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Hello From San Francisco Bay Area (Plus Some Questions)


FayeV

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Hello from the San Francisco Bay Area!

Does anyone know of any B&M pen stores in the south bay, preferably around the Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara area? I'd like to look at some pens in person if I can, but I have the feeling my only option is to order online.

I am a FP neophyte even though I have been writing with FPs for decades. My interest in FPs has been revived recently when my 9 yr old daughter expressed an interest in FPs. I recently showed her how to fill the ink converter on my MB Noblesse and explained how to write gently with it. I thought it was cute when she was reading Geronimo Stilton's "Paws Off, Cheddarface!" book, pointed out an illustration on one of the pages (pg 100) and asked, "Is that a fountain pen?" Yep, it looked like a fountain pen. :)

Anyhow, now I'm looking around for a possible first fountain pen for my daughter. I've read numerous reviews/comments here and elsewhere and have narrowed it down to Lamy Safari and Pelikan Pelikano ... leaning toward the Pelikano because I don't think she'll like the Safari grip. And I'm pretty sure I can get a converter for the Pelikano.

While I'm window shopping here, I thought I'd also look for an everyday pen for myself and am considering the Pilot Metropolitan MR (that blue leopard print looks really pretty!), a Parker Vector and a Hero 448. I'm also eyeing the Pelikan M200 which everyone here seems to rave about, but I'm concerned about some people's complaint about it being too lightweight, which is why I'd like to try holding it in my hands at a store.



Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized. -- Albert Einstein

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Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

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Welcome, FayeV !

 

I think either are good choices for a 9-year-old. However, the Pelikano grip is round. It takes short, International

standard cartridge, so an International Standard converter should work fine. However, spent ink cartridges can

be refilled with bottle ink, using a syringe. Cartridges are a lot cleaner.

 

If your daughter can tolerate the Safari (or an Al-Star), there are four or five easily changed nibs available.

 

It's gonna be fun !

 

****************************

Sunnyfale ? Cupertino ? Are you HP ?

 

Sorry. Nosy, yellow-beek bird.

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

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Welcome!

Baoer 388 might also be a good starter for your daughter. Costs under $10 on eBay (and significantly less if you buy a multi pack) and looks like a Parker Sonnet. It's pretty sturdy and reliable and comes in several colors. It comes with a converter, but can also use international cartridges. I gave my 7 y/o daughter a gold tone one and she loves it. Only problem with these is that in some the cap snaps very tight and requires some force to open. You may need to buy more than one, perhaps from different sellers, in order to find one with "easy" cap. But at this price, it's worth having several anyway, in case one is lost. I keep a filled one in my office desk as a backup pen, and I don't need to worry if someone takes it or borrows and forgets to return it.

Edited by lisadan

Dan

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You can try a bib box office supply store for cheap pens. In San Jose on Santana row there is also a Maido stationary store. They are also on-line.

 

http://www.mymaido.com/

 

Int he same area you can find a Montblanc boutique. I am assuming you don't want to spend that much, but looking is free. :^)

 

Sorry I do not have more. I don't make it to the south bay much any more.

 

Good luck with your shopping and welcome.

If you want less blah, blah, blah and more pictures, follow me on Instagram!

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Hi FayeV and welcome to FPN

 

 

I can't help you with B&M shops in your neighbourhood. Yes, it is wise to testdrive, especially if you are inexperienced.

 

Perhaps you could visit a penshow, or a group meeting in your neighbourhood?

 

The weight is the reason I have not got an M200 for myself.

 

Enjoy the forum

 

 

D.ick

~

KEEP SAFE, WEAR A MASK, KEEP A DISTANCE.

Freedom exists by virtue of self limitation.

~

 

 

 

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You can try a bib box office supply store for cheap pens. In San Jose on Santana row there is also a Maido stationary store. They are also on-line.

 

http://www.mymaido.com/

 

Int he same area you can find a Montblanc boutique. I am assuming you don't want to spend that much, but looking is free. :^)

 

Sorry I do not have more. I don't make it to the south bay much any more.

 

Good luck with your shopping and welcome.

yes Maido in San Jose is the best brick and mortar store in the south peninsula/south bay area. I am not sure there are pelikans there, but lots of other pens, especially japanese ones like sailors, pilots and platinums. Check it out, the selection is quite nice and I'll bet that there is something there that both you and your daughter each might like. An alternative is Village Stationers, they have a shop in los altos, as well as palo alto and menlo park. They don't have a ton of fountain pens, but they do have some of your major manufacturer stuff like parkers, cross, waterman perhaps (I could be wrong). Finally, Flax Art up in SF also has a very nice assortment of pens, if you ever make it up that way.

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@Sasha

 

About that international standard converter ...

I placed my order for some pens to try and bought the matching converter:
Pelikan Pelikano + Pelikan converter
Parker Vector + Parker converter
Lamy Safari + Lamy converter

Are you saying I could have ordered 3 Pelikan converters or 3 Parker converters or 3 Lamy converters (instead of the matching brand converter for each pen)? I had no idea. LOL

I've never refilled an ink cartridge before. Where can you find the ink syringe?

 

I'm located in Sunnyvale.

 

 

@ Lisadan

I've never heard of Baoer, will definitely add that to my list of pens to look into. Thanks!

 

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized. -- Albert Einstein

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@ Zaddick & CellMatrix

 

Thanks for the Maido and Village Stationers tip. I'll try to swing over that way and take a look.

I used to work in downtown SF (over a decade ago) where it was a little easier to find stores that carry fountain pens.

There was a Michael's Artist Supply store in Union Square that carried art stuff and a small section of the store was devoted to pens; I think this store closed a while back. (This is not to be confused with the "craft" store that sells knitting, scrapbooking, beading, etc stuff; this store in Union Square focused more on stuff like sketch books, drawing tools, etc) I used to poke my head in there now and then.
And there was another pen store, don't know if it is still there, but it was on a 2nd or 3rd floor of a building, very easy to miss if you're not looking for it, you'll end up missing the building entrance if you blink while walking by. LOL

 

 

 

Edited by FayeV

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized. -- Albert Einstein

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@PakmanPony
Thank you for the welcome! :)

@RMN
Thanks, I'll poke around and see if there is a pen show/group in the area.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized. -- Albert Einstein

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Hi, FayeV!

 

Welcome to FPN!

 

There will be a pen show in Redwood City in August! Here's a link: San Francisco Pen Show

 

Also, there are two active pen interest groups in the SF bay area. Look at the FPN forum on groups, shows, etc. (Scroll down on the home page. It's near the bottom.)

 

Happy writing!

 

David

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Hello and welcome. I hope you enjoy the time you spend here.

 

-David.

No matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationery. -Anon.

A backward poet writes inverse. -Anon.

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Thank you everyone for the warm welcome. I am enjoying perusing the old posts on the forum; I appreciate the wealth of information everyone has taken the time to post here.

 

And thank you David for the SF Pen Show link.

 

So I placed my order for 5 pens yesterday and I'm already impatient for its arrival. It will arrive next week while I'm out on vacation. :( so I will have a while to wait til I can play with my new toys.

Another plus for the instant gratification of going to a B&M shop.

 

I was wondering .... Are all international ink converters the same capacity-wise? I was wondering is there is a link to a post here listing the different brands and their capacity, if some are greater capacity than others.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized. -- Albert Einstein

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University Art in Palo Alto.

But they are moving to Menlo Park soon.

They have a small selection of pens and inks.

 

The thing that I learned about pens is that I NEED to hold the pen, for fit and comfort.

Some pens are too FAT for my smaller hand, and others are too heavy or tail heavy.

Example1, the Lamy Studio and 2000, and the Parker IM are just a bit fat for my hand. I did not know it until I had it in my hand. I have a Lamy 2000 that is going to move into my collection, never to be inked again, because it is a bit too FAT for comfortable writing.

Example2, I tried a Cross Century 2 in a store, and decided that the pen was way too tail heavy with the cap on the pen. I like to post my pens, and the cap threw the balance off so much that I could not use the Century 2 posted.

 

There are several sizes of international converters. The one in my Chinese pens are a bit shorter than the one I have in one of my other pens.

And someone makes 1 or 2 different ones for pens that take the short international cartridge.

 

The Lamy Safari only takes a Lamy converter.

The Parker converter is also propretary, but some have make international converters work on their Parkers. But I would get a Parker converter, just to be safe.

 

I know what you mean about waiting for the mail. I have a dip pen holder coming, and I am anxious every time I open the mail box...did it arrive?

 

We just had a Pen Posse meet up on Sunday April 6, in Millbrae.

There should be another in a few weeks. There is no schedule, they get called whenever someone want to get together. So you need to watch the Club section of FPN, and/or the club section of FPGEEKS. It is usually posted first on FPGEEKS, then one of us copied the posting here on FPN.

 

Here is the link to the San Francisco Pen Show thread:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/262829-2014-san-francisco-pen-show/

 

Hope to see you at a future Pen Posse.

Edited by ac12

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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Welcome!

Baoer 388 might also be a good starter for your daughter. Costs under $10 on eBay (and significantly less if you buy a multi pack) and looks like a Parker Sonnet. It's pretty sturdy and reliable and comes in several colors. It comes with a converter, but can also use international cartridges. I gave my 7 y/o daughter a gold tone one and she loves it. Only problem with these is that in some the cap snaps very tight and requires some force to open. You may need to buy more than one, perhaps from different sellers, in order to find one with "easy" cap. But at this price, it's worth having several anyway, in case one is lost. I keep a filled one in my office desk as a backup pen, and I don't need to worry if someone takes it or borrows and forgets to return it.

 

My experience of the Baoer 388 is mixed. I bought a bunch to use as gifts, 7 for $25 shipped to my mailbox. But 4 of the 5 that I checked out needed to have the nib adjusted to flow ink decently. Not something for a new user to do. And yes, the cap is on TIGHT and requires 2 hands to open. Although some are more reasonably loose. The 388 and 801 were the only smaller diameter Chinese pens that had a Medium nib, everything else was F nib, which is too fine for me. Even the M nib on the 801 is a bit narrow. Having said this, the 388 once adjusted writes very nicely.

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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While I'm window shopping here, I thought I'd also look for an everyday pen for myself and am considering the Pilot Metropolitan MR (that blue leopard print looks really pretty!), a Parker Vector and a Hero 448. I'm also eyeing the Pelikan M200 which everyone here seems to rave about, but I'm concerned about some people's complaint about it being too lightweight, which is why I'd like to try holding it in my hands at a store.

 

Weight is a very personal thing. Rather than light, heavy pens bother me. I grew up in the era of lighter pens. Most of the pens that I use are about half the weight of some of the current pens. For me heavy pens are tiring to write with for any length of time. But that is me and what I was brought up with. Example the Baoer 388 is 24 grams, the Lamy 2000 is 25 grams, the Parker IM is 30 grams.

I checked the Pelikan site and the spec weight for the M200 is 14 grams. As far as I am concerned, that is perfect...for me.

 

The Pilot Metro is a pen everyone should have, if only as a general purpose knock about pen. For $15 you just can't go wrong with it. Well you can if the pen does not fit your hand. But other than that it is a GREAT pen. The nib is sooooooo smooth I was shocked....a nib this smooth in a $15 pen???? The only negative is that the nib is only available in a Japanese Medium (about the same as a Lamy Fine).

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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