For the past 3 weeks my rotation has consisted of:
Lined Polished SS Sheaffer Targa (model # 1001 IIRC) with a very nice medium/broad inlaid nid. Filled with "Lively Green" (My custom Green signature ink)
A Blue/SS Parker 45 with an incredibly smooth Broad nib. (Thanks Ryan I love this pen!) Loaded with Vintage Skrip #82 Washable Purple. Awesome color!
A Black Eversharp Symphony with steel hardware & a nib thats got more flex than gumby. Loaded with Aurora Black
A Green Esterbrook SJ with a generous 9668 medium nib that borders on broad. Loaded with "Lively Green"
A Gold/Brown Sheaffer Crest Vac filler with a gnarly looking brassed cap & a reground nib. This is one of my favorites. When the pen came to me it had one of the tines broken off, so I took the other down to the same level and shaped it to a wicked nice BB Cursive Italic. True it doesn't have any tipping left but neither do Sheaffer No Nonsense pens. I don't have a problem doing this to nibs/pen that would otherwise end up in the parts bin or scrap gold pile. Also loaded with "Lively Green"
A blue striated English Waterman W5 with an incorrect Teardrop Eversharp nib I salvaged from a dead Skyline. Loaded with Noodlers Habanero. I didn't think I would enjoy this color when I got it in trade, but it's really grown on me over the past few months.
Not in my pen case (that travels EVERYWHERE with me) is a pair of my new Pan Piston Filling Ball Points. One in Medium and one Fine. The fine is loaded with Diamine Claret and the other has Noodlers Ottoman Azure.
Also inked up & sitting just above the "F" keys on my keyboard is this unusual little guy. A German Rakette Tintus Piston Filling Stylograph. Loaded with Vintage Black Quink. Not usually a favorite color of mine because it's too deep in the grey range for my tatses but the pen really likes it & the color is begining to grow on me some.
I picked up the leather Dani Trio 4 OS pen case from Kevin "Winedoc" Chang quite a while ago. I don't have many OS pens but it holds 7 "standard" size pens very well. I could squeeze 1 more in there next to the Targa but i don't want to scratch the metal finish. The others have plenty of room so i'm not worried about them too mush, Well That and they are pretty much all user grade pens that write very well.
Whats in your rotation? Dennis
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Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito ~Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them
Well I'll try and post some pictures shortly... or longly... but I have two neat pens I got from Alan Koo. No affiliation... Both are very inexpensive chinese pens but they are cool none the less. One shows all of the olympic sports symbols with the name of the sport written in chinese characters underneath. The other shows accupuncture points on the hand and even comes with an accupuncture pressure point. You push the end of the pen down and a small point (not sharp like a pin) comes out. A lot of fun for not much money. skyp
Say, those do sound pretty cool. Can't wait to see the pics.
I've picked up a few pens from him over the past couple of years. I think the most interesting one was the Sheafferesqe "gold" pen with a triumph style nib. It was REALLY light weight but wrote very well.
I passed it along to a new friend a couple of weeks ago with a bottle of my "Lively Green" ink. He'd never seen or used a FP before & pretty much went GA GA when he wrote with a couple of my pens. I let him choose from a half dozen & decided to go with that one.
-- Edited by DWL at 21:30, 2007-09-03
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Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito ~Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them
That's the Pandora's box question of them all. I currently have 20 pens inked and ready to go. I always carry two, one with a sane fine or medium nib and one with a stub or broad.
Picture one is how I keep them all; in glasses with socks or the like turned inside-out. That keeps the scratches down to a minimum.
Picture two has some Balance pens. The two oversized black one have a factory stub and broad in them while the far right standard pen has an amazing huge broad nib from a slightly later pen. The two band oversize is quite rare and worth mentioning. I got it in a set with desk pyrimid, matching pencil and still sealed and full traveling ink bottle.
Picture three hasa Pelikan 650 with Vermeil cap and three Aurora's. I really like Aurora pens and collect them second to Sheaffer's. Well, a distant second like 200 to 10. These are a 88P, Talentum and GL in solid 8ct gold. I have that pen in 18ct as well but its off to Italy for a repair. And those guys take the WHOLE MONTH OF AUGUST OFF! (ahem, collecting myself)
Picture four is my three inked Parker's. One sweet medium nibbed 1945 Vacumatic and two Parker 51s. The single jewel is a 1948 Aero filler but with earlier a perfect c1944 Vermeil cap (not advertised but made due to wartime restrictions on brass). The last one is an all correct first year pen from Q3 1941. Nice fine nib.
Picture five is the rest. Conway Stewart 58 with flex medium nib, PFM III with Stub, Early Touchdown with small stub (factory, of course) an a 1945ish Crest Masterpiece with the smoothest medium I own. Then a lever filler from the war years, Targa CP-1 with factory stub nib and a Snorkel Crest Masterpiece with medium nib.
And before you ask, yes! They all write when put to paper.
Glasses with an inverted sock, what a great idea! A friend of mine uses a pen cup & was complaining last week about his pens developing a scratch at the point where the pen rested against the lip of his cup. I sugested a piece of rubber tubing spilt down the lenght of the tube & then glued to the lip,l but I think this is a better idea because it lines the entire cup.
I'll trade you one of my kids for that double band OS. Man what an awesome pen!
I've not always been a targa fan but in the past year or so they have really grown on me. I've only got 1 at the moment the 1001 lined chrome model. The CP-1 you have there is deff. something I could learn to love! I'm a sucker for Sterling & stubs so this one really fits the bill.
Ya' know my birthday is coming up on the 24th.......
I'm just sayin'....
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Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito ~Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them
As I recall the CP-1 came with a medium nib. I picked up the stub at the Fountain Pen Shop a few months ago. Fred had a stash of Targa nibs I cherry picked through. The store has been open since 1922 and Fred has been working there full time since he got out of the army in 1946. His grandfather started the thing after running a department at Mabie Todd's factory.
I recall you mentioning you think your collection of pen stuff might be the biggest out there, wanna bet? Fred's stuff would flip you out. If you have a pen laying around needing a part, drop me a line.
1. Sheaffer OS Balance in Roseglow with flexible medium nib and PR Lake Placid Blue 2. Platinum Maestro in Black with Music nib and Sheaffer Skrip Royal Blue 3. Parker Duofold Sr. in Mandarin Yellow with Fine nib and Sheaffer Skrip Washable Blue 4. Esterbrook LJ in Marbled Grey with 2284 nib and PR Black
Yep it's a pretty dang cool pen indeed. Almost like an Imperial and a 51 got buys and this was the result.
Todd at Isellpens.com has some freakin' sweet deals. I just peeked and he's still out of the Baoer Sonnets BUT it looks like he has some of these left. (right above the sonnets) I've bought a bunch of these over the years & passed them out as gifts, I've even kept a pair here at the house. I REALLY dig these too. Great balance, great OOTB experience (mind you no box...but for $15 who cares right lol)
Seriously gang, best $15 you'll spend hands down.
Baoer #388 This is a stainless steel model with gold clip and accents. This has a snap on type cap. This is a very well made medium weight pen. Posted measures slightly over 6" Long. Features a fully exposed gold plated fine point nib. Comes with a removable ink converter. This does not come with a gift box.
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Tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito ~Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them
After 50 plus years of hen scratch, I am learning to write. Schaeffer Calligraphy pen, Schaeffer cartridge red. Pearl Gray Esterbrook, with Osminoid Italic broad, Pelikan Blue. Lamy Calligraphy pen with a 1.5 nib, Lamy Blue I am up to P.
As a 5 ink noobie
Pelikan Brilliant blue and Black, De Ataramentis Bordeauxrot, Mont Blanc Sepia, and last but not least Lamy Turquoise.
A @1950 Artus-Ballit (pre Lamy, Lamy) In fine or fine medium, In Pelikan Brilliant blue, which writes much darker in fine than in medium.
A Waterman Graduate Medium with Mont Blank Sepia.
Pelikan 140 OB (1950s) in Lamy Turquoise
Pelikan 400 (1984-96) in De Ataramentis Bordeauxrot
And a Maroon Chinese Huamong with some horrible Chinese ink that had separated out into a green and a black, that I had not noticed... I thought what a horrible green, and when the pen stopped writing I mashed the cartridge and it turned into black. Too bad I had not mashed it first.live and learn. Pen writes ok for dirt cheap, is a solid pen. Just using up the ink, before going off to buy some sort of cartridge.
I got the Huamong, along with the Pelikan 140 and two other mox nix East German piston fillers, a pocket watch wrist band(pre 1920 for sure), and a bakelite jewelry arm band case for transporting my best pen. I gave the rascal, a virgin, Franklin Mint Robert E. Lee fancy pocketknife for that. I was going to sell him that anyway, the next time I saw him.
At other stands, I got a leather two-piece three cigar case, a Wurtzleholz (root wood) cedar inside cigar box, 2 ½ x 5 x 7 1/2 , that I am going to take to a good carpenter to make a pen case out of.
I had wanted something since I was a kid. A Gillette 9 click double-edged razor; which I just had to have. I now wear a beard.
Broken down, only that one I don't have an individual macro of is the LAMY Vista [1.5mm Italic for address labels/calligraphy/fun & filled with Pelikan 4001 Turquoise]. Rotring '28 LE as my letter pen [filled with my 5-ink Coral Sea "clone"], next to "Old Style" Pelikan M800 [daily carry pen, filled with Hunter Green Eternal] for size comparison...
Pilot "Cap-less" [VP] Mustard [Deep Yellow], also a daily carry, always in a leather pocket Jotter...
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"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." ~Mark Twain~
Black Vac Major - filled with Diamine Blue-Black Waterman Carene - filled with Diamine Sapphire Parker 75 Flighter - filled with Parker Black Green stripe OS Pelikan M600 - filled with Pelikan Brilliant Black
at home
Sheaffer Legay I - Sheaffer Blue Retro 51 - Diamine Burgundy Modern Parker Duofold - Penman Ebony
I have four in rotation this week: - Pelikan M600 redstriped with Lamy Black - Sheaffer's Imperial Triumph (the full gold filled TD) with Private Reserve Sonic Blue - Sheaffer's TM TD Admiral with Sheaffer's Brown - Lamy 2000 with J Herbin Pousserie de Lune
I find myself very comfortably with those, and I think they'll last long!