What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[inkstainedruth]

Well, after being pretty good so far this year, I'm back on track for "Pen of the Month" club....

Yesterday, I went to some antiques places south of me (two of them were having holiday sales). And bought one pen in each of the places having sales....

First place I got a 1941 Parker Laidtone Duovac (basically the Duofold version of a Vacumatic 2nd Generation (Speedline filler). Not super cheap but not horribly expensive either, especially since if I paid cash I got 20% off. Of course I will then have to get checked out to see if the diaphragm needs to be replaced.... That will set me back some money as well. Did I really need another Dusty Rose Laidtone? Maybe.... Nib looks good, but there are some bite marks on the blind cap that I didn't notice yesterday at the store.

The second place had nothing (it's fairly tony, with lots of Staffordshire dogs and expensive furniture). But in the third place? Found a low-end black Snorkel (I think it might be a "Special" -- palladium silver standard nib, 1/4" gold color cap band). I DEFINITELY didn't need another black Snorkel -- but with the cash discount sales price, I paid under $8.50 with sales tax.....

Of course now both pens get added to the stash of "Pens to get repaired if there is ever another pen show"....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[iainambler]

I succumbed last month and bought myself a Pelikan M600 with a medium nib with the green stripey barrel.

 

Lovely pen, and it's my go-to daily carry. I have it filled with Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black. I now have four daily carry fountain pens, each with a different ink colour...

[Mysterious Mose]

Sheaffer Sagaris red with M nib.

 

This purchase was as impulsive as you can get. I happily used Sheaffer Scripto cartridge fountain pens for many years, and thought I might like having one now. I went to eBay. Their search for products is somewhat inaccurate and it came up with a few Sagaris's. This one is labeled new and looked very good. We brought the price down from $12.50 to $11.25 and made a sale. Now its mine. A very nice pen. It's on the skinny and light side, so I'm inclined to write smaller with it. I prefer heavier, fatter pen, but this is fine.

 

I also have a Sheaffer School cartridge fountain pen on order.

 

My other useable fountain pens are: Pelikan Souveran M805, Stipula Splash, Waterman Expert II, and Waterman Phileas.

 

Have I crossed the line to addiction?

[Intensity]

Sheaffer Sagaris red with M nib.

 

This purchase was as impulsive as you can get. I happily used Sheaffer Scripto cartridge fountain pens for many years, and thought I might like having one now. I went to eBay. Their search for products is somewhat inaccurate and it came up with a few Sagaris's. This one is labeled new and looked very good. We brought the price down from $12.50 to $11.25 and made a sale. Now its mine. A very nice pen. It's on the skinny and light side, so I'm inclined to write smaller with it. I prefer heavier, fatter pen, but this is fine.

 

I also have a Sheaffer School cartridge fountain pen on order.

 

My other useable fountain pens are: Pelikan Souveran M805, Stipula Splash, Waterman Expert II, and Waterman Phileas.

 

Have I crossed the line to addiction?

 

Come back when you have 20+ fancy pens and ask that question again Your current handful will seem like a very sensible number!

[bayindirh]

Have I crossed the line to addiction?

(With Bane's voice) That part comes later.

[Tasmith]

Platinum Prefounte Night Sea. Thought it was a very nice looking pen for only $10. Put an extra fine Preppy nib and section on it and couldn't be happier.

[NumberSix]

Platinum Prefounte Night Sea. Thought it was a very nice looking pen for only $10. Put an extra fine Preppy nib and section on it and couldn't be happier.

 

I want to get a Prefounte and eyedropper it.

 

Been eyeing the Orange. . .

[chemgeek]

Rose Gold TWSBI 580. Can't resist Rose Gold. At least it was a relatively inexpensive impulse. Writes really nice, too.

[AD43]

I decided to get a Namiki chinkin cat in the airport, although it was half price which certainly helped the impulsive buying of it.

[ParramattaPaul]

Two vintage Conway Stewarts. both older than I am.

[Misfit]

A Schneider Voice (beginners) fountain pen because I saw it on a blog post at The Well Appointed Desk.

The post had a link to it. I have declared to myself (and hope I was listening) this is the last pen I buy with a standard nib. My preferred nibs are italic and stub.

[A Smug Dill]

An Aurora Optima Viola(?) in purple aurolide with rose gold trim.

 

My preferred nibs are italic and stub.

 

 

To be perfectly honest, me too — but I prefer the width of the pen strokes perpendicular to the plane of the nib body (i.e. downstrokes or "vertical strokes" for a lot of fountain pen users) to be no wider than 0.55mm, and the pen strokes in line with the plane (i.e. cross-strokes or "horizontal" strokes) to be no more than 0.3mm in thickness, with the ratio between more distinct than 9:5. Nobody seems to sell that as a selectable option from stock, however.

[Intensity]

Imagine if Sailor did a stock medium-fine cursive italic, cut at a reasonable incline for Western writing, around 45% (not like the MS nib, which works best at near-vertical pen angle)... With their precision and smoothness, it would be amazing and I would have a bunch of them.

[ENewton]

 

To be perfectly honest, me too — but I prefer the width of the pen strokes perpendicular to the plane of the nib body (i.e. downstrokes or "vertical strokes" for a lot of fountain pen users) to be no wider than 0.55mm, and the pen strokes in line with the plane (i.e. cross-strokes or "horizontal" strokes) to be no more than 0.3mm in thickness, with the ratio between more distinct than 9:5. Nobody seems to sell that as a selectable option from stock, however.

 

My preference is similar, and I am happy to have a Parker Duofold Junior from the 1920s that produces a line in these dimensions.

[pen2paper]

Pelikan, still uninked in the box.

[Doug C]

A Kaco Edge. Makes me wonder why I have pens that retailed for over $1000.

[MuddyWaters]

An Aurora Optima Viola(?) in purple aurolide with rose gold trim.

 

 

 

To be perfectly honest, me too but I prefer the width of the pen strokes perpendicular to the plane of the nib body (i.e. downstrokes or "vertical strokes" for a lot of fountain pen users) to be no wider than 0.55mm, and the pen strokes in line with the plane (i.e. cross-strokes or "horizontal" strokes) to be no more than 0.3mm in thickness, with the ratio between more distinct than 9:5. Nobody seems to sell that as a selectable option from stock, however.

Fpnibs can't do that for you?

[A Smug Dill]

Fpnibs can't do that for you?

 

What, sell nibs like that as a selectable option from stock? No, and FPNibs.com just don't seem to carry any pen models that I'd want to "impulse buy" anyway.

 

I once ordered a Pelikan M605 White-Transparent from them and was prepared to pay for Pablo's after-market nib customisation work, with uncharacteristic (of FPNibs) free shipping offered on that item being the clincher, and that was an impulse buy; but Pablo reported that, upon inspection, there was a crack in the only unit of that pen he had, and so he cancelled my order. In the several months after that, all the gold-nibbed Pelikan models gradually disappeared from the FPNibs catalogue and nothing new was added, so eventually I stopped watching. Your question prompted me to take a look just now, and even though it now seems to have a few Pelikan Souverän models listed, the selection just isn't what would make me think, "Look, shiny! I've got to have that colour!" and I don't find their base prices (before adding charges for nib customisation and shipping) to be competitive.

 

I bought a Pelikan and an Aurora from Nibsmith.com requesting the type of nib customisation described. One worked out absolutely great and is one of my favourite gold nibs among all our pens; the outcome on the other one is less striking but still pretty good. Dan Smith's nib work is excellent, and because he includes the service in his asking prices for high-end pen models, that sorta neutralises of the relatively high international shipping charges (even among US retailers).

 

The overall value proposition may yet be competitive, when "the planets are aligned" and there is both product scarcity (e.g. the Pelikan M605 White-Transparent and Aurora Optima Oliva were getting quite difficult to buy new from retailers directly) and (either product-/brand-specific or site-wide occasional) discounting involved. This limits their ability to secure much "wallet share" in what we spend on impulsive pen acquisitions, though; they might get one in every fifty, if that.

 

If I wasn't looking for relatively costly gold-nibbed pen models that I don't dare fiddling with the nibs myself, I wouldn't pay that much extra for nib work to get a truly fine italic nib, when I could just order another set of Pilot Enso Plumix pens and transplant the nib into a Prera (or I suppose a compatible Chinese-made) pen body.

 

In any case, I think there is value where a pen/nib manufacturer — Sailor, Platinum, Pilot, Pelikan, Parker, Aurora, and so on — offers "specialty" nib options and essentially guarantees the workmanship and fitness-for-purpose of the grind with the reputation of the brand. (Parker failed, in my experience, with both its EEF/needlepoint and Fine Italic nibs.) I can't think of any reason why I would not prefer to buy a Platinum #3776 14K gold or President 18K gold Ultra Extra Fine nib, instead of getting Pablo or Dan to reduce the nib width for me. If Sailor, Platinum or Pilot (all known for not using interchangeable nib units or selling spare nibs to retail customers) made gold Fine Italic nibs for their flagship (Profit, #3776 and Custom) product ranges, my bank balance would take some terrible hits with impulse buys, I'm sure.

[landrover]

Pilot 823 Custom Demonstrator, Broad nib, at a keen price from Japan.

One of the best pens I have, and far better than many of the more expensive pens. I am delighted with it!

[MusterMark]

A Schon Dsgn Pocket Six in the new ocean depths color. Ive been on the fence about these for a while but that teal/black is just too cool to pass up!