Fp Shops In Sydney And Brisbane

[Steveg58]

Hi, I'm off on holidays in 3 weeks and I have a half day free in Sydney and a couple of half days in Brisbane. I know about Bookbinders and Pen & Ink in Brisbane but nothing about Sydney.

 

Does anyone have any advice about good shops to look at fountain pens, inks and accessories please?

 

I'm not really in the target demographic for Mont Blanc shops and we have a Pens de Luxe outlet in Perth. I'm more after interesting and good value. I had thought that I might look at a low end Pelikan from Pen & Ink but I like to look around.

 

[praxim]

Are you in the middle of the city, or where? If you can get to Curl Curl (near Manly, maybe hop on a ferry from the Quay) look for Larry Post. I do not believe it is a shop as such, rather than the studio from which they operate, but they are there (check contact info on their web site). Some of my Pelikans and minor other stuff are from Larrypost. Service has been excellent.

 

If you are restricted to the city you can drop in at Dymocks but do not expect any great bargains nor highly qualified service. Pens De Luxe are in the QVB. You know about them from Perth but if nothing else you can browse a bit. QVB is not a bad place to hang out for luxury browsing or even for a bargain in the kitchen basement.

[Steveg58]

Thanks Praxim, QVB is indeed an impressive building and browsing Pens de Luxe may be acceptable. I hadn't thought Larrypost had a location so I'll have to look into the logistics of a Curl Curl trip.

 

edit: Curl Curl looks doable. The Fast Manly Ferry and then a 15 minute bus ride and they open from 9am. Looks like a plan!

Edited May 20, 2018 by Steveg58

[inkeverywhere]

While in Brisbane another worth while experience is The Pen Shoppe, it is located in the Brisbane Arcade, just off the Queen Street Mall (Brisbane CBD). I have spent many an hour in this shop.

 

While its range of pens has somewhat reduce over the years it is still a wonderful experience, the staff are great also. It is what a pen store should look like. Pen and Ink is also another great store also in the CBD, just down Queen Street.

 

 

Greg

 

P.S. just a happy customer or both stores - no affiliation.

Edited May 26, 2018 by inkeverywhere

[Steveg58]

Thanks Greg, I'll be wandering down Queen street to get to Pen and Ink so I'll be sure to poke my nose in and have a squizz.

[vicpen123]

While fpners lament the loss of fountain pen shops in the great cities of the world such as New York and London, it's ironic that Melbourne in Australia still has three fountain pen shops within a small radius in the CBD.

 

The irony is that the fountain pen density in Australia is very, very low and I know of, or meet, very few people who use fountain pens or even know what they are.

 

All worth a squizz if you are in town.

[Steveg58]

Every time I go to Melbourne for work I seem to get a couple of pens from Pen City but I haven't been over since Milligram opened their doors. The Pen Place I didn't find so interesting and I've never been into Tafts city store. I found their Doncaster store to be mainly mainline brands and also not so interesting to me.

[praxim]

I learned recently that a dedicated pen store has opened in Canberra, population 400,000. I previously lived there with no such thing at the time, only Dymocks and a department store.

[Steveg58]

Canberra has a rather special demographic. I'm guessing that is The Pen Boutique in the Canberra Centre?

They don't seem to have a web site set up yet. I was there in the late 70s and early 80s and there was more disposable income than places to spend it so about time they got a good pen shop.

[praxim]

Sorry, I did not know the name of the place. I guess that would be right from what I can see. Your other comments amused me, I was there in that time too.

[Steveg58]

So, I took the ferry across to Manly and the bus to Curl Curl (make sure you get the 136 rather than the 139). The Larrypost "shop" is a narrow cave of a room with storage shelves to the ceiling on both sides and a table piled high with stuff being dispatched in the middle. Additional stock in boxes is piled along the base of the shelves. I thought we had made a mistake but Jen was summoned, a space was cleared on the work table and a box of Sailor pens was lifted down from the shelves for viewing. I ended up with a Sailor 1911 Large with a fine nib in black and gold and a bunch of ink samples.

 

The next day I was in Brisbane so we toddled up Queen street to Pen and Ink where I tried some Pelikans and ended up with a Pelikan Classic M205 Blue Marbled Special Edition. I also picked up an SI cartridge adapter for Platinum fountain pens.