My Introduction Into The World Of Vintage Pens

[LemurInk]

My foray into the vintage pen world began this past weekend at the Miami Pen Show, with the purchase of a gorgeous Waterman flex nib from no other than the man himself, Mr. Paul Erano. Considering I deal exclusively in new products, I've always looked past vintage. I knew someday I'd open the door to the world of vintage pens, and was a bit afraid of "falling down the rabbit hole." Over cigars and after a few wonderful mojitos, Paul helped change my perspective. It's easy to be intimidated by vintage. But instead of looking at learning about vintage as a mountain to climb, he said - "Think of it as something you get to do. How exciting - all this knowledge awaits you."

 

Over the course of Sunday afternoon when the show had died down, I was trying a few pens at Paul's table (conveniently next to mine) when Paul handed me a Waterman from the 1940s with a gorgeous flex nib on it (top of photo). It clicked, and I was ready to take the plunge.

 

Then of course, as one does - I went and bought four more pens. This time, I went across from me to my friend Nik Pang - and picked up a super rad space-age Parker 50, two Parker 51s, and a Sheaffer Snorkel.

 

I can't thank Paul and Nik enough for helping guide me into the world of vintage. If you've ever considered vintage out of your world but always wanted to try - give them a shout at the next pen show and tell them John Phelan sent you.

 

[Marlow]

Great baptism story! Welcome to vintage-world!

 

ps would be great to see a writing sample from the flex nib!

[Honeybadgers]

Your next vintage purchases on a ~100 budget should be pelikan. A vintage 400 or 140 will make you very, very happy.

 

And the side benefit is that the nibs from the vintage 400's all fit modern m205's/m400's. I just got my first vintage 400 with a semiflex stub BB and it's freaking glorious, easily and instantly the best stub in my collection

 

Everyone in the hobby should have a snorkel. They're the only pen for finishing off those last few drops in a bottle of ink

Edited July 17, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[PAKMAN]

Congrats! Looks like you had a great show!

[OMASsimo]

You just opened the door a tiny split to enter a new universe. There is soooo much more to explore and you might be flabbergasted what gems you can find if you leave the beaten (vintage) tracks. You got a good start for sure. But I'm always wondering why in most of the posts here only a handful vintage pens are suggested over and over. No question that those are great examples of the vintage universe. My most treasured and most interesting pens won't be found in the hit list here on FPN. Therefore, I always suggest to stay open and explore.

[Freddy]

Lemurink..Congratulations on your Taperite.....

Is it a open or hooded nib?

Fred

[mana]

A sidenote from someone who has collected vintage Pelikans (some +30 have gone through my hands with 20 or so remaining) for about a ten or so years now.

You can make lucky, as in, cheap and functional finds in the wild or via places like ebay, like myself or Honeybadgers have managed to do. Those are rare however. Even more rare (by production numbers alone) and pricey are the broader B/BB/BBB nibs or the oblique OB/OBB/OBBB (this in order of increased nib width).

Anyway, I am not here to dissuade you from going after pens that are not professionally restored. Just expect to pay a price in one form or the other. I have had a number of lemons simply due to the virtue of the pens in question being +65 years old with materials of that era, also, due to neglect (abandoned/forgotten with a full filling of ink). It is all fun and games with prices to be won. But for getting to the point more fast and affordably I would suggest buying a pen from a professional restorer. You pay more but you do actually get what you pay for.

Also on vintage Pelikans... Pelikan Hubs of this year are coming up, do look for one near you and try to secure a spot. The official registration period is over but if the person in charge of the hub allows you can attend the event itself. That would afford you an awesome chance to try out vintage pens (not just vintage Pelikans). More background info can be found over at > https://pelikan-hubs.com/

[Wahl]

Great, you are now in the correct path

[Tonhao5]

The modern pens are sturdy and easy to clean, but to me the vintage pens have so much more character. I got a Parker 51 recently and it's shown me just how well made those pens were, back in the day everyone used a fountain pen. I might spring for a Snorkel or PFM to see how it compares with the 51...

[Bo Bo Olson]

Your next vintage purchases on a ~100 budget should be pelikan. A vintage 400 or 140 will make you very, very happy.

 

And the side benefit is that the nibs from the vintage 400's all fit modern m205's/m400's. I just got my first vintage 400 with a semiflex stub BB and it's freaking glorious, easily and instantly the best stub in my collection

 

Everyone in the hobby should have a snorkel. They're the only pen for finishing off those last few drops in a bottle of ink

Agree. The 140 is a medium small pen that was so in in Germany in the '50-60's. It has a bit longer cap so posts to a standard size.....and I rant and rave about semi-flex nibs all the time.

The vintage semi-flex 400's nibs and even the nice springy '82-90 or modern 200's nibs (also a very nice nib, will fit the medium large Pelikan 600's.

Medium small, standard (400/Esterbrook DJ and others of that era, should be posted for the great balance that those pens had to have back in the day where everyone wrote a lot.

 

If you worry about mars from posting, wax your pen.

 

Before I got addicted, I was a One Man, One Pen guy, as it was back in the day.......I'd not used it in decades, my wife had locked the P-75 and it's matching BP/MP in her jewelry jail..........

Then we decided to go sell for the first time at a flea market.

There were some inherited pens that sat in the dark of our drawer for some 15 years.

Obsolete old things, the only one I'd heard of was an gray swirl Esterbrook. I said, get a Euro for four and 5 for the pretty one.

My wife shook her finger at me German style, tasking me with going into the computer and find out what they were worth. I started at 20:00 and by 02:00 I had a collection.

This was pre-depression era.........but prices have since come back. In during the Depression a P-75 could be had for $75.............but it was worth $225!!! I'd paid some $22 or it $18 for the thin silver matching BP/MP. back in the @ '71 (there was a lead cartridge for it besides the normal Jotter one.) There I had a vintage pen, and hadn't even known it.

This was the pretty 5 Euro pen. ...Osmia-Faber-Castell mdl 540, 1951.

 

That 5 Euro pen, was worth $250 .

I didn't know a thing about nibs then........I thought it was one of those 'wet' nibs all the noobies wanted. It died after @ 6 weeks.........needing a new cork......which took me a while to get around to having done by Francis. In the meanwhile, I'd read here on the com that I discovered in my search of worth of 1&5 Euro pens, about semi-flex and the 140, which I often say was my first semi-flex. It was the first I knew about. I'd learned to judge a nail and a regular flex (Japanese soft) by pressing it against my thumbnail. The first time I pressed that 140's nib against the thumbnail, I knew what all the fuss was about.

 

That Osmia has a steel Supra nib......and I was so very ignorant, believing the gold nib myth.

Osmia, or Geha steel nibs are as good as their grand gold nibs.

That Supra nib is a maxi-semi-flex. Osmia is the only company that differentiated between the semi-flex and the maxi. The rest of the maxi-semi-flex are luck of the draw from that era. @ 1 in 5 in German pens from that time.

I have 29 semi-flex and 16 maxi-semi-flex pens....4 of them Osmias.

 

The Snorkel is one of the few Large pens that has good, much less the great balance it has, but it is a thin pen....and it should be posted to have balance.

 

Chase the nib............and vintage and semi-vintage nibs are better than modern., (have a clean line)...outside some Japanese and factory Japanese modified nibs.

 

Oh, take your time....no need to end up with lower tier pens, when with a bit of patience you can end up with Flagships. At good economical.....cheap prices.

[inkstainedruth]

Aah! You've become a fellow traveler down the vintage rabbit hole. There should be a sign up saying "Abandon hope all ye who enter here".... As in "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" I wanted a Parker 51 after reading up about them here. I now have 10 (7 Aerometrics and 3 51Vacs). Plus a 51 Special, a 21, the parts to FIX the 21, and a 41. Also 4 61s and three Laidtones (two button fillers and a black striped Duovac -- and I don't even LIKE black). And several 45s and a couple of other button fillers. And that's JUST the Parkers.... And of course after swearing up down and sideways that I didn't like the Art Deco look of Vacumatics? I now have a bunch of those as well, in different colors and models (and use the 1937 Red Shadow Wave in my now standard rant to Apple every time I have a problem with my laptop -- while point out that the Shadow Waves were considered "lower tier by Parker and didn't have the same level of warranty as the Pearl models did...; and telling them that a 5 year old laptop doesn't work as well as an 80+ year old fountain pen...).

One of the most fun I ever had at a pen show was when I was trying to ID a no-name lever filler I'd picked up for twenty bucks in Corry, PA -- simply because it had a 14C (yes, it says 14C, not 14K). Took it to a guy who specializes in flex nibs. He sent me around to Paul Erano. Who pulled the cap, looked at the nib, and said "I was NOT expecting THAT!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[como]

Next thing is that you will want to get a set of tools to start messing with more vintage pens, which is a lot of fun!