What did you buy yourself for Christmas?

[alarickc]

My Christmas gift to myself this year was a doozy. My first Leonardo pen, and a wonderful fulfillment of my decade long desire for an Arco celluloid pen. I always wanted one in Bronze Arco, but the effect with this LeonArco is as good, and in my favorite colors to boot. There are two left on Leonardo’s website if you’re feeling extravagant and have extravagantly good taste. 😉

[Misfit]

@alarickc stunning Leonardo. Congratulations on your choice. 

[Tasmith]

Not a pen, but a mechanical pencil, Pentel GraghGear 1000 in .5mm.  Ordered it from Pentel's store on Amazon when ordering a gift for my wife.

Image from Pentel's website.

 

[Penguincollector]

  Wow, @alarickc- your Leonardo is stunning- what a beautiful celluloid pattern! @Misfit, both of your True Writers are so pretty, but surprisingly to me, it’s the Carrara that keeps catching my eye. I’m interested to see what you end up inking it with.

 

   I’m waiting for Xmas to do the full gift reveal, if I have to wait, y’all do too! 

[Ambien]

I've mostly stopped buying FP and inks for a few years now but I still check ebay for sales.

 

I've been on the fence about the Platinum Century #3776 Koi for a long time sadly it hasn't declined much in price. 

[Misfit]

9 hours ago, Tasmith said:

Not a pen, but a mechanical pencil, Pentel GraghGear 1000 in .5mm.  Ordered it from Pentel's store on Amazon when ordering a gift for my wife.

Image from Pentel's website.

 

I’ve been wanting one of those. How do you like yours?

[Misfit]

8 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

 I’m waiting for Xmas to do the full gift reveal, if I have to wait, y’all do too! 

Yes we will. I actually only ordered those pens because they were half off. That’s the best discount I’ve seen on them. Just lucky they arrived before Santa’s run. 

[Misfit]

9 hours ago, Penguincollector said:

it’s the Carrara that keeps catching my eye. I’m interested to see what you end up inking it with.

I’m not sure which ink to put in it. There might be some ink in my very near future. As in the 25th. 
 

The Carrara has areas that show what’s inside. So the dark end of the converter affects how the pen looks. One reviewer called it gray. Online it looks a warm ivory or cream. It seems to be white. I think the swirling lines are black, and as they go into the material, the edges look gray, or diluted black. 
 

Edit: I’m thinking I like the Carrara more.  

Edited December 23, 2024 by Misfit

[Penguincollector]

@Tasmith, that pencil is super cool looking!

 

 

@Misfit, the Carrara is beautiful. You were smart to take advantage of such a great sale. I’m mostly waiting until Xmas because it gives me the opportunity to forget what I bought myself. 

[LandyVlad]

Those levengers are lovely! I'm sad (and my wife grateful) that they aren't available locally

[Misfit]

@LandyVlad there’s always eBay!

[jchch1950]

Parker 61 with Gold Plated cap. It hasn't arrived yet but hoping it will appear today or tomorrow.

[LandyVlad]

19 hours ago, Misfit said:

@LandyVlad there’s always eBay!

Stop it!   You enabler you!

[inkstainedruth]

@LandyVlad -- Oh, my bad!  Did I NOT remember to warn you when you started here (the way I try to do with most new folks) that you have found yourself amongst a DEN of enablers -- who will happily help you spend your discretionary budget on pens, inks, paper, desk accessories, repair tools, storage, pen shows and ephemera?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LandyVlad]

You warned me indeed  

[Misfit]

Thank you @inkstainedruth for mentioning that, as I was going to. I think @LandyVlad is learning this. Sometimes just looking at a thread causes me to spend money. Years ago in new content, I saw a thread on desk sets. Before it, I had no knowledge of or interest in desk sets. Yes, I bought one. 

[Misfit]

On 12/22/2024 at 11:12 PM, Penguincollector said:

the Carrara is beautiful. You were smart to take advantage of such a great sale. I’m mostly waiting until Xmas because it gives me the opportunity to forget what I bought myself. 

Turns out the Carrara is semi-translucent. I can see the converter when I unscrew the section. 

[kestrel]

22 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

@LandyVlad -- Oh, my bad!  Did I NOT remember to warn you when you started here (the way I try to do with most new folks) that you have found yourself amongst a DEN of enablers -- who will happily help you spend your discretionary budget on pens, inks, paper, desk accessories, repair tools, storage, pen shows and ephemera?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Also food budget, lodging budget, entertainment budget (assuming you need entertainment in addition to that provided by PIP aka pens, ink and paper) and so forth.

[MarcoA63]

Kaweco Sport Piston, the new plastic one as I already have the metal piston one. It will join the family of vintage piston Kawecos 🫡

[Penguincollector]

  Settle in and grab a beverage for this post, because it’s long. My husband and I try to spend an equal amount on our gifts, and this year, he wanted to upgrade a bunch of digital musical equipment and a new guitar. I didn’t have anything in mind except for one pen I saw at my local in early November, so I waited for my pen club’s annual Pen Bazaar and internet Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales. 
 
  The first sale I saw was that Cult Pens was offering free shipping to the US for orders that were at least $200, and I really wanted some exclusive inks they had, so I ordered a ton of ink. I also finally found the oldish “new Sheaffer inks” in the old jars around the world in Australia, so I ordered some Coastal Blue (leaked a little bit during shipping) and Bling, and another UK store had Pelikan Edelstein Moonstone. Some inks that were on the slow boat from China arrived during the holiday season, so under the tree they went, as did the replacement bottle of Alt-Goldgrün. 


 

  I found some paper that I wanted to try at both UK stores and included it in my order. The idea of a “bouquet of notebooks” sounded charming and a good way to sample some paper, so in the cart it went, and I needed something else to justify the shipping for the Edelstein bottle, so I opted for Crown Mill Vellum, as I like their laid paper and hadn’t tried the smooth yet. 

 

 

 

  The annual PDX Pen Bazaar was where I bought most of my holiday gift to myself this year. Most of my custom on that day went to Jessica Sall of Modern Analog Pens, who I highly recommend and can’t say enough good things about. She has a shop on Etsy and I really wish that I could justify buying every single tiny pen available. The quality of her work is impressive. I bought a beautiful blue Parkette Zephyr, an amazing cursive italic Pelikan M300, and a cute lil’ marbled blue Salz Peter Pan with a lovely long tined tiny nib.
 

 

 

  My friend Jim had been holding this beautiful NOS 1990s blue Pelikan M605 F for me. I love blue pens, and Pelikan makes such elegant examples. 
 

 

  I found this handsome lapis Wahl ring top at Bryan Marsh’s table. It has a great Waterman nib as a replacement for the missing Wahl nib, so there’s a project I can take on if I want to later. 
 

 

  As per usual, Stewart Hawkinson had some beautiful pens for sale, from the modest Parker 45s  to a very nice collection of Parker Vacumatics (sp) and Sheaffer PFMs. I picked up a 45 Flighter with an orange tassie that is probably from Argentina, and a beautiful ebonized pearl Sheaffer Junior Balance that looks both so of its time and like very modern Japanese pens. 
 

 

  I then visited another member’s table and bought an unusual pen with a very nice flex nib, an interesting filling system, and a very cool story (bro) : a Postal Reservoir Men’s Pen. 

 

  Then @fireant had a table with all kinds of things and I had to have this set of Traveler’s Notebook stickers because there was both a penguin and I love mid century travel related stuff. I spent some time talking with her and she brought out this lovely Black Sea Waterman Caréne and placed it in my hand. I was done for. She knows me well, that one. 
 

 

  I bought a NOS Hobonichi notebook from another member.

 

  Lastly, Oblation was where I saw the pen I mentioned earlier. I had seen this pen on an earlier trip and was hoping it was still there when I asked their inventory manager about it at their table at the Bazaar. She checked for me and it was at the store, so the next day I popped in to pick it up. It’s a pen that got away so to speak, the burgundy MontBlanc 144(R). I chose the black over it 30 years ago and every time I saw one I remembered wishing I could have one each. So here it is, stickers and all.