19 Friday Jun 2020
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A mixture of the present lock down situation, plus posts from other bloggers has got me to thinking back about earlier pens. Thus in the near future I will start reviewing the ones I still own as a trip down my memory lane, but for today a little personal fountain pen history.
Continue reading12 Friday Jun 2020
Posted in Pens
Not sure anything else raised so much hype, confusion, divisiveness and controversy in the fountain pen world in 2020 (so far). Limited supplies, production/design problems, different perceptions on costs have already created plenty of bandwidth on the various on line forums. But is the Platinum Curidas any good? (for me the title may be a bit of a give away).
04 Thursday Jun 2020
Posted in Pens
Franklin-Christoph must be one of the worst kept secrets in the fountain pen community. A small North Carolina based company who only sell on line and at US pen shows, yet try finding a fountain pen club around the world where at least a few of their members do not own one or more of their pens.
29 Friday May 2020
Posted in Pens
In the last few years Leonardo Officina Italiana (to use their full name) have been building quite a reputation through their Momento Zero, Furore, and Momento Zero Grande models. All are of the same basic design with the differences being in the finials and size. Now in 2020 they have released a new model, the Messenger, with just 366 examples being made in each of five translucent colours.
27 Wednesday May 2020
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With the present global Covid-19 situation, rather than announcing the new Pelikan Hubs event and opening registration, Pelikan have taken the sensible approach and not take a guess at what things will be like in September with the result they are cancelling this year’s event.
21 Thursday May 2020
Tags
capless, EDC, EDC Fountain Pen, lamy, lamy dialog, lamy dialog 3, musings, pilot capless, pilot vanishing point, platinum, Platinum curidas, retractable, vanishing point
I’m guilty. I jumped on the bandwagon of fountain pen fashion. I bought a Platinum Curidas in green with a medium nib. To be honest, when the original pictures came out my interest was piqued, after all I have to others, with which I will lightly compare it, the Lamy Dialog 3 and the Pilot Capless (nee Vanishing Point).
15 Friday May 2020
When is a Dolcevita not a Dolcevita, when it’s a Frederico, or is it? Towards the end of Delta, in 2014, a range of ‘cut price’ pens was offered through a partner site, Martemodena, both direct from their website and through certain auction platforms. Visually these were very similar to the originals, so how was the price brought down? In the last eight months I’ve been fortunate to pick up the stantuffo (piston filler) version of both the Dolcevita and the Dolcevita Frederico allowing me to compare.
08 Friday May 2020
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There is something about Italian engineering that pulls on the hearts strings and overrides the head when it comes to purchasing. It was Bertone, Farina, or Gandini who came out with the quote that you can either design beautiful cars or you can design reliable cars, but you can’t design both at the same time*. At times it can seem the same in the pen world, but in many respects we are all the better for it, or at least our hearts keep telling us it is so…
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01 Friday May 2020
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As covered in my previous piece on the OMAS 360 Vintage I mentioned about the ‘New’ version of the 360. This was launched in 2007 with a more modern look, and arguably as an entry pen in to the OMAS brand. With its angled triangular finials, flattened clip, new OMAS O on the cap, it certainly looked the part, but it was also divisive amongst OMAS fans and from what I can tell the model was dropped again just four or five years later.
23 Thursday Apr 2020
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My daily carry rarely changes. Even with three to four months between postings there are normally just one or two pens swapped in or out. Things have changed however, as the pen case is left by my work bag, not by my computer, so with the present situation and full time working from home it is rarely touched. Instead the assortment of pens on my desk have become my daily writers. These are a mix of new pens, those I have queued up to review, those I’m too lazy to put away and still use, and then the one permanent resident.
