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How is the Fountain Pen Hospital Expo?

Betty

By Betty
in Fountain & Dip Pens - First Stop

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Betty Vintage

Betty

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How is the Fountain Pen Hospital Expo? Has anyone been to it? It's today and tomorrow and I'm planning to go tomorrow. What can I expect to see? Do you think they will sell some Parker 51s there or some older model pens as well?

 

Will I be able to test out a lot of ink colors? Do I need to bring anything there (besides my wallet ;))

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Velma Extremely Rare

Velma

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They don't have ink colors for testing, unfortunately, but my memory says that they had Parkers there, and many of them are available for dip testing. Viseguy and I went yesterday, and both were seduced by THINK pens (more on this later). The Pelikan and Waterman displays were amazing, and they have several trays of vintage pens on sale -- I nearly bought a roseglow Craftsman -- as well as the new pens. And most of the vendors seem to be giving about a 20% discount.

 

What you'll see are perhaps ten to twelve representatives of pen manufacturers (Waterman, THINK/Krone, Monteverde, Pelikan, Aurora among them) with displays of various ranges of pens -- high and low end models -- which they'll let you pick up and examine, and talk with you about, and in many cases dip and try them.

 

One note: I tend to think that most of the Krone pens are ugly, but the sterling silver and enamel ones are actually rather pretty in person. But they're HEAVY! You could do reps with those.

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Apollo Vintage

Apollo

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Viseguy and I went yesterday, and both were seduced by THINK pens (more on this later).

Those THINK pens are rather tempting, aren't they? I own 2 (Sahara and Iceland) and am very pleased with them. So much, that I was seduced into ordering another (Bee Bop) which should arrive shortly.

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http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p202/Apollo3000/es-canary-islands-flag1s.gif Bendita mi tierra guanche.
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FJC New

FJC

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Those THINK pens are rather tempting, aren't they? I own 2 (Sahara and Iceland) and am very pleased with them. So much, that I was seduced into ordering another (Bee Bop) which should arrive shortly.

 

Can you tell me what you like about them? Do they have an issues with start-up? Do they skip at all? Is it a wet writer? The pens have always looked interesting to me, but I've never read anything about them, so any information would be helpful.

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Velma Extremely Rare

Velma

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I am seriously considering having the nib on my THINK Cafe au Lait pen worked down to a fine or italic, I must admit. This is proving to me that I'm just not into medium or broad nibs. But the pen itself is lovely: it balances well, and fits nicely in my hand, and the colors are amazing, swirls of caramel in cream.

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FJC New

FJC

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Thanks, Apollo.

 

I tried the pen today at the FPH show. It's an excellent-looking pen, and it seemed pretty smooth. It's too bad that I didn't see your post before I went to the show; I might have picked one up (I picked up a Cross Verve instead, which is an excellent, smooth-writing pen).

 

Do you know if the Think takes international carts? I agree with you about that converter--it looks to be the weak part of the pen.

 

Thanks for your review--it was excellent.

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Apollo Vintage

Apollo

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Do you know if the Think takes international carts?

Yes, they do take international carts.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p202/Apollo3000/es-canary-islands-flag1s.gif Bendita mi tierra guanche.
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Betty Vintage

Betty

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So I went to the Expo. I got all hyped up for my first one, but it wasn't anything too special at all. Instead of having pens under the counters, they just moved the pens up on the counters so you can touch the pens without asking salespeople for help. I took one round and left.

 

Salespeople pretty much ignored me. Guess I didn't fit the average fountain pen user description to spend time on coaxing to buy (middle-aged & male).

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Velma Extremely Rare

Velma

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So I went to the Expo. I got all hyped up for my first one, but it wasn't anything too special at all. Instead of having pens under the counters, they just moved the pens up on the counters so you can touch the pens without asking salespeople for help. I took one round and left.

 

Salespeople pretty much ignored me. Guess I didn't fit the average fountain pen user description to spend time on coaxing to buy (middle-aged & male).

I'm not exactly the image you have of the average fountain pen user (well, middle aged, but that's it) either, and my experience was quiet different. How crowded was it when you got there?

 

What were you expecting? It might be that a pen show is actually more the sort of thing you're interested in -- they then to be much more social, with more opportunities to ddiscuss pens, and to try them out.

 

I'm surprised, because the salesfolks were all uniformly friendly and polite to me, and willing to let both Viseguy and me dip pens and try them. One thing, though: I found most of them to be rather laid back at first, which I interpreted as their guessing that I already knew enough about pens to know what sort of pens I wanted.

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Maja Donor Pen

Maja

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Salespeople pretty much ignored me.  Guess I didn't fit the average fountain pen user description to spend time on coaxing to buy (middle-aged & male).

Yep, pretty much what happened to me and hubby when we were in the store in late 2003 on a visit to NYC. Oh, I should say one older gentleman was helpful but overall it was a bit of a letdown (esp. in terms of what vintage pens they had on display ) :( Still, I did get a couple of nice pen books and a silver ink bottle cap for my pen mentor :)

If you really want to be impressed, I would say go to a pen show! :D

Vancouver (Canada) Pen Club (our website)

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