I haven’t read FPN for years but I’m still a reader of Fountain Pen Geeks though even it has become less relevant for me. There’s much less discussion of vintage pens than there used to be and that’s my area of interest. We vintage people seem to be in decline everywhere. Why complain about the lack of vintage articles when you could write them yourself you say? The short answer is been there, done that, on several boards over many years. This blog, though will always be predominantly about vintage matters. If I can advise you about your old pens, just ask. It occurs to me to remind you that t ..read more

Or Reeling and Writhing, as Lewis Carroll said. I have often wondered how reading and writing relate to each other. Digging deep to when I was a four-year-old doesn’t really help. I remember what was done but not how it was done. My mother taught me to read before I went to school. There was none of the slow method that came later in school, of studying the alphabet then moving on to schoolbooks with words of a single syllable. So far as I remember the process of learning to read, it was word recognition with a growing vocabulary. I didn’t learn to write at that point. That happened in school ..read more

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog will know that as well as fountain pens I use dip pens. The nib that one chooses is important. For instance I don’t do well with pointed flexible nibs. I’m more at home with stubs and especially obliques. The holder is equally important. Those very thin holders used in times gone by give me vicious hand cramps. I need a holder of around the same thickness as an average fountain pen. My friend James liked my correspondence written with a dip pen and decided to have a pen holder made by a friend of his who is a wood lathe expert. Using a beautif ..read more

I find myself writing about Swans very often but I do use other pens! Over the years I’ve had many Conway Stewarts and I enjoy them too though they don’t usually have the variety of nibs that Swans have. Most Conway Stewart nibs are firm medium. All the other nib types occur, but not at all frequently. I’ve had the Conway Stewart Italic which is a named model in its own right, and a very nice pen. A little line variation can often be induced from Conway Stewart nibs though very flexible ones are uncommon. That’s okay by me; I don’t do flex. Conway Stewarts are reliable. A few years ago I did a ..read more

After we closed the sales site I did little with pens for several months. I wrote with them, of course, corresponding with friends. I have many good writers that I have accumulated over the years. A couple of months ago I began going through various drawers and boxes and found pens that I had set aside in the busy times, as either too time-consuming to repair, or even beyond repair. My time is my own now so I don’t mind – or even enjoy – the more complicated repairs. And of course nothing is beyond repair. The main reason I gave up commercial restoration and repair was arthritis in my hands. I ..read more

I had several pens inked but none was a Swan so I thought I would amend that. I had a very pretty green marbled pre-war no-number Swan that I hadn’t used in a long time – if ever. I filled it and it was a disaster. The semi-flex nib would only write with pressure and not very well even then. It seemed very likely I would have to strip it down and find out what the trouble was but I thought I would try the soapy water trick first. One drop of Fairy Liquid in a small glass is enough, then a good flush followed by a rinse. It gave me a good line for a paragraph then reverted to hard start and ski ..read more

Just skimming through eBay’s new vintage listings this morning and I am overpowered by all the Parkers! Good pens, of course, but so many of them, almost to the exclusion of other old brands. The pens I’m really looking for, the Swans, Mentmores, Summits and Wyverns seem very thin on the ground compared with a few years ago. This isn’t a scientific study, just my impression. We always knew the profusion of old pens couldn’t last forever. Are they tapering off now? Amusingly, I see Jinhao pens sneaked into the listing simply by adding ‘vintage’ to brand new pens ..read more

I could have sworn I wrote about this pen before. I’ve owned a couple of them and I’ve known the story forever but, no, I didn’t write about it! If you think of Platignums as cheap and shabby pens this one will come as a surprise. It’s soundly made throughout and it has a good hooded nib, common at the time and perhaps helpful in preventing drying out. The chromed cap was fashionable in the fifties. Altogether a great pen from the house of Mentmore, one would say. Except that, like the Parker 61 and the Waterman X Pen, it’s a capillary filler. These pens aren’t entirely disasters though their ..read more

I’ve been presented with a free review copy of this book. Though I am extremely grateful to receive it – I would have had to buy it anyway – those of you who have read my previous book reviews will know that I will not be influenced by that and in any case it wasn’t the authors’ intentions that I should be influenced in any way. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the book. Anyone with an interest in British pens will know of, and probably own, Stephen Hull’s previous works and Andy Russell’s volume on the Conway Stewart Dinkie. Those glorious works should make us expect that this ..read more

Once in a while an exceptional pen appears in eBay. Just such a pen is this beautiful – and very uncommon – Conway Stewart Dinkie Major. The Major is larger than the ordinary Dinkie. That makes it a little more practical and easier to write with. The pen was made around 1931 and is the 640 model. The glorious pattern is green, black and bronze on a red ground. Thanks to Paul (acetateblue). The auction is here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305459193192 Thanks also to Andy Russell: 50 Years of the Dinkie, 1922 to 1972 ..read more