Confession Of An Addict

[PeterR-C]

Welcome aboard, addict. Don't worry, you're among friends and the like-minded now.

 

Mind you, I never heard of anything quite as silly as a 20 pen rule. I'm with Ruth - one a month, plus anything beautiful and shiny that crops up in between.

[inkstainedruth]

Welcome aboard, addict. Don't worry, you're among friends and the like-minded now.

 

Mind you, I never heard of anything quite as silly as a 20 pen rule. I'm with Ruth - one a month, plus anything beautiful and shiny that crops up in between.

 

Well, there was so many problems about getting that Violet Safari that the vendor cancelled the order on me! (At least I got my money back.) So I turned around and ordered it from Vanness Pens, along with some ink samples -- and while poking around their website I ALSO ended up buying a Vibrant Pink al-Star with a 1.1 stub nib on clearance; and for LESS than I paid for the Safari! And for the most part got my choice of nibs on *both* pens (not having to buy an extra nib from the first place to get what I wanted paid for the samples).

So now the count for the year is actually four, not three : the 75, the M600, and the two Lamy pens.

And I had a weird thing happen a couple of weeks ago -- what started with an altercation over possible damage to vehicles with a shopping cart turned out to be a completely different experience. The owner of the other car and I were exchanging insurance info and the guy looked over and said "Is that... a LAMY?" (I had the al-Star with me). So we ended up having a lovely conversation about pens. Then, when I went into the store finally, the guy we'd flagged to get the store manager (who was staying out of things entirely, BTW) was telling the store security guy about the dust-up he'd missed. And I said, "It's all good now, I think" and told them the story about the guy recognizing that it was a Lamy pen; and the guy from the store said "My MOTHER has one of those -- in red, to match her lipstick...").

I could not make this stuff up, and if someone had told me the story I would have been saying, "yeah, pull the other one, too; and I've got a bridge to sell you..."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[NumberSix]

I really haven't broken the 20 pen rule, yeah?

Welcome!

 

I suggest you keep your FPN browser window and your Ebay browser window far apart from each other, especially if you're at all interested in vintage pens. I have bought so many pens I didn't even know existed before reading about them here! And we won't even talk about my wishlist on Peyton Street Pens. . .

[mad_pharmacist]

Thanks. I thought this is a support group for addicts, but I think my addiction has been more fully enabled!

 

 

Welcome!

 

I suggest you keep your FPN browser window and your Ebay browser window far apart from each other, especially if you're at all interested in vintage pens. I have bought so many pens I didn't even know existed before reading about them here! And we won't even talk about my wishlist on Peyton Street Pens. . .

[Joe in Seattle]

All Hope abandon ye who enter here.

[PeterR-C]

Well done Ruth, good to hear that your willpower is similar to mine - non-existent.

 

Bizarre how fountain pen addicts crop up everywhere. You never know when you're going to encounter one. There are so many of us about now that I feel we amount to a popular movement. More momentum and we can organise a revolution, put all the appalling ballpoints up against the wall, and mow them down with machine guns...

 

Sorry, got a bit carried away there

[Estycollector]

 

Well, there was so many problems about getting that Violet Safari that the vendor cancelled the order on me! (At least I got my money back.) So I turned around and ordered it from Vanness Pens, along with some ink samples -- and while poking around their website I ALSO ended up buying a Vibrant Pink al-Star with a 1.1 stub nib on clearance; and for LESS than I paid for the Safari! And for the most part got my choice of nibs on *both* pens (not having to buy an extra nib from the first place to get what I wanted paid for the samples).

So now the count for the year is actually four, not three : the 75, the M600, and the two Lamy pens.

And I had a weird thing happen a couple of weeks ago -- what started with an altercation over possible damage to vehicles with a shopping cart turned out to be a completely different experience. The owner of the other car and I were exchanging insurance info and the guy looked over and said "Is that... a LAMY?" (I had the al-Star with me). So we ended up having a lovely conversation about pens. Then, when I went into the store finally, the guy we'd flagged to get the store manager (who was staying out of things entirely, BTW) was telling the store security guy about the dust-up he'd missed. And I said, "It's all good now, I think" and told them the story about the guy recognizing that it was a Lamy pen; and the guy from the store said "My MOTHER has one of those -- in red, to match her lipstick...").

I could not make this stuff up, and if someone had told me the story I would have been saying, "yeah, pull the other one, too; and I've got a bridge to sell you..."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I absolutely love to read your posts, Ruth.

 

So, maybe you heard I got a work mate a Lamy Safari as a first FP. It came with one of those dark grey/gray fine point nibs. It was supposed to come with a regular chrome medium. Those black stainless are so cool and costs around $14 on Amazon. I admit to swapping out the nibs so that my 2017 extra special edition Al-Star now sports the dark fine point and the one I gave away got my old chrome one. I am feeling a bit guilty. Well..... not really.

 

And, did you hear I got a Sheaffer? I suppose it's best never to say "never".....

Edited June 5, 2020 by Estycollector

[AmandaW]

[AmandaW]

[inkstainedruth]

comic.png

 

Yeah, like that'll happen....

Too much "OOOH, SHINY" going on.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[como]

And if it ain't shiny, you can make it shiny by polish the life out of it

 

Yeah, like that'll happen....

Too much "OOOH, SHINY" going on.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[sansenri]

as you will have by now discovered, if intention was to find someone saying "20 pens? what do you need all those pens for?" you're in the wrong place... so, welcome!

[mad_pharmacist]

Many noble and wise members have shown the errs in my way. From now on, I will abandon the silly 20 pen rule and I will adopt 20 pen case rule.

 

 

as you will have by now discovered, if intention was to find someone saying "20 pens? what do you need all those pens for?" you're in the wrong place... so, welcome!

[MBDostoevsky]

Hi There

 

Welcome to the FPN Community

 

There is a lot to learn here and hopefully you will enjoy your time on this forum.

[mad_pharmacist]

Thanks. I already learned so much.

 

 

Hi There

 

Welcome to the FPN Community

 

There is a lot to learn here and hopefully you will enjoy your time on this forum.

[inkstainedruth]

as you will have by now discovered, if intention was to find someone saying "20 pens? what do you need all those pens for?" you're in the wrong place... so, welcome!

 

I just read your post out loud to the husband and he muttered under his breath about how I'm now buying an entire cabinet!

I spotted an antique dental cabinet (lots of very short drawers) on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago. Contacted the seller, and that one was gone but another was available. Turned out that these were the same two dental cabinets I saw at an estate sale right before the lockdown, only now at a much reduced price. Haven't yet paid for the one I'm getting, but the seller knows I want it, and gave me the name of a piano mover (there was also a baby grand that my husband was drooling over, but we don't have room for it (and so far haven't found anyone who does, sadly, because otherwise it's going to get broken up and trashed).

Not sure what will go into the hutch part because the different sections are much smaller (about 8" high x 6" wide and deep interiors) and and some of them seem to have ceramic or metal shelves. I think the bottom drawers are tall enough to fit the ink vial trays, and maybe some notebooks (and hopefully the seven 24-pen Rockler zipper cases ). Not as cheap as some I've seen on the Bay of Evil, but "local delivery" means about a 40 minute drive from its current location to my house, not a many hour drive out of state, or sweating out a unit being shipped by freight from halfway across the country (I'm going to pay for movers because I do not want to give our friends hernias...). And even with the cost of professional movers It will still be less expensive than many of the ones I've seen online.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA -- Of course I'm going to have to get a bunch more of the flocked plastic pen trays to line the drawers with....

Edited June 18, 2020 by inkstainedruth

[mad_pharmacist]

It sounds like an interesting project. You are thinking about the future.

 

 

 

I just read your post out loud to the husband and he muttered under his breath about how I'm now buying an entire cabinet!

I spotted an antique dental cabinet (lots of very short drawers) on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago. Contacted the seller, and that one was gone but another was available. Turned out that these were the same two dental cabinets I saw at an estate sale right before the lockdown, only now at a much reduced price. Haven't yet paid for the one I'm getting, but the seller knows I want it, and gave me the name of a piano mover (there was also a baby grand that my husband was drooling over, but we don't have room for it (and so far haven't found anyone who does, sadly, because otherwise it's going to get broken up and trashed).

Not sure what will go into the hutch part because the different sections are much smaller (about 8" high x 6" wide and deep interiors) and and some of them seem to have ceramic or metal shelves. I think the bottom drawers are tall enough to fit the ink vial trays, and maybe some notebooks (and hopefully the seven 24-pen Rockler zipper cases ). Not as cheap as some I've seen on the Bay of Evil, but "local delivery" means about a 40 minute drive from its current location to my house, not a many hour drive out of state, or sweating out a unit being shipped by freight from halfway across the country (I'm going to pay for movers because I do not want to give our friends hernias...). And even with the cost of professional movers It will still be less expensive than many of the ones I've seen online.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA -- Of course I'm going to have to get a bunch more of the flocked plastic pen trays to line the drawers with....

[inkstainedruth]

Not so much planning for the future as trying to corral the current stash.... I started out with two 2r pen cases, and the plan was one for vintage pens, and one for modern pens. I now have 7 cases, plus a 12 pen case for when I'm traveling, plus several other small cases and sleeves I've acquired over the years (mind you, occarionally they were free, like the two pen, blue leather one I acquired as swag, at the Pelikan Hub one year....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Helen350]

Not so much planning for the future as trying to corral the current stash.... I started out with two 2r pen cases, and the plan was one for vintage pens, and one for modern pens. I now have 7 cases, plus a 12 pen case for when I'm traveling, plus several other small cases and sleeves I've acquired over the years (mind you, occarionally they were free, like the two pen, blue leather one I acquired as swag, at the Pelikan Hub one year....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Ruth, you do have quite a few pens; and I would image ink as well. I only have (6) 48 pens/case

cases, and my handmade pen pouches which are holding an additional 28 pens. I'm fighting to

stop looking at pens for the remainder of 2020--well, right after I purchase the Picasso 918 and...…….

[inkstainedruth]

Well, this is eight + years worth of accumulation. I found this site initially while looking for a (temporary) replacement for the Parker Vector I accidentally left, along with my then current journal, at my brother-in-law's house.

Most of the ink bottles are in a bunch of nice-looking sweater boxes that are cloth covered cardboard and then covered with rattan. I think they're made in Indonesia, and I bought a bunch of them at IKEA a few years ago (but they don't seem to be carried any longer, sadly). The sweater boxes sort of fit two per shelf on some fold down bookcases I bought at Pier 1, and which flank an antique Arts and Crafts style desk I found in an antiques mall in eastern Indiana.

Of course the dental cabinet's purchase in now somewhat in flux. Got email from the seller offering to split the cost of the moving it, which may happen on the 25th -- but she wants everything to be in cash! I sent back email saying that I was not comfortable with carrying that much money in cash around (I'm not). Especially since I don't know how much extra my share of the mover will be, on top of the price of the cabinet -- which is not cheap. I'm starting to get bad vibes about the entire deal, since the original Craigslist listing was for a different cabinet and then the woman said someone else wanted that one. And I kept asking her to measure the inner dimensions of the drawers and she was a flake and didn't do it (and even when my husband and I went to look at the piece last weekend she kept insisting that the interior dimensions were the same on both pieces). I'm to the point of doing a little due diligence on the piano mover and see if this is even legit (she emailed the image of the person's business card, but when I called the office number something went flaky with the call. Called the cellphone number and some woman answered -- and for I know it was the woman answering the phone herself. I left a message and the person has not gotten back to me. Then I got email from her a couple of days ago and then when I said I hadn't heard back from the movers, she sent email last night saying she'd been in touch with them again....

It could be that she's just a flake. It could be that she's protecting herself from a fake check -- especially since both cabinets were originally much higher priced, at an estate sale I went to in March before the lockdown (I don't remember seeing the baby grand piano one way or another, and while she said she was giving it away we don't have room for it, and have not found anyone who wants a free baby grand piano). But it ALSO could be some sort of scam.... The story she told about it having been her father's house could all be made up. I don't even know this woman's last name for sure, only what it says on the email she's sent when I contacted her through Craigslist initially.

There is a lot cheaper (although possibly smaller) cabinet on eBay. But it's in northern Indiana (a good six or seven hour drive from here at least); "local pickup only", and the seller has not even responded with giving me the exterior dimensions, let alone how wide, deep and high the drawers are.... And another one in southern Ohio with a damaged drawer drawer front which keeps getting relisted because it "hasn't made its reserve bid" (I'm watching that listing just for the amusement factor -- pass the popcorn...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: I just checked Angie's List and also did a general Google search and somehow I don't think a neurosurgeon would be moving pianos on the side.... :-( I still have to check and if the person's phone number(s) match the name on some websites. It could just be some guy with a truck doing it as a side business. The seller said she understands about the issue about cash and asked for a certified check. So I will call my bank tomorrow morning and see if they've reopened for more than just drive-through and find out what is entailed with that, since I think the last time that we ever dealt with that was when we were buying or selling a house (and that's been over two decades ago at this point).

Edited June 21, 2020 by inkstainedruth