Share Your 2019 San Francisco Pen Show Experiences And Purchases

[zaddick]

Hi All. The pen show is under way. I am looking forward to being there Saturday, but I also want to hear all about your experience and what you bought (if anything). Post pictures of the fun and tell us what you thought!

 

 

 

I'll add mine when the time comes.

[Shaporama]

What? No one has posted here yet? Let me start by thanking Todd Eberspacher and Ricky Chau, and the SF Pen Posse in general for outdoing themselves (again). If I've left out anyone, please forgive. Having moved from the east coast about 3 years ago, this is now the only really convenient show for me, and it did not disappoint. The hotel was first rate (even if it did cost $5 to park), the rooms were crowded but navigable and the exhibitors comprised a nice mix of manufacturers, dealers (vintage pens in particular), creators and customizers. I saw more nib specialists at work than at any show I have ever attended. Eyeballing it, I also noticed what I thought were more dealers in pen-related items and ephemera including papers, pads, folios and pen pouches. And multiple stations where you could try out a wide variety of inks.

 

It was great to connect again with Terry at Peyton Street Pens (perhaps my favorite dealer), where I scored a Bexley Torpedo that I had been craving since I first spied one at the Philadelphia pen show about 7 years ago (I love the look of this hybrid pen with a Sheaffer Legacy in-laid nib). I left an Eversharp Doric with Sherrell Tyree, who said she would be able to find and install a period-appropriate clip for me. And the icing on the cake was winning the raffle for a Monteverde Invincia pen (see picture below). I also came home with a couple of new issues of Pen World that I am looking forward to reading over the next few days.

 

All in all, a terrific afternoon. If you live in the Bay Area I urge you to check out the show while you still have time, its open on Sunday as well.

[peroride]

Super super thank yous, hugs to all the folks, vendors and community to making an enjoyable show.

Some personal highlights

 

• As a non-morning person, waking up at 630 am ..?! only for a pen show, I must be crazy.
• Hearing every morning that the list is full for the legendary nib artisans, Nagahara-sama and Masayama-sama means they know their stuff.
• If I had 2 cents for every warm smile or glimpses of joy, I saw, I could retire now and buy a boatload of Dantrios and Conids
• Getting to meet and see all the vendors, YouTube celebrities, bloggers and pen folk in real life.
• As an introvert, talking to absolute strangers in vendor queues or ink stations in pen jargon and they really understand; THEY REALLY UNDERSTAND !!!
• Learning a valuable newbie lesson to never NEVER ever hand over your precious pen to an idiot dealer who will over flex it and crack the nib. Stupidity is a valuable teacher.
• The joy of getting a pen writing again is almost worth a new puppy or kitty by the careful and reassuring Gena
• Meeting and seeing Franz smile, what a nice sweet guy!
• Listening and learning from Pelikan expert Rick Propas
• Meeting nib retipping expert Greg Minuskin
• Enjoying the privilege and honor of John Mottishaw personalizing a nib to your preference
• Watching Ralph work and witnessing his passion and love for his craft and that of the fountain pen community

They are right - Lots of fun!!!

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by peroride

[ErrantSmudge]

I wasn't in a huge pen-buying mood for this SF pen show, but I did enjoy the ink testing stations, especially the 49-ink "mystery blue" tester tray, filled with blue inks but intentionally without a key listing which ink is which. Have the answers been posted yet? I also enjoyed sampling the full set of KWZ inks available in the testers, so I have a much better idea of what they're like. I purchased the very last bottle of KWZ IG Turquoise from the Vanness booth afterwards.

 

Also spent some time at the Rickshaw Bags table, where I picked up some pen sleeves to perfectly accessorize with my Rickshaw bag. Mark (the owner of Rickshaw) saw my Nock Sinclair pen case and offered up a two-pen sleeve specifically designed to fit inside the Nock, and increase the Nock's pen-carrying capacity. It even matches the Nock's color scheme. When I pointed out that Rickshaw is accessorizing a competitor's product, he responded with "it's all good, we're all friends here". Really nice attitude.

Edited August 26, 2019 by ErrantSmudge

[JonSzanto]

Oof... still trying to get over the 8 hour drive home yesterday. I'll add to the thread in a day or so. It was a 132% rocking show!!

[Rancho Gordo]

It was a blast.I got some great stuff and met some great people. You are doing yourself a disservice if you don't hang out with some of the older vintage pen vendors. They know their stuff. They're opinionated and they want to make a sale. It was so much fun I can't believe it.

for people new to the Bay area, I don't know why this is called a San Francisco international Penn show. That is not San Francisco. The traffic was horrific in both directions for us coming from the North Bay, but the event put me in a great mode.

[whichwatch]

I was bad..... very, very bad.

 

It started as soon as I walked into the hotel late Thursday afternoon. I hadn't even checked in when I bumped into a friend with whom I had previously discussed my interest in buying his Nakaya Dorsal Fin 2. He told me he had brought it and yes, he would sell it. Purchase 1 done and I hadn't even gotten to the front desk!

 

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I checked in, went to my room, and logged on to check emails and a few websites. Uh oh. Purchases number 2 and 3 complete (sorry, no pictures as I don't have those pens yet). So now I have blown past my budget and the show hasn't even opened.

 

It was easy to get up early enough to be first in line to see Edison Pens' Limited Edition pen for the SF Show. Brian and I both live in Eastern Time Zone so I knew he would be up early, too. I arrived as he was still setting up at his table just after the entrance to the show, and he showed me the pen. Ka-ching! I was glad I had gotten there early, as I later found out the 10 pens sold out in less than half an hour. The Jonathan Brooks material on these is fabulous. My pictures can't capture how sparkly the material really is.

 

 

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Moving on, I was taken by a pen at the Eboya display in the small ballroom outside the main ballroom. Eboya makes great pens, of which I have several, but I have only rarely seen them in person previously at LA Shows. The one that caught my eye was a Limited Edition for Mitsukoshi Pen Fair in Japan and was a multi-colored large ebonite model whose name was "Man Ten" which they said translated into English as "Stardust". There were three of these pens that had not been sold in Japan on the table. It was interesting that the color scheme was not accomplished with paint, but with several different colors of ebonite.

 

Since I had already passed my budget I didn't immediately pull the trigger but decided to see what else was at the show. By the time I had circled this rather small ballroom which didn't hold too many vendors, I noticed someone buying one of the three. Uh oh. If I wanted one, I had better decide. Ka-ching was a sound becoming awfully familiar to me. By the time I bumped into a friend who was also at the show and she headed for the Eboya table, the last of the pens had been sold.

 

 

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I had a table at the DC Show and was so busy selling Nakayas and other pens there, I never had the chance to leave my table. Since that show I heard an awful lot about the great leather goods from Galen Leather, who now has Van Ness Pens as their US retailer. So a stop at the Van Ness table allowed me to correct that issue and I added the now well known Hobonichi Cover, along with a top bound pad of Tomoe River Paper from Straits Pens

 

 

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I saw lots of other desires, but that little voice in my head kept saying "remember your budget" and for the most part I resisted. For the most part. Until I stopped at the table of a friend with whom I had discussed possible trades for his LB5 in Kaen Red, the only color LB5 I was missing. He asked if I was interested in a cash purchase. He proposed a price, I accepted, and the absolute demolition of my budget had been accomplished. All I have at this point is an internet picture of the pen.

 

 

http://www.fototime.com/%7BA65C8AC4-1F6E-4B65-B802-195E55FF0259%7D/origpict/8.jpg

 

 

My thoughts turned to the now obvious questions I would face when I got home. If you can no longer afford a car, can you really walk everywhere you need to go from a small town in semi-rural Ohio? Do dog and cat food taste as bad as they smell? Can a wife realy divorce you after 49 years of marriage or does some sort of "statute of survival" apply?

 

Fortunately the questions were rendered moot when my friend (she of the Eboya story) texted and said a different friend of hers wanted to find me to discuss two rather expensive pens he had seen on my table at DC. We got together and a deal was struck.

 

The trip home was uneventful. When I walked in, the first question from my wife was "how much did you spend?". I happily answered with the truth: "I have only a few hundred dollars less than when I left"

[JonSzanto]

 

The trip home was uneventful. When I walked in, the first question from my wife was "how much did you spend?". I happily answered with the truth: "I have only a few hundred dollars less than when I left"

 

Ha! I have my wife with me at the shows so it all evens out - she knows what is going down. I always get lucky at the SFPS because it is mere days before the birthday, so most often the 'big purchase' is actually a gift... win!

 

Anyway, great seeing you again, sorry it was brief. I was grateful to see the two Nakayas you got in DC in the special matte black finish. I may end up putting one of the long pens on my final wish list before I stop buying pens forever. Enjoy all those beautiies, Rick.

[da vinci]

Thanks for contributing to this thread. Always interested to see the hauls, and hear the thoughts of those attending the SF show!

 

Did anyone attend the Architect script handwriting session? would like to hear how that went.

[dms525]

It was a great show. I appreciated the new-to-show vendors who came a long way, especially those like Eboya and Toyookacraft from Japan and Galen Leather from Turkey. It was wonderful that Edison Pens came, and Bryan plans on returning next year. Papier Plume came from NOLA. I had visited their shop on Royale Street last December. I recommend it. Both Jonathan Brooks and Ryan Kusac, who had not been planning on coming, changed their respective minds at the last minute. Yay!

 

I had been keeping a To Do/Shopping list for the show for several months. I drove up Thursday afternoon and was down to pick-up my badge before 7:30am. By 10am or so, I had completed my major purchases, and it was fortunate I did so. Edison's SF Pen Show Limited Edition of 10 Menlos in a custom Jonathan Brooks material and the Toyookacraft pen display case I wanted both sold out rapidly, in the case of the Menlo, even before the show actually opened, I heard.

 

I also had six nibs custom ground by three different folks - Michael Masuyama, Gena Salorino and Dan Smith. Having more nib grinders at the show was wonderful. They all did splendid work. I had brought another pen for Michael to grind, but he took one look at it and found the tipping material was not completely attached to the end of the nib! Yikes! (We'll see if the vendor backs up this sale.)

 

I also picked up a couple 2-pen sleeves from Rick Shaw. This new design is much more functional for my use than Dwight's older model, IMO. And I bought a brass sealing wax stamp with a griffin design from Papier Plume, along with a couple sticks of flexible sealing wax. I've used this on one envelope so far. I learned that I need to work on my technique.

 

How about some photos (so you know it really happened)?

 

 

 

 

I bought (just) three pens - an Eboya Houja, the Edison SF Pen Show LE, and a Kanilea Pen Co Hanauma Bay.

 

I bought the Eboya with a broad Bock nib, and Gena ground it to a lovely crisp cursive italic. This will be one of my favorite writers, I predict. The Edison I bought with a steel JoWo 1.1 stub. Bryan did a good job tuning it, but I may end up swapping it for a gold JoWo ground crisper. On impulse, I bought the Kanilea pen with a gold JoWo 1.1mm stub. This was a big and pleasant surprise. I have many JoWo gold nibs custom ground to italic, but I have never before bought a stock gold JoWo stub. It turns out to be a wonderful nib, with just Hugh's normal (excellent) tuning.

 

 

Toyookacraft Pen Case.

 

This is made of American Alder wood. The joinery is splendid. I did not realize before inspecting the case when I got home that it is entirely of wood. There are no nails, and no metal hinges! The top rotates on a hollow wooden cylinder attached to the underside of the lid. Remarkable workmanship. This case will sit on my desk and hold my currently inked pens ... well, most of them. It only holds 20. The bottom drawer is meant for ink. It is too shallow for most of my ink bottles, but it holds Pelikan 4001 ink bottles just fine. I haven't completely decided how best to use it.

 

 

 

 

Galen Leather 10-pen zip-up case.

 

This is a well made and well-designed case. It is also the most compact 10-pen case I've found. It is not lighter in weight than the Visconti 12-pen case, but takes up much less real estate in whatever I'm carrying pens in - backpack or purse.

 

I don't have photos of the Rick Shaw cases or of the wax seal and wax I bought from Papier Plume. Maybe later.

 

Finally, as others have remarked, the best thing about this show is getting to visit with others who share one's obsession. I was able to chat with numerous old acquaintances and make several new pen friends.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[dms525]

And one more thing: One of my Nakaya's had a nib that was much less wonderful than my other Nakayas nibs. Enough less wonderful that I seldom inked it, in spite of it being beautiful in every other respect. Last year at the SFPS, I talked to one of John Mottishaw's people about a grind he does which sounded like something to try. It is a soft cursive italic. Now, Nakaya/Platinum soft nibs come in F and M widths only, which is not wide enough for my italic nibs. I really need to start with a BB nib. But John grinds a BB to emulate the stock soft nib, and he can do this together with a cursive italic grind.

 

John had a loose BB nib with this soft italic grind at the show this year. He swapped it into my Naka-ai with the un-loved nib, and it wrote like a dream. So we worked a trade for the cost of the customizations. This pen will now probably be among my favorite writers. The only thing to which I can compare it is the best of the springy, 18K nibs on Conway-Stewart pens. (They were not all springy, but the ones that were ... a pleasure to write with.)

 

That's all for now.

 

David

[terim]

What? No one has posted here yet? Let me start by thanking Todd Eberspacher and Ricky Chau, and the SF Pen Posse in general for outdoing themselves (again). If I've left out anyone, please forgive. Having moved from the east coast about 3 years ago, this is now the only really convenient show for me, and it did not disappoint. The hotel was first rate (even if it did cost $5 to park), the rooms were crowded but navigable and the exhibitors comprised a nice mix of manufacturers, dealers (vintage pens in particular), creators and customizers. I saw more nib specialists at work than at any show I have ever attended. Eyeballing it, I also noticed what I thought were more dealers in pen-related items and ephemera including papers, pads, folios and pen pouches. And multiple stations where you could try out a wide variety of inks.

 

It was great to connect again with Terry at Peyton Street Pens (perhaps my favorite dealer), where I scored a Bexley Torpedo that I had been craving since I first spied one at the Philadelphia pen show about 7 years ago (I love the look of this hybrid pen with a Sheaffer Legacy in-laid nib). I left an Eversharp Doric with Sherrell Tyree, who said she would be able to find and install a period-appropriate clip for me. And the icing on the cake was winning the raffle for a Monteverde Invincia pen (see picture below). I also came home with a couple of new issues of Pen World that I am looking forward to reading over the next few days.

 

All in all, a terrific afternoon. If you live in the Bay Area I urge you to check out the show while you still have time, its open on Sunday as well.

 

Glad you spotted the Bexley! You were the only one who knew what to expect (a Sheaffer Legacy nib unit) when you took the cap off. Thanks for stopping at our table, this was a really great show for us.

[AltecGreen]

I wasn't in a huge pen-buying mood for this SF pen show, but I did enjoy the ink testing stations, especially the 49-ink "mystery blue" tester tray, filled with blue inks but intentionally without a key listing which ink is which. Have the answers been posted yet?

 

 

You can find the answers here. https://www.sfpenshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Blue-Ink-Challenge-Ink-List.pdf

[Shaporama]

 

Glad you spotted the Bexley! You were the only one who knew what to expect (a Sheaffer Legacy nib unit) when you took the cap off. Thanks for stopping at our table, this was a really great show for us.

 

Already putting it to work, Teri. I use all of my pens. This one writes beautifully!

[JonSzanto]

The eight-hour drive to San Francisco sometimes gives me pause, if only for how to avoid LA traffic, but never has the trip been more worthwhile than this year. The showrunners for the last few years (Todd Eberspacher, Ricky Chau, and Syd Saperstein) managed to eclipse any of their other shows previous. Bigger, better, funner! I haven't had this good a time at a pen show ever.

(Caveat: I didn't take as many photos this year but just enough decent shots to cover some bases. Keep an eye out on other sites, too, because there were plenty of people documenting)

The venue (the Pullman Hotel in Redwood City) is a fine location for the show, with good lighting in the showrooms and what *had* been plenty of room. They are already planning on another 1000 sq ft for next year. The night before the frenzy begins, a lovely sunset over the lagoon (taken from our room).



I usually take a photo of my pen case before I enter the show. It reminds me what I brought, but also serves as something I can show that I actually *own* the pens I'm carrying, as well as being helpful if one or more are missing (or heaven forbid, pilfered).



One of the first vendors as you first enter the lobby of the show, Curnow Bookbinding, and Leatherwork. Steve Curnow puts out a great set of products, unique and usable journals with Tomoe River paper and interesting bindings, and he and Dianne and Katie are a real positive start to the show.



Right off the bat, in the bright morning sun of the outer lobby area, are the vibrant offerings of Brian Gray and Edison Pen Company. Such a great guy, with pens to match. Brian had a beautiful limited edition pen made for the show... in a run of 10. They were gone in the first hour of the early access hours on Friday. He'll make more next time!



Right inside the main ballroom was the traditional location for Peyton Street Pens. Teri Morris has one of the widest selection of pens to choose from: vintage and NOS to Indian ebonite to hand-crafted pens and pens from private collections. If you were new to pens and shows, you could do worse than spend a good deal of time here.

My friend and one of the great nib artists, Mike Masuyama. He's shown here, working on one of three pens I had him touch this time. I had two tunings and one custom grind, an Aurora Optima going from a B to a nice crisp italic. It is a wonder to hand him a pen and mere minutes later get back an entirely new writing experience. I just love spending time there, chatting and watching the magic happen.



Heading back into the ballroom, Papier Plume of New Orleans was a new attendee this year. They brought a lot of very cool stuff, including glass dip pens, fountain pens, writing supplies and a big selection of their house brand inks.



These wild pens were part of the Papier Plume display as well. They also were doing good business with a large selection of sealing waxes and stamps. Very classy and unique items.



I'll admit it: bling is not my thing. If it's yours, you could do far worse than the glittery offerings from Benu Pens!



Another new product line that was very handsome were the products from Galen Leather of Turkey. They had their own table but these were also being sold by Vanness Pen Co., a regular attendee of the show. Vanness had a very good selection, well displayed.



All manner of things can be ordered online when you need them, but one of my must-stops at every show is Dale Beebe's Pentooling tables. If you need something - supply, item, tool, part - to repair or restore a pen, he has it, along with a nice selection of restored vintage pens.



Among the many well-known vintage sellers at the show was Cliff Harrington. From the very first pen show I attended, I've made it a point to do everything I can to have good conversations with people like Cliff. I learn so much from them, and even if I don't happen to purchase anything at the moment, you start a relationship. They love their pens and are happy to share info, the best part of community. Cliff brings quality stuff.



Typical pen show scene: two sellers (David Ushkow (l) and Ray Walters ®) making a (possible) transaction. Ray brings a serious collection from the UK and David has some find niche pens as well. Ray also showed us on Saturday night what a good dancer he is!



"Life is good!" You'll hear Miroslav Tischler say that many times at a show, and he's right! This time he had a whole slew of pristine vintage Pelikans, including about twenty (at the start) tortoise 400NNs. I succumbed. These pens, from the 50s, are pretty much unsurpassed in everything from their great 14k nibs to a superb piston. What a treat, and what a good reason to attend a show.



I'm a huge fan of Daryl Lim and his Atelier Musubi. He is one of those rare people who has taken high principles and respect for people and rolled it into a project/product/business. Makers, in the best way possible, of high-end journals, the one shown here is from a limited set of journals made with a rare Japanese bamboo paper and had been adorned with by artistry of the singular Leigh Reyes. If I understood correctly, they found precisely one box of this paper that was still in existence.



Amidst all the giddy energy of the show, this shot gives me pause. A friend, who is a pen collector/user and maker of iron gall inks, lost his home and everything in it in last years Paradise Fire. What you see here is all that was left of the pen/pencil collection that had been *inside* a metal document filing cabinet. In the tray to the front, you can see remnants of nibs and pen parts; some of the little round balls are gold nibs, melted by the fire to a small blob. In the bottom left, before-and-after photos of the house. Sobering moments.



One of the best parts of the SF Show is they allow a variety of the visual arts to become part of the mix. There were calligraphers in the entrance lobby doing custom work, various writing and craft seminars and a number of "non-pen" (but related) tables. This year included Roses Without Thorns from Ontario, Canada. They make the most amazing "pop-up" paper cards... so creative and exquisitely done.



Here's another shot showing (hopefully) the intricacy of the designs that still fold flat, and then spring to life when you open the card!



Finally, my favorite part: people. To start with, the show had FIVE active nib professionals; you've already seen Mike It Work. Here is Gena Salorino, taking a breather from the daily grind. One of the fresh new faces in the nib world, she trained with John Mottishaw and has done journeys to Japan for further craft. A bright future.



A show gives you the opportunity to finally meet people you've chatted with online, sometimes for years. This is Claudia Astorquiza of Bauer Inks of Toronto. What an absolute sweetheart she is! The ink-art on display is done by her daughter; Claudia came bearing a full assortment of Robert Oster inks.



A quick candid turned into one of my fave shots - PenCelebrities! L-R: Brad Dowdy (PenAddict), artist Joey Feldman, dear Lisa Vanness (Vanness Pen), and Jonathon Brooks (Carolina Pen Co). The bomb, they are.



One of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen took place Saturday night, right outside the room where a live band was playing for show attendees. In the corridor, in the middle of a crowd of people, Leigh Reyes, Joey Feldman, and Dan Hoizner proceeded to do a live, collaborative ink-oriented artwork. It was insane! Ink and brushes and spray bottles in a big mash-up! Here they are with the finished piece.



Sun flare and all, this photo captures it for me: noted pen dealer Joel Hamilton, ready to greet the day with energy and good spirit to go along with all his beautiful pens. What a joy it is to spend time among these people.



The finale: a rarely seen Waterman "Doll" pen, fully functional even at that minuscule size. Often referred to as "The World's Smallest Pen", they are over 100 years old. This one now belongs to the friend that holds the pen, made all the more special that it came from another great friend and pen collector. This was as I was leaving the show and it has made me happy for days.



I feel like I've babbled incessantly but I've only scratched the surface. There was so much to do and so many enjoyable ways to spend time that the fact they call this "The Fun Pen Show" really rings pretty true. All the producers worked their butts off, as did the many volunteers, a large number of them members of the SF Pen Posse. There are tons of these people and those showing their wares that I've missed mentioning. Keep your eyes open for other reports coming in - Ricky (AltecGreen on most forums) usually does a stellar write-up with a million photos - because I've barely covered it. (I'll make a post about my pen show haul elsewhere on the forum)

Oh, and the show got covered in the SF Chronicle!
Some Of These Pens Are More Expensive Than The Sword

So that's it. Another great weekend in the Bay area and I wouldn't miss next year for anything. I hope to see some of you there.

It's worth the trip.

Cheers,
Jon

Edited August 28, 2019 by JonSzanto

[ethernautrix]

Fantastic photos and reporting, Jon. Thank you!

[ErrantSmudge]

 

 

You can find the answers here. https://www.sfpenshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Blue-Ink-Challenge-Ink-List.pdf

 

 

Thank you. I did call one of the inks correctly: Bay State Blue.

[JonSzanto]

Fantastic photos and reporting, Jon. Thank you!

 

Thanks, L. You are *always* there in spirit, and I know one day you'll be back with pens and inks and smiles.

[dms525]

Very nice show review and great photos, Jon.

 

Sorry we didn't get to chat this year. I had to settle for your harassment at Mario's table.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[JonSzanto]

Very nice show review and great photos, Jon.

 

Sorry we didn't get to chat this year. I had to settle for your harassment at Mario's table.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

 

Thanks David. What a weird quandry it all is - the more people I meet, the less time I have for each person I'd like to spend time with. Imagine what it was like in Feb when I only had about 3 hours at LA. Anyway, we didn't even do our traditional bumping into each other in the elevator! I had hope to chat with you about the Momento Zero pens and all that, but we'll carry that forward. I hope you had a good show, and it seems so. Next year: planned meeting!