Introduction

[HelenS-E]

Hiya from Cumbria UK

[Mark from Yorkshire]

Hi Helen, I am fro the other side of the Pennines in Yorkshire. 

[inkstainedruth]

@HelenS-E Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA!    What brings you here?  I found FPN while trying to find a (temporary) replacement for a Parker Vector that (at the time, more than a decade ago) was ONLY using for journaling but had left the pen and then current journal volume and the bag they were in at my in-laws' house in Connecticut one January.  And in the process found the Goulet Pens website as well as here and ended up signing up so I could see the ink review images.  

I generally recommend that new folks click on the "New Content" button to get a range of topics -- and to NOT what I did when I started -- which was to read the Parker Forum.  ALL of it (back then it was 175 pages of threads; it's a LOT bigger now).  I also suggest that people check out the pinned Index to the Ink Reviews -- even though some older images were lost over the years -- many to the "Great Photobucket Hijack" a few years ago.

But I also warn new people that they have found their way into a den of enablers, who will be more than happy to help them spend their discretionary budgets on pens, inks, paper, desk accessories, repair tools, pen shows, and ephemera -- I now tell people that the number of pens I have is somewhere between "too many" and "not enough"; my husband will tell them that the pens were just the "gateway" to the REAL collection -- the inks....  Of course, he likes the Pilot Vanishing Point I found used in an antiques & collectibles shop that used to be about an hour and a half north of me -- once I swapped out the nib assembly for one more to his liking (it gave me the excuse to buy the smaller size Decimo for me).  Although I wish he'd find the Lamy Safari he wanted me to get him a couple of years ago, so I can have my vintage Sheafer Snorkel with the EF nib back....

So -- what pen(s) are you using at the moment?  And what ones are in your "when I win the lottery" category (yes, I have several in that latter list, but am also the "consummate cheapskate" who haunts antiques shops and local estate sales looking for vintage pens (I dived headfirst down THAT rabbit hole early on after deciding I wanted a Parker 51), and have gotten some GREAT deals -- people forget that even a lot of heavy industry (such as steel production) is no more in the Pittsburgh area, there was ALWAYS money around here.

Have fun and don't be afraid to ask questions (the only dumb questions are the ones that don't get asked).  There will surely be someone to give you an answer because the breadth and depth of knowledge on this forum is astounding (and the generosity of the people here in the sharing of that knowledge -- and not JUST pen related at that! -- is humbling).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[OCArt]