Jump to content

Hello From The Monterey Bay


spillproof

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone my name is Dave aka Spillproof.

 

I'm a 43 year-old wildlife biologist living in the Monterey Bay (Seaside), Caifornia. I'm not married but I do have a 5 year old border collie/belgian malinois mix named Coyote that tries to keep me in line.

 

I wanted to say "Thank You" to all the members and admin here at FPN. I've been lurking for a few months "reseraching" my first big-boy pen and finally committed to a purchase yesterday.

 

There is a local B&M in Carmel named Bittner Joy of Fine Writing.

The shop specializes in very high-end pens, the type I could never afford, but since the owner is a friend-of-a-friend I was invited to try them all.

And I did ;-) It took me three visits but I can now say I've tried just about every dream pen, and I learned a TON in the process. One thing I learned is that I have champage taste and a Budweiser budget.

 

My realistic budget was "around $250."

I ended up buying a Visconti Opera Club LE "Purple Nights" with a Dreamtouch 24k/Palladium nib (medium).

It was "on sale" for about half-off - how could I resist, right?

While there I also picked up a couple of Rhodia pads and some Iroshizuku Amairo ink.

Time to practice.

 

 

So now that I actually have a "fancy" pen (not just my dads old "barely user grade" Parker51 that needs a new nib), I figure I had better join the ranks.


Looking forward to "meeting" everyone.

 

Thanks!

Dave

Edited by spillproof
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 25
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • spillproof

    8

  • pen2paper

    2

  • ac12

    2

  • dms525

    1

Hello Dave and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

PAKMAN

minibanner.gif                                    Vanness-world-final.png.c1b120b90855ce70a8fd70dd342ebc00.png

                         My Favorite Pen Restorer                                             My Favorite Pen Store

                                                                                                                                Vanness Pens - Selling Online!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi and welcome to FPN

 

Good choice there, the Visconti Opera Club is a very good pen..

Enjoy your pen, enjoy the forum

 

 

D.ick

~

KEEP SAFE, WEAR A MASK, KEEP A DISTANCE.

Freedom exists by virtue of self limitation.

~

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome, Dave !

 

I am glad you made good use of $250 and did not get stuck with a lowly Parker 51. Go slowly in fountain pen acquisition.

Enjoy each one. I can no longer afford Budweiser. Gonna sell a kidney. :D

Edited by Sasha Royale

Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.
Zum Augenblicke dürft ich sagen:
Verweile doch, du bist so schön !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome, Dave !

 

I am glad you made good use of $250 and did not get stuck with a lowly Parker 51. Go slowly in fountain pen acquisition.

Enjoy each one. I can no longer afford Budweiser. Gonna sell a kidney. :D

 

LOL

Parker 51's are lovely pens, just not my particular "specimen." It pretty much needed replacement ;-)

 

I have a few conflicting "hobbies" and have to rotate through my various Acquisition Disorders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to FPN! :)

Pelikan 140 EF | Pelikan 140 OBB | Pelikan M205 0.4mm stub | Pilot Custom Heritage 912 PO | Pilot Metropolitan M | TWSBI 580 EF | Waterman 52 1/2v

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to FPN! :W2FPN:


I am glad that you joined us today!


Please feel free to ask us anything about fountain pens and inks.


Please enjoy the forum,


-William S. Park


“My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My hand on a pen does. A fountain pen, of course. Ball-point pens are only good for filling out forms on a plane. - Graham Greene

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Dave. Greetings from a neighbor up north in Mendocino county and a warm welcome to FPN. It's great to have you here with us.

"Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause." - Gandhi -

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey there Dave,

I am up on the Elkhorn Slough, just in from Moss Landing. Welcome to here. If you are in Santa Cruz or Capitola, check out Palace Arts for Rhoda notebooks at easier prices than Bittner's. Have you met Bob at Bittners? Great guy, loves to talk pens, and a great source of information and help. They also have some inks and pens, with the downtown Santa Cruz having a larger selection. Nothing as nice as Bittner's, but sometimes they have a good deal on "last" pens. I saw a Vanishing Point there last year for $60. Maybe sometime could do a meetup and play with pens/ink. Cheers!

Some people say they march to a different drummer. Me? I hear bagpipes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Andrew. l'm in Seaside now but I've lived in Prunedale (Strawberry Rd. off Elkhorn Slough) and Santa Cruz.

 

I get up to SC/Capitola pretty regularly and will stop by Palace Arts the next time I'm there - thanks for the reminder!

Yes I've met Bob and his wife, and Jorge. All of the folks at the shop have been very helpful and seem happy to fill up pens.

I'm sure I'll visit frequently- there's a dog beach in Carmel so Coyote let's me go there ;-)

 

As far as playing with pens and ink goes, I have little to share, but I imagine that will be changing...rapidly.

I did buy some Yama-Budo today.

 

 

Hey there Dave,

I am up on the Elkhorn Slough, just in from Moss Landing. Welcome to here. If you are in Santa Cruz or Capitola, check out Palace Arts for Rhoda notebooks at easier prices than Bittner's. Have you met Bob at Bittners? Great guy, loves to talk pens, and a great source of information and help. They also have some inks and pens, with the downtown Santa Cruz having a larger selection. Nothing as nice as Bittner's, but sometimes they have a good deal on "last" pens. I saw a Vanishing Point there last year for $60. Maybe sometime could do a meetup and play with pens/ink. Cheers!

Edited by spillproof
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Dave... :W2FPN: ...

 

'Champage taste and a Budweiser budget'...I think a few of us here know that feeling! :thumbup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Dave.

 

Welcome to FPN!

 

Seaside had a lot more wild life before Fort Ord was shut down. :lticaptd:

The price of temptation notwithstanding, you are fortunate to have a real pen shop so accessible. I'm envious. And the general neighborhood ain't too shabby, either.

 

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome Dave!

 

Enjoy the "slippery slope" of pens, ink and paper!

 

Thanks to Andrew C on the Palace Arts recommendation. I do visit my daughter in Santa Cruz/Capitola once a year and will visit the store next time.

 

Enjoy your Visconti!

 

Pam

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome

And don't miss the SF Pen Show up in the Bay Area next month August 22-24, 2014

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/262829-2014-san-francisco-pen-show/

 

Also there is Peyton Street Pens in Santa Cruz

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Dave.

 

Welcome to FPN!

 

Seaside had a lot more wild life before Fort Ord was shut down. :lticaptd:

 

Indeed. "The Former Ft. Ord" is the base of a lot of the wildlife work I do. Pun intended.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...