Sheaffer's Lifetime

As always, feel free to click for much larger views. Being a pen dork means wanting to know a lot about your pens. That means I have a ton of books that remind me that I am a good pen geek and sometime Good pen snob. What makes me love old pens is to page through one of my books and run into a pen that I have. Meet my SheAffer's Lifetime. The second picture will go over the details. I have never inked this pen. The nib looks in great shape, but I know the sac is bad. Shaeffer's are a great place for the vintage collector to start. A quick search on Ebay shows 383 hits for "Fountain" and "Sheaffer" and I have a few on my watchlist. They are just fun, old, work well and great to look at. Kinda like Kim Basinger. There, I said it, "Vintage Sheaffer's are the Kim Basinger of Pens"

What is going on here?

Most people will gloss over this post without a second look, unless they notice that the ink on the card seems a little blueish on the larger version or that the pen says .7 but the line says much finer. . If so, congrats and welcome to the first of my lightly modified pens. Wait, I can't even call this modified. Interchanged is a better word. For some reason, I love the Body of the Pilot g-6. It just works for me, from the grip to the window....here is the "but" but... I have been writing with G-2 so long I almost am tired of them. It just so happens that the cartridge from a Zebra Sarasa clip 0.4 fits in the G-6 perfectly, without cutting or tweaking and still clicks open and close perfectly. So, go nuts, put a green in your black body and go crazy, wear a hat, or whistle, or stare at your elders. But do not ask to borrow my G-6.

Meet Ester

Click for better view. The Esterbrook, If memory serves, it is a J model, Esterbrook made points and nibs well before the civil war, so whatever, I am just trying to be smart. This pen was a daily writer for me for about 2 years. Very dependably, has a good sac and has seen more fill ups than my local Hess station (not really, but I ran out of coffee this morning.) Along with the Parker 51's I have to give the nod to this pen. Looks great. writes very strong and I can use just about any ink in it and be happy. Speaking of ink, I am making a run for some fresh Noodlers ink this week. Considering the Baystate Blue, http://www.noodlersink.com/baystateBlue.html but will let you know. And I threw in a little Jason Varitek for good measure. Go Red Sox.

Pour a little ink out on the ground

Last night I went to work on a drawing and grabbed a handful of the usual suspects and went off to work. 5 Minutes in, my cherished Edding 1880 Drawliner 0.1 pen decided to move on from this life to another. I have had this pen for a long time. A bigger view will show you how beaten up it is. I have no desire to even try to refill this one, or dip it in an inkwell to see if I can get a few more lines out of it. It sort of feels like 6 day old chili...it's just time to go, You were good...but sorry. Your time has come. Services will be held at 8:45 this morning, with an over the back toss into the trash can at 9:00 sharp. Good night, good pen, may your next life have bubbling rivers of Campo Marzio-Roma Fountain pen ink

A wise man changes his mind...

Click for bigger, badder views. Unless it was out of a bottle, I rarely ever use blue in a pen. It seemed like cheating, like an amatuer, the Scarlet letter of cheap pens. Black was always the color for me. But then two seperate groups of words were put together. "Extra Fine" and "Blue". Sounds good, count me in. I present the Pilot PreciseGRIP Extra Fine. Now that I think about it, "Precise Grip" actually has nothing to do with the way the pen writes. (which is sort of dreamy) (Did I just use Dreamy in a sentence?) Crap. It should have been called the "Precise prettyfriggingoodwriter." Come on Japan, we Americans have a sense of humor. I would use that pen everyday. Untill then, I will use this pen, a lot.

Parker #3 and a linkorama

The good news is, my light box is built but I am still tweaking the settings on the white balance, so bear with me a bit,. As always, click for better larger views. I have only written with this Parker 51 once as a dip pen to check the tip. The diaphragm is gone in it and I would really love to get this restored by someone good. I might give the http://www.fountainpenhospital.com another try. I love my Parker's but openly admit I have not done the research on all of them to determine the exact year. On a few I have just because I knew they were something special (teaser) but not all. I am pretty sure this is my exact model http://www.vintageparkerpens.com/ProdDesc.asp?id=pk0759 but whatever. I just want to get it writing. I totally stole an idea from the pen Addict http://penaddiction.blogspot.com/ and started a Flickr group called "Good Pens" Hope he's not mad. Right now I am the lone member, so feel free to join if you like. Ciao

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

Click for better views, I present the Pentel Sign pen. In black of course. Used heavily for note cards, post-its and to do lists. It's a thinking mans pen/marker. I know I can leave it uncapped while my mind scurries about and if I ever come up with something terrific to write, I know it will be ready to go. This pen actually gets better for me the more the point gets worn down a bit, this one looks brand new though. There's a stationary store in NYC somewhere on 72nd over by Columbus I pick these up for about a buck each when I am in town. I should try the other colors, but black just works for me on this. Oh, and my trusty moleskin is included as well.