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Over the years, I have reviewed most of the popular TWSBI fountain pen models there are. For an overview:
I know I lack the “GO”-model with the spring in above list – but it is sitting here in the review stack, to be reviewed for you, soon.
Another model I haven’t yet tried was the “Eco-T”, which is basically similar (or the same as) the Eco, but with a triangular grip section similar to the one of the Lamy Safari.
I always wanted to review this pen, and see what it is all about. Finally I got around to it!
Before we hop into the review, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Nomadostore for supporting the review of this pen. You can also buy all kinds of TWSBI products in their webshop (no affiliate – just a friendly pointer).
The video is, as always, preceded by some quick facts. Again, I hope the review is helpful and that you enjoy watching it!
Click on the photos to enlarge.
The post Video-Review: TWSBI Eco-T Saffron appeared first on Scrively - note taking & writing.
inkophile
Ana at The Well-Apponited Desk started the #21PenQuestions party, and while I may be late, I’m still bringing a cooler full of fun! I’ve been excited to tackle these questions, and tried not to spoil myself by reading too many other responses before coming up with my own. Let’s see how it goes!
1: What is the pen they’ll have to pry out of your cold dead hands?
The Pilot Murex. I think this is one of the great pen designs, and the one I own was a gift. I try to use it as much as possible because it fits me perfectly, and deserves to be used.
2: What’s your guilty pleasure pen?
It has to be the Namiki Yuraki Milky Way Galaxy. It is easily the most I’ve ever paid for a pen, and looks like it with all of the beautiful craftsmanship involved. No real guilt, only pleasure.
3: What’s the pen you wish existed?
What if you combined the retractable nature of the Pilot Vanishing Point into the size of the Kaweco Liliput, and in the style of a Kasama Una Ultem, but in Orange. Yeah, how about that?
4: What pen would you give to a new enthusiast?
I think I’d go with the Pilot Prera, which is a step or two above the normal basic beginner choices - primarily due to the price. I think it is worth it, but it may be a bridge too far for someone to buy on their own when the $5 Platinum Preppy, or $18 Pilot Metropolitan are on the market. Since its a gift, I’d go for it with the Prera.
5: What pen do you want to get along with but it just never clicked?
Any Conid. By all rights, their pens should be a perfect match for me, but for some reason I never get all the way there with them. I’ve owned two, and sold two. I keep trying them, too, but I don’t see another in my future. Awesome pens though.
6: What pen do you keep only because its pretty?
I have a Fagionatto Petrarque in an orange celluloid that is one of the most beautiful pens I own, but I don’t love the nib in it. I can correct that, and should if I plan on keeping this pen. It has made the cut any time I try to thin out my collection, yet I keep not using it. I need to work on that.
7: What pen (or stationery product) did you buy because everyone else did?
Musubi notebooks, and I’m glad I did. It took be a couple of years to get there, and spending over $100 on a notebook is not something I had done before. But seeing them in action, learning the story of the brand, and becoming friends with the owner finally pushed me over the edge. I love them so much I have bought several more to give away. My personal one is filled, so maybe its’ time for my next.
8: What pen (or stationery product) is over your head or just baffles you?
The Col-O-Ring. I’m just seeing if Ana is paying attention here.
9: What pen (or stationery product) surprised you?
The basic plastic-barrel Kaweco Sport. A pen this small and this light should not be a good pen. And it’s not. It’s a great pen. I remember the first time I held one and I thought there was no way this is a good product. 10+ Kaweco Sports later, I am happy to have been wrong.
10: What pen doesn’t really work for you but you keep it because it’s a collectible?
The Uni-ball Kuru Toga Dive! It is all the rage, but it just doesn’t fit my needs as a mechanical pencil. It’s cool, but I don’t think it lives up to the hype.
11: What is your favorite sparkly pen (or ink)?
Jacques Herbin Shogun is the shimmer ink I didn’t know I needed in my life. It’s a moody ink, but has a ton of color and character. And shimmer.
12: Which nib do you love – but hate the pen?
I think this is the most difficult question on the list. I’m having trouble answering it because I rarely keep pens that I hate.
13: What pen (or stationery product) gives you the willies?
That “Papaya” pen I tried at the San Francisco Pen Show that one time. OMFG.
14: What’s your favorite pen for long form writing?
It’s easy to say the Pilot Custom 823, so let’s not make this difficult, shall we? Despite being a larger pen, it fits my hand well, has massive ink capacity, and sports one of the best nibs on the market. They could change the name of this pen to the Pilot Workhorse if they wanted to be more accurate.
15: What pen (or stationery product) do you love in theory but not in practice?
Pelikan gold nibs. They are AWESOME! They simply don’t work for my writing style. Stock nibs, even Extra Fine ones, are too wet and wide. I’ve tried to modify them, too, and the visuals end up not working for me. I’ve ended up swearing them off, despite being loved by most.
16: What pen (or stationery product) would you never let someone else use?
It doesn’t exist. Every pen I own has been in other peoples hands. It’s part of the deal when buying things to use. Other people get to use them as well. A prime example: the Murex from question number one was recently mailed to a friend to test out.
17: What pen (or stationery product) would you never use for yourself?
I understand the reason why the Montblanc Writer’s Edition pens exist, but they are not my jam. Too big and bulky for my regular use, but are favorites for many.
18: What pen (or stationery product) could you NOT bring yourself to buy?
The Visconti Iopenna. I want to buy it for the memes, but I couldn’t justify $200 for a sideshow. It’s kind of amazing though.
19: What’s your favorite vintage pen?
The Sheaffer Tuckaway. I was fortunate to run across this pen at the Arkansas Pen Show years ago, and it became an instant favorite due to its size and crazy fine nib.
20: What is your favorite EDC/pocket pen?
The Spoke Roady. Biased, as I am part of the manufacturer that makes them, but they are so damn good I want one with me at all times.
21: What’s the pen (or stationery product) that got away?
One of the first fountain pens I reviewed was a Sailor Pro Gear Standard in translucent Orange. It was a loaner, and I sent it back, thinking I could just buy one later if I wanted. Oops.
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Montblanc normally does quite a few special releases over the calendar year. Mostly, those releases are different designs of pen bodies.
In the recent time, however, Montblanc has also started to release special edition pens with speciality nibs, such as the MB 146 Calligraphy Flex nib – or now the MB 149 Calligraphy curved nib.
It is fantastic to see that companies such as Leonardo, Aurora, and now also Montblanc, bring back the variety of nibs that were commonplace back in the days – and that in the modern days we were only used to from specialty nib makers such as Sailor.
But let’s now have a look at what the Montblanc Diplomat 149 Calligraphy Curved nib is all about!
Before we hop into the review, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Appelboompennen for supporting the review of this pen. You can also buy the Montblanc 149 Calligraphy Curved Nib in their webshop (no affiliate – just a friendly pointer).
Check out the video-review below, which is as always preceded by some quick facts. Again, I hope the review is helpful and that you enjoy watching it!
Click on the photos to enlarge.
The post Video-Review: Montblanc 149 Calligraphy Curved Nib (Special Edition) appeared first on Scrively - note taking & writing.
inkophile
The pen I'm reviewing today is part of my ongoing effort to break out my fountain pen comfort zone and try things that I wouldn't typically purchase to use at work, but rather pick up just for fun. The Good Blue is a London-based company that specializes in flexible-nib fountain pens paired with a unique feed system designed to ensure and adequate supply of ink to the nib, which is where most "modern flex" pens have underwhelmed. So how does The Good Blue R615 perform? Honestly, very well.
I absolutely love the color of the Cerakote on this pen. Read more on the history of the pen design and materials used directly on The Good Blue website.
This particular model, the R615 "Titanium Blue" is a special edition collaboration between our friends at Vanness Pens and The Good Blue. The pen features a streamlined, 6082 Aluminum body with "Titanium Blue" Cerakote coating, paired with a section machined from untreated CZ121 brass. The body of the pen is deceptively comfortable - I expected the step down from the pen body to the section to be too steep and severe for my taste, but as it turns out the grip area is long enough that this is not an issue.
The brass section will patina due to both your grip and exposure to ink. Note the porous feed and compare to the photo of the un-inked pen below.
While the R615 has no clip, the streamlined body features a facet on one side, which acts as a roll-stop. It's a simple, practical design. The brass components, per the company's website, are untreated and "precision textured with a surface roughness for ergonomic grip." Note that the untreated brass will absolutely patina, and may also change color due to exposure to ink. This doesn't bother me at all, and I find it to be part of the charm of the pen.
The pen doesn’t post, given the design, but is very well balanced in the hand.
As I mentioned above, the main issue that people run into with so-called "modern flex pens" is ink starvation. Namely, modern plastic feeds have a difficult time maintaining ink flow sufficient to write broader lines as you flex the nib from extra-fine to double-broad. The Good Blue appears to have solved this issue by using in-house polymer feeds made from an absorbent material that not only absorbs the ink to keep the feed saturated but changes color to match the ink (helpful if you, like me, often forget what ink you have in a pen.)
The engraving on the nib says “For the love of flex.” These nib units are in JoWo-threaded housings and therefore interchangeable with pens from other brands.
The Good Blue offers several different nib options. There are, of course, standard stainless steel nibs available, but with a company known for flex, I had to try the titanium flex nib. Once broken in, the titanium nib lays down a ton of ink, and line width ranges from a bouncy fine/medium, writing with little pressure, to around a double broad if I really try to push things. (By “broken in,” I mean that the nib will soften with use. Mine was fairly stiff when I first received it, but has gradually opened up to where I can get significantly more line variation.) I have experienced zero "railroading" as long as I use moderately wet inks, and have only had issues with a couple of drier or extremely saturated shimmer inks.
Writing sample on Write Notepads paper with Iroshizuku Asa-Gao fountain pen ink.
I didn't intend to purchase this pen, but after playing around with the demo model at the Vanness Table at the Arkansas Pen Show (dangerous table neighbors there), I couldn't pass it up. My R615 has remained inked ever since March, and while I don't write with it every day, it sees regular use in my journal and written correspondence, as well as when I'm doodling around with ink - something I've tried to do more of for the simple joy of it. The Good Blue makes one of the best modern "stock" flex nibs I've used, and I'd like to try their calligraphy and 14k nibs in the future.
Because this particular pen is exclusive to Vanness Pens, you can only purchase it through them (though it is currently out of stock as of the time of writing). Vanness does carry other versions of the R615, including the acetate and Ultem versions, as well as a selection of the standard and flex nibs. Prices start at $140 and increase depending on your choice of materials and nib, with the pen shown here coming in at $220 for the special finish plus the titanium flex. The pens and various specialty nibs (including 14k flex and untipped "Calligraphy Flex") can also be ordered directly from The Good Blue, though they will ship from the U.K.
I purchased this pen from Vanness Pens with my own funds for my own collection, though I received a discount for review purposes. This post does not contain affiliate links or paid advertising. The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.
inkophile
Hi Pen Fans!
I’m very happy to announce something very unique that we have never done here at Edison!
We now have a Special Edition Collier in Garolite! This pen is part of the Production Line, so this pen cannot be purchased directly from Edison. It will be sold only by our retailers that you see HERE.
There is a lot to discuss regarding Garolite, but allow me to give a rough outline of this pen before getting into all of the finer details….
Let’s get into some details regarding this pen and material…
As stated, Garolite is a laminated glass-reinforced thermoset composite. Many people will want to call this G10. But G10 is a specific type of Garolite. There are G7, G9, G10, G11, and many other types with differing qualities. This is CE Garolite. But for the purposes of a pen, there will be no functional differences in the various types of Garolite.
Garolite is typically used for circuit boards. But most people know of its use for knife handles or gun stock handles, since it is very stable, very durable, and extremely wear resistant. It typically patinas to a darker color, leading to some nice character over the long term.
Along with this excellent wear resistance, Garolite is also lightweight. This Garolite version of the Collier is about 3 grams heavier than an acrylic version (26g vs 29g), so there really isn’t a perceptible difference.
Despite the excellent machining qualities, Garolite still won’t cut as clean as acrylic, especially when cutting threads. As you can see in the photo below, we have engineered the visible portions of outer threads from a solid butterscotch acrylic. This makes the pen much more attractive at that location compared to just using garolite for the threaded portions. This also makes the threads more accurate and feel very smooth compared to if we had threaded garolite-to-garolite.
There is roughly a 10-15% occurrence of some of these pens turning out darker. You can see how a darker version of this pen will appear by looking at the pen at the top of this photo…
We do not have control over the darker versions, and our retailers cannot honor special requests for a darker or lighter version.
Since this material is essentially a woven fabric, many people will wonder how it will react to ink staining. The short answer is that yes…the material can take on ink and show stains. However, we are finding that simply soaking the stain in water for a few minutes and then scrubbing with a test-tube brush or an old toothbrush works very well and has no negative effect on the material. The photo below shows Waterman Serenity Blue before and after a stain….
Of course, Waterman is a relatively gentle ink. But our tests are showing that just about every ink out there can be removed (we were actually able to remove Baystate Blue!). But more stubborn cases might require a household cleaner. If your pen develops stains that you cannot remove with just water, contact us for a more thorough method of cleaning.
But in the end…if you want to avoid the possibility of stains, we recommend not taking the pen ‘on-the-go’ where it might get bumped and jostled, causing ink to spurt from the nib. But if you do encounter stains, we can share excellent methods for removing them.
I think that’s everything! I’m sure that there will be questions regarding this new pen and material, so please reach out and we’ll be happy to help!
The post Special Edition Garolite Collier in the Production Line! appeared first on Edison Pen Co.
For the majority of my fountain-pen-using days, I have only ever bought pens from major manufacturers. I tend to prefer smaller pens with solid, simple colors and it’s always seemed like most handmade pens are quite large and colorful. It wasn’t until The Colorado Pen Show in 2018 when I purchased my first handmade pen, and since then I’ve picked ... inkophile
inkophile
Hi Pen Fans!
We’ll be attending the Chicago Pen Show this weekend!
We will be bringing a Limited Edition Pen that is exclusive to the Chicago Show! This is a Brockton made from Jonathon Brooks Dragon Night.
We have been having fun lately with our Level-style ink windows, and we’ve always thought that this is a really sharp look on a Brockton.
The ink window is a subtle translucent mint shade. When the pen is capped, it appears to be equipped with a standard ink window. This is a converter filler, but only the clear portions of the converter are visible. This gives a bit of an illusion that the reservoir is the barrel (ala eyedropper, draw filler, or piston filler), when the converter is filled. It’s a pretty neat effect.
The edition will be limited to only 15 pens. These will be priced at $275 with a Steel nib or $375 with an 18k nib. (if a similar pen were ordered custom from us, it would be $325 or $425, respectively.)
We will limit our Friday sales to 10 pens only and our Saturday sales to the remaining 5 pens. First come, first served each day. We realize that a lot of people can’t get off of work to attend a pen show on a Friday and we want everyone who wants this pen to have a shot at it.
If you cannot attend the pen show and like this material, we do have plenty of it left for custom pens. While we cannot make a pen identical to this Brockton and also abide by the “rules” of a Limited Edition, we can still take custom orders for other pen models made from the same Dragon Night material. Be sure to email me if you’d like to speak about a non-limited edition pen made from this material.
Outside of this Limited Edition pen, of course, we’ll be bringing lots and lots of our normal inventory to the show. We will have well over 400 pens on display. Among these, we will also have somewhere around 100+ pens made from craft materials by Jonathon Brooks, Tim McKenzie, and Jennifer Earley.
Click here to see all pens that we’ll be bringing to the pen show.
We hope to see you in Chicago!
The post Chicago Pen Show with Brockton Exclusive LE! appeared first on Edison Pen Co.
Every year, Pelikan blesses us with a bunch of special edition writing instruments – and inks.
Among the writing instruments, Pelikan often comes up with excellent finishes and color schemes to excite the stationery connoisseurs out there. One of the most eagerly anticipated materials is the famous “tortoise” – or “Schildpatt” – that Pelikan makes some of their pens in since decades.
While the red or brown tortoiseshells are among the most popular ones, they are not new, but rather a nod to older vintage times where similar colour schemes had already appeared. So what Pelikan did with the 2022 Special Edition was truly special in at least two ways.
One, Pelikan launched a black tortoiseshell material pen, which to my humble knowledge had never happened before. Second, they brought the tortoise finish to an X05-pen body – meaning: this is the first tortoiseshell finish ever on a silver coloured / palladium plated pen. All other tortoise finishes this far have been on gold accented pens.
This, in my opinion, is one of the most appealing finishes that Pelikan has launched. And I totally expect this pen to be a future classic and rarity.
Before we hop into the review, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Appelboompennen for supporting the review of this pen. You can also buy the Pelikan M605 Tortoiseshell-Black in their webshop (no affiliate – just a friendly pointer).
Check out the video-review below, which is as always preceded by some quick facts. Again, I hope the review is helpful and that you enjoy watching it!
Click on the photos to enlarge.
The post Video-Review: Pelikan M605 Tortoiseshell-Black (2022 Special Edition) appeared first on Scrively - note taking & writing.
I’ve been wanting to introduce some additional video content to the site and related channels for some time now, so this morning I filmed a short video in which I ink up two new pens for the week: My Amber Pilot Custom 823, and my newly acquired Parker 51 that I picked up at the Arkansas Pen Show a couple of weeks ago. Both of these pens have interesting filling systems, and I actually get a lot of questions about how the Custom 823’s vacuum-filling system works. Check out the video here over at the T.G.S. Youtube Channel. (Yes, we have one!)
This particular video contains bonus content in which I spill ink on myself. Yes, it still happens, even after all these years!
Disclaimer: The Gentleman Stationer is now an authorized retailer of Pilot Pens and Inks.
(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
After almost 6 years in this rabbit hole, it may come as a surprise that I still enjoy “entry-level” or budget-friendly pens very much. I still use a Pilot Metropolitan every day to write the day/date in my bullet journal, while Platinum Preppies, Lamy Al-Stars (Team #AlStarAlways), and others are also in regular rotation. I’ve asked the Bossman to keep me in mind whenever these kinds of pens come up for review. And when Pen Chalet sent us the Pilot Explorer for review, I jumped at the opportunity.
Released in 2019, the Pilot Explorer enters a fairly crowded budget-friendly steel nibbed fountain pen field, especially since several of the pens in that field are also made by Pilot. Other Pilot pens in this range include the Kakuno, Plumix/Pluminix/Penmanship and of course, the Metropolitan (the Prera is just on the cusp of budget-friendliness).
The Pilot Explorer that I am reviewing today is the clear one, but it also comes in a total of 12 colors (hmm, is Clear a color?) ranging from Black Matte to Blue, Silver or Turquoise, etc. which are metallic finishes. All of them come with a black clip and black finials. The snap cap has an embossed Pilot brand and logo and inside is a black inner liner - which is very obvious with the Clear model - which prevents ink from drying out in the cap. After inking it and writing with it on/off for several weeks, I deliberately left this pen untouched for over a month - thank you, Fountain Pen Companion for keeping track of this - and it wrote up right away without any issue.
Hard to tell but the logo is the same color as the cap, which in this case, is clear.
The Pilot Explorer comes in a metal tin and depending on where you buy it, may or may not include a Con-B squeeze converter. (Tip: if it does include the Con-B, do yourself a favor and use anything else but that converter because you can’t see if there’s any ink in it, can’t tell if it’s clean, etc.) It can also fit the Con-40, Con-50 and is also long enough to use the Con-70 if you wish to do so (it’s my second least favorite converter). Resist the urge to eyedropper this pen because there are small holes/gaps at the base of the barrel which will leak - I’m glad I tested this with water over my dump cup because the leak was immediate and messy, lol.
It comes in Fine and Medium nib sizes and is the same size steel nib as the Pilot Metropolitan, Plumix/Pluminix, Penmanship, Prera; and Kakuno (though the Kakuno has irresistibly cute faces on it), and they are interchangeable if you wanted to swap nibs. Just gently pull the nib/feed straight out to remove them. This means that the writing experience will be the same as with the other models if you’ve already tried them before. This one is a Fine and writes just like my Metropolitan Fine which I use every day. I inked the Explorer up with a Pilot Mixable Blue Black cartridge and it wrote right away without any issue. As expected, the writing experience is good - the nib is firm, no flex, and the nib lays down a fine line without being scratchy.
Yup, writes just like a Pilot steel nib fountain pen should.
The Pilot Explorer and Kakuno are the two pens in the steel lineup that are the most similar to each other. The Explorer weighs in at 0.42 ounces (11.9g), with the cap weighing 0.20 oz (5.39g) and the rest without converter or cartridge is 0.22 oz (6.24g). The Kakuno is 0.39 oz (11g), cap 0.13 oz (3.69g) and the pen 0.26 oz (7.37g). The Metro is almost double the weight.
Left to Right: Pilot Kakuno, Explorer, Metropolitan - you can see that the Kakuno’s grip section is a little girthier than the other two.
The Explorer and Metropolitan have more similar grips. Both are flared near the nib to prevent your fingers from sliding forward. The Explorer does not have the step near the barrel that the Metro does - this step is one of the things that some users don’t like about the Metro. The Kakuno, Metro and Explorer all have snap caps.
Comparison L to R: Pilot Metropolitan, Pilota Kakuno, Pilot Prera, Pilot Explorer, Pilot Pluminix, Pilot Plumix, Pilot Penmanship, Platinum Preppy, Platinum Prefounte, TWSBI Eco.
The Pilot Explorer retails for $25, and whether a Con-20 or Con-B is included is up to the retailer, so be sure to check what is/is not included with your purchase. The Kakuno, on the other hand, sells for around $15. The Kakuno doesn’t have a clip, doesn’t include a converter and its color combinations may not look and feel as “professional” as the Explorer but I’m not sure that either of those things justify the near double price tag. I will admit that comparing two Clear pens doesn’t help the Explorer because the metallic finish does look and feel nicer than the plastic versions. The Explorer is priced about the same as the Metropolitan, which feels much more substantial and has a more traditional style, and also the TWSBI Swipe or Eco, both of which have a much larger ink capacity.
All in all, the Pilot Explorer is a good pen, but at its price point, it really doesn’t compete with the Pilot Metropolitan in looks and heft or with the TWSBI Eco in function and ink capacity. Nor does it compete in price with its cuter sibling, the Kakuno or with the Platinum Preppy or Prefounte. But if you like how the Metro writes, but don’t like the step or the weight (or both), the Explorer might be the pen for you.
(Pen Chalet provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
inkophile
(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)
You don’t need to talk to Brad Owens for long to find out how seriously he takes the humble pen, and the idea of making one. “You can take something inanimate and, with some skill and attention to detail, turn it into something that created society as we know it.” Even as a teenager he liked having good pens and good paper, although he hadn’t heard of fountain pens.
A classically trained trumpeter who set out to be a music educator, Owens experienced burnout in that field and ended up with his current demanding day job as a teacher in the legal field. “I talk for a living.” Pen making serves as his stress relief. It began when he looked around for a side business and tried woodworking, and found he had a talent for it; but selling pieces was very difficult unless they were commissioned. At about the same time, he heard of fountain pens and found Brian Goulet’s videos on YouTube. His interest was piqued, and he bought a couple of inexpensive introductory pens from Goulet Pens.
Soon after that, Owens heard of pen shows, and found out there was one in Atlanta, not far from his home. He and his wife attended, and wandered into the room where the independent makers were concentrated, ending up at Jonathon Brooks’ Carolina Pen Company table. He bought a pen from Jonathon, the first time he’d seen kitless pens, and ultimately contacted him to ask for help getting started making them. Jonathon said, “Come on up to the house and I’ll show you.” After a day or two, Owens had made a usable pen, and was smitten. A Kickstarter helped him get over the cost of entry into the craft. He sold his first pen in December 2019 – “Not the best time to start a pen business! There were few shows in 2020, and pen makers weren’t getting to the customers. It was the customers who were the ones getting the word out.”
When it came time to have company and model names, Owens thought first of gods and goddesses because of his love of mythology. A number of other makers had already gone that route, so he chose to name his early models after ancient Greek writers. “Creativity in mythology is almost like pen making – there is a mysterious feel you have to get, and it can’t be taught, you have to learn it yourself.”
Owens has slowly been evolving the diversity of his models. The Prime was first, just a straight shape, and the natural progression was to start making some more tapered silhouettes. The vintage lizard-skin cellulose acetate inspired his recently premiered Vintage Series (VS) pens, paying homage to classic fountain pen styles. These models are likely to mix contemporary handmade resins with the hard-to-find lizard skin, and have traditional style clips. The cellulose acetate is not heat-tolerant, and will begin to smell like vinegar if it gets too hot, so extra care is needed in drilling and polishing to avoid wasting it. Even with his increased interest in mixing materials, there is no temptation to make his own – “if someone has already said it so well, why try to say it again?” – but his wife is beginning to express some interest in the art.
Inspiration for Owens is an internal feedback loop. “Inspiration leads to inspiration. I continue to try to get to a level of satisfaction with what I’m making –to finish a thing and feel like it is really good, and be satisfied with it.” Of course, “There’s only so much you can do with a piece of plastic,” so there need to be small ways your “signature” is on what you make. Personally, he doesn’t like square edges, so over time his pens have evolved to have more small bevels and rounded corners.
When asked about a favorite pen he didn’t make, Owens holds up a large tray of maker pens. “I have a lot of favorite pens I didn’t make.” Standouts in his mind, for craftsmanship and detail, are those made by Eric Sands and Ryan Krusac, as well as the urushi work of Jonathon Brooks. “When I see something better than what I did, it inspires me to do better. I like my maker pens better than my Montblanc 149 because I know what goes into them.”
Owens’ other pen endeavor, the penmaking podcast As The Pen Turns, has been going on since fall of 2020 and is up to forty episodes as of this writing. Through Instagram chats with Jason Miller (they still have not met in person), the idea evolved until they just decided to jump in. “It came out of a desire to inspire the community of pen makers. Information about making pens should be available to anyone who wants to try it out. We wanted an outlet to talk about our pen making.” The first few episodes talked through the pen maker’s toolkit, and they interview a maker (of pens, blanks, or related supplies) every other episode. After a year, they were joined as hosts by Jonathon Brooks. They are closing in on a thousand downloads per episode, and are clearly the world’s most popular (maybe only?) pen making podcast.
The podcast website boasts an extensive directory of links to pen makers, material makers, and nib grinders. A community has bloomed around the podcast, through the annual “Super Most Awesome Pen of the Year (SMAPOTY)” and “Blankety-Blank” awards, voted on by the makers themselves, as well as a secret-santa pen exchange. A number of makers have found inspiration and encouragement in the podcast and related activities. “If I help another pen maker out, it helps me out.”
Despite all the hours working alone in the shop, Owens doesn’t think small when talking about what he does. “I want to think I’m contributing to something bigger than me. Preserving the written word is very important. The next great writer could get one of our pens and write something amazing.”
Brad Owens’ work can be seen at the Atlanta Pen Show, as well as at MythicPens.com and @MythicPens on Instagram.
Up front, I will admit that I’m neither a vintage collector nor even a vintage pen enthusiast, and my knowledge of most brands and specific models pale in comparison to others in this community. So take whatever I say regarding vintage pens and the vintage market with a (very) large grain of salt. That said, I attended both the Baltimore and Arkansas pen shows - and particularly Arkansas - looking to pick up a few vintage pens for my collection, mainly to replace certain models I wish I hadn’t let go during “catch and release” phases over the years.
Smaller shows like the Arkansas Pen Show make excellent opportunities to shop for vintage pens. Larger shows like D.C. can feel overwhelming, and because the shows are both crowded and geared towards higher-end collectors and sales between dealers, they can be difficult for the newbie or the casual buyer to navigate. Pens also tend to be more expensive because they are either more pristine collectors pieces, or outright overpriced. (I also advise people to adopt a “buyer beware” attitude at these larger shows. In my early days of collecting, I had more than one experience at D.C. where I purchased a vintage pen that later turned out to be “not as advertised,” to put it politely. More on this later, as I plan to update my vintage pen resources.)
My two vintage Parker 51 fountain pens, one of which includes a stub nib.
I enjoy interesting vintage pens that I can still use on a daily basis, including both the Parker 51 and the Aurora 88.
Smaller shows - particularly shows run by a local pen club - are friendlier, with many of the “dealers” being club participants and collectors selling for “show money”, to rotate pens out of their own collection, and/or to help grow the hobby. Many are happy to talk with new enthusiasts, and will give you honest appraisals of pens, flaws and all. If you have to deal with the same show attendees and club members year after year, reputation matters. At the Arkansas Pen Show, I purchased two Parker 51s from Danny Fudge (aka “The Write Pen”), both of which are excellent “user grade” pens, expertly restored, with character. One had a broader nib that I had Matthew Chen shape to a semi-Naginata, and the other sports a hammered gold fill finish (“possibly by Ariel Kulloch”) with an excellent stub nib. The first pen cost me $100, and the second $175, which I consider to be very fair pricing for functional vintage pens restored by a reputable dealer.
The Tibaldi Bononia Vintage in Pomegranate (top) and Honeycomb (bottom). These are piston fillers with 18k gold nibs. The top is an oblique medium and the bottom a 1.1mm stub. Not sure if these two are going back to Vanness….
While vintage pens like the Parker 51 are fairly durable, easy to repair, and timeless, other models don’t translate as well to the experience sought by many modern users. For example, I’ve always admired the oversized Sheaffer Balance fountain pens, and have even owned a few over the years, but found the material prone to cracking and I’m not a huge fan of lever-fillers. Fortunately, these days you have a wide range of modern options in a similar “vintage” style, and I spent many hours next to the Vanness Pens table eyeing (1) the Tibaldi Bononia Limited Editions; (2) the modern Conway Stewart lineup in their classic materials; and (3) both the modern Onoto Magna and Scholar fountain pens, which have garnered rave reviews and which I’m in the process of reviewing. If you appreciate vintage design, but perhaps not the “adventurous” nature of writing with an actual vintage pen, you have plenty of options!
From left, the Tibaldi Bononia in Pomegranate, the Onoto Scholar in Mandarin, and the Tibaldi Bononia in Honeycomb
Lately, this trend has even started to extend beyond fountain pens. I wrote the entire first draft of this review on a series of airplane flights and in the back row at a work conference using an Anterique “Mach Ball” click pen. I love the aesthetics of vintage Bic Clic-style ballpoints, but generally can’t stand the refill. Anterique uses a .5mm low-viscosity hybrid gel-ballpoint ink refill that even fits some actual vintage ballpoints.
Stay tuned, because Anterique is doing some really fun stuff, and I just received a big box in the mail….
If you’re not a purist, you can sometimes find the best of both worlds: vintage-style design without the unpredictability of finicky filling systems or refills. As a user of fountain pens and other writing instruments, as opposed to a collector, I’m equally drawn to both vintage writing instruments and quality modern alternatives. It certainly offers a wider range of options to enjoy everyday writing!
This post does not contain paid third-party affiliate links or advertising. Vanness Pens did loan me certain of the pens pictured in this review. I am not being compensated for content, and The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.
Thank you to Appelboom for loaning me this pen so I could share it with you! Should you wish, you can use the code "friend" for 10% off your order (excluding Montblanc)!
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