What pen is your Holy Grail?

[Rhincodon]

The Sailor "Creatures of the Deep" with an ocean sunfish. It's one of my favorite fish for how weird it is, and not a very common design on anything! I have no anticipation of acquiring it, but I love the way it looks.

 

http://www.nibs.com/www/WEBSITE%20PICS/Sailor%20Pens/CreaturesOfTheDeepSunfishCappped.jpg

[inkstainedruth]

 

For you, I think maybe it's less the one grail, than it is every goblet, chalice, cup and bowl set on the table that day.

 

Are you saying that I go "OOH -- shiny!" too much?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[vinniekowalski]

I just literally bought it (EEEEEP!!!): nickel plated trim medium nib Parker Vac in silver/grey. (drops mic)

[welch]

It was a Parker 51 aeromentric with a good medium nib. Then I discovered that the English Parkers have just the nibs I like. From then on, it was easy. I even bought a few spare "medium-to-broad" nibs from a fellow in the UK. I've been re-nibbing all my 51's that had worn down nibs. Eureka!

 

Now my grail is a large and thick Vacumatic with a good medium nib, or a vintage Duofold with a real medium nib. I've seem some "sold" pens at Da-vid's Vacu-mania site...expensive!! Still, I love Parkers, and especially pre-1960 Parkers. I call them: "Fountain pens from before ballpoints". It's a family thing: my mom got my dad a Vacumatic when he was sent to a carrier in the Pacific. Dad said, later, "I wrote a lot of letters with that pen". A 2-year old (or three?) who happens to be me found it and smashed it. Then I got a Parker 45 when I was 12 or 13. Used it forever.

 

The TV commercials for the Snorkel reminded me of a mosquito. Not a good association! By 1960, the only big-time pen-makers in the US were Parker and Sheaffer. Warterman had collapsed (carried on by a French subsidiary) and Evershap had sold out to Parker. The Big 4 became the Big 2.

Edited July 18, 2016 by welch

[fountainpagan]

Soennecken 111 tortoise shell

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/35/wnh0.jpg

 

Hakase bufalo horn

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/513/7jrn.jpg

[NinthSphere]

I suppose it's down to another custom. Something in the vein of a Master Scrivener, materials, clip, nib, etc. still in flux.

[praxim]

Grails are not my thing.

[uemuraw]

 

Are you saying that I go "OOH -- shiny!" too much?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Maybe. Or maybe a grail pen is just so cool it needs an entourage.

[inkstainedruth]

 

Maybe. Or maybe a grail pen is just so cool it needs an entourage.

 

Oh I can just imagine my husband's face if I told him that....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[FOUR X FOUR]

Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze, a yellowish tortoise Pelikan with black finials (no matter which one) and Montblanc Franz Kafka. A more attainable one - Waterman Expert Precious

I can see the Visconti HS as my Grail pen, as well

[FarmBoy]

Parker 51, single jewel yellowstone, extra fine nib.

 

 

Interesting choice.

So did you get the one on eBay last week?

[pajaro]

I wasn't even looking. This is more of a long range objective.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Probably some derivative of the Sailor King of Pens, whether the Classic LB5, the Ebonite KoP, or the Green Mosiac KoP.

 

I have it on my mind that if/when I ever go on a trip to Japan, I'll pick up a KoP as a souvenir of my trip while there.

[Bluey]

Not sure. I think I'm more likely to know when and if I find it.

[Fabienne]

My next pen.

[Type_O]

MB Agatha Christie! and/or one of those Conklin Mark Twain LE red demos.

[mercurius]

I don't think my grail pen exists: which is why it's a grail pen.

I know what form it takes: piston nib; nice heft (like Pelikan M 215); smooth nib; not a spade nib.

 

Got to exist somewhere, but so far as elusive as a unicorn.

Edited July 20, 2016 by mercurius

[cadfael_tex]

- first we'll build a wooden badger ...

But is any pen worth the merciless taunting of the French k-nig-hts?

[uemuraw]

;-)

[Coral_Montblanc]

Its the journey that matters.....enjoy collecting.