Last Sunday was the October London Pen Show and as ever with this date I had a clash with a luncheon I really should attend. In recent years the pen show has won, however on this occasion it was swinging the other way until I found out I might be leant some pens for review so….

As I had to be in St Albans for 12:00-12:30 and the M4 and M25 both can be unpredictable even on a Sunday morning I realised I could make the show but would need an early bird ticket (allowing access from 9 a.m. onwards, but costing £10 rather than £5), and would need to leave at 11. Net result I would not see much post receiving/arranging the loans and saying hi to a few people. Still I would be able to cover all the new vendors. or so I thought.

On entering I was straight round to Pen Venture, where Ben Walsh of Gravitas Pens was assisting Emy and his wife. There had been rumours he was soon to release a piston pen and I wanted a chance to try it and maybe even borrow one. Good news, I have a loaner for review. Bad news it is a one off test bed so when I publish my article it will be more for interest over his design directions than giving you an idea if you should pick up his new model or not.

Next I was at the neighbouring table, well strictly speaking the right side of Pen Venture, where Roy of Fifty4T was sited with his pens including his new bulk filler model. We did have a interesting short chat a result of which there may be as article of interest in due time. As he had flown over he did not have many pens with him and hopefully he did well with those.

A quick hello and very quick catch up at the Write Here table including a tempting look at both the two new ScriBo Write Here models plus some tempting SciBo Piumas (I resisted on this occasion), was then followed by an intended walk around.

Saying hi to Vince, one of the pen show organisers and owner of The Turners Workshop, I found myself looking at the Toyooka Craft table, having chatted with Yamazaki-san I walked away with a three slot pen rest. My one show purchase.

Going round the south side I had a quick catch up with Justin of Van Vuuren’s (who my table was next to at the last pen show), Amaya of Pen Friend, Derek from Stonecott Fine Writing, then Jon from Pensharing before finding the first of two new to the show pen makers.

ASHERA is from Germany, with a single model of wooden fountain pens made by Italian craftsmen and with a range of steel, gold, and platinum nibs. While there was a range on show, when ordering on line you choose the wood you wish the pen to be made from (though not the actual block) and the nib. The sections are metal but for those who are worried, the angle is shallow and the sides are straight so a quick test and the pen did not feel slippery to hold. Caveat of course being it was a quick test. Being hand made wooden pens these are not cheap though with a gold nib I would not consider them that expensive either, but the type of wood can make a big difference. One thing though to those of us who prefer the smell and tactile feel of natural wood, these are all varnished/lacquered.

Proceeding round and I found Antigua’s, with a large collection of pens. Alas Miguel’s English is, by his own comments, not good and the website you will notice is only in Spanish. The pens all look very well made, however I was not the only one to notice quite a few of his models on display bare a striking resemblance to pens from other companies. Looking at his website it appears many are not and it may just have been those that stood out on his table. His 10th Anniversary ebonite pen did look very nice though also very reminiscent of an OMAS, however these facets are hand done and it is an extremely well made pen at a tempting price. I may yet regret not picking one up.

While at the show I was fortunate to get to see the new Lamy 2000 in Pine. I agreed not to mention it or publish the photos till the Tuesday as this was before the release, but boy does it look good. If it weren’t for the fact that it is a bit on the thin side for me, so mine rarely gets used, I would be really tempted even with the £490 price. I suspect it will quickly sell out, but if not and if there is a deal to be had, maybe.

It was then time to leave. So what did I learn? Well bringing the SLR with me for the close up shots of the Fifty4T pens without a second battery and forgetting to turn it off meant I had a dead camera before I reached Antigua’s. Second, it was only a couple of days later when I realised I had completely forgotten to look at the north side of the main area, missing at least one other new attendee…

Fifty4T Pen Pictures: