9 posts tagged “fountain pens”
While troubleshooting a problem for work, I picked up a project I've been slacking on: getting my Parker 51 desk pen back in shape. I had changed out the nib for a broader one, and it got somewhat gunked up. It sat on my desk for about a year. "I'll get to it...eventually." Last week, I soaked it in water, to clean out any dried up ink. today, I got it reassembled, and tried to get the desk mount to seal better.
The Parker 51 is generally held to be the best fountain pen ever made. The areometric design, introduced in 1948, was a clear advance for the pen. Typically, if you find a vintage one, and there is no obvious damage to it, the pen will write after a soak in water.
The desk pen is one of five I have, including one with the earlier (and somewhat finicky) vacumatic filling system, a "Special" (which was actually one designed for a lower price point), and a demi (a smaller "ladies pen," that was also popular with men to put in their vests). All are great writing pens, and see regular use. All are from the mid-to-late fourties, save for the desk pen (I haven't been able to determien when it was produced, though I suspect it is no later than the mid-fifties).
It's St. Patrick's Day, so you know what that means... Show us something green.
Show us something green!
Green ink in my 1948 Parker 51 Demi.
For some reason, this pen became my "dance pen" when I was doing Irish dancing.
Neat interview with a man who hand-repairs fountain pen nibs. Worth it for the pictures inside Japan's Sailor Pen company. Via Pendemonium, one of my favorite internet pen purveyors.
As a consequence of collecting fountain pens, I have a small collection of ink. One bottle was Diamine Claret. On the sample page, it was a neat color, somewhere between purple and burgandy. In my pens, on my paper, it came out, well, pink. Pink like my daughter loves pink. It dries to have purple notes, but it really is pink.
I'm confident in my masculinity, and I'm not afraid of using purple and green ink at work. However, I just can't see using pink ink too often.
Valentine's day is one of the day's I bring it out. I loaded it in a Parker 20, an uncommon pen in the US.
I've started using A4 paper for my note taking. I fell into it almost my accident. I found a cool Rhodia pad to take notes on. Good paper, and it felt good on the nib. Eventually, I found an article that explained how the whole ISO paper system worked, and it is really quite cool. Given to like cool things, especially those that are easy to do and impact no one else, I've decided to use A4 for all my personal note taking.
In contrast, US letter is 11 by 8.5. As you can see on the picture on the right, this makes A4 (the white piece of paper in the back) a bit narrower but a bit taller than US letter (which is the yellow page).
If it is only a slightly different size, you may be asking why bother? A pretty fair question. It is the height-to-width ratio is one of the things that makes it so cool.
In contrast, there is no clear objective basis for "8.5 by 11" or "8.5 by 14." Basically, they were how big many paper makers were making sheets of paper at the time the US government made the standard.
What's more, going from one size to another is a function of doubling or halving a sheet (depending on the application). A5 is 14.8 cm wide by 21 cm tall--a piece of A4 cut in half. A3 is two pieces of A4 side-by-side. (42x29.7cm).
That is pretty nifty in its own right. However, it is particularly cool when trying to work a copier. Reductions are done at a fairly constant ratio. Going from A4 to A5 is a reduction to 71%. A5 to A6 is...71%. This looks like it would make going from size to size quite easy.
Again, the US system doesn't allow for such a clear progression of size. As the sizes do not completely relate to one another, scaling from "legal" to "letter" means there is white space.
Unfortunately, aside from my own personal notepads and the odd UK-based magazine, I don't get to work with A4 that much. It is still a cool thing.
Show us your pens and pencils.
You ask a fountain pen collector this? Here's what I have with me today:
Below it is a Lamy Ratio 46n, circa 1955. This I got cheap off eBay, and had to replace the nib--one of my first pen repairs. The model was an everyday pen, with a piston filler. I think it has a great nib. Right now, there is black ink in it.
I got interested in them when reading an article in Popular Mechanics while in high school. The odd combination of technology and elegance drew me to them. However, it would be ten years before I owned a nice fountain pen.
I was in Cincinnati, looking for a job so I could move up here. I had some extra money from a generous Christmas bonus, and came across Appointments, a pen store. The folks who own it are now good friends.
Anyway, after lookng at a few pens, I settled on the then-new Parker Sonnet. It was a good first pen, with a nice, flexible nib, and beautiful laquer finish. I could hardly wait to use it.
I just noticed that there was a note in my calendar that today is the anniversery of the day I got it, twelve years ago. Most people are surprised when I can claim to hang on to a pen that long--they say they are lucky to go twelve days.
Anyway, I just wanted the fountain pens to represent, amid the cats, bikes, food, and computers.
