I Have All These Pens, Ink And Paper, Now What?

[Tseg]

After a year+ of accumlating pens, ink and paper I have several dozen pens but a core group of 12 favorites that are beautiful, write amazingly and are inked continuously. I use them and enjoy them all the time, but I'm losing the urge to accumuate more. I'm feeling satiated. After a period of time will the bug to accumulate hit again? The balance of my pens are sub $100 "value pens" I suppose I could sell for pennies on the dollar or give away, but am currently not motivated to do either.

 

Am I in a good or bad place?

[OMASsimo]

If you feel content with what you have, you're in a good place. Enjoy what you have as long as you can.

[sandy101]

There's no need to accumulate - if you have enough, you have enough.

 

Whilst buying new pens is always exciting, it's not necessary to buy a new pen every month or year to enjoy the hobby.

 

I find writing letters, postcards & poems is a great thing to do - everyone loves getting something in the mail that is not a bill. You'd be surprised the number of people who don't get social communication through the mail anymore.

 

I have a regular savings account - so I put a regular amount that every month, and that is my pen money. Should I wish to buy a pen, I have enough by buy one around the time of my birthday - or on Fountain Pen day in November. So, instead of buying ten £25-30 pens, I can buy one £300 pen a year - or not if I wish.

 

Organise or attend a pen meet up in your area - this is a great way to share pens and experiences which can also be useful.

 

I tried some Pelikan M600's and M800's at a meet-up, and found them to not be significantly different from my MB's and so decided I didn't need a Pelikan. But then I tried some Japanese broad nibs on Pilot & Platinum's pens and went for one of those instead.

[langere]

Exactly right. Just relax and enjoy what you have. That's a good place to be in.

 

Erick

[Intensity]

Agreeing with others—accumulating without thoughtful purpose is not really a great thing. I sometimes accumulate because of “shopping therapy”, but it’s certainly healthier to simply enjoy what you already have and be creative with that.

[DrDebG]

Yes - many of us have been there, more than once.

 

Each time I get to a place where I have enough, I just want to relax and enjoy what I have. This is the time when I really focus on which pens I like and why - which inks I like and why, etc.

 

But I also give myself freedom to acquire again. What I mean by that is after I have really had a chance to enjoy and evaluate what I have, I then give myself the freedom to sell/give away those pens and inks that do not work for me and acquire the pens/inks that are more in line with how my tastes have changed.

 

Several years ago, I went through a period where I acquired a number of nice Chinese made pens (Picassos mainly). I really enjoyed them but decided that I was really more interested in line variation that my Chinese pens could not provide (at that time). These were still very nice pens, so I kept a couple that that I especially liked and gave away the rest.

 

What I have realized through these periods is that my tastes in fountain pens are become more specific. I like certain weights, dimensions, and much prefer cursive italic and some obliques. Anything outside of those parameters I tend to stay away from. I also have found that I am willing to wait to find the right pen and spend more on it, than less money on a dozen pens that are mediocre for me.

 

With that said, I also must state that I do keep a few lesser expensive pens that I can use when I am in the field, which include Platinum Preppys, Pilot Petits and Lamy Safaris. I also keep these lesser, but reliable pens around and give them away to people I meet who become interested in my fountain pens - which happens a lot!

[Bo Bo Olson]

most important is what papers do you have? 90g copy paper is minimum for two toned shading inks.

Don't know what the minimum grammage is for shimmer inks.

 

Then do you have dry inks? Pelikan 4001, Lamy, Herbin, R&K They give you two toned shading.

 

Middle wet inks, ones that can shade on good to better paper...MB, Edelstein, some DA inks?

 

.or do you have wet (Waterman) and very wet inks Japanese, or vivid supersaturated Noodler inks?

 

And can you match papers with them.

 

When you have @ 45 of the different nib widths and flexes.....counting a nail stub alternating with a CI up through the widths, EF, F, M, B, BB..........don't really need more than one BBB, and that might as well be semi-flex.

Nail, 1x semi-nail.......2X

'Springy' like a MB, non-modified Falcon or the grand Lamy Imporium nib good tine bend but only 2 X tine spread.

(sigh cubed, if it spread it's tines 3X I'd have one even if it's double my max...then it would be semi-flex),

Regular flex.....called 'soft' on Japanese pens. Can be mashed to 3 X.

Semi-flex, takes half that pressure to get to 3 X.

Maxi-semi-flex (some what rare....I have 16) half the pressure needed with semi-flex or 1/4 the amount of pressure needed to mash a regular flex/soft nib.

 

two of the three stages of superflex.........and superflex don't really have B or much in M, that is more a F, EF and XXF nib that spreads, 4-5-6 or very rarely 7 X. (Not the pre-sprung for your enjoyment nib by someone selling you the pen on Youtube and Ebay.)

 

Dip pens.........is a dirt cheap option for superflex.

 

Sigh, I really don't need to have 29 semi-flex nibs..........but different vintage brands had my number.

7 widths, and of course there are the 1/2 sizes....OK, I never was that much into splitting width hairs. Narrow, somewhat narrow, middle, wide, wider and real wide, is about all it's ever going to be with each company having it's very own standards for very good reasons..........and then different era's.

 

You do have some of the vintage great balanced standard and medium-large pens? New Balance, Vac, P-51, P-75.

A thin Snorkel of course, one of the few Large pens with superb balance..................all flagship pens of that era had great balance or they would not have sold.....pens were used all day long. Posted!!!!

No balance...no sale...and a Ford driver would change to Chevy if the Ford lacked balance, back when it was One Man, One Pen, and a pen was good for 7-10 years before either the nib wore or one's pen became too old fashioned for the Status lovers.

 

Not like today when do to size they lack balance........ Really I have very few good words to say about Modern Large pens. (Fewer words about them who refuse to post a standard sized pen, and then has the nerve to complain it is too small. It is longer than a non posted modern Large pen. Grumble squared.)

The 146 has fair balance for a large pen, but it was one of the very first Large pens.....not as good IMO as the vintage '50-70 medium-large 146....which has a much better nib too.

 

You can see, I grew up in that era of standard (Esterbrooks) and medium-large pens P-51, when the only large pen was Sheaffer's PFM coming in in the '60's, which I never saw in real life, have read here it didn't sell well.

The Snorkel, King of Pens was a grail pen for every kid back in B&W TV days.....only took me 50 years to get one. Then I lucked out to a maxi-semi-flex BB factory stub.....made in Australia, but that last bit don't matter at all. Semi-flex is sort of rare in the '50s for a Snorkel.

There is the President, Ambassador, Saratoga and a couple other fancy ones I never got. I understand they have become cheap....or well affordable.

Yes, it needs repair, the sac is shot.....it's been two life times and the sac was only good for one.

 

So sell you modern Large pens and buy Vintage....in a decade you won't be asking your question, again.

[miwishi63]

In my opinion, you're in a good place right now. Enjoy what you have without worry. You'll know when another pen comes your way that you want to buy.

[1nkulus]

Great place to be in. I am in a similar position and content.

 

Go for quality rather than quantity, when you do and definitely be more selective.

[1nkulus]

Agreeing with others—accumulating without thoughtful purpose is not really a great thing. I sometimes accumulate because of “shopping therapy”, but it’s certainly healthier to simply enjoy what you already have and be creative with that.

+1

[minddance]

now enjoy.

[Studio97]

I recently added an odd novelty FP to my collection. $2.50. It writes great. But I have stopped spending money on FP and paper that costs more than a burger and fries. At my age I have a lifetime supply and more. (I have become hooked on Blackwing pencils though). I did buy a new Retro51 RB for $20.00 on a going out of business sale. If I could find a local buyer I would sell off my MB pens. So I have settled down with what I have for the most part and focus more on writing. My collection of 65 filled journals continues to grow.

Edited June 23, 2019 by Studio97

[Noihvo]

 

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I have a big stock of paper and ink, and quite a lot of fountain pens. The pens include more good ones than it's realistic to keep inked at one time, so there's a rather large rotation, with some more frequent than others, and quite a few that will likely never be used again.

 

I do keep records of my purchases, and I see that I last bought ink in August of 2018. My most recent pen purchases were in January of 2018, a couple of vintage pen bargains that I didn't want to pass up. Since then, I haven't even been looking. There's no reason to say that I'll never buy another fountain pen, but at this point, it's hard to say what I'd be looking for that I don't already have.

 

Collecting was never a goal in itself. For a while it was like being a kid in a candy store; there's just such a huge variety of pens, that you think you have to try everything. After a while, though, you realize that there are any number of pens that are satisfying both for performance and appearance. You can't have them all.

[Mech-for-i]

This happed with almost any Hobby, you dive in head on, motivated, then with a period of intense relationship, the heat just burn off so to speak, and one get into a slump of sort ; nothing particular ... its time to loose off and just sit back, relax and enjoy what you had on hand ; do something with all the pen, not just the dozen

[Wolverine1]

I havent bought a new pen in about a decade. I seem to have the pens I want and I know what paper and ink I like, so, I spend time using my pens with the inks I like on the paper I prefer. I only am buying and selling some pens cuz I came into this huge stash of old MB pens in an antiques dealer locally.

[essayfaire]

The state you describe presently is one for which many people strive.

 

There are robust studies that show that planning for a vacation, and the associated anticipation of it, provides more enjoyment than actually being on vacation. The moral: no jumping at last-minute discount trips, but instead take your time preparing.

 

In your case, it sounds as if you don't need a vacation: you're happy with where you are. If the bug ever bites, take as long as you can plotting out just what your purchase will be.

[Beginnersmind0]

About 5 years ago I sold off all but 6 of my fountain pens. These were the 6 dream pens that wrote magnificently. Not the greatest eye candy. I felt I had reached pen nirvana. They are all franken-pens. Mix and match nibs and feeds! A year ago I purchased one pen for eye candy appeal. Recently I have bought a couple of pens to take advantage of nibmeisters, and new developments. I used to be all about Italian pens (pretty). Now I am intrigued by Japanese pens. Interests come and go. Enjoy the glowing embers!