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Grail Pens 2014


Guest Ray Cornett

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Guest Ray Cornett

I was thinking it might be good to have people do their grail pen posts in one area. I wish there was a main major post section for them myself.

 

What us your grail pen? Old or new does not matter.

 

Just the other day a friend sent me her grandmothers Waterman 452 with sterling silver filigree overlay to get working again. Basically I just need to replace the sac once I get it open and that's it.

Along with this pen she sent me a Wahl Eversharp Doric with a #6 adjustable nib and the safety ink shut off button mechanism, as well as a Waterman 512 solid 14k gold cap and barrel overlay but missing the clip, just to rivet holes where it once was. I had seen both of these pens before and coveted then in a big way, I had no idea she was sending other pens so, it was awesome just to have them in my hands to see what they looked like and how they felt in my hand. A couple days after she sent them to me we were exchanging emails and she said I could have both of them. I nearly fell off my chair and jumped out of my skin. Both have been polished to look near new. The Doric needs an overhaul and the Waterman needs a clip and new sac. All of which but the cap will be in the works soon.

Photos were taken before being cleaned/polished.

post-109776-0-96687200-1394096251_thumb.jpg

Edited by Ray Cornett
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We've had a few grail threads, but this forum is huge and continually growing, and tastes change over the years, so I don't mind - I like to see how views develop and change. Peoples' views of what a grail is are very different and important to them in individual ways. It's always interesting.

 

However, I have found my grails and no longer search. I used to think a grail pen would be of a certain manufacturer model, maybe modern or maybe vintage as influenced by others' thoughts, and it might speak of some reminder in my past or just be something new and different. But then, an opportunity came for me to have custom maki-e pens made for me by one of the Danitrio masters in Japan. I didn't commission them as grails in my mind at the time, but as very sentimental works inspired by my family and life events, these were pens that meant something to me, and only me - no one else has them, they are mine alone. When I received them, it was then I realized I truly had my grail pens, and all other pens became objects of compulsion and lust. My grails are objects of inspiration in writing - a place I like to be - and reminders of family and completely sentimental, and the cost was not even an afterthought. Someone else might look at my grail pens and say, "eeeeeoooowwww," and comment it was money poorly spent on "just a pen." I look at these pens and see memories and love and family, and not a single cent do I regret.

 

So, no grails for me in 2014 (or any other year). Now, I did give into the compulsion and lust, and picked up a Danitrio Takumi in Tame-Nuri Shu-Dame. I do enjoy Danitrio pens. I also picked up a Platinum 3776 Century in Bourgogne after being swayed by many a post, and added to my Pilot Vanishing Point set with a Raden pen. And, I custom ordered a pen through Brian Gray/Edison Pen in collaboration with Ernest Shin/Hakumin. The Takumi and the Edison/Hakumin will take some time to land in my hands. With that, I think I am done for 2014, at least. :)

 

Grail? What are these "grail pens" you speak of?

Scribere est agere.

To write is to act.

___________________________

Danitrio Fellowship

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If you want one thread then putting a year in the thread title probably isn't the wisest as new forum members who join post 2014 will not want to post in this thread.

My Collection: Montblanc Writers Edition: Hemingway, Christie, Wilde, Voltaire, Dumas, Dostoevsky, Poe, Proust, Schiller, Dickens, Fitzgerald (set), Verne, Kafka, Cervantes, Woolf, Faulkner, Shaw, Mann, Twain, Collodi, Swift, Balzac, Defoe, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Saint-Exupery, Homer & Kipling. Montblanc Einstein (3,000) FP. Montblanc Heritage 1912 Resin FP. Montblanc Starwalker Resin: FP/BP/MP. Montblanc Traveller FP.

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You have a very good friend, Ray - those are lovely pens and it is very very cool that they were also pens that you had wanted but perhaps never expected to have.

 

I haven't chosen any particular grail pen as yet, I am still trying to figure out exactly what the characteristics of such a pen might be. I have some pens on my wish list that are way out of my reach, such as a Nakaya Briarwood pen, but it has a CC filling system - such a shame for such a lovely pen, IMHO - and at this point I am thinking that my grail pen has to have a more interesting fill system, a piston fill system perhaps, so the Nakaya is out. So maybe my grail pen is a vintage Pelikan in tortoise, another of the pens on my wish list. And I have yet to explore all of the nib options available, so I haven't determined what nib should be on my grail pen. My grail pen will probably end up being some sort of Frakenpen. :D

 

I look forward to seeing what other folks have at the top of their lists - especially those who are lucky enough to have only one pen on that list, instead of dozens like mine!

 

Holly

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Maybe an odd choice, but I want to find a good condition black Shaeffer Flat Top OS. I've been into Sheaffers lately. Love those rigid fine nibs. A pen from before 1930 would be just flat out cool.

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The MB WE Balzac and may be the next one depending on what it is ;)

A people can be great withouth a great pen but a people who love great pens is surely a great people too...

Pens owned actually: MB 146 EF;Pelikan M200 SE Clear Demonstrator 2012 B;Parker 17 EF;Parker 51 EF;Waterman Expert II M,Waterman Hemisphere M;Waterman Carene F and Stub;Pilot Justus 95 F.

 

Nearly owned: MB 149 B(Circa 2002);Conway Stewart Belliver LE bracket Brown IB.

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I don't have a grail pen per se, but I have a grail process, viz. locating vintage pens 'in the wild' and restoring them. So far my skills are pretty basic, but I'm enjoying it so much that I am confident that no new or already-restored pen will top its results.

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The MB WE Balzac and may be the next one depending on what it is ;)

The writers edition 2014 will be Daniel Defoe. Sorry I don't have picture as montblanc said it was not allowed to take pictures.

 

BTW my grail pen 2014 is the MB meisterstück classique as I have already bought the MB Leonardo :D

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trying to search Google to see if there even are any. but if they exist a whale ivory scrimshaw.

Any OD green with a military clip.

non repo J. F. Kennedy and R. W. Reagan fountain pens.

I would need to look over the MontBlanc specials to see if there are any i would want.

and there may be others i do not know about.

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My grail pen growing up was a midnight blue Parker 51 aerometric. I bought that in 1970 after college. Every Parker 51 I bought in succeeding years brought back the same excitement. I think it is still my grail pen, and I still have that first one, carrying it ever day along with my MB 144 and 164 ballpoint.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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It's fun to read about people's grail pens; there can never be too many threads on the topic :) It's sweet to hear about the memories that are attached to your pens, kiavonne.

For me the grail pens are more about "compulsion and lust", as you perfectly put it. Every pen I've gotten so far seems to be a 'grail pen', but my grail pens for 2014 are: a Montblanc 146 from the 70's or 80's and a Delta Rediscover Pompeii c/c or rb. I may not get any or all of them in 2014, since I'm into Pelikans now, but they're on the list.

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Not really'Grail' pens, but if I can sumgai a Parker T1 or a 1930's parker 25 jack knife ...

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Probably the highest up on my Grail Pen list is a Nakaya, particularly a Decapod Twist Cigar in Ao-Tamenuri, cuz it just looks so cool. However, I may never be able to get one, cuz that is quite the hefty price tag (though I know it would be worth it). I do have some interest in getting a Homo Sapiens, cuz I think the whole "made out of lava rock" thing is awesome, and I also think the Visconti Divina Desert Springs looks very cool. But neither of those is a big priority. And someday I may get a Pelikan M800, because I really love Pelikan pens, but I did just order an M600. So these are all "maybe someday" pens that I'm not particularly saving up for. I've got 3 pens on my "will obtain ASAP" list, but I have to be done for a while after that!

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Ray, your Waterman must be a 512PSF, if so it was made no later than 1917.

 

My grail is a Waterman 420 with a stub nib. And while I'm dreaming I'd like a pony.

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Not really'Grail' pens, but if I can sumgai a Parker T1 or a 1930's parker 25 jack knife ...

I don't exactly have a grail pen, but I kinda want a MB 149 and if I can sumgai one....

@arts_nibs

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I can honestly say that I have no grail pens.

 

I have either bought all the pens that drew me to them, or made the judgement that my attraction to them did not warrant the price asked for them and then erased them from my list of wishes.

Bill Spohn

Vancouver BC

"Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence"

 

Robert Fripp

https://www.rhodoworld.com/fountain-pens.html

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My grail pen was a Parker 51 Flighter. I got one a couple of years ago for a very good price on ebay (very clean, close to mint, fourth quarter '49 manufacture, broad nib). Right not the only thing that really intrigues me is Pelikan 100 tortoise, or perhaps a Pelikan 800, but both are a bit pricy.

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I looked at pens for a year, trying to decide which pen had grailish qualities. I am certainly not an obsessive completist in fountain pens; I save that madness for a tiny subset of obscure art history books. So my search was rather casual, until I saw a pen that just looked perfect. I asked about it here, very new to this site, and some cool guy told me that there was one on sale RIGHT THEN on a Martini auction, in Europe.

 

I plunged in, very nervous about the pen as well as the auction system. It all worked out fine, got the pen in 2 days via FedEx. All grail desires fulfilled. Montegrappa solid silver big Reminiscence, octagonal, Greek key engraving, fabulous F nib. +/- $400.

 

It was all over so quickly, from finding to grail to in my hand. But I do know the feeling. So glad I found it, as I don't have to become more obsessive and I can just enjoy myself.

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For me the idea of a grail pen is a bit multifaceted. My first grail pen was the first pen i purchased; my Pilot Custom 823 F nib. That is currently my only pen and I love it.

My next grail pen splits two ways. The 823 taught me that a pen could be both more functional or beautiful. In light of that I am hopefully going to be able to get my next to grails in the next two months or so; a Pilot VP in yellow with a F nib and a a Nakaya Long Cigar in either black-over-red, unpolished shu, or polished shu with a SF nib.

 

My medium-term grail is a Nakya Long Cigar in the black-over-red stone finish.

 

My longer-term grail is a Nakya Dorsal Fin 2 in silver and black stone finish.

 

My before I die grail is a set of two Nakya Long Cigars, perhaps thicker versions like the 17mm portable, with custom maki-e. The motif I want is a traditional waterfall shrine with perhaps a human figure or crane. One pen will be in full color with every maki-e technique the artist wants used to make a masterpiece, no cost barrier. The other will have an identical motif, but instead I want it to look like a traditional Japanese ink painting: black and red on cream. I want the two pens in a custom lacquer box with the same design and writing a Nakaya's normal softwood box. I fully expect all of that to cost me $15-40k.

Basically I want a lot of Nakaya's. :lol:

http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af283/Runnin_Ute/fpn_1424623518__super_pinks-bottle%20resized_zps9ihtoixe.png

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I already own my grail pen. But it doesn't stop me from filling in the "holes" in my humble collection.

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