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The PenGraver Man When I was a kid, a few people engraved on Fountain pen. They were available at the train station and often traveled in compartments from one station to another. They carried a small briefcase in which they stored engraving tools. If someone among the passengers had a fountain pen, they asked for engraving the owners' name. The engraving charge was a few cents only for English and Bengali languages. I forgot the local name of their profession. The engravers also went to our schools wearing white pants and a shirt, the small briefcase in hand. Most of them had great skill in cursive handwriting font. I can only remember the small chisel, hammer, and the thuk-thuk-thuk sounds! The last time I saw them was in 1994 at Ishardi Railway Station in Bangladesh. I have lost the few pens I had engraved my name, but a few years back, I have found a White Feather fountain pen in a salvage yard with a name curving on it. I'll post the photo later. Can anyone tell me if the pen engraver had a particular word for their professions' name? Please let me know. Thank you all in advance. Leo amahadleo@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/fountainpenculture

I have several Parker pens that have names engraved in them, some of them have the names in the same typeface, in the same size, and all of these ones are coloured in with gold. My assumption at this point is that the names were all hot stamped in, and they were hot stamped over gold foil. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it was a gold paint, I donno, but I imagine this was a Parker Dealer thing which would explain the identical typeface used. Is there any insight into how this was done? Methods and materials used? I don't feel any need at all to remove these engravings, in fact, it's the opposite: they all have SOME degree of damage to the gold filling and a couple are quite bad. How have any of you restored the gold lettering that has been damaged in this way? My goal is to get it as close to original as possible. Obviously, finding a set of the original letters used to imprint in the first place would be ideal, but it is also likely impossible/un-affordable. I've considered rubbing Gold crayola crayon into the engraving but the more I think about it, the less I want to do that, and the more I want to find a way to use whatever it was that Parker used. Has anyone attempted this restoration? What did your results turn out like? Here are two of my "51"s with this engraving: black 1946 DJ with Heirloom cap; this pen is the best preserved one I have, it's also the only one of the 4 I have that has the text "upside down" and Cedar Blue Single Jewel Vac I also have two Vacumatics with identical typeface but I haven't gotten around to taking their "mug shots" yet.

I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a U.S. source of engraved Pilots, or if people got engraving done locally. I normally would buy from Goulet, but they don't offer engraving. I'm curious about other people's experiences. Thanks!

Let's assume for a moment that a retailer/seller of new pens (at any price north of US$10, say) offers a 'free', optional engraving service for your new purchase if you so choose; the upfront cost of acquisition is not at issue, but only the value the engraving brings to the buyer/owner, and perhaps the impact of it on the item's value for potential resale. What would you choose? ... Along the lines of the Platinum Plaisir and Balance pens I have, I'm contemplating buying five Pilot MR/Cocoon pens tomorrow, and will probably go with inscriptions such as: 毋意 毋必 毋固 毋我先行其言而後從之 ⬅︎見不賢而內自省人無遠慮 必有近憂攻乎異端 斯害也已 ⬅︎獲罪於天 無所禱也... I ended up only ordering two Pilot Cocoon pens, in orange and in titanium (colour only, not actual material for the barrel and cap), and opted for the two I marked above with ⬅︎. Instead of extra Pilot MR/Cocoon pens, I ended up ordering three Pilot Prera pens because they come with (the now-discontinued) CON-50 converters, according to the product page, for the same price as (a Pilot Cocoon + a CON-40 converter). Compared to 'market price' for Prera pens here or on eBay, that's a win (whereas not so much the Pilot MR/Cocoon pens). Engraving service is not included with the Prera pens for the price, though.

Good day everyone! I picked up this Parker Vacumatic some time ago. It has some sort of engraving on its barrel. It appears to be someone autograph. I do not know if it is done by the person after buying it or if this is was a special order. Any idea what it could be?

You know what I think would be really cool? Having a vintage pen that had been engraved with the initials MJH, MH, or the name shown in the photo below (for those who don't really relish broadcasting their names over Da Internetz! Anyone up for making a sticky thread so if anyone else comes across a pen with your initials/name they're not particularly attached to, they can have a look and make you an offer? Would that work...?

Hi! Some engraving concerns here: My wife gave me a MB classique Platinum fountain pen as her wedding gift to me. She bought it at a MontBlanc Boutique here in Manila. And I'm planning to have it engraved with my Chinese name on it, sadly the MB here in the Philippines can't engrave in CHinese characters. We'll be heading to Taiwan for a few days at the end of Jan. and I was wondering if I could also avail the free engraving of my MontBlanc Pen in Taiwan with my name in Chinese Characters even though it was purchased in the Philippines? And oh, do they really engrave it for free? Thanks and happy doodling to you all.

OK, it is weird, I own the P45 some 40-50 years and only noticed it today ... The pen has my name engraved (on the barrel), and when I look at my name, o vanity, I can not see the other engraving (on the section close to the barrel on the opposite side of my name. It reads I7 (or 17 sans-serif?) but this does not seem to be in the list of date codes for Parker ? Any idea ?

Hi there, everyone! Since I see a lot of online stores advertising free engravings with their pens, I was wondering--is there anywhere that you can send a pen, after buying it, to have it engraved? I know it would lower the resell value of the pen--but I don't feel that I will be selling the particular pen I have in mind anytime soon, and I love the idea of adding a little history to it!

Hi there everybody. I really hate to create a whole new topic just for this question but I am on an expedited quest to get a Montblanc pencil ASAP as school is starting in less than one week. I found a great deal on an old Bordeaux model but I noticed a faint engraving on the bottom of the clip that appears to say "frontier" maybe...? I thought I've seen this before so I'm wondering if it is a different brand's clip or some sort of personalized clip engraving someone had done...? The pencil is listed as "new in box." Thank you so very much for any help!!