in which to post topics and find information.

[Malcy]

Hopefully a Mod will chime in (as they usually do when talk of needing a new forum is raised) to explain why there can only be a limited number of subsets to the board.

 

I would, however, like to see the site reflect its international flavour a bit more. Currently there are Cross and Wahl Eversharp sub-fora with only 800-odd topics in each which is paltry in comparison with the others, and about half the number of replies of the next least-frequented forum.

 

What I would like to see is:

 

 

Sheaffer, Parker, Pelikan, Montblanc, Esterbrook and Waterman to remain.

 

Cross, and Wahl Eversharp to merge and become an "Other US Pens" forum which would also allow discussion of lesser-known makers.

 

Conway Stewart forum to merge into a "UK Pens" forum, to allow defunct and lesser-known makers to be discussed. I'm also not sure why CS should get preferential treatment over other modern makers, such the new Onoto company in the UK or Bexley in the US.

 

The addition of an "Other German Pens" forum - this seems to me to be the forum most lacking on the board, considering the number of makers this would encompass (and I didn't even mention the L-word!).

 

I hope I'm not treading on anyone's toes as I own examples of all the makes mentioned above, I'd just like to see a more rounded choice of places in which to post topics and find information.

 

+1

[wimg]

Ah yes, the cavalry needs to come to the rescue again, I see (imagine the sound of trumpets and bagpipes - I like the idea of that combination) .

 

Anyway, anybody who does a bit of searching, will find that we tried to explain this over and over again.

 

The current older brand forums were created either because they diminished the moderator load by a substantial amount, like 5 % to 7 % or more of the total topics or messages in the Writing Instruments Forum, or were created in an even earlier stage, when very well known and respected people from the pen community with a lot of knowledge volunteeered to become moderators here, such as Jim Mamoulides for the Sheaffer and Cross Forums, Brian Anderson for the Esterbrook Forum, Syd the Wahlnut for the Wahl-Eversharp Forum, Mary Burke for the Conway Stewart Forum.

 

The other forums had such an overwhelming number of topics and posts to deal with that it was only logical that these came into existence.

 

We do check on a regular basis if there would indeed be the possibility to create another forum, but frankly, there just aren't enough topics or posts to make the effort required worthwhile. That is why we haven't had any new forums for some time now.

 

However, not to worry, if it proves worthwhile to create a new brand or regional forum, we will certainly do so, provided we can find two moderators who not only want to do the job, but also qualify for the post.

 

In short, the current forums are there because of the history of the board, and some because of the amount of interest certain pens had and have, and they all rightfully deserve their place. Unfortunately this means no new forums for the foreseeable future however, because no pen brand or region captures the interest as the existing forums do at the moment.

 

Other than that, we are very busy restructuring the board itself right now, invisble to all, but a necessity unfortunately in order to keep the board running properly with the ever increasing number of members we have, and planning a few interesting projects, and all of that does take up a lot of (volunteer) time, apart from the daily chores and daily moderation issues to deal with.

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

[RMN]

Hopefully a Mod will chime in (as they usually do when talk of needing a new forum is raised) to explain why there can only be a limited number of subsets to the board.

 

I would, however, like to see the site reflect its international flavour a bit more. Currently there are Cross and Wahl Eversharp sub-fora with only 800-odd topics in each which is paltry in comparison with the others, and about half the number of replies of the next least-frequented forum.

 

What I would like to see is:

 

 

Sheaffer, Parker, Pelikan, Montblanc, Esterbrook and Waterman to remain.

 

Cross, and Wahl Eversharp to merge and become an "Other US Pens" forum which would also allow discussion of lesser-known makers.

 

Conway Stewart forum to merge into a "UK Pens" forum, to allow defunct and lesser-known makers to be discussed. I'm also not sure why CS should get preferential treatment over other modern makers, such the new Onoto company in the UK or Bexley in the US.

 

The addition of an "Other German Pens" forum - this seems to me to be the forum most lacking on the board, considering the number of makers this would encompass (and I didn't even mention the L-word!).

 

I hope I'm not treading on anyone's toes as I own examples of all the makes mentioned above, I'd just like to see a more rounded choice of places in which to post topics and find information.

I partially agree.

 

There are some brands attracting much more attention to others, among them Visconti and Lamy. But would they get more attention than Cross and Wahl?? Twsbi has many fans, but their range is too small to justify an own forum. I think apart from having many fans a brand should be available worldwide and have an extensive range of products to give them their own forum.

Cross and Wahl really seem too small (in number of postings) for their own forum. CS is just a border-case.

 

I would suggest 3 Big Regional subforums: American, European, Asian.

Then in each for the largest brands their own subforum, and the smaller brands in a rest-group, separated per country, perhaps...

Big question is going to be wether to put Parker and Waterman in the European or in the American group???

 

D.ick

[wilcohead]

What I would like to see is:

 

 

Sheaffer, Parker, Pelikan, Montblanc, Esterbrook and Waterman to remain.

 

Cross, and Wahl Eversharp to merge and become an "Other US Pens" forum which would also allow discussion of lesser-known makers.

 

Conway Stewart forum to merge into a "UK Pens" forum, to allow defunct and lesser-known makers to be discussed. I'm also not sure why CS should get preferential treatment over other modern makers, such the new Onoto company in the UK or Bexley in the US.

 

The addition of an "Other German Pens" forum - this seems to me to be the forum most lacking on the board, considering the number of makers this would encompass (and I didn't even mention the L-word!).

 

I disagree with the country-based division. Mabie Todd pens were made both in UK and US. In which country-based forum should they be discussed? There must be other pen makers with similar situation.

[soapytwist]

I disagree with the country-based division. Mabie Todd pens were made both in UK and US. In which country-based forum should they be discussed? There must be other pen makers with similar situation.

Agreed that they pose a problem, but the number of topics/posts just doesn't warrant a separate forum IMHO, in the way that Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman do. Don't forget that we are working with the technical limitations of the board as well.

Being English (and naturally born with a natural sense of 'fair play' and therefore completely unbiased ), I'd place them in the UK list, but I don't see why US-made pens couldn't be discussed on the US forum - after all, the readers of that forum may well provide more accurate info and help for the US-made pens.

For me, I think it's about finding the best balance between brand focus and the enjoyment of reading about pens/ink/paper I wasn't previously aware of. I always go to Writing Instruments first and then have a quick look at the Review section because the breadth of pens in the posts there interest and educate me more than the umpteenth topic about modern Pelikan sizes, or 'is this a fake Montblanc'. I can imagine that in more geographic-based fora, there would always be something new to read and look at, no matter how good one's knowledge is on that area.

[wilcohead]

Agreed that they pose a problem, but the number of topics/posts just doesn't warrant a separate forum IMHO, in the way that Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman do. Don't forget that we are working with the technical limitations of the board as well.

I didn't write about having a new forum. You are confusing me with someone else. I am OK with the current situation. My only reason to murmur is that the existence of Black Swan ink makes threads about Swan pens harder to find. Fortunately there isn't Mabie ink yet.

[dlmoak]

 

Being English (and naturally born with a natural sense of 'fair play' and therefore completely unbiased ), I'd place them in the UK list, but I don't see why US-made pens couldn't be discussed on the US forum - after all, the readers of that forum may well provide more accurate info and help for the US-made pens.

 

Not that there is going to be a Mabie Todd & Co. forum, but it would make sense for posts to be divided by US & UK if there were. The company started in the US and had a long history there (Mabie was shop foreman for Rauch & Co. in 1843). In the 1920's English ads referred to consumers' surprise that Mabie Todd's were made in England at all. Until the second Blackbird line, all the Mabie Todd (& Bard) pen lines started life in the U.S. Until the late 1920's, virtually all the overlays for MT & Co. pens were made in the U.S. Swallows were made only in the U.S. On the other hand, Blackbirds (the second time around), twist-fillers, viso-fils, etc. were made only in the UK. The U.S. company continued until 1941, the UK until the early 1960s. Both effectively died out with deaths of the primary leadership and the depression of the 1930's.

[FarmBoy]

Ah yes, the cavalry needs to come to the rescue again, I see (imagine the sound of trumpets and bagpipes - I like the idea of that combination) .

 

HTH, warm regards, Wim

Shall I put on my Kilt and load the heated pen pockets hidden in the pleats?

 

Farmboy

[andybiotic]

Yeah, if Cross and Eversharp has their own forum, I think Mabie Todd desires one too!

[shrieku]

Here ismy opinion for what it is worth. First intro to FPN and I was rather suprised that Swan/Mabie Todd did not have a forum of its own while some others (not so well-known to me) had their own. M-T have been arund for a long time and do attract substantial collectors following.

 

One of the others has mentioned hat not much is known about M-T and hence it should not have a forum of its own. I would turn that argument on its head and say, the very fact that there is not too much individual knowledge on these pens combined with the collector's value begs for a separate forum to be started for it. The combined knowledge from what little individuals may know will help everyone.

 

IMO it is unfair to compare some fora to those which attract maximum attention/posts- such as MB and Parker. they represent one extreme and it is unfair to compare the rest to the best-[erformers so to speak.