Tag Archives: fountain pens

Collecting Obscure Fountain Pens

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When I’m collecting fountain pens, there is a certain type of fountain pen that I think is interesting. And that is the obscure pen. While it’s nice to find a well-known good pen (I’ve found several Parkers and Crosses) and some rare pens (see those Parkers), there are several pens that I’ve found through my collecting that I can’t find any information on beyond that the pen exists.

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This used to be the case with many Chinese pens, like Hero and Jinhao brand, but recently those pens and facts about them have become more well known. But there are still a great many pens with an unknown history behind them. Some are even obscurely being produced today. Like the Camel (camali)1968 pen which was “discovered” by my brother in our Aunt’s possession. A lot of internet hunting later I found the pen on eBay from a seller that apparently had loads of them, so I bought 10 for what would be the price of a decent western pen. Later, I even found a green one floating around from the same seller. But now there are none there.

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Beyond the examples my brother and I have, I haven’t seen or really heard of this pen (there is a thread on the fountain pen network that was posted around the same time as I was looking for the pens that doesn’t contain any more information, just that they are indeed pens for sale). The pen has no backstory, and unknown manufacturer, and is only available some of the time, and for that reason it fascinates me. I love it.

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Another pen like this that I just found recently is a Marksman pen (there is a modern brand called Marksman, they are not the same) The pen simply says Marksman and Korea (which I assume is the country it was made in). The nib says nothing, but it does have an archer stamped into it. It appears to be a fine, and maybe even an extra-fine, but again, I have nothing to go on. There is a thread on this type of pen (apparently there were a few more models) but again, it just shows that the pens exist, and no one at the moment seems to know where they came from (other than Korea) and what happened to them. From the thread I learned one thing: that I am lucky my pen still has a center ring that can easily come off when taking the pen apart to refill it, as the other pen I saw that was similar to mine didn’t have this part.
Both of these pens have no manufacturer that I know of (well, I can’t figure out if the names are the manufacturer or the model), no history that can be easily found, are found intermittently, and are both surprisingly good writers.

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To some people this lack of detail may be infuriating, and others just might not care, but for me it makes me want to dive deeper into pens, to find out more about what these pens are and where they came from. These little mysteries don’t so much bug me as they make me want to move forward, because if someone does know everything about these pens that there is to know, they aren’t telling anyone right now, and finding the answers will still be just as rewarding.

 

Thoughts on InCoWriMo

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InCoWriMo (international Correspondence Writing Month) just ended (February {written in early March}) and I was participating. I just wanted to say a few things about it.

I really enjoyed the process of writing letters and finding friends and family members who would be willing to read them and possibly reply. I worked on my handwriting to make everything look nice (because I’ll just say it: this was all really an excuse for me to use my pens and practice penmanship with some great things happening because of it). I sent letters to family members, far-away friends, and even interesting acquaintances. It was all rather exciting, but I still got to sit in my chair.

I will admit that I didn’t finish. I was struck by a string of migraines in the middle of the month that decimated my output of everything, including letters. I only got two-thirds of the way done. But it was a very rewarding two-thirds.

I haven’t received many letters back at this point, but I hope to. I have been writing letters for some time to various people and really enjoy getting letters back.

I just thought I should share, for any pen lovers out there, or people who want to write to people but don’t get around to it, there is this wonderful month put on by the people over at fpgeeks.com and incowrimo.com. You should definitely try it out next year. I know I will.

Review – Rhodia Web Notebook Pocket

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Well, it’s that time again, time to talk about a little black book. This one’s particularly good for fountain pens. It’s the Rhodia Web-notebook pocket black version.

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The dimensions are almost exactly the same as the Moleskine, with the exception of it being slightly thicker. The cover is a strange, and easily warped, faux-leather. It is quite pleasant to hold, and the spine sustains much less damage than with stiffer cover books. Not to say the cover is flexible, it is definitely hard, though the Moleskine still holds the record for notebook most like a rock, the Rhodia does have a little give in it. Also on the front cover is a stamped Rhodia logo and an elastic band holds it all together. The standard pocket in the back tops it all off.

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Inside there are the same number of pages as the Moleskine. The pages are thicker though, the first page is unusable and gives you their specks. They are slightly off white with a bit of an orangish tint. This version has them lines with thin grey lines and a slight margin on top. The paper is insanely smooth, as in the smoothest paper I’ve ever written on, right there with Clairefontaine, being made by the same company that makes sense though. It takes ink well, and it even dries relatively fast on there, though there are some problems with bleed through on broader nibs or wetter inks. It should be noted that the paper is different from the larger notebook paper.

So overall, if you have a fountain pen and need a notebook, this is a better choice for you than almost any other notebook on the market. Though if you’re drawing with flex pens or thick brushes be aware that you’ll still only be able to use half the pages in the book. Though bleeding onto the next sheet is something I haven’t seen. Are these the best pocket notebooks? It depends on what type of pen you’re using, and how much you care about the feel of your notebook, because this one does feel quite different.

On Writing Implements

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Writing. I write a lot. I write quite a lot. I write for the web. I’ve written over 40,000 words of short stories, I’m halfway through a novel (and in the starting phase of several others). I write everyday in some form. Mostly in notebooks from Moleskine to Composition. And while doing all this writing I’ve come across many writing implements. Obviously you have computers (or typewriters) if you always want  things to look plain and boring. But for paper there are hundreds to thousands to even hundreds of thousands of writing tools. And one is free to pick. You can pick any pen or pencil you like, very few are gated by price.

Which one you should choose is a hard question. Do you want cheap ones to have everywhere? Do you want a quality one to last a lifetime? Do you want a thin or thick line? Do you want one that writes more but less easily? Do you want ball, fountain, dip, click, mechanical, sharpened, pen or pencil? There are so many options to consider it sometimes gets overwhelming. Well… most people wouldn’t consider what to write with overwhelming. But if you’re really serious about writing it is.

Well how do you choose? Well… process of elimination is really your best bet. Try the least expensive pens first and work your way up until you get to ones that start to behave like you don’t like or you feel are too expensive to really use. Some people might say, of course, the more expensive pens are better, to which I would respond with the Paper Mate Write Bros. pen which writes better and more accurately for me than many several hundred dollar fountain pens I’ve handled (which to be fair is not many). Those are the pens I personally use for the most of my writing, though I do have several other brands of pens lying around and several fountain pens for using upon occasion.

For me what I’m doing dictates what writing tool I use. Ball points for journals, fountain pen for formal stuff, technical pen for inking et cetera. There are some “standards”, but none that can’t be broken. The really important thing to consider in choosing you writing implement is you. Only what you want matters for what you’re going to write with. No one is going to make fun of your choice and while a few may turn up their noses they don’t really matter.

Writing is an art, and just like all other arts it is personal. So choosing what you write with is important. And choosing the absolute best pen for you is one of the hardest things to really do. So I hope that if you write you have or will soon find the right pen/pencil for you. And I hope you keep on writing.