16 Tuesday Jan 2024
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1st of January this year an earthquake hit Japan and Wajima City was very heavily affected. Amongst those building heavily damaged and destroyed are the workshops of Nakaya.
Continue reading21 Thursday Dec 2023
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Asvine, Chinese, fountain pen, Hong Dian, Hong Dian 1851, Hong Dian Forest, Hongdian, HongDian 1851, HongDian Forest
Do a search for the Chinese firm Hong Dian (also written HongDian) and you will find, primarily on Amazon or Etsy, a list of pretty generic fountain pens though none are clones and one model does stand out as slightly different. A thin straight pen which has obviously been designed for the cap to be posted. Depending on the colour or finish this pen either has no name or is called the Forest, though as far as I can tell the model is actually the 1851 (on etsy, however, the range of 1850-1861 is used).
Continue reading08 Friday Dec 2023
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Many fashion, jewellery house and accessory brands have dabbled with writing implements and Cartier are no exception. At present their only fountain pen is a hand made £136,000 gauche product, however early to mid last decade they sold the Art Deco inspired Diablo at a far more reasonable price.
Continue reading10 Friday Nov 2023
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The arrival of a Fountain Pen Day purchase made me think about one thing I always do with a new pen or converter. It is also something you still see posted as a possible fix for the lack of ink flow with a new pen. While many of you will already follow this process, there are those of you new to the hobby who may not. As the title says, this is flushing the new fountain pen with water.
Continue reading29 Sunday Oct 2023
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The number of small pen makers seem to be proliferating and this can only be a good thing for us collectors. Many are either commercialising a hobby or branching out in to a second career. While this may make the market place more crowded, the competition is friendly (in the UK at least) with many chatting to each other at pen shows and even buying ‘rival’ pens. However it also helps if there is something different or something that stands out to grab the attention of the buyer. Such is the case for me with this pen.
Continue reading13 Friday Oct 2023
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The show is now over, so the question some of you may be asking is how did it go. Did I sell enough to cover the cost of the table, what were the pit falls, would I do it again, did I enjoy it. All these questions and more I hope to answer.
Continue reading21 Thursday Sep 2023
The Autumn London Pen Show is just under two and a half weeks away and I will be there, however this time I have finally pulled my finger out and booked a table.
Continue reading25 Friday Aug 2023
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It has been around four months since the last time I presented this list, and while not many, there have been a few significant changes. The number has increased as a result of bringing some older pens out of storage for the Southern England pen club meet last weekend and deciding I want to carry on using them. There are several other pens on my desk awaiting review and so not seen below. One of these may well join the brigade below.
Continue reading11 Friday Aug 2023
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Copper, Copper Pen, EDC, EDC Fountain Pen, pocket pen, pocket pens, Ruth Bolton, Shibui North, Shibui North Pocket Pen
It has now been just over two years since I first reviewed a pen from Shibui North and since then Ruth Bolton’s range has changed and expanded. Come late 2022 I reviewed the first of her pocket pens, the Kitsune (in Japanese folklore a manipulative, magic possessing, shape shifting, multi-tailed fox). Come her first pen show appearance, October in London, an expanded range of PVD and Cerakote coated pens were on display. None quite appealed to me, however come the Spring 2023 show one did, a copper pocket pen.
Continue reading21 Friday Jul 2023
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EDC, EDC Fountain Pen, fountain pen, ION, Ion Infinity 2, Ion Infinity II, kickstarter, pocket pen, pocket pens, Titanium pen
ION is the brand mainly used by UK based designer Charles Lethaby for his writing implements. Starting his own design studio in 2014 he initially specialised in lighting, testing the Kickstarter waters in 2016 with an unsuccessful lamp project (at a far lower cost than his normal products). 2020 and second funded project came about, his first pen, the ION Pen. Part of its USP was that you could swap and change barrels, cap, section and both finials as well as being able to buy extra parts. The Infinity II is his third full design to be launched.
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