The Australian Fountain Pen Community

July 30, 2018

The Australian Fountain Pen Community is a small one and pen makers, ink makers and retailers are part of that community. They play their role in the community by providing products and services that enable and enrich the passion we all follow. When I first became interested in making ink back in 2013, there were no Australian made fountain pen inks available and the range of imported inks was limited and expensive.

Now we have Robert Oster with his amazing array of colours, Bookbinders, Van Diemens and Blackstone. And now, there is a steadily increasing number of enthusiastic pen makers, making unique hand made pens and James Finniss of Pensive Pens is one of them. James is the guy who worked with Robert Oster to develop the Serendipity Pen, a unique, Australian designed and made pen.

Recently James took a bad hit when his workshop was flooded and Yagan Kiely (Macchiato Man), another well known figure in the Australian Fountain Pen Community has started a GoFundMe Fundraiser to help James replace his equipment so he can get back to making pens.

As Yagan pointed out, James isn't the kind of guy to ask for help but we're a small FP community here in Australia and we should support each other to help keep our passion and our industry alive and flourishing. If you can help by supporting the GoFundMe Fundraiser or by patronising Pensive Pens, either would be great.

Here is what Yagan said on the GoFundMe website:

Good friend of the Australian Fountain Pen community, James Finniss, owns the business that many of us have enjoyed and used, Pensive pens in the NSW Southern Tablelands. Flooding this year in his region has caused the destruction of the equipment he uses to turn pens.

James was insured but the insurer won’t pay for the specific machinery to be replaced. While James is saving to replace and repair as much as he can, there is still a long way to go to make right was was destroyed which he puts at a little over AU$50,000.

James isn’t the person to ask for help but the fountain pen community is a great community and I’m sure we can help James recoup the costs.

If the funding goal isn’t reached, James will still get what is raised. There’s no obligation for James to immediately replace the equipment but it was his goal to eventually do so; whatever is donated will hasten that end.