What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[carola]

18 hours ago, DilettanteG said:

That's why they call it a grail. Maybe go watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to prep? I'm sure it's 100% factual.😄

 

The best Indiana Jones of them all. I love Sean Connery as his father and their interaction. Plus that film supplies me with some terrific quotes. 😄

[DilettanteG]

1 hour ago, carola said:

 

The best Indiana Jones of them all. I love Sean Connery as his father and their interaction. Plus that film supplies me with some terrific quotes. 😄

"We called the dog Indiana," maybe my favorite line. Especially as I think Indiana Jones is actually named after George Lucas' dog., (Not sure if it's the same dog as the Husky that inspired Chewbacca.) It's an utterly charming film and the performances of Ford and Connery are just so darned likable. I may need a rewatch.

 

Lucas gets a lot criticism, I'm looking at you Howard the Duck, but he certainly made my childhood much more magical! 🥰

 

And so much of the film revolves around a journal written in fountain pen, I think. That's kinda on topic.

[carola]

35 minutes ago, DilettanteG said:

"We called the dog Indiana," maybe my favorite line. Especially as I think Indiana Jones is actually named after George Lucas' dog., (Not sure if it's the same dog as the Husky that inspired Chewbacca.) It's an utterly charming film and the performances of Ford and Connery are just so darned likable. I may need a rewatch.

 

Lucas gets a lot criticism, I'm looking at you Howard the Duck, but he certainly made my childhood much more magical! 🥰

 

And so much of the film revolves around a journal written in fountain pen, I think. That's kinda on topic.

 

As the film is set in the 1930s, the diary (which is mentioned to be an accumulation of the research Indie's father had put together during his whole life) has to be written with a fountain pen. And there is even a scene where the Jones's old friend defeats a soldier in a tank with a fountain pen. ("The pen is mightier than the sword!")

[DilettanteG]

On 1/19/2024 at 10:34 AM, carola said:

 

As the film is set in the 1930s, the diary (which is mentioned to be an accumulation of the research Indie's father had put together during his whole life) has to be written with a fountain pen. And there is even a scene where the Jones's old friend defeats a soldier in a tank with a fountain pen. ("The pen is mightier than the sword!")

I think I'll be rewatching this while slogging thru the laundry today. I deserve a treat and who doesn't need to know how to take out a tank with a fountain pen? Essential life skill that.

[Misfit]

I went looking, but did not impulsively buy a pen. However I’m now wanting to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade again. 

[inkstainedruth]

6 hours ago, carola said:

 

As the film is set in the 1930s, the diary (which is mentioned to be an accumulation of the research Indie's father had put together during his whole life) has to be written with a fountain pen. And there is even a scene where the Jones's old friend defeats a soldier in a tank with a fountain pen. ("The pen is mightier than the sword!")

That's probably one of my favorite scenes in the movie (although, admittedly, there are a LOT of great scenes in it).  Especially given that Indy says at one point, "He got lost in his own museum!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[carola]

Probably my favourite scene in the movie is the one where Indie and his father accidently activate a rotating door when being held captive in an Austrian castle. The fireplace turns around to the other room that happens to be a radio shack and a woman there slowly turns around, staring at them for a few seconds and then going "Alaaaaarm!" on the top of her lungs.

 

It's astonishing how many situations can be accurately described by the reaction of that woman. 🤣

[DilettanteG]

@carola 😆

[ParramattaPaul]

2 hours ago, carola said:

Probably my favourite scene in the movie is the one where Indie and his father accidently activate a rotating door when being held captive in an Austrian castle. The fireplace turns around to the other room that happens to be a radio shack and a woman there slowly turns around, staring at them for a few seconds and then going "Alaaaaarm!" on the top of her lungs.

 

It's astonishing how many situations can be accurately described by the reaction of that woman. 🤣

I laughed at that last sentence. My active imagination instantly conjured up a few.

[PithyProlix]

On 1/19/2024 at 8:16 AM, ralfstc said:

On 1/18/2024 at 9:00 PM, PithyProlix said:

Can anyone tell me exactly which Vacumatic it is? I won't have the pen for another 2-3 days.

 

This is a nice example of Canadian production. It has a two-digit date code (1950) as far as I can tell, and Canadian Vacs continued for quite some time after the end of production in the States. It's definitely a vac nib, I believe, but I'm struck by the shape, which seems a little less rhomboid-ish than many vac nibs.

 

Based on cap band and proportions, I'd suggest it's a long major, but you'll need to check measurements to be sure.

 

I received the Vacumatic today and was surprised at how small it is. I guess the seller must have very small hands!

 

With the Golden Brown color, a capped length of about 120mm & posted length of about 137mm, a barrel diameter of about 11mm, and a nib that extends about 20mm from the section, I am guessing this one is a Junior, perhaps? Note that the measurements on Richard Binder's Vacumatic page and the parkerpens.net Vacumatic page aren't quite consistent with each other.

 

I'm not sure which diaphram to order for this size - I'll ask in the Repair forum.

[GlenV]

Impulsively, I need to put the brakes on, I ran across a pen I’ve been looking for, so …. It’s a very cool early pen even though no tipping on the nib,  a Sterling brand middle joint eyedropper.  Anxious to see it of course 

[Runnin_Ute]

 Not completely impulsive, but more impulsive than not. This dark blue Montblanc Noblesse is on it's way.

[ralfstc]

19 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

With the Golden Brown color, a capped length of about 120mm & posted length of about 137mm, a barrel diameter of about 11mm, and a nib that extends about 20mm from the section, I am guessing this one is a Junior, perhaps? Note that the measurements on Richard Binder's Vacumatic page and the parkerpens.net Vacumatic page aren't quite consistent with each other.

 

I THINK it may be a debutante, perhaps a senior debutante. A junior wouldn't have the chevron cap band but two thin rings. A deb diaphragm would fit, based on the dimensions you've given.

 

It's a plastic filler, right?

 

Good luck!

 

Ralf

[Paul-in-SF]

On 1/17/2024 at 12:16 PM, DilettanteG said:

So much for my, 'I will pace my pen purchases in 2024'  resolution.

 

I have the same resolution, specifically one pen per month. So far I have kept the resolution, and my one pen for January is sort of impulsive, in the sense that, I had a particular new pen at a great price on my watch list for weeks and weeks and it finally sold to someone else, so I forgot about it for a while. Then I just started looking for another instance of the same model at a great price, and I found it, and I bought it. The price this time was not as great as the previous one, but still great. 

 

Oh, the pen? It's a Pilot Custom Urushi in black with an FM nib. I didn't want to say anything until it arrived, because I bought it from not an authorized seller in Japan and I was afraid the deal might go south in some way. But the pen is here and it is great and it works very well, and I am happy with it. The size is a little ridiculous, though -- a few months ago I got a Custom 845 (Red, M nib) and I still think that is the perfect size for me. But that #30 nib is something to conjure with. 

 

Next month, who knows? We're going on vacation so I may not have any money left over for pens. 

[txomsy]

9 hours ago, Runnin_Ute said:

 Not completely impulsive, but more impulsive than not. This dark blue Montblanc Noblesse is on it's way.

Those two are both beautiful.

 

[PithyProlix]

10 hours ago, ralfstc said:

 

I THINK it may be a debutante, perhaps a senior debutante. A junior wouldn't have the chevron cap band but two thin rings. A deb diaphragm would fit, based on the dimensions you've given.

 

It's a plastic filler, right?

 

If you are referring to the filler button/plunger, then yes, it is plastic.

 

Your suggestion motivated me to confirm so I looked again at the image captioned "A model comparison of the third generation plastic speedline filler Vacumatics" at https://parkerpens.net/vacumatic.html again and I think it is actually a "Major Short". I've hotlinked the image below.

 

The first two pens from the top are a Junior Debutante and a Senior Debutante and they are significantly shorter than my pen, which is 12.0cm. The sixth pen from the top is a Canadian production Major Short. Note that it has a decorated cap band. I resized the image on my computer screen so that the Major Short matched the length of my pen and all the proportions, except for the clip, are the same. The clip on mine is slightly shorter - by the height of the clip arrowhead, approximately - and seems to be proportioned more like the Debutante. It is longer than the Debutante's, though.

 

Note also this sentence: "The 1942-1946 Major (with rounded blind cap) is in fact quite shorter than the earlier (two-jewelled) version." It goes on to say that there were no further changes after that.

 

The odd thing is that the nib, which you remarked about, seems proportioned most like the Maxima nib shown in the image two down from the image I hotlinked to, i.e. the length to width ratio is higher than the Debutante, Junior, and Major nibs, though shorter than the Maxima nib by about 3mm. Perhaps this is difference with Canadian production pens?

 

What do you think, please? Do you still think the Debutante diaphram should be the one to get for my pen, please?

 

(Image hotlinked from https://parkerpens.net/vacumatic.html)

[AndyYNWA]

I bought this Pilot at Tradera (Swedish eBay) for SEK 321 (~USD 31.00, ~EUR 28.30). Probably a poor investment, but I thought it looked quite cool.
I have no idea what it is. Anyone who can enlighten me?

 

[Gloucesterman]

1 hour ago, AndyYNWA said:

I bought this Pilot at Tradera (Swedish eBay) for SEK 321 (~USD 31.00, ~EUR 28.30). Probably a poor investment, but I thought it looked quite cool.
I have no idea what it is. Anyone who can enlighten me?

 

What you have here is the Pilot 78G (?) an inexpensive, and for the money - they were originally $10-15.00 "back in the day". A simple pen with and easily swapped nib (F, M, B - with the broad nib being more of stub/italic 1.0 mm. The converter was a Con-20 or, in some cases the earlier (cheaper) converter (# unknown). The nib is friction fit and easily swapped with most lower cost Pilot pens such as the Prera, Plumix, Metropolitan, Knight etc. One of the Chinese companies made a decent (imho) knock-off of this pen that was selling for about $6-8.00 the last time i paid any attention. I would question any swap-ability between the 78G and the Chines alternative.

 

I think Pilot made a slightly updated version (78G+ possibly) about which I know little to nothing.

 

Somewhere in my old pen larder, I still have six or eight of these pens.

 

Oh, yes, the Pilot versions came in black, a "tealish" blue, burgundy-ish red and a greenish color - IIRC.

 

Enjoy it as I recall, it's a nice writer... or was for me.

[SLinkster]

Checked my eBay watchlist before work and saw that a pen was about to end with a pretty low high bid. I submitted my high bid just a few seconds before the auction end and *presto* manual sniping success!

 

So now I'm waiting for a Pelikan m205 with broad nib to wing it's way from Deutschland to me in Texas. 

[Junebe]

AndyYNWA, I have a Pilot 78g+ (I don't have a 78g but I think they are more or less the same thing) and I like it, it is thin and very light. They are sold for less than 20 euros on Aliexpress.

 

I bought it last year to be able to use some pilot nibs I have from a Plumix and two MRs. I dislike the section of the Plumix and of the two MR, one doesn't seal well at all, and I dropped the cap of the good one and it bent. So now none of them seal well.

The 78g+ and the MR have the same section, with the difference that my MR take standard international cartridges and converters and the 78g+ Pilot ones.

So now I have a MR section with its original medium nib, the other MR section with a Plumix M italic nib and the 78G+ section with its original extrafine nib to use in one pen.