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Greetings, I have been using and collecting fountain pens for just over two years, and have recently opened the can of worms that is vintage pen restoration. When searching for how-to and repair information this community, in particular the Repair Q&A forum, frequently pops up with excellent information, so I thought it would be advisable to join up. I am still very much a newbie to this esoteric and sublime hobby, and am looking forward to learning all the things I can. My favorite pens, at least this week, include a Pilot Custom 823 (F), Pilot Custom 912 (SF), and a golden pearl Parker Vacumatic (Stub). I am also aware that there is a PDX Pen Club in town, and am part of the Yahoo group, but with a very young toddler at home I am just enjoying the email content until the kiddo is a bit older and I can take just a little bit of my weekend back. Cheers! Brian

Right, nothing like asking an introvert to introduce themselves for all kinds of *awkward*. I go with the motormouth-kind-of-awkward, bear with me. So...Hi...recent lurker (thanks to all of you posting really interesting pen and ink reviews - seriously!). Long time fountain pen user - I started with a turquoise Parker 45 when I was a kid that I still have, although there's a big crack in the barrel. I mostly use inexpensive-to-very inexpensive pens for my EDCs, and I have a couple more expensive ones (though NOT by this forum's standards, by my rather miserly standards). I have been given, over the years, some nicer ones that I generally avoid using for fear of screwing something up. Inexpensive pens work better for me. It only takes one heart-stopping event to convince me to limit my potential losses... The event in question was having a Pilot Kakuno that I really liked which fell out of my pocket...into the toilet...where I stared at it for 1s debating what to do...before the automatic flusher took all choices away. There have been a few butterfinger events when cleaning... Yeah, so I'm sticking with the inexpensive ones... Um, I also do ceramics (wheel thrown stoneware) and have recently dabbled in binding some books with paper from Daiso. Shout out to @TMLee for luring me down that rabbit hole with his detailed Daiso paper reviews and his 355 Minis that are just awesome. Not quite sure how to tag him, will have to figure that out later. I'm also an engineer, so the FPs get a fair amount of attention at work from my international co-workers. A lot of reminiscing there! Happy to meet you all!

How many Portlanders are there here? And any of you Portlanders interested in doing a meetup? It would be cool to meet some other pen heads here in town.

I will be in Portland, Oregon for a conference in August. What are the best stores in Portland at which I can find nice pens and nice papers? If there are no pen stores in Portland, what are the closest pen stores to Portland? Are there any stores in Portland that sell vintage pens? Thanks! : )

PDXPen meets this Sunday May 28 at the Lucky Labrador Brewing Company 1945 N.W. Quimby St. starting at 1:00 p.m. Show and tell and try and buy pens and inks. See you there! Join pdxpen on yahoo email groups to get group updates.

All, Is there going to be a Portland, Oregon, pen show this summer? I live in Seattle and would drive or (way more fun) take the train down. I also ask if someone would tell me where and when Seattle club members get together and if newcomers are welcome. I have seen a couple of references to the Seattle get together but without specific contact or schedule information. EDIT- found the upcoming meeting page for Seattle group! jonathan7007

Hey, folks from Maine and the surrounding area! I am posting about a "new" shop that has opened recently in Portland, Maine's Old Port that is very fountain pen friendly, and getting better all the time. The shop is Sherman's Books & Stationary. It's their fifth shop in Maine's coastal region (local chain), and of the five this one has the strongest focus on the stationary side of the business. So far as pens are concerned their current stock is extremely limited. They have some Pilot Varsities in various colors, some Sheaffer calligraphy pen sets and they have a J. Herbin calligraphy dip-pen set, but beyond that it's ballpoints and Le Pen. However, they're a new store and they genuinely try to order what the customers want, so if they get requests to start carrying pens and inks then Maine could very quickly see the birth of its first such shop! Contact info will be listed at the end so that anyone interested can let the powers that be know you would be interested in shopping for these things at this place at some point in time. So far as non-pens are concerned, this place is an ever-expandning treasure trove of journals and stationary sets! Every time I've been in there's been more to choose from, and it's all good quality! Of course there's the rack of Moleskines, but they also carry some of the smaller Clairefontaine and Rhodia notebooks. They have Paper Blanks. But they also have a variety of leather bound journals, datebooks and address books. They have some Smudge Ink stationary sets that are a constant temptation to me. These are actually printed in Maine, as I understand it. They also carry cards and postcards, many of which were printed in Maine or Mass. They are the only shop in town that I have seen to carry the Clairefontaine Triomphe tablets. They also have a brand of stationary that looks a bit similar to the Crane & Co called CR Gibson. I hadn't seen that brand before, but I like their stuff. It's not as thick as Crane but it's a laid paper, so there are sort of guidelines set into the grain itself. I really liked it and found it did very well with my fountain pens. Anyway, I've been in there bugging them to get some Metropolitans or some Lamy stuff at the very least just to give some folks in this area options and a good local source to get started. But I'm just one voice. I know there's a few others, but the more the merrier. So if you're in the area and would like to see a shop starting to carry fountain pens and inks (especially inks! What I wouldn't give to not have to drive to Boston or order online for my inks!) Email at Portland@Shermans.com http: //facebook.com/shermansbooks or you can send your hand-written-in-founatin-pen letters to: Sherman's Books & Stationary 49 Exchange Street Portland, ME 04101