London Writing Equipment Show 2017

[migo984]

Looking forward to seeing everyone today.

For those of you I won't recognise, ie not Alc3261 or Migo984 come up and say hello if you see me.

This is my doppelganger . . . only I will be smiling most of the time

http://www.taskyprianou.com/me_the_hood.jpg

 

I know that face! :-)

 

Sadly I'm missing the Show this year as I'm still in Australia, & Melbourne to London is a bit far to commute ;-) Have a great time Tas.

[dapprman]

Was my first show, and boy as it hot in there, but was good fun. Here's my haul ... aside from a Lamy Aion, the box accidentally contained a Studio instead - we were too bust talking about the Scribo. Can't see swapping it being a problem.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ah4HhHN.jpg

[da vinci]

Went to the show today. Had a fabulous time if hetic, as usual. Highlight of the show was catching up with a good friend, i usually am only able to converse with by email.

 

Had a list of wants. Bought one of them, a Wahl Eversharp decoband, from Sarj, wish I could have bought more

 

Had a good chat with Tom W (pen maestro) John Twiss (pen maestro with some Urushi pens), the ladies from Onoto (I may or may not have placed an order), Ray Walters (great selection of pens), bought a bargain from Paco Cruzalt (great modern pens), and, finally, got chatting to Laurence Oldfield about a project he is working on which is very interesting indeed. Oh, I almost forgot, picked up a Parker 100 from Gary Leher at GoPens.

[da vinci]

Was my first show, and boy as it hot in there, but was good fun. Here's my haul ... aside from a Lamy Aion, the box accidentally contained a Studio instead - we were too bust talking about the Scribo. Can't see swapping it being a problem.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ah4HhHN.jpg

Great haul!

 

Do you mind me asking who you got that fabulous 3776 from?

[Tas]

I know that face! :-)

 

Sadly I'm missing the Show this year as I'm still in Australia, & Melbourne to London is a bit far to commute ;-) Have a great time Tas.

 

Awww . . . I missed your smiles and down to earth insights this year.

 

Next time perhaps?

 

The show was absolutely heaving with stalls and tables looking like they were doing a good trade.

 

My intention was to buy one pen, a Lamy Aion EF, yet managed to came away with a Conklin All American F as well.

(The former for £42.50 and the latter for £20)

A bottle of Robert Oster Summer Storm for a tenner made it into my pocket too.

 

Very restrained behaviour from me and very pleased with both pens. The Summer storm looks like my kind of ink, washed out & vintagesque.

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/me_big_smile.jpg

 

Thank you to everyone in the community who makes these events such fun, interesting and lively places to be.

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2017 by Tas

[milkb0at]

I'm back home after a fun first pen show. I really enjoyed it. I sort of want it to happen again next week so I can make use of all I've learned today.

 

I think I saw Tas (hello!) but you were busy chatting to a few people and I never saw you again. I did meet Myke Hurley from the Pen Addict podcast, though, while washing our hands in the gents toilets!

 

I bought one thing I had wanted (a Platinum pocket pen, like the Pilot Elite/E95s) and one thing I didn't know I wanted (an Aurora Archivi Storici, which - I need to figure out the details - isn't a Duo Cart either old or new but sort of is). I look forward to inking them up them tomorrow.

 

I fell in love with some other Auroras (hopefully I'll have budget one day) and decided that the overwhelming choice in Vacuumatics, Mabie Todds etc means I can continue to stick with more modern pens.

 

It was great to spend many hours there perusing, chatting and seeing all the different people of all ages, sexes and nationalities. It had feared it would be solely White Old Men.

 

Overall: great!

[dapprman]

Great haul!

 

Do you mind me asking who you got that fabulous 3776 from?

 

It was the Canadian couple over in the far right of the main room.

 

[da vinci]

It was the Canadian couple over in the far right of the main room.

 

Thanks. Glenn Craig he is well known over on new pentrace.

[bbs]

Wasn't feeling too great today so didn't stay as long as intended, but thanks to the WES, Diamine and Pure Pens for the bottle of ink, to Paco Cruz for bringing a lovely MB Mozart I'd seen on his website, Martin and Anna from The Writing Desk for bringing a converter I needed even though they weren't exhibiting, Vince of the Turners Workshop for the lovely pen case, Marisa of the

London Pen Club for the badges and all the other friendly people I talked to. Sorry I just didn't feel capable of making more buying decisions!

[Tas]

I'm back home after a fun first pen show. I really enjoyed it. I sort of want it to happen again next week so I can make use of all I've learned today.

 

I think I saw Tas (hello!) but you were busy chatting to a few people and I never saw you again. I did meet Myke Hurley from the Pen Addict podcast, though, while washing our hands in the gents toilets!

 

I bought one thing I had wanted (a Platinum pocket pen, like the Pilot Elite/E95s) and one thing I didn't know I wanted (an Aurora Archivi Storici, which - I need to figure out the details - isn't a Duo Cart either old or new but sort of is). I look forward to inking them up them tomorrow.

 

I fell in love with some other Auroras (hopefully I'll have budget one day) and decided that the overwhelming choice in Vacuumatics, Mabie Todds etc means I can continue to stick with more modern pens.

 

It was great to spend many hours there perusing, chatting and seeing all the different people of all ages, sexes and nationalities. It had feared it would be solely White Old Men.

 

Overall: great!

http://www.taskyprianou.com/me_hello.jpg

[Tas]

One last thank you and observation from me on The London Pen Show.

I'm not sure who's signature it is here on FPN, or it's exact wording, but it goes something like - without ink our pens are just pretty bits of metal and plastic (or precious resin )

Thank you to all the sellers at the show who came with inks AS WELL as pens. We all need to feel a pen in our hands to realise the full extent of its beauty and I for one relish seeing an ink on paper, right there in front of me.

As marvellous as our ink reviews are here on FPN and as accurate as the reviewer's scanners and monitors can be, there is no substitute for seeing an ink in the flesh.

 

There may not be the profit margin in ink as there is in pens but traders please note that some of us love inks . . . and all of us need them in our pens.

 

Edited October 2, 2017 by Tas

[Diderot]

One last thank you and observation from me on The London Pen Show.

 

I'm not sure who's signature it is here on FPN, or it's exact wording, but it goes something like - without ink our pens are just pretty bits of metal and plastic (or precious resin )

 

Thank you to all the sellers at the show who came with inks AS WELL as pens. We all need to feel a pen in our hands to realise the full extent of its beauty and I for one relish seeing an ink on paper, right there in front of me.

As marvellous as our ink reviews are here on FPN and as accurate as the reviewers scanners and monitors can be, there is no substitute for seeing an ink in the flesh.

 

There may not be the profit margin in ink as there is in pens but traders please note that some of us love inks . . . and all of us need them in our pens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How very true, and put so elegantly.

 

Despite my best intentions, yet again I couldn't make it this year.

Hopefully next.

[Beechwood]

I hope that you all got one of these Conklin Crescent Fillers at the show, list price is £152, I won't upset you by telling you the price paid in case you didn't find one but the number begins with a T. The seller was moving them along like hot cakes, not surprisingly.

 

Also bought an all gold 51, which you dont see every day, a Canadian Junior Streamline, a Pelikan M800, which I thought was a 600 at the time, some inks and two Leuchterm notebooks, reduced from £19 to £2. Also a bag of dealer pens to sort through, a task to leave for a wet and windy winters afternoon.

 

Baking hot in the venue, aparently just too many people for the aircon to cope.

 

Great to see old and familiar faces, and thanks to the organisers for making it all work.

 

Only negative aspect was that one of the vendors gave me a fake £10 note in my change, I know who it was so his card is marked. I heard from someone else that they had a similar note from him but accidentally paid for something else at another vendor with the fake note.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Beechwood

[bbs]

Only negative aspect was that one of the vendors gave me a fake £10 note in my change, I know who it was so his card is marked. I heard from someone else that they had a similar note from him but accidentally paid for something else at another vendor with the fake note.

How disappointing - I did overhear someone else pointing out a fake, never come across one before, strange there were several at the show. What's the tell-tale sign? And I presume it's the old version? Hate the slippery new notes though.

 

More happily, that's a very nice haul of pens and goodies you took home.

[Beechwood]

How disappointing - I did overhear someone else pointing out a fake, never come across one before, strange there were several at the show. What's the tell-tale sign? And I presume it's the old version? Hate the slippery new notes though.

 

More happily, that's a very nice haul of pens and goodies you took home.

 

 

Just had a phone call from someone, they saw four fake notes at the show, I must admit that I had never seen one before, I had heard of fake £20s but not a tenner. When I was given the note my suspicions were aroused because it was the old style note but it looked new, I saw that it had the watermark and the metal strip and thought it must be ok and it was only later that I saw that the printing was slightly off and the paper wasnt quite right. I have just been down to the police station with it. I know who gave me the note and passed that information, just annoying to be cheated.

 

Apart from that it was a good show, some bargain inks, notebooks and pens. Normally everything goes smoothly but there was one seller, new for 2017, who got quite stroppy when you didnt buy the pen that he forced you to try, havent seen that before. It was silly money too, £350 for a late 20s Duofold is £200 too much.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Beechwood

[kilraughts]

I had interesting and for me exciting day. Must say Beechwood's advice in advance proved to be very good counsel, thank you. For my part I had a nib ground to my taste and for me perfection by John Sorowka. I did manage to pick up some inks and a couple of notebooks at knock down prices. Managed to get just a couple of parts on my list. All in all a very enjoyable day, which has wetted my appetite for going to more shows!!

[dapprman]

I suspect the fakes probably came from a punter and so the dealer was probably not aware, he just got a number of £10 notes as a payment or part payment, and they went back out as change for £20s and £50s. All notes and coins get forged, hence the new editions coming out.

 

On the very cheap Conklins, by the time I found out he'd sold out.

[twdpens]

I suspect the fakes probably came from a punter and so the dealer was probably not aware, he just got a number of £10 notes as a payment or part payment, and they went back out as change for £20s and £50s. All notes and coins get forged, hence the new editions coming out.

I think that's more likely (well I hope so). All the pen dealers I know are honest and straightforward people.

 

Martin

[Beechwood]

I think that's more likely (well I hope so). All the pen dealers I know are honest and straightforward people.

 

Martin

 

 

I would hope so too, although this £10 note came from a roll of old £10 notes and it was the third time that there has been an issue with this seller, admittedly the first two were down to items not being as described. I blame myself for not checking the change more thoroughly, too late after I have walked away.

 

Still had a very good day.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Beechwood

[Diderot]

Fake notes; that’s a bummer irrespective of the circumstances.

The one time I left one of the pen shows (not London) with a very bitter taste in my mouth was when I was chatting to one of the dealers as I was looking at a 2^nd hand Pelikan M1000 (green) in which I was interested. I suspect it was when he found out that my pride and joy was a Pilot Namiki vermillion urushi, that he told me the pen was priced at £1400. Niche pens sell them new for £380.

I smiled politely and walked off. I have since never gone near that dealer.

As I said, a very bitter taste in my mouth although all the other dealers have been with no exception approachable, welcoming and simply lovely. I have bought stuff and about a year ago I picked up an M800 red to match my green one.