I got this pen today

[DvdRiet]

WOW!! @PithyProlix, those are very handsome pens!! Gorgeous sleek look of the black and gold together. There is just something about the streamlining of these 60s-70s pens.

[PithyProlix]

1 hour ago, DvdRiet said:

WOW!! @PithyProlix, those are very handsome pens!! Gorgeous sleek look of the black and gold together. There is just something about the streamlining of these 60s-70s pens.

 

I agree - I love the aesthetics and, while I can't think of other pens that look similar being made today, I don't think these pens look dated. And they are wonderful tools for general writing that I would stack up against anything made now or in the past. 

[DvdRiet]

13 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

 

I agree - I love the aesthetics and, while I can't think of other pens that look similar being made today, I don't think these pens look dated. And they are wonderful tools for general writing that I would stack up against anything made now or in the past. 

 

I have some similar pens from around the same period in my collection of Diplomats and they are some of my favorite writers. And I just think they look so chic, too!

 

[AmandaW]

4 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

typical Pilot F fingernail nibs

 

They do look like fingernails! Are there current models with that look?

 

I do have a Platinum Carbon Desk Pen which is a bit like that, but not quite.

[PithyProlix]

2 hours ago, AmandaW said:

 

They do look like fingernails! Are there current models with that look?

 

I do have a Platinum Carbon Desk Pen which is a bit like that, but not quite.

 

Except for Pilot's current Elite model, the 95s, I am not aware of anyone that makes sections with embedded nibs like that now. I do not know if it is now considered an inferior design, that it has gone out of fashion, or what but I would be interested to know. I don't have a 95s but I hear great things about them so I guess it must still be a viable design. 

[PithyProlix]

3 hours ago, DvdRiet said:

 

I have some similar pens from around the same period in my collection of Diplomats and they are some of my favorite writers. And I just think they look so chic, too!

 

 

Ah, very nice too! I have a Pelikan MK30 - it is somewhat similar to these designs but has a partially hooded nib. (It might be my smoothest nib - feels like it has some kind of anti-gravity technology built in!) 

 

(And now I have just remembered that a friend here wanted to sell a couple Diplomats to me a few months ago and you have piqued my interest! Besides Montblancs and Lamy Safaris there are not very many German fountain pens here, so more reason to reconsider...) 

[DvdRiet]

39 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

I do not know if it is now considered an inferior design, that it has gone out of fashion

 

I think it has probably just gone out of fashion. Following the 'timeline' of the styles of the Diplomats in my collection, these came after the earlier hooded nibs that were so popular with the Parker 51s etc. Diplomat had a hooded nib and a semi-hooded 'spade' nib in the (late 50s-)60s and then in the 70s to, I guess, the early 80s, the style was more of a folded and/or semi-sheathed nib (as I call them; don't know what they are actually called) like these 'fingernails' and also the Waterman Carene, for instance. It seems they eventually showed more and more nib until we were back to the regular open nibs again. 

 

It has been extremely interesting to see a bit of the style history while collecting back through the decades!

[PithyProlix]

On 12/5/2021 at 6:57 PM, AmandaW said:

 

They do look like fingernails! Are there current models with that look?

 

I do have a Platinum Carbon Desk Pen which is a bit like that, but not quite.

 

Someone in another thread pointed me to this super cool page of Pilot advertising posters. Select 1970 in the menu on the left. The poster in the first row, second column shows nibs juxtaposed with a man's and woman's fingernails. (Hmm... Now that I think of it, I suppose an appropriately trimmed fingernail + finger might make for a good italic dip pen, yes? 🤔😄) 

[AmandaW]

57 minutes ago, PithyProlix said:

Someone in another thread pointed me to this super cool page of Pilot advertising posters.

 

Definitely fascinating. Thankyou. I can't find any posters with images of your Elite pens. The closest seem to be the 1961 and 62. Did you see them? Or know which years to look at?

[PithyProlix]

1 hour ago, AmandaW said:

 

Definitely fascinating. Thankyou. I can't find any posters with images of your Elite pens. The closest seem to be the 1961 and 62. Did you see them? Or know which years to look at?

 

I assume you are referring to the full-length Elites (?). On the 1960's page, the 7th picture (first 1963 picture) is an E-300, the 8th an E-200, and the last has an E-200 on the right. I don't see any other full-length Elites elsewhere there.

More WOW on the way to me now: Two more E-300s and (what looks like to me is) a Pilot 200V jobbed/rebranded for a stationery store. I believe the 200V is the immediate predecessor to the E-200 & E-300. 😁

[DvdRiet]

4 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

 

Someone in another thread pointed me to this super cool page of Pilot advertising posters. Select 1970 in the menu on the left. The poster in the first row, second column shows nibs juxtaposed with a man's and woman's fingernails. (Hmm... Now that I think of it, I suppose an appropriately trimmed fingernail + finger might make for a good italic dip pen, yes? 🤔😄) 

 

This is a fantastic resource! The general styles changes apply to a lot of other brands, too, so that is very useful. Fun to be able to place a pen a little more accurately, like somewhere around 1948 to early 50s than just 'probably 50s.' Also very funny that they actually used fingernails in the advertising. I've been calling them claws because they look a bird's talons to me, especially the little semi-hooded 'spade' nibs on some of my 60s pens. (Photos at the end) I really did not like them at first, but I bought one because 1) what else can you do when you've committed to collecting one of each model and 2) I love the fancy clips and the overall look of the pens, but they have definitely grown on me.

 

I just had another 'fingernail' pen arrive yesterday. It's extremely pointed, a lot more so than I was expecting. The whole pen is a bit of a mystery because it's not like any of the Diplomats I have seen up until now - especially this very odd clip - and the later (I think) versions of this same model name look a lot different. I thought this was a much later pen, 90s or 2000s maybe, but the old proprietary cartridge filling system plus the nib put it probably more like late 70s or early 80s (my best guess anyway).

 

 

 

The photos below are an example of the semi-hooded 'claw' nibs on a 1960s pen. To someone who was used to big open nibs and European M widths, they are surprisingly nice writers. Most of them have also been F or EF, plus a couple of OMs here and there, so it's also been fun adding a little more variation to my writing experience!

 

 

[chromantic]

My Optima Viola arrived today.

[AmandaW]

Arrived today and newly inked: an Opus 88 Picnic F with Sailor Waka-uguisi

 

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, AmandaW said:

Arrived today and newly inked: an Opus 88 Picnic F with Sailor Waka-uguisi

 

 

Looks lovely when viewed by way of browsing your FPN Image Gallery album! You might have to edit your post and reinsert the image, though, because you must've edited the description of the gallery image after you made the post. Editing the title, description, or metadata of an image gallery modifies its URL upon saving the changes, and that breaks instances of prior usage in one's posts.

 

Which nib did you get?

[AmandaW]

28 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

must've edited the description of the gallery image after you made the post

 

Yes. I fixed a typo. Did I fix it now?

 

It has a fine nib because there weren't any EF. That leaves me with an excuse a reason to look for a brown one with an EF.

[A Smug Dill]

1 minute ago, AmandaW said:

I fixed a typo. Did I fix it now?

 

Yep, all good now.

 

1 minute ago, AmandaW said:

It has a fine nib because there weren't any EF.

 

How do you like it?

 

Opus 88's small steel EF nibs can be a bit scratchy out of the box.

[PithyProlix]

 

23 hours ago, DvdRiet said:

I just had another 'fingernail' pen arrive yesterday. It's extremely pointed, a lot more so than I was expecting. The whole pen is a bit of a mystery because it's not like any of the Diplomats I have seen up until now - especially this very odd clip - and the later (I think) versions of this same model name look a lot different. I thought this was a much later pen, 90s or 2000s maybe, but the old proprietary cartridge filling system plus the nib put it probably more like late 70s or early 80s (my best guess anyway).

 

That clip goes well with the Bauhaus-looking style of the rest of the pen. I've never seen anything else like that and I like it!

[AmandaW]

3 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

How do you like it?

 

Opus 88's small steel EF nibs can be a bit scratchy out of the box.

 

Yes it was a very tiny bit scratchy - I've known far worse - it only took a page of writing to settle it down. I can already see we are going to be best of friends. 🙂

 

[PithyProlix]

Kuretake Mannen Mouhitsu #50 Honge Bekkou-cho, my first decent brush pen. Natural hair brush, takes Platinum-type cartridges.

 

The seller (one of my main pen suppliers - or maybe I should call him my pen-pusher or candy-man) surprised me with an aluminum, felt-tip brush pen. It has an attached squeeze sac filling system, not a converter. I am curious about it and if anyone can translate the Japanese and/or identify the pen, it would be much appreciated. 

 

I'm hoping to learn the dieing traditional script of northern Thailand, called Tai Tham, which is the script used for the Lanna language, which is still widely spoken in northern Thailand. There are very few people who can read it (though my mother-in-law can), perhaps vanishing with todays older generations. Most examples of the script are on Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts, which I think are mostly around 500-600 years old, stored in a few temples. The example Tai Tham palm leaf manuscript below is not my writing, of course!

 

 

 

 

 

[PithyProlix]

Also today is a thin, short-ish Platinum with a fine 18k fingernail nib - I suppose it is a 'lady's pen'. I believe it is urushi but I know very little about the subject, to tell the truth. I haven't seen another pen like this one - in any kind of finish - and if anyone knows anything about it, please tell me what you know.

(Please don't think I purchase pens this frequently! There's just been a few interesting pens popping up recently at good prices - hard to turn down ...)