What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[txomsy]

If you do not mind my intruding on domestic affairs... in my opinion the best martial art she can learn is playing chess. Or, rather, just playing with other children in general.

 

Once upon a time shouting louder was relevant. Then came sticks. Then stones. Then weapons. Then copper, bronze, iron, steel... In the world she'll live contact or individual "fighting/strategizing" need not be so relevant (or so I hope). Indeed, I believe individual fighting is a long kept tradition (well worth keeping lest forgetting it brings us backwards) that has also long been superseded by armies. And by the looks of it, even conventional armies are in their way to being phased out  in the near future.

 

The tools are only a means to an end: gaining an edge over one's peers. The ability to 'sniff' the wind and make strategic decisions, the ability to make friends and build alliances, to understand others and play along with them, is much more useful than viewing them as enemies, tools or inferiors, fighting them or imposing oneself over them. It only led to the Chinese, Russian, French, English, and so many, many other, revolutions and WWs.

 

It is true we will always generate trouble. But we no longer decide the alpha from shouting, nor based on ability with fight, sticks, stones, or other individual implements/skills. For me, that (the change) is the point. That we evolve. And no longer need to compete the old way, thanks to our ancestors disposing of these old ways and freeing us to look for novel grounds.

 

Does it make a difference? If I consider I could live like a monkey, or a bronze age, medieval or otherwise guy, in a world where those limited technologies only supported more limited populations in more troubled lives, I must be grateful to those who did away with these old ways and looked for others that were superior, not just for them, but for all. Now, I can live a longer life, with less stress, strain and disease, more fruitful, happier.

 

That's is why I believe one should consider the effect of one's habits and their long term impact. Some guys decided lynching was not optimal and settled for laws. Then some decided the Talion's law of retaliation was not optimal and settled for better laws. etc. Maybe (and only maybe) it is time for us to consider if consumerism (or other habits) is/are less than optimal and we should settle for better habits.

 

So, should one not care about future generations? That is up to each one and I do not pretend to impose my view since I am most likely wrong. For me, I have to acknowledge the difference in how I lived my life from that of my ancestors, that it (the diff) is due to those of them who cared about me (and everyone's descendants at large), and I do feel that I do have an imaginary, unreal, intangible, unsupported, nonexistent debt to them for all they did for me and gave me. Call it PIF, if you want , theirs first, now my turn.

 

Yeah, I know, I could also believe I would have managed well anyway in ancient societies. Maybe. If I had been born, which with a much reduced population would have been very unlikely; and in any case, I wouldn't have had access to any of the luxuries I enjoy now. So, it is difficult for me to put forward I owe nothing to others and I succeeded mostly by myself. Which is why I think social abilities are more important than martial arts or NLP (which are just tools and like shouting, sticks and stones, and many others, will pass away). And I agree, I may be ignorant of their value, though I've gone through my share of techniques (Greek-Roman, Judo, Karate, Hapkido, Taekowndo, Tai-Chi...) -and still practice Aikido- (and psych-tricks, starting from oratory in my childhood and so on...) but I reckon their contribution in my life is more playful than practical, whereas social skills have saved my day countless times (actually, every time).

 

[Penguincollector]

My impulsive low bid on a blue CT Parker 45 Arrow with an octanium nib won somehow. 

[TitoThePencilPimp]

My impulse order of a pilot 823 clear (WA nib) just arrived today. It took about 4 days from Japan to California. It is extremely smooth. One of the smoothest nibs I own. Although it writes a bit wider than I like, it writes like a an extra smooth pilot FM, but closer to M. A great bang for your buck pen, that puts many of my more expensive pens to shame.

 

[Number99]

1 hour ago, Penguincollector said:

My impulsive low bid on a blue CT Parker 45 Arrow with an octanium nib won somehow. 

Is it light blue? Or navy blue? I've only seen the light blue once on a sales page, but it was one of a pile of pens so I just looked at it...

 

I also hit the buy button on a fountain pen last night for the first time in a very long time.

It's a Parker 45 CT FP with a user grade English 1960's black barrel end piece, the first 45 flighter to show up on parkerpens.net, but I didn't have one.

 

[Penguincollector]

26 minutes ago, Number99 said:

Is it light blue? Or navy blue? I've only seen the light blue once on a sales page, but it was one of a pile of pens so I just looked at it...

 

I also hit the buy button on a fountain pen last night for the first time in a very long time.

It's a Parker 45 CT FP with a user grade English 1960's black barrel end piece, the first 45 flighter to show up on parkerpens.net, but I didn't have one.

 

  Navy blue. The seller didn’t say what size. There’s a royal blue GT with a 14k nib on my watch list, and I was also eyeing a matte blue TX, but I haven’t come across any light blue versions of the 45 for sale in a long time.  I saw a turquoise, but the hood looked off.
  I would love to see your 45 collection- are there pictures of it on here somewhere?

[KBeezie]

Not strictly pen related, but do now want to find the pen that matches the same colonnade pattern, this was definitely an impulse. Saw the pattern and condition and I had to have it. 

 

 

 

The dark panel area I believe would have been filled with an enamel at one point. 

[Penguincollector]

3 minutes ago, KBeezie said:

Not strictly pen related, but do now want to find the pen that matches the same colonnade pattern, this was definitely an impulse. Saw the pattern and condition and I had to have it. 

 

 

 

The dark panel area I believe would have been filled with an enamel at one point. 

  I hope you find the match, that pattern is gorgeous!  It’s so Deco.

[KBeezie]

17 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

  I hope you find the match, that pattern is gorgeous!  It’s so Deco.

Very much so. 

 

These being my others on the left in what I consider to be the more common machine turned patterns. 

[Penguincollector]

That whole tray is a thing of beauty. The new pencil seems more intricate than the other machined writing instruments.

[USG]

23 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

My impulsive low bid on a blue CT Parker 45 Arrow with an octanium nib won somehow. 

 

+1 😀👍

But I have a question.  I'm not up on Parker 45 nibs, are all the silver colored nibs octanium?

[Penguincollector]

17 minutes ago, USG said:

 

+1 😀👍

But I have a question.  I'm not up on Parker 45 nibs, are all the silver colored nibs octanium?

  I don’t know for certain, but I think Octanium is what Parker called their particular stainless steel alloy because it contains 8 metals. I don’t know how long that trade name was used, but I have seen 51 special, 21, Super 21,  45, and 75 pen nibs labled octanium. I think modern Parker isn’t using that term anymore. If they stopped using it before stopping production on the 45, there might be some that are some other steel alloy, or licensed facilities overseas might be using other alloys as well.

[USG]

6 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  I don’t know for certain, but I think Octanium is what Parker called their particular stainless steel alloy because it contains 8 metals. I don’t know how long that trade name was used, but I have seen 51 special, 21, Super 21,  45, and 75 pen nibs labled octanium. I think modern Parker isn’t using that term anymore. If they stopped using it before stopping production on the 45, there might be some that are some other steel alloy, or licensed facilities overseas might be using other alloys as well.

 

IC... I have 1 Parker 45, from the mid '60s.  Very smooth Steel nib.  The squeeze converter wore out early on because there was a sharp edge on the metal squeeze thingy.  Refilled cartridges solved the problem. 👍

[amk]

Whoops, Pelikan m205 Rose quartz. Took me all of ten minutes to struggle unsuccessfully with the tempation.

[ruby.monkey]

A used but tidy Montblanc 146 (LeGrand?), currently with a broad nib but soon to be host to my spare OB.

[Number99]

On 8/6/2023 at 12:12 PM, Penguincollector said:

Navy blue. The seller didn’t say what size. There’s a royal blue GT with a 14k nib on my watch list, and I was also eyeing a matte blue TX, but I haven’t come across any light blue versions of the 45 for sale in a long time.  I saw a turquoise, but the hood looked off.

TX is hard to even see in the area where I am.

As for the royal blue 45s, ask the seller or check with them as the lighting may be making the navy blue look brighter.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_blue

For confirmation of what color royal blue is.

 

On 8/6/2023 at 12:12 PM, Penguincollector said:

I would love to see your 45 collection- are there pictures of it on here somewhere?

Only a few of my Parker 45s are rare.

If you search the FPN image album in the gallery under my username, you will see two albums.

They are all for images attached to other posts, so there is no description and they are not organized, but it is easiest to look at them.

There is also an image of a No end piece flighter from the 1960s that was probably discontinued after a test run in Japan.

I will try to PM you some of the images in the image space outside the gallery.

Come to think of it, I have not yet taken pictures of the two different red barrel end piece flighters.

 

9 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

  I don’t know for certain, but I think Octanium is what Parker called their particular stainless steel alloy because it contains 8 metals. I don’t know how long that trade name was used, but I have seen 51 special, 21, Super 21,  45, and 75 pen nibs labled octanium. I think modern Parker isn’t using that term anymore. If they stopped using it before stopping production on the 45, there might be some that are some other steel alloy, or licensed facilities overseas might be using other alloys as well.

Octanium is an alloy used by PARKER for nibs composed of cobalt, chromium, nickel, iron, molybdenum, manganese, carbon, and beryllium. There is an article about a discarded Japanese pen nib manufacturer that also used it. (Shiro - pen)

I believe they can no longer make it for the reason in the link below, because it contains beryllium, a metallic material that increases rigidity.

I cannot tell from here when this started. It is probably a US regulation.

https://www.osha.gov/beryllium/rulemaking/faq

 

I've read that PARKER also used beryllium in their clips, but that's tertiary information so I don't know if it's true or not.

It is said that there is no problem with beryllium in pens. It is said to be regulated by the working environment during the manufacturing process, the environment around the construction, and wastewater.

 

 

[ruby.monkey]

7 hours ago, amk said:

Whoops, Pelikan m205 Rose quartz. Took me all of ten minutes to struggle unsuccessfully with the tempation.

A valiant effort.

[KBeezie]

15 hours ago, USG said:

 

+1 😀👍

But I have a question.  I'm not up on Parker 45 nibs, are all the silver colored nibs octanium?

Not all, some that "appear" silver, can be the 10K gold nibs that were white/silver in appearance. So you have the Octanium, 10K, and 14K (there might been 18K in french made nibs). The gold-plated octaniums have a tell-tell sign, if it's gold at the tip, it's likely plated, otherwise if it's matte looking gold with a silver point, it's usually 14K gold, as they wouldn't plate over the tipping. 

 

Feel-on-Paper far as new-old-stock when it hasn't been tuned/adjusted by someone, steel vs gold is usually very indistinguishable, the part that touches the paper is neither steel nor gold, but rather the super hard metal alloy at the tip, and with the semi-hooded nature of the nib, neither were made to be any different in terms of springiness/etc. The main reason to get gold is if the pen was found used in the wild, it's easier to clean up without really any concern of the nib being damaged whereas vintage steel would have corroded from decades of being left inked in a drawer. 

[Paul-in-SF]

I bought another Marlen, my 3rd, this model is called Basilea, bright red with black accents. I am a sucker for that quirky design esthetic combined with bright colors. 

[Doug C]

3 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

I bought another Marlen, my 3rd, this model is called Basilea, bright red with black accents. I am a sucker for that quirky design esthetic combined with bright colors. 

I came close to getting one of these. Marlen truly marches to a different drummer. Love them.

[Greg W.]

On 8/5/2023 at 11:45 PM, KBeezie said:

Not strictly pen related, but do now want to find the pen that matches the same colonnade pattern, this was definitely an impulse. Saw the pattern and condition and I had to have it. 

 

 

 

The dark panel area I believe would have been filled with an enamel at one point. 

That is an amazing pencil. I really love that pattern. Wonderful find. Congratulations!