What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[Karmachanic]

11 hours ago, Merrick said:

This feels indistinguishable from steel nibs from the same manufacturer

 

A whisper of 10,000 wet/dry on the tipping will add a touch of Sailor like feedback. Hold the paper in hand and give the tipping a gentle flick. Test, and repeat if required.

[Surlyprof]

One of my favorite pens is my medium Lamy 2000.  I like it so much that I always wanted a second one to have it in 2 different color options all of the time.  Endless Pens has the 2000 marked down right now by 25% in their doubledrop section this month (which adds an additional discount).  At $125 for a $279 pen, I just couldn’t NOT buy my second medium Lamy 2000!

[chromantic]

Just ordered an early 50's Pelikan 400 Brown Tortoise

[Paul-in-SF]

Today, I decided to go for a pen at auction on eBay that was on my watch list (if that counts as impulsive). Mine was the only bid, so I may have overpaid for it. It is a Montblanc LE Friedrich Schiller Writers pen. It has a black body and section, an extra gold band at the piston knob, and a cap that is a sort of brown marbled color. The nib is possibly a Fine nib, although the seller is not sure. It comes with no accoutrements like the usual several layers of boxes, and that's fine with me. I imagine that the lack of boxes plus the fact that the seller has not tested it to see if it works may account for the relatively low minimum bid and the lack of other bidders. I'll just have to wait and see what I get.

[Arthur Pewty]

On 5/21/2024 at 12:19 AM, deuter said:

What does the texture feel like? Does it feel like cloth or lacquer?

Also what does it roughly weigh?

Does it look matte or glossy finish?

The pen has just arrived, a week ahead of schedule. Now I can try to answer your questions.

 

What you feel is the smooth little bumps of the raised dots, not the texture of the underlying material, which is not glossy. I don't have a suitable scale, so I can only compare the weight to some of my other pens. It's not as massive as a Jinhao 159 or a Cross C-series, closer to a Waterman Exception or a Lamy Studio.

 

The nib is the same new simplified Sailor design as the King of Pen I got a few weeks ago. Is that where Sailor is headed these days?

[Penguincollector]

On 5/24/2024 at 1:20 PM, JonSzanto said:

When you have mini-focus areas in a collection, even those can branch: I like to collect Moore pens, and a small number of them came in unusual celluloid... which kept me looking at other pens that were similar. I had a couple of Cascade pens that seem to be made from the same basic material but were different colors. I just jumped on the middle Cascade pen on the left group of three because you'll notice it is the exact same celluloid as the middle Moore on the right, the only identical multi-color-stripe stuff I've found. But I'll keep hunting - *another* sub-focus!

 

  Oh wow, the way the stripes catch the light is amazing! The blue Moore is the stuff dreams are made of. 😍   Are any of these Fingertip nib models? 

[JonSzanto]

54 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

Oh wow, the way the stripes catch the light is amazing! The blue Moore is the stuff dreams are made of. 😍   Are any of these Fingertip nib models? 

 

No, none of these are, as those models came later. I'll be honest: I have just around 100 Moore pens, and only one "Fingertip" model... because for some reason, the look of that thing creeps me out! 🤣 To be well-rounded, I have to have at least one example because it was an important development for the company, and may have been the move that sunk them. More than more Moore pens, I'd give my eyeteeth for catalogs in the 30s-40s, but I have a feeling they may not have been deep into documentation at that point.

 

Eh, babble babble, sorry. Thanks for enjoying them.

[sebastel23]

Just returned from a short trip to Bergamo (northern Italy, home of the remarkable football team Atalante). In a mom-and-pop-style shop located in citta bassa, I stumbled across an Aurora Talentum in black resin with chrome accents. At a 20% discount, I simply had to take it with me. Fortunately, my plastic money worked. Didn't have enough cash with me.

 

 

 

 

 

It's a cartridge/converter pen, and to my surprise, Parker cartridges seem to fit. (came with two Aurora cartidges, and a converter)

After a disappointing Visconti a few years ago (bought in equally disappointing Firenze), this seems to be more the like I like.

 

Side note: it comes in a funnily voluminous cardboard box, disguised as wood by the use of cheaply printed paper. Kind of hilarious, considering how nice the pen is. 

 

cheers,

sebastian

 

[Penguincollector]

7 hours ago, JonSzanto said:

 

No, none of these are, as those models came later. I'll be honest: I have just around 100 Moore pens, and only one "Fingertip" model... because for some reason, the look of that thing creeps me out! 🤣 To be well-rounded, I have to have at least one example because it was an important development for the company, and may have been the move that sunk them. More than more Moore pens, I'd give my eyeteeth for catalogs in the 30s-40s, but I have a feeling they may not have been deep into documentation at that point.

 

Eh, babble babble, sorry. Thanks for enjoying them.

 

  I understand being creeped out by random things- I have Trypophobia and can’t bear to look at holey objects. I hope you find a catalog one day. 

[alexwi]

9 hours ago, JonSzanto said:

No, none of these are, as those models came later. I'll be honest: I have just around 100 Moore pens, and only one "Fingertip" model... because for some reason, the look of that thing creeps me out! 🤣

 

For those who are curious, here's the Fingertip: https://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Moore/MooreFingertip.htm

 

The fingertip model reminds me of Sheaffer's Triumph, which I don't like at all.

There are pens whose appearance I dislike with a passion (Parker 21/51), but never to the extent to creep me out. Very interesting!

 

On the other hand, there are two pen families I can think of that I wasn't crazy about and ended up growing on me - the Parker 45 and Montblanc's 22x family.

 

Alex

[JonSzanto]

1 hour ago, alexwi said:

The fingertip model reminds me of Sheaffer's Triumph, which I don't like at all.

 

Thanks for the link to the FT pens, for those who haven't seen them. On the other hand, I love all variations on the Sheaffer Triumph nib, from the first Imperials all the way through the Snorkel variants. They never even come close to the anthropomorphic qualities of the Moore pen that drives me away. In general, Moore suffered because they didn't have as skilled a design team as the bigger pen companies, and while them made some quite handsome pens, they were always a step or two behind trends, not catching on to the changes in shape and style of pens fast enough to increase their market share. It's a shame, but it's a business, too.

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, alexwi said:

 

For those who are curious, here's the Fingertip: https://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Moore/MooreFingertip.htm

 

The fingertip model reminds me of Sheaffer's Triumph, which I don't like at all.

There are pens whose appearance I dislike with a passion (Parker 21/51), but never to the extent to creep me out. Very interesting!

 

On the other hand, there are two pen families I can think of that I wasn't crazy about and ended up growing on me - the Parker 45 and Montblanc's 22x family.

 

Alex

Thank you for the link. I'm completely unfamiliar with American pens and their makers. 

[Arthur Pewty]

I just took a  blind leap and bought this pen online. It was listed as a Moster Penkala. The nib says ISCO RIO. So what did I just buy?

[Merrick]

I picked up a Sailor Pro Gear with 21k F nib. I have two 1911s and I’ve always preferred the form factor of the Pro Gear with the flat finials  but this was my first chance to get one (outside of a Pro Gear Realo I had briefly that I returned because the piston backweighted it too heavily). 
 

I was hesitant to get the F nib because I had tried an EF 14k Sailor nib and hated it, so much feedback that it felt scratchy to me. However this 21k F is glorious! It’s smooth and the feedback is significant but not at all scratchy like the 14k EF I tried. It’s so precise as well, I think it may end up being my favorite regular sized Sailor nib. 

[deuter]

4 hours ago, Merrick said:

I picked up a Sailor Pro Gear with 21k F nib. I have two 1911s and I’ve always preferred the form factor of the Pro Gear with the flat finials  but this was my first chance to get one (outside of a Pro Gear Realo I had briefly that I returned because the piston backweighted it too heavily). 
 

I was hesitant to get the F nib because I had tried an EF 14k Sailor nib and hated it, so much feedback that it felt scratchy to me. However this 21k F is glorious! It’s smooth and the feedback is significant but not at all scratchy like the 14k EF I tried. It’s so precise as well, I think it may end up being my favorite regular sized Sailor nib. 

That is awesome , I want to get an extra fine Sailor some day.

[JonSzanto]

I enjoy the little side paths that collecting vintage pens can take you strolling down. I happen to love tortoiseshell material, and a year or two, a pen caught my eye that I didn't recognize. It turned out to be a short-lived Sailor model from the early 1990s called the Magellan. I picked it up right away.

 

I looked to my go-to for Japanese pen info, Andreas Lambrou's "Fountain Pens of Japan". Sure enough, there were a few examples shown. The pens were hand-made, starting in 1992, by one artisan, Hiroshi Fujimoto of Long Products. These were produced for the export market and featured 14k nibs. They were originally offered in the tortoise, jade green, and stone brown; a year later, a lapis blue was added. In production for a few years, some other (currently unknown to me) finishes were offered, and there were three finishes also exclusive to US dealers (Levenger and Swisher), of which I've only seen two.

 

So, this will be a long, casual hunt for information and - hopefully! - a couple more pens. They are about the size of a 1911S, are all lovely writers, and I've been lucky in nibs: Tort in MF, Jade in M, and the newest kid that just arrived, the Lapis Blue, sports a B.  I don't know if it is considered true impulse when you are looking for them, but there was zero hesitation! Very fun to chase...

 

[Cjtamu]

17 hours ago, Merrick said:

I picked up a Sailor Pro Gear with 21k F nib. I have two 1911s and I’ve always preferred the form factor of the Pro Gear with the flat finials  but this was my first chance to get one (outside of a Pro Gear Realo I had briefly that I returned because the piston backweighted it too heavily). 
 

I was hesitant to get the F nib because I had tried an EF 14k Sailor nib and hated it, so much feedback that it felt scratchy to me. However this 21k F is glorious! It’s smooth and the feedback is significant but not at all scratchy like the 14k EF I tried. It’s so precise as well, I think it may end up being my favorite regular sized Sailor nib. 

Marvelous aren’t they? Congratulations .I have a black and platinum Pro Gear and 1911L clear demonstrator. Pro Gear is F, 1911L is MF, both tweaked by Kirk Speer. Might want to try a MF someday if you like the F.

[Cjtamu]

48 minutes ago, JonSzanto said:

I enjoy the little side paths that collecting vintage pens can take you strolling down. I happen to love tortoiseshell material, and a year or two, a pen caught my eye that I didn't recognize. It turned out to be a short-lived Sailor model from the early 1990s called the Magellan. I picked it up right away.

 

I looked to my go-to for Japanese pen info, Andreas Lambrou's "Fountain Pens of Japan". Sure enough, there were a few examples shown. The pens were hand-made, starting in 1992, by one artisan, Hiroshi Fujimoto of Long Products. These were produced for the export market and featured 14k nibs. They were originally offered in the tortoise, jade green, and stone brown; a year later, a lapis blue was added. In production for a few years, some other (currently unknown to me) finishes were offered, and there were three finishes also exclusive to US dealers (Levenger and Swisher), of which I've only seen two.

 

So, this will be a long, casual hunt for information and - hopefully! - a couple more pens. They are about the size of a 1911S, are all lovely writers, and I've been lucky in nibs: Tort in MF, Jade in M, and the newest kid that just arrived, the Lapis Blue, sports a B.  I don't know if it is considered true impulse when you are looking for them, but there was zero hesitation! Very fun to chase...

 

Absolutely beautiful.

[Merrick]

19 minutes ago, Cjtamu said:

Marvelous aren’t they? Congratulations .I have a black and platinum Pro Gear and 1911L clear demonstrator. Pro Gear is F, 1911L is MF, both tweaked by Kirk Speer. Might want to try a MF someday if you like the F.

I have a MF 1911L and a F Realo and I’m waiting for a KOP medium to arrive in the mail.

 

What did you have Kirk Speer modify? I’m going to the PNW Pen Show next month and have an appointment with him, but I’ve been hesitant to have my Sailors modified because I don’t want to lose the feedback. 

[Cjtamu]

On 6/2/2024 at 3:51 PM, Merrick said:

I have a MF 1911L and a F Realo and I’m waiting for a KOP medium to arrive in the mail.

 

What did you have Kirk Speer modify? I’m going to the PNW Pen Show next month and have an appointment with him, but I’ve been hesitant to have my Sailors modified because I don’t want to lose the feedback. 

Didn’t ask him to modify anything. Not needed in my unskilled hands, be like putting me in Verstappen’s race car. Looks great till I wad it up in the first turn ha! Just tune and smooth if needed. Both were purchased from him so a no brainer to have him optimize before sending. Ink flow is excellent and both still have that nice Sailor feedback. Super nice guy and knows a ton about nibs. Well worth visiting with even if you don’t have him do any work.