For months, I haven’t participated in any pen show, and yesterday’s Commonwealth show is just a lovely reunion.
The gift this year for this show is a limited edition of Noodler’s ink in an unusual size. The show lasts only one day, and it was pretty intense since I have quite a lot academia works to do later. In the upcoming section, I will share some highlights of my pen show experience.
The ONOTO (Swan) Double Feed Pen (from John!)
First thing I did was to greet John and the second thing was to get seduced by a vintage ONOTO, aka the Japanese Swan, which got two feeds around one super wet nib!
As you can see in the pictures, besides the normal slim feed that could be found in a vintage pen underneath the nib, there is a sword shape long feed above! And guess what, that upper feed moves with the nib when I was trying it out.
John always has some unexpected items on sale at a affordable price. The stenographer he sold to me earlier is now very hard to find, let alone a flexible nib one. I also spotted a stunning Ancora. My hands was shaking like crazy due to my excitement, so here is the only clear photo I have here for this Ancora:
Oh the OMAS Celluloid…
Recently I am haunted both by the delicate pattern and the complicated plots behind OMAS Celluloid rods, so I paid extra attention to the Arco pattern and OMAS this time. I didn’t see the ASC reiteration this time, but I did play a while with some OMAS celluloid pens.
Entering the world of Copperplate
I made up my mind, so I purchased my Copperplate package from Nikola Pang. He is always a star in a pen show since so many people want to get a nice name card from him. The nib holders he is producing with his partners in Italy are of great quality and fine taste, just look at the final picture of this section. Hope these exquisite instruments could motivate me to practice more.
The Most Expensive Jinhao
At the impressive booth of Pier Gustafson, I spotted the most expensive Jinhao in the room–cause it has a well-fitting size 4 Ideal nib. This swap works with trouble, even without flirting with the feed. The gentleman whom I forgot to ask his name also presented the Senior Parker Duofold his grandfather gave him, along with his two rosewood Eversharp from different era:
Major purchase
This is my first pen show without buying a fountain pen.
Firstly, I found a great Doric pencil from Paul Erano, thanks for the discount he later gave me due to the clip issue. Then, in an effort to find a hood section for my slowly cracking Wing Sung 201, a perfect replica of Parker 51 Vacumatic, I encountered a great condition barrel and blind cap from a mid size Doric fountain pen–yes, I bought a spare part, not the pen itself. And then I went to Nikola’s desk, for the nib holders.
The second part of my purchase was the paper and notebooks from Jay Potter, the gentleman from PaperForFountainPens. It is the first time for me to focus on a domestic paper brand during a pen show, it was a long waiting before I could get the chance to talk to Jay, and I had my longest talking session with him.
The tomoe paper notebooks produced by him were of great value. I tried to buy some tomoe paper during my past summer vacation, and the retail price of this paper in China is high. To give you a comparison: while 40 bucks can buy a 374-page B5 notebook from Jay’s website, the same amount of money can only give you 400 pages of loose sheet in China. Mind you the added cost of the bounding process along with the coated cloth cover of Jay’s production in the US. Naturally, I asked a lot of the questions around the paper business with Jay, and I really learned a lot.
Grabbing these hefty notebooks in hand, it is time to read, write and learn more.
FrankUnderwater 