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Last October I was for a couple of days in Madrid, a city I hadn't visited for a long time. Even though it was a work trip, I had some free hours, which I spent mostly revisiting places with fond memories. One new thing I did was visit Julia Gusano's store. Late one morning, with a Spanish-speaking friend in tow, we entered the quiet streets of a rather pleasant residential neighbourhood. It wasn't difficult to find the address but once there, we encountered a closed door and our knocking it or ringing bells seemed to elicit no response from inside. Thankfully, a tradesperson came to the same door and somehow a doorman opened it for him. While my friend was explaining to the doorman the purpose of our visit, I walked on: I had caught a glimpse of Julia's store in the courtyard of the apartment block and it was exactly as in the photograph on her site. From the outside, the store looks like a cheerful shed; from the inside, it was a veritable treasure cave, filled with vintage fountain pens and related items that brought the broadest of grins to my face. Soon I was talking to Julia (in English) and browsing through her stock. She gave me a few tips and a piece of abrasive sheet for my nib smoothing but I hadn't come for a chat; it was an opportunity to find something special. But what does one with so many pens miss? Well, I asked her for something really tough: a larger pen with a smooth, flexible nib, preferably not too fine. The search for the pen took some time, with Julia producing one pen after another and me dipping it in ink and trying it. In the end, we narrowed it down to a shortlist of three great pens, out of which I chose a pretty, green Diamond Point with a 14K nib marked with an <8>. Since then, the pen has seen almost daily use. The combination of the right size for my hands, a really flexible nib and good ink flow is hard to resist. The moral of the story: Madrid is a great city, with lots to see and enjoy, but a visit to Julia's store is probably worth the time for a fountain pen enthousiast.

I attended the San Francisco Pen Show last month and fell in love with, and bought, a cute little flex nib Diamond Point pen. I'm curious to learn more about this brand. Googling has not been especially successful. Wonder if anyone here can inform me about Diamond Point pens. It's a juicy pen! Thanks.

Alas! The feed is broken off just below the threads for the section. Any leads to a potential replacement I would appreciate it. In the meantime I'll play around with dipping it although I think the nib will need to be tweaked:

Salutations and Hiyahs, I'm not a techie, so the low-tech but quality workmanship of fountain pens attracts me. Probably a bit of a tactile person, too, who likes the feel of a good pen and good ink on quality paper. That feeling is right up there with beautiful sunsets, college football, sausage gravy and biscuits, and the kiss from an English Bulldog (probably in that order, too). Small starter collection of mostly Esterbrooks (a couple of Js and a few M2s), a Wearever Zenith, Diamond Point from the mid-40's, a Waterman's Ideal (barrel only, looking for a cap), and a few newer ones (YAFA, etc.). One of the M2s is my daily writer, but I'm trying to get the smaller blue Diamond Point to work soon. Thanks to all of you much more experienced collectors and aficionados who help those of us new to the hobby get our feet wet (with quality ink, preferably). I'll be picking your collective (pun intended) brains over the next few months.

i generally don't go for small pens, but this one came up on ebay early this morning with a very reasonable BIN price, and it was too cute and too clean to pass up: http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/penmanila/zx26_zps386c0d50.jpg http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/penmanila/zx26b_zps9e20844e.jpg http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll296/penmanila/zx26a_zps5f432154.jpg it's no longer that small when the cap screws on to the barrel! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Diamond-Point-long-short-fountain-pen-1930-/111150111602?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&nma=true&si=nV%252FqIavfCRix2xdGUSbyHa61NYM%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc