World Leader Stealing pens!

Wouldn't you? Heck yeah.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/video/item/czech-president-steals-pen/

Updated with a better link.  Sorry about the ads.

Pay no attention here.  I am only closing the box.  Look a squirrel!

Also I love when a pen blog can start a good World War 1 debate.  I have about 10 emails in my inbox about this I need to share.  In case you missed it,  check the comments on my last post.  Good stuff.

24 karat Club Mechanical Pencil

For being a fairly young dude (ish.)  I have a sincere love for older pens and pencils. Don't bother asking why,  it might be that they simply just aren't disposable. There's a REASON why they didn't end up in a trash heap. Someone at some point held onto the pen or pencil and decided it was worth keeping.

Here's one.

The mechanical pencil says...

Tenth Annual Banquet of the Jewelers' 24 karat Club of Pittsburgh
William Penn Hotel- April 5th, 1921

Yeah... so Googling didn't really help.  I found a current 24 Karat club of Southern California,  but the only reference for Pittsburgh was in an Obituary.  So this club decided to give out mechanical pencils for something during their 10th Annual Banquet.  Oh yeah... Sterling silver mechanical pencils.

Next Tuesday night when you are having dinner or watching Housewives or whatever you do...think about it...in 1921 a bunch of Jewelry loving fools were gathering in a small room staring at their pinky rings and tossing a sweet pencil into their pockets.  1921.  Before the end of the FIRST World War.

I haven't put lead in this,  I cleaned it up a little,  but I don't really feel the need to write with this one.  Maybe one day.  But probably not. All the bits still work on this and it has a great feel to it.

OK,  who's the wiseguy that decided to go all tom-foolery and put actual carrots on the pencil. Oh and yes there are 24 carrots. Wiseguy.

Good Pens. (and non-pens)

Grammy

This weekend there was a gathering of friends and family in a little town outside of Pittsburgh to celebrate the life of Jean McWilliams Fisher Eberly.  I was at home in Boston changing diapers, chasing toddlers and slamming Red Bulls at an alarming rate- so that my wife could attend. In Pittsburgh they had hymns, tears and wonderful memories.  In Boston I had to wait until nap-time and take a moment to relax, breathe and remember Grammy on my own.

Jean McWilliams Fisher Eberly to me...was simply "Grammy" from day 1...even though she was my wife's grandmother.  We shared two things...1. a love for her granddaughter and 2. collections.. specifically pens.  A great deal of the pens posted on this site were collected individually by Grammy and passed down to me to care for.

I have thanked Grammy many, many times for her gifts and those notes were always written with a pen that she gave me.  Usually a special Parker 51 that was saved for such events...

Grammy collected and when it came to pens...she had them all.  There was the awesome:  Like this gorgeous Swan that has incredible flex in near perfect shape....

 

and the still awesome...like this little red beauty below that I have yet to research and catalog...but I am pretty sure this might be a one of a kind ;)  It's not in mint shape... but it was a gift from Grammy.

That's the thing...we all have flaws and are far from perfect...but being a part of something.. a collection, or a grouping...or a family is what brings you together (literally.)

 Buddha said "Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds."  It seems the older you get the more you reflect...maybe it's because you finally have something to reflect on,  or you finally have the actual time to reflect,  but I hope when  I am sensible enough to look back... I can say that I did good things for the people I cared for..  that's how I think of Grammy..she did good things.

SG

Marathon Fountain Pen Cleaning Session

It was time. I was due to spend some effort taking care of cleaning what I had messed up. Putting ink in fountain pens means someday that you have to clean out that ink. It was good... cathartic even...like chopping wood or mowing your yard. I went into rinse mode and didn't come out till everything was clean and shiny. (Oh.. The Head and the Heard on shuffle also REALLY helped.)

Every now and then you have to spend some time to maintain...I race bikes and I kinda hate to clean my bike chains... I would actually rather buy a new chain, but I know I have to do it. Before you do it.. it sucks and procrastination stands on your shoulder yelling that there are 507 other things that you would prefer to be doing.. when you start it you feel better and when you are done... you feel refreshed. Time well spent... It's getting to "doing" that is the hardest part.

Mont Blanc, Waterman, Hero, Swans, they all were included here. They are all now dry, clean and ready for a fresh start. Renewed. Now looking at it, I know I won't pull one of these out in 2 months and have a crusty nib that I have to spend even more time scraping...


















Some of you know I started a new job and am now in an real honest to goodness office. Which means that I am no longer in a nice warm cozy quiet home office. Which means I go from a choice of a couple thousand pens down to whatever I can put in my bag...So today I went for a search for office pens... Here's what I came up with. These should last a while. I sort of had these filed away for a few months forgotten about. I am looking forward to that Waterman loaded with a Sarasa .4.

Enjoy the Superbowl (or better yet, go clean your pens.)

Seth

New Twitter Account

Feel free to click on the Twitter icon on the right and update your account.  I will be switching the sethgoodling Twitter account over to work stuff and re-organizing.    http://twitter.com/#!/goodpensblog   will be for all the fun pen and paper stuff.  Thanks and sorry.  

(Unless you care to see where I had lunch and Technology stuff) 

Seth

Haven't put this down all day.

Kinda impressed:  more to follow.

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs.

You might remember this post where a small local welder was giving away fountain pens as advertising for his business.  I still yearn for those days, but wanted to expand a little on the idea.

I have tons of unusable cheap old ball points.  (Don't ask, it's a known issue.) Going through an old box of them the other day- I found some real gems.  Not all advertisements,  but messages as well. Like this one:

Who in the hell was Ruth?  Doesn't anyone else really want to know?  Click for a clearer picture but it says "Thinking of you Ruth." Oh, ok, that makes sense...wait! What does that mean?  That you are in my thoughts in general, or you got mauled by a bear and are in the hospital?  And shame on me for never wanting to put a message on a pen to give to someone instead of a card or a note.   Or was the pen from Ruth and she hands them out?  Like  "hey!  Thinking of you!"  Regardless,  Ruth...feel better or stop being so vague,  either one.

"This one says" "First Prize For Best Speech Dale Carnagie Course in Effective Speaking"  I wish pens had VIN numbers like cars with a Carfax report so I could take a peek into who had this pen in the past.  I can still imagine the sweaty palm reaching out to accept this after fumbling through 5 minutes of Sales 101 in a dark classroom in the 50's. ( Eww,  sweaty palms,  I am going to go wash up after typing this) and then after 6 weeks of being proud about it... getting tossed into a drawer for me to find.

How cool is this little one?  Other than almost guaranteeing (naysayers will say you can retract the whole way) that you will get red or yellow lead on you if you put this in your pocket...it rocks.  A multi-pencil. I would give this guy my business if he was handing these out to me.

A Company called Crest Air was even handing out Sheaffer's Mechanical pencils. (I actually have 4.. again.. you are better off not asking.) Heck, yes.. I will take some Crest Air!

And finally...What's better than this?  Have a happy day. It's a disposable world now out there and I think the pen lovers are at least trying to maintain some sense of history.  I know most of these were made before I was born,  but I will do what I can to preserve them for another day. Good Pens.

-Seth