Has Anyone Heard Of Henry Simpole 2015

[tenney]

One of? Aren't they all nasty?

[Ghost Plane]

One of? Aren't they all nasty?

Nope. We LOVE the pen and pen gear related ones that help pay for the servers and software and everything else that lets us keep the virtual lights on and doors open.

[tenney]

I have yet to see any such banner ad. All I see are your typical annoying doubleclick type of banner ad. FP related ads to pay the rent is a whole different kettle of fish.

Edited September 3, 2015 by tenney

[Ghost Plane]

Looked at the bottom of this page and saw 4 fountain pen related ads & I'm on an iPad. Those ads are helping pay the bills. Tho' not as much as Wim was told they would. Have a look at his posts on what he's been going through trying to find reliable ads that perform as promised.

[tenney]

Ghost, it's the obnoxious banner ads from Doubleclick at the top of the page that's the issue! They try to sell anything and everything.

[Truffle Finder]

Sorry to cut across the current conversation! But I must tell about my day at Portobello yesterday.

It all started with a visit from one of my favourite customers, who lives in Israel, and she is an avid collector of vintage fountain pens.

She is one of those people who doesn't just ask to see a certain 'make' or 'filling mechanism' as a guide to what she is looking for, but she prefers to just look at any type of vintage pen, and then she 'knows' when she sees the one that take her fancy! Which I suppose is the right way to go about it.

Anyway, she chose two pens, and asked me to sort out a grey oversized Parker Vacumatic for next week, when she will come back to pick it up.

I was offered a Pelican 800 in black, which I bought for a quite reasonable price, and then, quite out of the blue, one of the 'General Antique Dealers' appeared with a solid 18ct gold overlaid Dunhill Namiki pen, with a number one sized nib! We fairly quickly struck a deal for it, and I am now the proud owner of this lovely fountain pen.

The nib is a beautiful, broad italic one, and as is very often the case with Namiki nibs, is extremely flexible, so it is probably a pen that will be kept in my 'Pension Scheme' folder!

Definitely, a good day at Portobello Road.

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

What I am going to write about has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with fountain pens, but as you might see, after having read about it, I hope that you will understand why I want to tell someone about it.

This last Sunday, there was the usual Farmer's Market held on my local High Street, [the first Sunday of each month], and I popped along there to have a 'mooch around'!

There is usually a stall there with 'bric-a-brac' and other 'retro' stuff, and amongst these goodies, I spotted a pair of cast iron 'bench-ends', anyway, having asked how much they wanted for them, I willingly paid the £30 for the two solid pieces.

This morning, I made some measurements, and wrote them down, and then went over to Walthamstow, where there is both a very good Hardware Shop, and also a wood merchants nearby, and I went in to make inquiries about getting the hard-wood slats that I will need to re-build the bench seat.

The man was very helpful, and he took the details away to make a phone-call, and came back a few minutes later, and gave me a 'rough quote' of £100 for all the wood! I was delighted! I then went to the Hard Ware shop, and bought all the nuts and bolts and washers that I will need to complete the exercise. The wood is likely to take 2 or 3 days to be ready for collection, and I can't wait to get started on the restoration job!

I plan to take it down to my flat in Cornwall, and I'm sure that it will look good, on my patio down there.

Thank you for letting me share that with you! I feel a lot better now!!!!

Truffle Finder.

[Ghost Plane]

Feel free to have a go at my garden!

[Larry Barrieau]

Henry, take some pictures and bring us along day by day. It sounds like a fun project.

 

Larry

[Truffle Finder]

No good news I'm afraid! I went over to the timber merchant's yesterday at about lunchtime, and the wooden slats had not been delivered. So, I'm just hoping that they will arrive on Monday, and then I will be able to get on with the job then.

Let's hope that today brings some good tidings up at Portobello Road.

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

It did turn out to be a pretty good day today.

My favourite Israeli Lady arrived quite early on, and was delighted with the oversized Vacumatic pen which she had seen last week, and seemed to like the replacement nib that I had fitted to the pen. She then asked to see the Watermans Patrician [in Onyx] and having tried it, decided that she just had to buy it! I also showed her an Onoto pen, with a fairly broad Italic nib, [she decided that she really 'ought' to have that one as well!]

So, having quoted her a pretty fair price for all three pens, we parted company for another 6 months or so!

 

I was only offered two pens during the day, and I bought both of them. One was a black oversized Vacumatic, [it had obviously been around the block a few times!] and the other one was a Mont Blanc 146 from [i estimate] the 1980's, and it has the following inscriptions on the cap:-DEMO FP 146 M, and on the other side it says:- The art of writing.

On the barrel, it says:- Test - M.

I only guess that it was issued to the retail shops for customers to use literally to try the pens out, before they purchased the pens.

Not a bad day really!!!

Truffle Finder.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Truffle Finder

[Truffle Finder]

Well, the good news, is that I received a phone call from the timber merchants this morning, to tell me that the wood was there and ready to be collected.

I went there and picked it up, and took it all back to the workshop to discover that I would have to plane back the ends for the slats to fit the two sides of the bench [i hadn't taken into account that there is a lip just above where each slat fits!] Then I discovered that all the bolts that I had already bought, were fractionally too thick to go easily through the holes in the 'lugs' where the slats will sit! So, I then had to file each hole slightly, and now the bolts 'do' fit!!!

I'm now half-way through drilling the holes in each of the slats, and after that is done, then I will have to counter-sink the holes to allow the bolts to fit snugly.

When that is all done, I will prepare each of the wooden slats with the wood preservative, and only then will I be able to put the whole thing together.

My advice to anyone who 'discovers' a pair of similar 'bench-ends' at a Bric-a Brac stall somewhere [at a very favourable price!] just get on with the restoration of it, [and don't tell anyone about it!] I did, I showed my sister the two bench-ends, and told her what I was intending to do, and she immediately said:- " and then will you give it to me?"

I love my sister too much to say 'no', so now it looks as though the bench will be used by her family in her large garden in Essex.

Probably much more useful there than on my patio in Cornwall!

Hey-Ho!!!

Truffle Finder.

[billydo]

Back to pens...

 

There's a new story on Henry's website about this year's re-modelled Snake pen, here's a link for you: http://www.henrysimpole.com/new-for-2015-the-snake

 

There's also a new gallery portfolio to view too: http://www.henrysimpole.com/the-2015-snake-pen-18ct

 

I know we all love to see some pictures so here's a few of the new model alongside my original silver snake.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

[Truffle Finder]

There's not a huge amount that I can say about this model of overlaid pen, apart from the fact [as Neal has already said], it was the first pen that I was entirely responsible for producing under the Trade Mark of His Nibs Ltd: back in 1999.

As has been the case very often in my workshop, occasionally I come across an item in my safe, that was obviously important at the time that I put it in there, but when I come across it again [sometimes years later!] it 'kick starts me into doing something about it. That's exactly what happened with these 18ct gold Snake 'clip-capped' models. I found two of the clips, with the Emerald Eyes already 'set', so I thought that it would be sensible to make up two barrel overlays! The broad cap-bands were already Hall-marked, and as a consequence they have the Millennium Stamp on them, which was an added bonus.

I decided to make the base-pens as cartridge-converter fillers, as opposed to my original idea of having them as button-fillers. I realise that they are not everybody's 'cup of tea', but they are simple, and usually very reliable!

My gut feeling about these two pens is that I might only sell one, and keep the other one for myself! But I don't know whether I can afford to do that at this moment in time!!!

 

On another note, I have done everything that was required to the wooden slats, in the restoration job on the garden seat, and I have just spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get it assembled! I'm quite a determined person, so I will persevere with it, but it is trying the patience of a saint at present!!!

 

Truffle Finder.

[Ghost Plane]

Yum!

[esterbex]

[fireskink]

As a reptile owner I would LOVE to own one of these one day! Better start ransoming my soul... XD

[Truffle Finder]

Today started off with yet another visit from the young lady who came to see me for the last two Saturdays at Portobello. She had a good look at my stock of vintage fountain pens, and then I remembered about one that I don't think that I had shown her last week. It was a V Flexible Nibbed Wahl Eversharp from the 1930's. She tried it, and made cooing noises while she did so, and then decided that she just had to add it to her collection of pens.

A very good customer [from Alabama] then approached my stand, and he was accompanied by his daughter, and her husband, I was introduced to both of them, and I casually asked her if she knew about me! "Only a few thousand times!" was her reply. [i felt very flattered by her comment!] The young couple then left my customer to look over the pens, and he decided on a Swan twist-filler pen, [also from the 1930's], but then when his daughter and son in law returned, he was looking at a junior Parker Lapis Duofold, he tried it, and decided that he wanted it. So he had it!

Before my next pen customer of the day came along, two people came to pick up their pens which had been left with me last week.

The third customer was the second of the 'pen repair' people, and he asked to see the Parker Duofold tray, and picked out a Senior Duofold in black hard rubber [circa 1920's] and decided that he wanted to buy it.

No vintage pens were offered to me to buy this week, which is a shame, but that is the way it goes sometimes!

Truffle Finder.

[Truffle Finder]

I would like to ask any of the viewers on this thread what they think I should do with regards to the following situation.

A few weeks ago, a gentleman came to my booth at Portobello, and spent quite a time looking over my selection of vintage pens, and eventually bought three or four pens that he felt would compliment his collection. He paid me the amount that we settled on, [having given him a reasonable discount] and he left me, seemingly very happy with his purchases.

Just over a week ago, I received an E-mail from him, telling me that he was sending one of the pens back to me, as it had broken [just behind the barrel threads] which left the section, feed and nib inside the cap of the pen! I should point out at this point, that the pen was a red hard rubber 'ring-top' Lady Duofold pen from the 1920's, which as most people will know is an inherently fragile material at the best of times!

[i would like to point out at this stage that it was certainly 'intact' when he left my stand at Portobello].

The E-mail that I received from the gentleman said that it was quite obvious that it had not been 'serviced', and was not 'in good condition', but when the pen arrived by post, it was obvious to me that it had been 'serviced', [apart from the fact that I do not put pens out for sale until I have serviced them].

In his E-mail, he asked me if I would send him the amount that he paid for the pen.

I refrained from answering his E-mail, until the pen arrived, so that I could see clearly what had actually happened to it. As I said before, the barrel had sheared off just behind the barrel threads, [and incidentally the brand new rubber sack, and metal pressure-bar could clearly be seen!]

Anyway, I went through my Parker Duofold 'spares' draws, and found a replacement RHRubber barrel, and restored the pen to a presentable state.

Now, what I need to know from anyone reading this is:- Should I just send the pen back to him, [and forget about the proposed refund], or should I just put it 'to bed' and send him the money that he paid me for the pen?

I really would appreciate your thoughts on this issue.

Thanking you in advance.

Truffle Finder.

Edited September 20, 2015 by Truffle Finder

[my63]

It is a difficult situation Henry the customer may not have been aware of the fragile nature of the red hard rubber.

Why not offer the choice to the customer if the pen is repaired you will be able to sell it again and your customer will be happy.