"pushing" vintage pens

[Stylo]

The way hubby and I fish though - that's another matter. We have our preferred rigs that were probably less than $120 combined. We buy bait, we sit on the jetties off the coast of Galveston or off the Texas City Dike

And here I was imagining you and hubby fishing with dynamite

[KCat]

And here I was imagining you and hubby fishing with dynamite

heh...

nah... we use a shoot-gun.

[georgem]

Just had a great time reading the posts in this thread. I have no great preference for vintage or modern. I've two or three pens that would be considered vintage -- but they were new when I got 'em except for the 51 vac that I inherited from my aunt.

 

KCat's 20 slot case would more than accommodate my accumulation. I keep them all inked and use them interchangeably on a daily basis. I'll ultimately add a few more & between Waterman, Private Reserve, Noodlers, & Herbin keep a different color ink in each pen. By then, even more than now, my choice of pen will be as much the color of the day as the particular pen that it's in.

 

Now, as to handwriting, that's another story. I recall one member describing his own in terms suggesting its resemblance to what might be produced by epileptic apes on speed. Such a description of mine would actually be a compliment.

 

I have promised myself that I'll improve my writing, so one of the things I'll be doing in the future is practicing in order to do so. All (!!??) I have to do is get my muscles to "forget" the bad habits they've learned over the last (astronomical number deleted) years and learn the "correct" way to do things.

[Keith with a capital K]

That description of handwriting was, "like an epileptic chimpanzee on speed" and it was about me.

 

It took a long time and daily practice to reform my writing to the point where people say "it's pretty for a guy's" handwriting and I am constantly working to improve on that too.

 

I'll have to post some of that old writing sometime and see if anyone can decipher it.

 

Cheers!

[Maja]

I'll have to post some of that old writing sometime and see if anyone can decipher it.

Please do, Keith!

Taki and I both have pharmacy degrees, so it should be a cinch, heh heh...

[georgem]

It took a long time and daily practice to reform my writing to the point where people say "it's pretty for a guy's" handwriting and I am constantly working to improve on that too.

 

Keith,

 

Do you have any suggestions for books or guides to improve handwriting?

 

Thanks

[Keith with a capital K]

I'm a self taught "scribbler" but do have a fine arts background that I think helps me replicate what I see whether it's images or symbols like letter forms. My own handwriting style has been described as vaguely Spencerian and it is composed from many stolen elements from other styles and I think a few unique forms.

 

Practice, practice, and more practice is the real key to getting better at anything and developing your own writing style can be an interesting journey.

 

James could probably suggest better references and books than I can.

[Taki]

I'll have to post some of that old writing sometime and see if anyone can decipher it.

Please do, Keith!

Taki and I both have pharmacy degrees, so it should be a cinch, heh heh...

Yup, challenge us!

 

The other day we had to call doctor because several nurses or I couldn't figure out something looked like "no Louv in poof". It turned out that he wrote "no tub or pool" :ph34r:

[Maja]

Re: handwriting improvement books...

 

I have often heard Write Now: A Complete Self Teaching Program for Better Handwriting by Barbara Getty, Inga Dubay mentioned in this context.

Teach Yourself Better Handwriting by Rosemary Sassoon is another one, but I don't know which book is better....Maybe someone else can chime in and let us know....

[KCat]

Re: handwriting improvement books...

 

I have often heard Write Now: A Complete Self Teaching Program for Better Handwriting by Barbara Getty, Inga Dubay mentioned in this context.

Teach Yourself Better Handwriting by Rosemary Sassoon is another one, but I don't know which book is better....Maybe someone else can chime in and let us know....

it's probably dependent upon how you learn best. Since they both often get top billing by one person or another, I imagine they are equal quality and it's just a matter of what works best for the individual.

 

i'm sure Write Now would work well for me if I would *use* it!

[Guest Denis Richard]

i'm sure Write Now would work well for me if I would *use* it!

That sounds so familiar

[KendallJ]

I have to say, that I prefer "eclectic collecting". That is sampling from all camps those pens that strike your fancy and do so because they strike yours and no one elses. That keeps the collection interesting and never ever lets you think that belonging to any camp beats sampling all of them.

[KCat]

I have to say, that I prefer "eclectic collecting". That is sampling from all camps those pens that strike your fancy and do so because they strike yours and no one elses. That keeps the collection interesting and never ever lets you think that belonging to any camp beats sampling all of them.

i think I'm an eclectic collector (or enthusiast anyway) though I have a number of pels. Most of my pens that were purchased were bought with the following train of thought.

 

1) oooooh that's purdy. wonder how much it costs?

2a) oh... that's ridiculous, never mind

2b) oooh. not a bad price. wonder how well made it is

3) (dig through 'net, ask others about pen, make comments about how purdy it is to see if anyone has had a chance to see it up close and personal)

4) wait for $ or get approval from the MOTH. (not that I really need it but it's always a nice thing to get his okay)

 

whether it's a particular brand or vintage or modern has little impact on my decision *unless* it's a lever filler (of which most are vintage and of which most I dislike)

[Titivillus]

Hi, KCat, et al.,

 

When I started out every pen I found was a rarity. The new, old stock Sheaffer Snorkel that I count as the first pen I collected, I bought on the spot without haggling over price because I figured, "How many more of these am I going to see?" I got bored with Snorkels after about 20. A Waterman 55 in BCHR was my second officially collected pen. I had the same reaction. I now have 7 or 8 55's. Once I had that 55 and a 52 and a 54 of the same variation, I began thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool to have the 52 1/2, 56 and 58 to go with them?" I now do. Questions kept cropping up like, "In just how many lengths and diameters were Boston Chiltons made?", or "Wouldn't it be kind of neat to have all the possible variations of overlay (or not overlay) of Eversharp Skylines laid out in a row even for just one color?", or "Exactly how many different makers made thumb fillers where the barrel separates in the middle, like some LeBeoufs?"

 

It's insidious. Once you have 2 or 3 of something they inspire interest in other variations. I'm still working on all 10 Waterman nib "colors" in the 7's and 5's.

 

Take care,

 

Rob Astyk

I think that's what seperates a pen collector from someone who enjoys using fountain pens. I definitely am a user of pens, I hate to have more than I can use in a short rotation. I do not own duplicates or slight variations of any pen that I own. Each has been chosen and through a rigorous process of elimination I am left with an even dozen pens that give me a pleasant writing experience each in it's own way.

Searching out some obscure color variation or nib width to me is just a different form of the LE mentality. The collector is trying to gather up all possibilities to be maybe the only one who has them all and be one of the select few with that particular pen. Now we have modern manufacturers intentionally doing short runs of pens while 'vintage' manufacturers produced what they thought the market would like and gave us the 51 and Esterbrook but they also produced pens and of colors that weren't big sellers so they stopped making that type or went out of business. Or they were made of materials that didn't last and degraded so a mint without color change Jade Sheaffer is a limited edition since there are few of them out there. If you take this reasoning out a bit then the most fragile least useable pens in colors and styles that people wanted to buy are now the vintage LEs and command high costs and are only accessible to few deep pocket collectors.

 

 

Thanks,

Kurt H

[Free Citizen]

Hi, KCat, et al.,

 

[snip]

 

It's insidious. Once you have 2 or 3 of something they inspire interest in other variations. I'm still working on all 10 Waterman nib "colors" in the 7's and 5's.

 

Take care,

 

Rob Astyk

Rob,

 

It looks like your collection is getting out of hand. Unless this also happens to be your profession

[Free Citizen]

I think that's what seperates a pen collector from someone who enjoys using fountain pens.  I definitely am a user of pens, I hate to have more than I can use in a short rotation.  I do not own duplicates or slight variations of any pen that I own.  Each has been chosen and through a rigorous process of elimination I am left with an even dozen pens that give me a pleasant writing experience each in it's own way.

 

[snip]

 

Thanks,

Kurt H

Even so Kurt,

 

Your own personal collection is the envy of many <_<

[Titivillus]

Hi, Kurt, et al.,

 

Well, you really know how to hurt a guy! Creating a set of all 10 Waterman #7's is both nuts and extremely anal retentive, but I don't think it has many other similarities to the LE syndrome. I've said it before, Kurt, when I started collecting pens were dirt cheap. I used to go to the great flea market in Brimfield, Massachusetts three times a year with $500. each time. I'd come home with about 100 pens per trip plus advertising, a display case or two and a heap of ephemera. Given the bounty out there it was hard not to come up with some very fine stuff. It was also hard not to say that all four of the red Duofold Seniors in front of me, offered at $25. for the lot, weren't all different because one was a Streamline, one had two thin cap bands, 2 had the thick, raised band that Parker called the golden girdle, but the imprint on one was larger and had a different style Lucky Curve banner. Such things were simple observation.

 

But more than just a signal example of obsessive-compulsive disorder, my collection has become a library. It is a reference work that is the starting and ending point of research into the history of pen manufacture in America during the last 150 years. When I find that company X made pens under the Y brand name, I can examine examples to verify the statement or refute it and make the connection that pens with the Z name on them must also have come from the same factory.

 

It's how I know that Paul Wirt made the parts for the Franklin Pens of Philadelphia and that Warren N. Lancaster in Baltimore was a vendor and assembler rather than a manufacturer. It's how I know that the Detroit company, Laughlin, was buying its pens from a manufacturer in Boston by 1924 at the latest and probably earlier.

 

Besides being things to collect and use, pens are stories. If you look closely enough and "listen" really hard, they will tell you about themselves. It's a wonderful and amazing story that mixes drama, mystery, romance and comedy in unexpected ways.

 

There's much to be said for keeping only a few pens close to you, but I find the entertainment greater and more varied in the multiplicity of stories in my "library".

 

Take care,

 

Rob Astyk

Rob,

I wasn't saying anything about your collecting but just offering an observation that with vintage the scaricity is natural while for LEs they are man-made. But Rob both can be driven by the same desire to own something rare and sought after.

 

And it's great that you were able to collect pens 'back in the day' when everything was dirt cheap but the present reality is that LE pens and some of the rare collectible pens are on equivalent cost footings. It is unfortunate but true. And even though there is the possibility of someone finding a bunch of NOS pens in an attic the pricing is the same limited supply means higher price. I also wish that I had the finances to spend whatever the present equivalent of $1500 ( whatever year it was dollars) on pens a year now.

 

I do not see myself as a steward of the pens I own rather I am the user of these instruments of writing. It is great that you have collected a record of pen evolution but do you plan on somehow protecting/ donating this collection to a museum and also writing down all of the information you have collected. It is unfortunate that the people who made the pens and used them daily (without a second thought) are becoming scarce.

 

 

Kurt H

[Free Citizen]

I do not see myself as a steward of the pens I own rather I am the user of these instruments of writing. It is great that you have collected a record of pen evolution but do you plan on somehow protecting/ donating this collection to a museum and also writing down all of the information you have collected. It is unfortunate that the people who made the pens and used them daily (without a second thought) are becoming scarce.

 

 

Kurt H

After spending a fortune and half his life on his treasures, why would he do that? He can have a Pen Museum of his own. It will be called the Rob Astyk Pen Museum Being a selfless person as he is, he will probably not charge for entry but instead as in any charitable enterprise, feel free to donate. A donation box will be conveniently provided But before he does that, he will need to figure out how bar codes work