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After The Writing Desk (GB)

enitharmon

By enitharmon
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enitharmon New

enitharmon

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I was sad to learn that Anna and Martin of The Writing Desk in Bury St Edmunds have closed down their shop, for understandable reasons, and have restricted their online business to used pens, accessories and repairs. They have left a hole in my life, they gave top-notch service and were always very helpful when I phoned them.

 

Who can fellow British ink-heads recommend to replace them as purveyors of pens and inks? The Lamy 2000 I bought this week came from Pure Pens of Newport and I can't complain either about the price or the speed of service. But what are the other options?

 

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jchch1950 Antique

jchch1950

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, enitharmon said:

I was sad to learn that Anna and Martin of The Writing Desk in Bury St Edmunds have closed down their shop, for understandable reasons, and have restricted their online business to used pens, accessories and repairs. They have left a hole in my life, they gave top-notch service and were always very helpful when I phoned them.

 

I bought a few things from them, and I was always happy with the dealings.

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boilermaker1975 Vintage

boilermaker1975

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I have recently purchased quite a bit from Cult Pens. Quick service, good prices, and it is easy to get to the reward point level where you always get 10% off. Plus they sell Onotos!

My top pens

1. Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age

2. Onoto Faraday

3. Onoto Magna Ebonite

4-9. My Pelikans ( three 800s, two 805s, one 809)

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Penguincollector Donor Pen

Penguincollector

Posted
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  I’m in the States, but I have had excellent service from Pen Heaven, Cult Pens, Pure Pens, Choosing Keeping, The Pen Company, and Izods in the UK.

Top 5 (in no particular order) of 25 currently inked pens:

Parker Duofold Centennial IM, RO Rose Gold Antiqua

MontBlanc Bohème Noir F, MB Midnight Blue 

Pelikan M800 needlepoint, Kuretake Shikon

MontBlanc Noblesse M, KWZ Sheen Machine 2

Waterman 52 EF, Herbin Bleu Pervenche

always looking for penguin fountain pens and stationery 

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boilermaker1975 Vintage

boilermaker1975

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Although not recently, I have bought quite a bit from Pure Pens and also Mann Inc.

My top pens

1. Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age

2. Onoto Faraday

3. Onoto Magna Ebonite

4-9. My Pelikans ( three 800s, two 805s, one 809)

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Al-fresco Mint

Al-fresco

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I miss the Writing Desk too - lovely people to deal with.  Being a Shropshire lad I find Write Here very convenient and never go to Shrewsbury without calling in.  On-line I've had good experience with Cult Pens, Dylan Stephens and Izods.   

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Mark from Yorkshire Collectors Item

Mark from Yorkshire

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I will second cult pens, also pens plus of Oxford. I’ve bought all over the place.

Mark from the Latin Marcus follower of mars, the god of war.

 

Yorkshire Born, Yorkshire Bred. 
 

my current favourite author is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

largebronze-letter-exc.pngflying-letter-exc.png

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Misfit Museum Piece

Misfit

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I’m in the US, but in the past I’ve bought from UK websites. They are Cult Pens, Pure Pens, Mann Inc, and Write Here. There is another, the Journal Shop. I’m not sure if I’ve bought from them, but I certainly remembered the name. 
 

But I have no clue if any have a retail store. 

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kestrel Collectors Item

kestrel

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I dealt with The Writing Desk once.  I found a pen on their website that I had been seeking for nearly 25 years, a Light and Dark Lilac Pearl Parker Duofold.  My wife had seen a photo of one in Lambrou's Fountain Pens of the World and it was love at first sight.  There were issues with overseas shipping and payment not in English Pounds but Anna worked with me until the pen was on its way.  There is customer service and then there is Customer Service.  I wish Anna and Martin all the best.

 

For the OP:  I have had very good dealings with both Cult Pens and Pure Pens.  Both carry some unique inks that are worth investigating.

Dave Campbell
Retired Science Teacher and Active Pen Addict
Every day is a chance to reduce my level of ignorance.

fpn_1425200643__fpn_1425160066__super_pi

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MimiL NOS (New Old Stock)

MimiL

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I'm curious about Cult pens. I've usually seen their url as a co.uk url, but now I see .com + there's also a .shop url with the same logo? I ran the .com site through a scam checker and it said that it was suspicious. I see occasional scam sites that try to get you with a low-priced pen, so I'm trying not to click on the wrong ones. Does anyone know the correct one? thx. :)

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Beechwood Donor Pen

Beechwood

Posted
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8 hours ago, MimiL said:

I'm curious about Cult pens. I've usually seen their url as a co.uk url, but now I see .com + there's also a .shop url with the same logo? I ran the .com site through a scam checker and it said that it was suspicious. I see occasional scam sites that try to get you with a low-priced pen, so I'm trying not to click on the wrong ones. Does anyone know the correct one? thx. :)

 

I use Cultpens.com

 

 

https://cultpens.com/

 

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boilermaker1975 Vintage

boilermaker1975

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I have bought from Cult Pens many times. They have good prices and they often have great ink sales, buty4 and get the 5 free. I have probably bought around 70 bottles of ink from them.

 

Free shipping to the US for orders over $160 and their reward points program is great. I have bought enough that I always get 15% off, which makes up for the tariffs and sales tax. Yes they do charge US state sales tax.

 

 

My top pens

1. Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age

2. Onoto Faraday

3. Onoto Magna Ebonite

4-9. My Pelikans ( three 800s, two 805s, one 809)

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inkstainedruth Ancient Artifact

inkstainedruth

Posted
Posted

Like kestrel, I've had good experiences with both Cult Pens and Pure Pens.  Yes, the shipping to the US is higher, but I tend to add inks to the order to get to the "free shipping" threshold if they have some pen that isn't readily available in the US. 

Of course, at this point I've started a spreadsheet of who has what (pens and inks) in stock and what the threshold for free shipping is.  Which, sadly is on the NEW laptop -- I have not been able to log into FPN on the new laptop (I keep getting an error message with a button saying "Contact Us" -- which of course doesn't work... :wallbash:); so have to log in via the old laptop, which I had hoped to get rid of at some point, now that I have the new one.... :(

And people wonder why I hate "technology".... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Beechwood Donor Pen

Beechwood

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18 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

 

And people wonder why I hate "technology".... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

That is a growing club,, not only with old fogies who like their pens and notebooks and read books and listen to CDs and records, but also the young who want to see something solid when they buy music.

 

One young man was on TV, he had been badly behaved in a fit of teenaged angst and had his iphone taken away for a month and given a dumb phone for essential calls, asked about his feelings at the end of the month the word he used was 'liberating'.

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inkstainedruth Ancient Artifact

inkstainedruth

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:lol:

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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