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  1. mns68

    Gentleman Converter

    I bought few days ago NOS Waterman Gentleman FP....unfortunately the converter was not provided , I tried different international converters that I have but they did not fit .... Is there anyone who knows which type of converters does this pen accept and from where I can get one Thanks
  2. What is this pen? What is the brand / producer / origin? What model is this? This is a pen given to me by my father in early 80-ties. I used it for a couple of years as my every day pen. I cannot identify the producer nor the model. Must be produced somewhere in 1970-ties ot late 1960-ties? Much likely to be from China ? Maybe Japan? Maybe someone is able to read the signature on the nib?
  3. Waltz For Zizi

    Help Identifying Pen

    Hello, I found this pen for sale on the web, but I cant decide what model it is. It is posted as a "waterman ideal", but on my searches it looks more like a "waterman exclusive", except for the fact that it has a smooth section, and not "grenade" like Does anyone know what model this is, or if it is silver plated or sterling, or a limited edition of the exclusive? The pictures are from the person selling it, not from me.
  4. sopher

    Waterman 14 Psf

    Just re-sacced this ~hundred year old beauty. It wears it's age better than i do, i think. The imprint on the barrel is crisp and the model number on the cap looks like it says "14 PSP" but i imagine that last character should be an F. It's a little faded; you can see where the cap kept it black. Writes wonderfully (or would if my handwriting wasn't what my 2nd grade teacher described as "the tracks of a drunken chicken staggering home from the bar". http://i64.tinypic.com/bhkh8y.jpg nib appears to have been sprung at some point and corrected possibly? Still writes smoothly with some flex (not wanting to push it too much). http://i68.tinypic.com/254yqsp.jpg
  5. As you may have guessed by the title, this is a review on the Waterman Expert Mk III. Its a pen that is near and dear to my heart, since it got me into this hobby. My parents gave it to me for Christmas. I had asked for a fountain pen because ever since primary school, I had prefered them over ballpoints. I was in my third year of law school, and just wanted a nice looking, high quality pen to use on exams and to accompany me when I would start my carreer. The one I was using before I would now call a Lamy Safari, but back than that name was meaningless to me. They spent hours in Leën, Hasselt trying out different pens and eventually settled on this one because of its business like, understated looks. It was way over budget for a Christmas present but they wanted to give me something that would last. In the end they most of all gave me a new hobby. The pen came packed in a typical Waterman blue clamshell box, which I still consider as one of the nicer fountain pen boxes I have. Its sturdy, with a good quality hinge, thick soft padded interior and a compartiment that contains the warranty information and a Waterman Serenity Blue refill. What it does not come with; a converter. A word of warning, dont get a Waterman converter as I did. They crack easily and operate difficultly. Get a Graf von Faber Castell converter for it, or alternatively a identical one from Pelikan. Being a 135 euro pen, it not shipping with a converter may seem difficult to understand, but as Ill try to demonstrate down below, actually really fits the pen. The design of the pen gets to you in waves. First you notice how bland and boring it looks. This is not a pen for people who want to get noticed. Its a mix of shiny black and matt black, with silver trim. Secondly, you notice just how well the design works. When capped, its a smooth continuous shape that reminds me of a submarine. When you take the cap off, it remains relatively smooth, looking as a pen that was designed not to have a cap at all. The pen can be posted and the cap even snaps on the little silver ring on the barrel. As much as I like the look and the balance of the pen when posted, the cap rotates while writing so I prefer to keep it unposted. Finally, you start noticing the little things that make this pen different. Theres the Waterman logo on the top of the cap, placed on a slope. Its odd, but it works. Theres the typical Waterman clip, with an opening in the middle. Theres the nib, thats small and does not even have a breather hole. Its very featureless, but it compliments the look of the pen brilliantly. Theres the material its made of: metal but with a matte lacquer. Perfect weight, strong and special to the touch. The size is ideal toom though this is of course highly subjective. Especially with slightly smaller hands like mine, it is just very comfortable to hold. I like holding it, uncapping it and in order not to look like an idiot, that means writing with it as well. I had some bad luck. Though I didnt know back then, the nib was overpolished and didnt start properly, ever. Two returns to Waterman and one nib exchange later, the problem was solved. The nib is as hard as a nail. Its ironic how the same company that is known for its old flex pens now makes this. Push as hard as you like, youll damage your table before you see any line variation. Though probaby if thats what youre after, few steel nibs are ideal. The pen behaves beautifully: no more hard starts, it glides over paper and the ink flow is as reliable as can be. One issue it seens to have with coverters (not with cartridges) is ink starvation. I have this same issue with my Van Gogh so maybe its just me but I can never empty a converter without forcing ink in the feed by twisting it halfway through. Apart from that minor nuisance, the pen is a true joy to write with. In the case of this pen, I think the main question is who it is for. The Community is used to demonstrator pens with a vacuum filling system and a replacable nib for half the price of this. You can also find a gold nibbed Platinum 3776 for that same half price. Even the Lamy 2000 is well whitin reach. How dare they ask 135 euros (about 155 dollars) for a cartridge-converter filled, steel nibbed pen? Shouldnt Waterman just stick to making their inks? Not quite. As bad a value as the pen might seem on paper, it is brilliant when you actually put it to paper. Its a design that is going to work for a lot of people who may not necessarily be in this Community, but buy fountain pens out of preference over a ballpoint. They want something that they can use alongside their coworker who has a Montblanc, without the price tag or the flashy look. It blends in a business setting or a clean desk like no other pen I know. Its inoffensive, chique and bland to the casual eye, yet a party for the lucky soul who bought it (or got it for Christmas). I highly doubt they will even notice the lack of a converter, because they will use cartridges anyway. If they show their pen in a pen shop asking which cartridges they need, the seller will likely give them Waterman cartridges. So they will end up with a Community favourite ink without knowing it and the ink starvation issue doesnt happen when using cartridges. I adore this pen, can you tell? As if this review didnt contain enough blasphemy yet, I even got the matching ballpoint and like that as well. It has a great twist mechanism and Watermans proprietary ballpoint refills are very smooth to write with. I hope you enjoyed this review of my gateway pen.
  6. Lazard 20

    Waterman´s Old Overlay Photo Thread

    This is a eye-dropper c. 1908 gold filled mod. 0314.
  7. Lazard 20

    Waterman´s Old Ads Photo Thread

    Lewis Edson Waterman, as a child he came with his mother and younger brother and settled in Kankakee and it was in the little old wagon shop, conducted by his brother Elisha S. Waterman, where the first model of Waterman's Ideal Fountain Pen was turned out in wood. With ads we will try to illustrate the history of this early beginning in the little wagon-making shop in Kankakee, and the equally insignificant work-bench at the back of a cigar store on Fulton Street, NY, where pen were made by hand –and the total output then was 200 in a year- to 5,000,000 Waterman´s Ideal sold during 1919.
  8. EdwardSouthgate

    Waterman 94

    Just got this Canadian 94 the other day and thought I'd share it with you Waterman fans . Writes as good as it looks and flexes nicely . Eddie
  9. Hi I got this waterman pen at a car boot sale and would like to know more information on it could anyone help me, it has the Waterman logo on the top of the cap and clip, and on the bottom of the pen and nib "Waterman made in France". It also uses cartridges.
  10. prinselijkcoder

    Replacing A Waterman Laureat Nib Feed

    Hello everyone, I'm exactly sure where to put this, but repair seems most apt to me. I'm fairly new to FPs, having bought a Pilot Metropolitan F about a year ago, and have especially started using them in the past few months. Apart from my Metro, I have a Waterman Laureat Mk1 M, which was given to me by my mother. She got it in the 90s, and I don't think she really used it more than a few years after that. I'm pretty sure she never even bought more than one bottle of ink. Considering that, it's been sitting in storage for at least a year, if I remember correctly it was not entirely clean either. So, the nib has what I assume is some corrosion on the nib. Overall though, it wrote perfectly fine over the past year, I never even took the nib out, just flushed it with water and soaked it awhile. That is, until I recently purchased a set of random ink samples from Goulet Pens. I got a couple shimmering inks, which is exactly what I didn't want, since the Waterman is only a medium and I tend to only use it once or twice a week. But, I was going to write a letter to a friend, and thought I'd just put the ink in to write it, then clear it out immediately. I used De Atramentis Indian Blue-Copper. Well, I wrote all of one line of carefully constructed greetings, slowly tilting, rolling and flipping the pen all the while before the nib was entirely gunked up. The copper was pooling on top of the nib channel and all underneath it as well, it pretty much entirely stopped writing. Well, I can't give up immediately, so I figured I would take out the nib and feed, clear it up, and try once carefully once more. Maybe the sample, or what I had syringed of it, had an inordinate amount of copper, and there'd be less now. I took it out, wiped the nib and feed off and rinsed it a bit, but didn't entirely 100% clean it since I was going to use the same ink. (Sorry for the bad quality pic, but you get the idea.) Yep. I didn't realise I needed to put it back in in a particular orientation, and in the attempt, after quite awhile, managed to snap the front of the feed off. Not my proudest moment by far. I doubt I can economically (at least relative to the price of another Laureat) or with a good chance of success repair it. It's a fairly clean break, but also a very small surface area to work with. I'm not sure I can glue it (I assume) back together, have it set properly and not just snap again. So, I assume I could buy another and just replace the feed. But, I was also curious if anyone knows of another feed or even entire front end of a pen that can work with the Laureat body and nib. I already contacted Waterman and as expected they stated they were unable to provide any replacement parts. That's about it I think. Just looking for some informed opinions on if I have any alternatives to trying to snag a duplicate, which I'm not even sure how pricey that could end up being. Of course, if anyone here just happened to have a feed or pen, I'd be happy to buy it. Though it didn't get used much, this pen has some history with my mother and I'd hate for it to just become a useless decoration in a box. Thanks for reading. Any input is appreciated, including the scolding I'd expect. I deserve it...
  11. I'm not new to vintage pens, but I don't own any watermans or safety fillers. I noticed this pen on auction site. It is workig condition and has F nib, bit stubbish I would say. So I would really like the nib. But I'm bit hessitant, because price is higher that what I usually pay for my vintage pens, and it is auction starting price is 100 euros (115 dollars) (but usually there is no-one else bidding...). What model this actually is? It is marked as Waterman 42, but I don't trust sellers. How hard are these safety fillers to maintain and restore? How easily they leak? Can they be used as everyday carry? Photos are bit small, they are provided by the seller. Color seems to bit faded. Is pen made of hard rubber? I just can't stand smell of hard rubber, so that would be huge bummer. All info is welcome, it helps me to make well, more educated buy and not regretting it later.
  12. Hello Forgive my question re a ballpoint pen rather than a FP! I have 2 Waterman Panta 4-colour ballpoint pens, and 1 Jif (all from France, 1960s). One of them is gold plated, the other 2 chrome. The ink is dried out. I have spare refills, also dried out. Is there any way these can be "revived" ? I presume Waterman don't sell these refills any more, so are there any other brands that would fit ? Are these pens collector items? I'd be quite prepared to sell them. There are only so many pens I can use or even just look at in one day! thank you very much cheers!
  13. wayfairing

    "waterman Style" Nib?

    Hello all! As stated in my introductory post, I recently purchased a pen from a woodturner. He only sold pens with a medium nib, which is too big for my writing style. Because the nib writes very smoothly, I want to buy the same make if I can. Being a fountain pen newbie, I thought I could find the nib online by searching for what it is stamped with, "Iridium Point Germany." You experiened users will know that this led nowhere. I was, however, able to find a turned pen with the same hardware as mine. The kit for it had been purchased from Penn State Industries (US), so I emailed that company in the hope that they would sell me a fine nib. Turns out that they only sell medium nibs as well. The representative said that I could use any "Waterman style" nib in the pen. I emailed the Goulet Pen Company, whose videos have been helping me with the fountain pen learning curve, to see if they would know what the Penn State Ind. representative meant and if any of their nibs would work. Though kind and helpful, the Goulet representative was unsure what the woodworking supply company would have meant by "Waterman style," so she directed me here. Long story short: anyone know what would be meant by a "Waterman style nib"? I would have attached a picture of the medium nib that is currently in the pen for comparison but the picture I uploaded in the Introductions board took up all of my MB allowance without my noticing.
  14. minjiha2

    Waterman Emblem But Desk Pen?

    Hello all, I just received this beautiful Waterman from ebay. Its nib os engraved with "Emblem"; thus I guess its model might be "Emblem" but I am wondering Emblem is also produced as a desk pen version. I never owned Waterman Emblem before but its nib looks quite similar to my other Hundred Years pen and 515. Thanks! Minji
  15. crofton99

    Best Estate Sale Ever

    Just found this Waterman Preface at an estate sale today. It was in a ziplock bag full of pencils and ballpoints. Bought the entire bag for 1 dollar!!!!! Also in the bag was a Parker Sonnet ballpoint. Green lacquer 'marble' color, gold trim and 18k fine nib. It is a very smooth, not too wet, not too dry nib.
  16. Hello guys, I picked up this Waterman Gentleman a while a go. It has some issues with the nib. Though the nib looks very fine to me but it writes super dry. it delivers ink only when I apply a little pressure. its a gold nib, in case youre wondering, and its very smooth. I still haven't found any specific angle that it writes fine at. I have serviced the pen a few times but it just doesn't work well. I suspect the problem might be due to its tines having a small gap between them after the breather hole and then joining at the writing tip. ill attach some pictures of the nib and the quality of writing. Also, I think its worth mentioning that if I dip it into some ink, it works well for a few lines. Thank you all so much in advance. Looking forward to receiving your thoughts and opinions!
  17. Maybe this has already been hashed out, if so I could not find it via the search option. I have two different looking converter for C/F and C/C pens (see photo). The brass one looks older. And the stainless steel version has a slightly longer rubbber nipple. Does anyone know if there is a history to the two converters? Is one older? Were they made for different pens? Kevin
  18. This review is dedicated to the city of Paris, its people, its spirit. Half way through this review is when the massacre happened, peace be on all of us. The tragic co-incidence is that the pen under review is marked – Paris. Warning – This review contains bad puns, parody, snowflakes, mud-slinging, dodgy English, terrible grammar, digressions, ostentatious use of langue française , immoral pictures and a certain dragon. If you are one of those with sensitive tastes, or are easily offended by any of the above, please refrain from reading/looking any further. You have been warned! Taking a page out of Bilbo Baggins’s travelogue, I’d say that I practically have the entire fellowship in my ring sans one exception. There is Legolas epitomised by the shaeffer Targa 1004 in Sterling Silver XF, lean, mean, and blisteringly fast combined with elven feature of immortality The Pelikan M215 Lozinge with a, wide hairy M steel nib is the ever reliable Mr Samwise Gamji Then there is the ‘Click’ Ebonite Gimli with its rough edges, less than acceptable table manners (inky fingers), huge (dr)ink capacity, temperament etc., despite its failings, I keep tugging at this drawf’s beard often. I found Aragorn in the form of the Pelikan 1000 with an ‘S’ nib (Oh, that’s an another story; if you survive this review, let me know in the comments section if you’d like me to write that story for you) Frodo in the Parker Duofold international, the other two hobbits are my Carené s with Stub and Oblique-Stub. The Lamy 2000 Stainless Steel dons the hat of Boromir. As you see there is a hole in the ring, so to say, the old wizard, the one who is equally comfortable in the company of hobbits, elves, kings and even a Balrog. As soon as my retina registered the image of the Waterman exception Night and Day with platinum stripe, my limbic system lit up and the amygdala switched to Gollum mode …. “we wants it, we deserves it” etc, my banker choked on an olive at the same time somewhere in Spain. Akin to Gollam’s mentality, you can’t give up on precious just because it is expensive, as expensive is a function of time and timing, or so I convinced myself. After relentless searching for months a good deal manifested on ‘great river’.com; Too good to be true, but too tempting to ignore, caved in and placed an order. Funny that the price tripled as soon as my order was processed, I didn’t know what would happen, would they honour the order or just send me their standard apology e-mail? Surely you have been to a zoo, but were you there during ‘meal time’? I mean, when the zoo keepers are preparing to feed the animals? Yes? The smell is in the air, stomach is burbling with hunger pangs. They know they’ll get the food, but they just can’t wait. They are circling, running up and down, howling and being very impatient in their extra-large pen (yes, the other pen which means an enclosure and you did see what I did there, didn’t you?). Then you know my plight until my pen arrived in the mail box after two weeks. I don’t remember how the outer packaging looked, as it got torn to smithereens in a hurry. Well, what do we have here, an unassuming package that practically every other lower tier Waterman came in, nothing exception-al. Gingerly the outer sleeve is slid and there is the waterman’s usual hard cardboard box, box is slowly opened to reveal the most elegant pen I have ever set eyes on, yet ! Unlike the Carene, Charleton, Perspective or expert which did not have the control number, this box contains a control number which can be used to return the pen. There is a box of 8 cartidges of Serenity- blue and a waterman booklet that contains information on how to fill the pen, and an international guarantee. Yes there are bling pens out there whose 24 carat gold barrel is hand-turned on a rose-engine by 14 and three fourths blind virgins working tirelessly for 3 years and 14 months, studded with diamonds taken directly from Smaug’s den , Ultra Ultra Limited Edition, limited to just half a pen (they found that by the time they finished making the cap, they erm… were no longer virgins). Some completely outrageously ostentatious ones that would put a full-size-lit-up-Christmas-tree-with-Santa-sitting-on-it to shame (don’t know what I mean? have a look at some special Italian pens) , some oxymoronic (I’m looking at you Montblanc - Mahatma Gandhi http://www.montblanc.com/en-us/discover/limited-editions/great-characters/mahatma-gandhi.html ), some geek delights with their innovative functional designs like the Pilot VPs, Conids , Snorkels etc. Then there is the elegant one - exception, black lacquer, sharp looking guilloche-engraved Platinum pin stripes, silver trim , solid , functional and holds its own in a sea of ostentatious snowflakes. I digress. Gandalf had arrived! Since he was still clad in grey (Medium nib), he was neatly packed and sent off the helpful elf’s at Newellco (I have written about their fantastic service before: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/292563-customer-support-and-after-sales-service-the-way-it-should-be/ ) for a stubborn change. While Gandalf was in the mines of Moria earning his badge, the rest of the fellowship did give me good company but the zoo keepers had to be summoned often to help contain an aforementioned hungry animal. Three weeks later another package is decimated (yes, this time I tore it into exactly 10 pieces), it’s from the Elves. Gandalf the white had re-joined the fellowship of the Ring. All hail the new white wizard with a stubby nib. If you are still reading this, I hear you mutter – Start the FµÇ%ing show, well hang on, Rome was not built in a day… wassit?. Let me take a détour from middle earth to extreme east, humour me this. There are show pieces that are immensely beautiful, delicate, ornate and often expensive. They are made explicitly for one purpose – display. Take for example the “For show only” deliberately made blunt Katana and Wakizashis, Legendary temper (of the steel kind), Masterful craftsmanship, elaborate sheath but doesn’t poke. The point is – what’s the point? A fountain pen is made to write, and writing is what makes it a pen. Unlike a Katana which is unsuitable for cutting veggies (Unless you like your salad with a dash of traditional Choji Oil) a good fountain pen could be used for both – cleaving short notes during meetings or a verbal diarrhoea like this one. Write it does, the exception, with aplomb if I may add. Every pen worth its nib writes, but we are not here to read a binary report are we? we are interested in the how, we are curious about on what all, we would like to know if this is a low slung super sports car that’s flip over a tarmac after encountering the slightest bump or it is a rock crawler that eats up the Rubicon-trail for breakfast ? Ladies and Gentlemen if I were to report that the Waterman Exception Night and Day with Platinum stripes and silver trim endowed with a Stub nib writes like a Lump of deep frozen soft butter sliding on a red-hot inclined mirror-polished steel plane, orRain drop rolling on a fresh lily pad, orMercury globules scuttling on flat shiny polished lens grade glass, orYour private data slipping out of a high-security databases/websites <sorry, couldn’t help>, orInsert your other favourite analogy for nib smoothness hereI would have to go sit in the corner with a dunce hat and plead guilty for spreading a blatant lie. Is it smooth? Plenty; Is it the smoothest? No, but not far from it either. The smoothest Stub Nib crown (right out the box without sending it off to a nib meister) though, goes to another of Waterman’s stable mate the Carene. Of course there are, I am sure many other factory stub-nib pens out there that are far smoother than the Carene, but my stable is small. Come to think of it, if my pen box were indeed a stable, a couple of sturdy studs, a cosy cow, a couple gallant goats and erm cheap-sheep etc. I digress. The Exception is more like a winter Olympics solo figure-skating champion who is practicing on a frozen-solid serene Siberian lake on a crispy bright winter morning under a pastel blue sky. Calm, composed absolutely sure about the moves, this champion we observe, apart from performing gravity and physics defying routines is whistling and humming a catchy tune, but one can still hear the blades cutting though the ice, the slight rustle when the titanium composite tipped steel, cuts through the cold crystal lattice. Hum it does, the exception nib, while it splices through paper floating on its single tone18K solid gold- Rhodium plated appendage. The hum adds to the experience, it is not a singing nib for sure, not like the Pavarotti-on-steroids Pelikan M-1000 Nib, no ma’am. This is more like a gentle young lady humming in the shower trying to recall a tune that her long lost grandmother sang to her as a lullaby when she was a toddler. I tried that once, the bathroom singing I mean and my neighbour croaked, this one still registered as croaked under mysterious circumstances. Unlike our Olympics champion on ice skates, the exception can’t spread its tines one bit. I understand from this very forum that the ancestors of the Exception could easily carry out that feat. So, flex is out, but does it at least have a spring to its tines? Not unless you use it as a crutch. One can feel the paper through the pen, slightly, just the way I like it. If one pays enough attention, you can feel the texture of the paper, the sensitive among us could distinguish between 60gm vs 90gm vs 120gm by just drawing a line blindfolded. A slightly wider line is rendered by the exception when compared to the Carene, but the Carene also renders the thinnest, Shading is better with the Exception though. There are other forces at play when judging line variation as we already know, for example the result and experience that you get when you take a single 90gm paper, place it on a smooth hard surface, say a glass table will be significantly different than writing on a padded book. When it comes to shading though, even with medium flow the exception is able to eke out enough shading to please the eye. Imagine if the nib is tuned to wet flow and one uses beautiful shading inks like the Iroshizuku line, the results could be ethereal. Now that we are in the flow business, the pen was tuned to mid flow by the elves at Newellco, so that it behaves well on business paper (read cheap – made for ball-points). I’ve tried it on various denominations from 60gm to 190 from different brands; Rhodias, laser-printer paper, post-its and funky fibrous Japanese paper, tissue paper at the dining table etc., not a skip in the beat. This pen turns out to be rock-crawler of the fountain pen world, perfect for business sojourns where you don’t know which paper you gotta ink (Think airports, immigration forms, tic-tac-toe on the back of the immigration form while waiting in the queue, customs declarations when carrying product samples, hotels receptions, dinner cheques, newspaper sudoku… etc etc ). As we all know, that there are multiple variables at play here some of which is determined by the user himself/herself, for example how much force does one put on the pen, the angle the nib, the way it is turned, speed of writing, writing-style, letter size, the grip and sometimes the stare as well, Oooo ya the stare; ok, not the stare, but you get the point… Now that we have been through the performance grind let’s get into the looks and details department, shall we? Handsome, exquisite, L'art nouveau, suprême de raffinement, extrêmement élégante … these are the words/phrases that come to mind (I can curse in French too). Trust me, I don’t know a word of French, I’m adding all this to make it look high-brow, or so I’m told. Although partial to dual-tone nibs, this Rhodium clad 18K affair shines in the company of O-so bah-uh-ti-full platinum pin-stripes and other Rhodium coated appointments. The nib has a globe motif with 12 longitudinal lines and 4 latitude lines. “Waterman Ideal” is etched on the nib to good effect. The size of the Nib when compared to the rest of the body is just perfect, in comparison to its stable mate Waterman elegance which erm., IMHO, is a tad hmm ‘Petite’ in the nib department. The “élégance” may work well with a “la petite robe noire” (LBD), but if I don one, onlookers retinae are guaranteed to be burnt and pretty much always chaos ensues; I am certified WMD – weapon of mass distress. I digress, on the other end of the spectrum though, you have pens that have spades attached to them, ladies and gentlemen let me introduce to the Namiki Emperor who is already sitting on Freud’s couch; I say no more. Twirl the nib to find a wholesome feed with jet black fins made of plastic (if plastic sounds ‘cheap’ to you, how about we use the name of its noble twin ‘precious resin’). Notice that the fins are more closely packed at the base of the nib and gradually transitions towards spare while the ridge grows in girth. This is in direct contrast to its no-fin pen-box-mate Parker Centennial Big Red with a 3B (new version). Somehow without taking the functionality into consideration the finned feed looks (IMHO of course) way better the Ski-pist-slope of the aforementioned Parker. The fins remind me of the enigmatic sand shark’s gills swimming through the inky blue translucent shallow waters. There is an “ST” and “35” imprint on the feed. Although I’m fairly sure that “ST” stands for Stub (Duh), the secret of “35” eludes me, maybe experts on this very site could help? My guess is though, that “35”indicates the feed length in millimetres. Let’s get back to the pin-stripes, shall we? Let me entertain you with an anecdote. Recently I happened to attend a high-profile meeting with a Japanese Conglomerate with the CTO sitting next to me. Usually these meetings with big boys are as entertaining as watching paint dry twice, I noticed that the notes-booklet on the table was made of good quality paper, so I whipped the Exception from my jacket and started doodling, err… making notes. The paint was not drying fast enough, the first page of the notebook was filled with doodles and as I was about to turn the nib to my face a gentle voice near my shoulder whispered in a very typical Japanese accent ‘Very nice pen’ . OK, I woke up, recovered from the stupor, and offered the gentlemen to have a look at it. A gentle bow ensued and in half a second later I see a high quality Schneider-Kreuznach 10X illuminated loupe come out of his pocket!! The stripes are inspected, then the nib, the cap, the stripes again. He stops, smiles and says ‘very precise, very beautiful’. I was half expecting him to give me the pen back, as I was already feeling nervous, the other half wanted to continue with the interaction as it was, way far better than watching the second coat of paint dehydrate. He then gets an optical cloth, shows it to me and says ‘may I?’, I was part offended, part intrigued , part WTH, since it took too long for the words to come out, the best I thought was to do is bow, which I did. He proceeds to polish one facet of the lacquer coated brass body and out comes the loupe again. He takes his time and says ‘very many layers, transparent, high quality, very nice, German?’ I wanted to say French but, I just said no. So he summarized the exception for me. Beautiful, Precision engineering, can be passed on to the next gen. He did ask for the maker of the pen later, I am sure a takeover is being planned as you read. Honestly the guillochée does it for me, just look at it. It exudes precision, attention to detail, craftsmanship and it stood the10X multi-element colour-corrected illuminated loupe inspection by a Japanese OCD CTO. It looks absolutely stunning and deflects the light in its characteristic light-shade-light which takes me back to the lab where as a young un I was staring at newton’s rings, agog at the beauty of interference of light. This is precisely the feeling you get when you look at the pattern, it is just mesmerising. Even my camera sensor goes into a tizzy displaying moiré in certain angles, despite the AA filer, so go figure. Did I mention the barrel was square-ish? No? Oh, yes it is and did I also forget to mention that the barrel and the nib-unit connects via bayonet mechanism/mount? The “baïonnette mount” Very similar to the D/SLR or for that matter a range-finder lens mount, (not the M42 of course). More info here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayonet_mount . This way the square-ish joint is never misaligned. Simple but very effective engineering. The Barrel at the bayonet end tapers from the big square with each side measuring 1.32mm into a smaller square of 9.9mm. The barrel is released from the nib unit by a simple anti-clock wise twist; amusingly this works even with the cap on, so one can change the cartridge without removing the cap. The barrel plugs back into the nib-unit with a very reassuring click, neat. As you may notice, only 2 (opposing) sides of the barrel receive the guillochée treatment, the other two are beautiful deep translucent black lacquer. The smaller end of the barrel is crowned with mirror polished cabochon which extends on the barrel by 3.7mm. I’d wax eloquent about how much attention to detail has been bestowed on this, but since eloquence not in my (g)jeans, and I’ve run out of wax, I’ll let these pictures speak. The cap needs its own chapter, really. Not only does it get as much attention to detail as the barrel and nib unit, it looks gorgeous, the characteristic waterman split section clip is spring loaded, a spring that holds the weight of the pen. In fact this is the only pen among the full size full weight variety that scored full marks in my upside-down clip test. The test is simple, take a plain old A4 laser printer paper, clip the pen onto it. Make sure that pen is filled to its maximum capacity with ink. Now turn the paper + pen upside down. Give it a few short vertical nudges. Now repeat the test with a thin, smooth nylon cloth. If the pen falls off: fail. If the pen moves down by more than a 10mm : fail. If of course the pen holds its ground and doesn’t budge: pass. What’s the point of this test, you ask: simple, I don’t want my pens to fly off just because I bent over to pick a fallen object. Till now the pens that have failed the test miserably are the Lamy 2000 steel, geez come on LAMY, when you change from Makrolon to Steel, you ought to upgrade the spring as well; another culprit that funnily enough also comes from the stable of LAMY is their LAMY 2000 Titanium ball point (I use ball points for tactical reasons, not much for writing). Hell, the 2K-steel falls of even if there is no ink in the barrel! Function / form, my flabby old hairy gluteus maximus. I digress. The Exception’s cap also gets the beautiful guillochée treatment similar to the barrel. If you observe closely there is a “P” sitting over a “W” inside a square on the clip. Does it stand for Paris, Waterman? Any pointers? The cap also has two bands, one on top and the other, bottom. On the bottom band, there is a precision engraving: “FRANCE”. The band on the cap match the bands on the barrel in sheen, texture, finish and lustre. Surprise surprise, the cap has a serial number on it ! On another note, the cap can be easily disassembled just with a screw driver. Some images for your entertainment follow. If you are adamant poster, this pen is bad news. No sir/ma’am, this won’t post, unless one wants to justify the action by saying: “But I got big hands bro, and webbed feet and I wear a size 200 shoe” Ah, Yes I see that you are holding “understanding insecurity – for dummies” in your armpit, please join the Namiki Emperor on the couch. Jokes apart, no, seriously, the balance of the pen goes for a toss if used posted, the cap is heavy and it shows. The pen sans the cap is no push over either, the barrel weighs a substantial amount but it is not ungainly. Like one of those long distance adventure bikes, which look imposing and are bloody heavy until you ride one. Once on the bike, as the wheels roll, the bike disappears, the wind caresses your skin, and vast wide landscape beckons, you are no longer counting miles, but enjoying your smiles. The exception does it to you, poetry ensues, or an essay or maybe another review like this. Like a katana which is usually heavy (unless you have trained for years), if you know how to wield it, it’ll dance with you else you’ll end up in a bloody mess. That rounds up the exception as well, which tips the scales over 55 grams. Yes, this review was hand-written and then typed, yes including the photographs, if you have to ask. No, really, just the review. If you are an over-writer or if you happen to hold you pen like a banana about to be eaten, then the square-ish nib section could pose a problem. The nib section gently tapers from square from the baïonnette section to a circle at the nib-end. Since I hold pens with a tripod grip, this doesn’t bother me; in fact the grip feels very natural, even better than the regular round ones. The Exception is no exception when it comes to filling mechanism; it uses a standard cartridge/converter system and takes Waterman Cartridges and Converters. The interesting bit is that when the pen came back after the nib exchange, an additional converter was included, nice. Although I’m biased towards integral filling systems which use the barrel itself as a container (pistons/bulk-fillers/snorkels etc) this somehow works for the exception. I carry my ink and eye-dropper and just refill the cartridge. Another thing to report for people who travel, this pen has yet to embarrass me by leaking during inter/continental flights. I cross my tines… I mean fingers. The cap fits securely on the pen with a reassuring click. The cap can be operated single-handed, an advantage in many an occasion, be it at airports, hospitals, hotel lobbies, taxis, courts, farms any place where your non-writing arm/hand is engaged in holding luggage, hands, pigs, Katanas etc. Although the process of capping in itself is quite assuring, it is not the best. I assure you it is secure, but the feeling could be better. If you really want to feel the assurance, try Legolas, I mean Shaeffer Targa. The difference is undeniable. So, what do we have here? A 10/10 ? Grail-pen, Unobtainium, Krypton? None of it, sorry. Let me put it this way, I use it regularly, it disappears after the first stroke. It brings a broad smile to my f-ugly face when it’s writing or just sitting pretty in my jacket. That’s all I need and want… YMMV. Here are is a couple of questions for you Let us know your fellowship of the ring , which pen would you choose to which character and whyThis is my first review on fpn, so don’t be gentle, get the bricks and rotten tomatoes out, I like to learn fastYour view on picture-to-words ratio - Less/enough/too-much/OTTYour view on picture qualityThanks for reading and hope it was useful -Dance Of Light
  19. For those who are interested in the history of fountain pens, you are undoubtedly familiar with The American Stationer. This was the major trade publication for the stationery and fancy goods trade from the 1870's through the 1920's. The amount of information from the articles and advertisements is invaluable to researchers and the merely curious. For a while we had some big gaps, and some important ones. Recently we saw the critical 1900-1901 issues digitized, but there are still about a dozen missing volumes. (after 1880, all years were bound into two volumes, one for Jan-Jun, one for July-Dec). I was recently able to get a bound copy of one of these missing volumes, vol. 70, from the second half of 1911. I'm in the process of exploring options for getting it scanned and OCR's so that it can be added to the list of online versions of this critical resource. I received the volume in the mail yesterday all the way from Germany. Yes, it was in Germany. It's in great condition. I took a few quick snapshots with my iPhone on my dining room table last night to send to a possible collaborator and the images are so fun I couldn't resist sharing them with y'all. These aren't great scans, but they give you an idea of what the ads are like. The real surprise were the color inserts. I've found three so far: one for Hardtmuth pencils, one for Hardtmuth tracing paper and one for Waterman pens. These are gorgeous, full-page ads. The Hardtmuth pencil one in particular has a ton of color and even shiny silver highlights. Anyway, here are a few ads from 1911.
  20. 82Greg

    Waterman Flask

    I understand during Prohibition, Waterman made a pen larger than the 58. Further, for some of these large pens, the factory converted them to a flask. Does anyone know the name of the large pen? The 'A20' seems to come to mind, but I'd like to be sure. Does anyone have pictures of the factory flask conversion?
  21. Hi everyone! I have a pen that writes too wet with Aurora Black and too dry with Waterman Black, so I am looking for an ink whose wetness is somewhere in between, although a bit closer to Aurora Black in terms of wetness. Also, if it is a really dark black that's a plus! Thank you all very much in advance!
  22. bbs

    Amazon Prime Day

    There's a black gold-trim Waterman Expert on the UK site for £34.80 for any Amazon Prime members.
  23. Hi gang, Some of you may remember me as Bonhams Auctioneers former penman-in-chief. Well, Bonhams is out of the pen business and I've moved on to San Francisco's PBA Galleries. We're launching our debut Fine Pens sale on Thursday, July 19th at 11:00 am PST. Here's a link to the online sale listings: https://www.pbagalle...catalog/id/454/ Here's a link to the digital version of the print catalogue with flip-thru pages: http://pbagalleries.com/content/ecat/648/index.html The sale features 361 lots of great modern and vintage pens. I've tried to include a broad range of pens to suit various budgets, and I hope that many of you will find treasures to enhance your collections! Our next sale will be on December 6th, and we're accepting consignments now. You can contact me at: ivan@pbagalleries.com. I do hope it's ok to post this here (I used to post notices for Bonhams' sales here without incident). Cheers, Ivan Ivan Briggs Director of Fine Pens and Comics
  24. Hi gang, Some of you may remember me as Bonhams Auctioneers former penman-in-chief. Well, I've moved on to San Francisco's PBA Galleries, and we're launching our debut Fine Pens sale on Thursday, July 19th at 11:00 am PST. Here's a link to the online sale listings: https://www.pbagalleries.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/454/ The catalogue goes to press today and will be mailed shortly. It's a fairly big sale, 361 lots, including many modern and vintage Montblancs; rare vintage eyedroppers from Waterman, Parker, Aiken Lambert, Edward Todd and others; limited edition Montegrappas, Namikis, Stipulas, OMAS, Sheaffers and more. As a big personal fan of Henry Simpole's wonderful creations, I'm especially pleased to offer four rare Simpole overlay pens. Our buyer's premium is 20%, with a 1% discount for cash or cash-equivalent payments (Bonhams premium was 25%, no discounts). Definitely factor the buyer's premium into your bid amounts! There's no credit card maximum (Bonhams max was $25K). You can register to bid on our website (the process is simple), and you can bid online, in person, by phone or by absentee bid. I've tried to include a broad range of pens to suit various budgets, and I hope that many of you will find treasures to enhance your collections! Our next sale will be on December 6th, and we're accepting consignments now. You can contact me at: ivan@pbagalleries.com. Cheers, Ivan Ivan Briggs Director of Fine Pens and Comics PBA Galleries Pictured: HENRY SIMPOLE: Tendril Sterling Silver Filigree Limited Edition Fountain Pen: Premiere Example. Estimate: $1000-1500 The Tendril's wonderfully elaborate openwork filigree was inspired by a Japanese silver overlay pen that Mr. Simpole saw in a 1990s auction catalogue. The filigree is overlaid on a Conway Stewart body. 160mm. Broad 18K gold Conway Stewart nib. Outer box, lacquered wood display box lined in red velvet and cream satin, illustrated leaflet, signed limitation certificate. Limited Edition: No. 1 of only 6 examples made. Excellent condition, not inked. Henry Simpole is the consummate penmaker's penmaker, and his overlay pens are among the very best limited edition writing instruments of the modern era. Each of his designs is handcrafted in small numbers to the most exacting standards, and they perfectly blend the superior aesthetics of the eyedropper era with the advanced materials and filling technology of the present day. Mr. Simpole's pens are exceedingly difficult to obtain on the secondary market, and the few examples offered in this sale represent a rare opportunity for collectors to obtain his legendary handiwork.
  25. mitarik

    What Pen Is This?

    Just acquired this pen yesterday. I am curious about the model. The shop owner could not tell me the name of this particular model. It looks very similar to Waterman Executive, and Gentleman but not quite. The nib seems to be a steel one.





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