Tag Archives: fountain pen

2021 Parker 51 with Steel Nib

28 Friday May 2021

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Towards the end of 2020 rumours then photos started to appear that caused one of the biggest stirs in the fountain pen world for a long time. Word had it that Parker were relaunching the ’51’ almost 45 years after previous production was stopped. Pictures appeared and the reaction was not good, especially after it became known that the cap would be threaded and the pen would come with a steel nib. Accusations were made of design laziness and there were even rumours (later shown to be false) that it was just an existing pen from a Chinese cloning factory.

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Platinum Curidas – One Year On

07 Friday May 2021

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It is now close on a year since I joined the masses and put in my order for a Platinum Curidas in Urban Green. It should be noted I was not caught up in the initial hype but rather garnered interest over time as I started to hear feedback from friends who’d been early adopters. As with so many the feed on mine cracked around one of the nib securing wings and while Cult Pens were happy to swap it for another pen or give me a refund I decided to keep it as the crack did not affect the writing nor ownership experiences and there was no guarantees Platinum had fixed the issue with newer pens, in fact I still do not know if this design flaw is still in place.

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High Street Fountain Pens for a Fiver

30 Friday Apr 2021

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Let’s be honest. Many of us when we started down the slippery slopes of the fountain pen world discovered a plethora of cheap Chinese pen on eBay and tried a few out. These mainly worked, but over time we realised they are just cheap copies of other makes and while some people do continue to use/buy them, others like myself stop. Thing is for disposable starter pens to give to friends and colleagues light they are hard to beat, so the question I set myself was could I buy pens just as good on the UK high street for £5 or less. The only stipulations being that the nibs had to have tipping (not just a butterfly fold) and the pens had to be refillable. As I know some of you may raise the question over the Pilot VPen V4, which in theory you can refill, I have included one of those as well as a bench mark, though you will have to pull the nib and feed once empty for it to really count.

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Replacing the Sac in my Father’s Parker Duofold Senior

23 Friday Apr 2021

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Last September (2020) I took possession of my late father’s Parker ‘New Duofold’ Senior fountain pen, which I part covered at the end of this piece. A week back I went to use the pen to find the ink had evaporated, and on refreshing with a little water I then found it appeared to be leaking around the base of the sac. Or so I thought. The net result was some careful disassembly to discover the real problem, and then the repair. The work itself was simple enough so I will be covering it here as an example of why you should not necessarily be scared to do repairs such as this, and will also include the mistakes I made and the bullets I dodged.

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Narwhal Schuylkill Porpita Navy

09 Friday Apr 2021

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Narwhal appeared on the fountain pen scene around a year and a half back producing cheap and cheerful piston filler pens with in-house made nibs. Based in California, this small start up has quickly developed a fan base and after a year released a new model, the Schuylkill, with a prominent ink window which is still visible when the pen is capped. Two limited editions were included with this launch, with 365 ebonite pens appropriately called the 365, and 800 of this the Porpita Navy finish in a unique acrylic.

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April 2021 Fountain Pens For Sale Part 2

09 Friday Apr 2021

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I’m a bit stop/start when it comes to trimming the collection. I envy those who are able to just look at their pens, grab a number, advertise them and sell them (though in reality most still need to work their way through the various for sale sites/platforms). I actually composed this list a while back, but never acted until now and have split the total listing in to two as I’m posting these on the Fountain Pen UK Facebook group and do not want to abuse the freedom to occasionally advertise.

Note this is a UK only sale.

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April 2021 Fountain Pens For Sale Part 1

02 Friday Apr 2021

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I’m a bit stop/start when it comes to trimming the collection. I envy those who are able to just look at their pens, grab a number, advertise them and sell them (though in reality most still need to work their way through the various for sale sites/platforms). I actually composed this list a while back, but never acted until now and have split the total listing in to two as I’m posting these on the Fountain Pen UK Facebook group and do not want to abuse the freedom to occasionally advertise.

Note this is a UK only sale.

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John Twiss Thuya Burl Revisited

20 Saturday Feb 2021

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I was looking at my pens last week and saw one I had not used for a while, a John Twiss creation made from Thuya Burl wood. It looks good and a lot of attention was made to bringing out its character and beauty. It has been an enjoyable week using the pen and I had created an nice review piece for it, though in true blogging fashion, felt the article was missing something. Photos were taken and about to be processed to find I already had photos …. from the previous time I had covered it … ‘doh !’ I believe is a suitable term. Still it’s a great excuse to show off the new photos of this beautiful pen.

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Schon DSGN Pocket6

10 Wednesday Feb 2021

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As with every collecting based hobby there fads in the fountain pen world, many accidental and most to the surprise of the creator. Such was the situation a year and a half back when Ian Schon launched a machined pocket pen based around a size 6 nib. Selling online and at pen shows his new range attracted the attention of a number of ‘penablers’ who brought the Pocket6 to the fore. By early 2020 this became a must have pen. The fact that online reviewers still use their Pocket6 pens and more than a few have bought additional does infer it is a good writing implement, question is do I get on with the pen and what are my personal views.

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