Vintage Wearever Fountain Pens

I got another vintage Wearever fountain pen in today's mail. Here are the challenges I had with it and my assessment of that brand of pens considering my experiences thus far.

The 250 Subscriber Giveaway

My YouTube subscriber count has been growing a lot lately, and I am very thankful for that. Once I hit the milestone of 250 subscribers, I will have a giveaway that will be open to my subscribers. #thankful

Two Monteverdes, Conklin Nighthawk, Platinum 3776, Wing Sung 590

Today's mail brought five new pens.
Monteverde Prima
Monteverde Mountains of the World - Mount Denali edition
Conklin Nighthawk
Platinum 3776
Wing Sung 590

A few more lessons learned and experiences in fountain pen restoration

I got an old Waterman pen with the goal of learning more on how to restore and polish one up nicely. This is my experience thus far with it. There are very knowledgeable people who do a much better job than I and who are professionals for a reason. I learned that I cannot just follow their video guidelines and expect the same results they show in their videos.

An 8-year-old's latest pen haul

Today, my son Matthew wanted to go over his new pen acquisitions that he got from a generous fountain pen aficionado, Larry. Larry's YouTube channel link is https://www.youtube.com/user/larryb8022

Pilot Decimo Vanishing Point, TWSBI Diamond 580AL, and Delta Dolcevita

I go over the recent additions to the pen family that include a Pilot Decimo Vanishing Point, a TWSBI Diamond 580AL, a Delta Dolcevita, a replacement Aihao, a Lamy Vista, and another Esterbrook. I compare the TWSBI 580 with the Eco.

Does a Visconti Really Cost like a Mont Blanc and Write Like a Noodlers ...

I have heard several times the criticism of quality control with Visconti products and the saying that "Visconti costs like a Mont Blanc but writes like a Noodler's Ahab". Is that really the case? Is the value there for the more expensive Visconti line?

4 Watermans and a Lamy ABC School Pen

It was a great mail day for us. Today we received four Waterman pens, three of which are vintage. I also got my son's birthday present in the mail of his Lamy ABC School Pen. What were some of the challenges? How does this fit perfectly with my previous video? Watch and find out.

Tips for collecting vintage fountain pens for newbies

I collect both new and vintage fountain pens. I wanted to share my experiences and lessons learned in collecting vintage/antique fountain pens so far. I am by no means an expert, but I have learned a few things along the way.

My son's birthday pen haul and my recent arrivals

My son just had his 8th birthday party yesterday and his gifts focused on his fountain pen hobby. In this video we cover or mention the following pens: Lamy Studio Pilot Metropolitan Parker Vector Waterman's Crusader Esterbrook Charles Schulz Limited Edition Jinhao 992 Fountain Pen Revolution Guru Lamy ABC Student Pen Baoer 508 Esterbrook LJ

A few Esterbrook problems and upcoming acquisitions

I share a few problems I have been having with Esterbrook vintage fountain pens lately and share what will be added to my collection soon.

Pocket Pens, Kaweco, Fountain Pen Revolution, and Waterman Hemisphere

Today I cover my recent additions to my pen family, a Kaweco Sport and how it compares to other pocket pens I have from Ohto, two demonstrator pens from Fountain Pen Revolution, a Jinhao 1200, and a Waterman Hemisphere. I also compare the Waterman Hemisphere to the Waterman Executive and the Waterman Carène.

Here are the links I promised in the video.

Fountain Pen Revolution: http://www.FPRevolutionUSA.com

Podcast about Alexander Hamilton: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/audioPop.jsp?episodeId=517201&cmd=apop

Why I take my own advice and a few more pens arrived today

I cover a few new arrivals to my collection today and I explain why I gave the newbie advice that I did in my last video. I take my own advice on some things and it pays off. I also show three different ink colors from Birmingham Pens that I have used so far.

The link I put in my video is http://www.birminghampens.com

More tips for fountain pen newbies and recent acquisitions

I had more tips for newbies to the fountain pen hobby that I never got to discuss but cover some in this video. Also, more great pens arrived in the mail recently, so I cover those.

The LaPlante bathroom renovation project 2017

A Special Guest Host, Pen Updates, & New Acquisitions

Review of Wood Wonders of NC hand made deer antler fountain pen

What is an "expensive" fountain pen?

Triangle Pen Show Haul

A 5-Year-Old and a Ring Doorbell

Frustrations in shaving

A vintage Sheaffer Imperial and not giving up

An idea for fountain pen enthusiasts

Esterbrook J basic amateur pen repairs - you CAN do it if you try

Federal "grant money" is still tax payer money

There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money. - Margaret Thatcher

I have long decried the local municipality paradigm of looking to the federal government for a source of funding for every pet project.  Not every single "good idea" or even "nice idea" needs to be funded at the public expense.

I remember one local mayor that was praising a US Congressman for constantly helping get road funding for his little town from the national coffers.  I have a better idea.  Instead of extracting the money from local taxpayers to begin with, why not leave the money in the pockets of the populace so that the local governments can finance their own expenditures?

I am so tired of the mentality that keeps people and lower levels of government dependent upon Washington, DC for their monetary needs and desires.  I have seen this here in my little town of Selma, NC.  For years the town has repeatedly looked to the US Government for loans and grants to fund water, sewer, roads, building renovations, and now even a civic center.  Our town only has about 6,000 residents.  We already have a parks and recreation department, a local Lions Club building that the public can rent, and an entire former school complex that is used as a gymnasium, workout center, meeting place, and can be used for civic events.

An old gymnasium has been re-incarnated as a utility contractor's building and was later given to the local American Legion, who in turn sold it to the town under the guise of building a civic center.  OK, this is a nice idea for our little town, but I sure don't want to spend our tax dollars on it.  The town was already hoodwinked into paying $60,000 for the facility.  Well, that facility needs an additional $300,000 in renovations in order to be usable.  The concept was sold to the town that private fundraising could bring in the money necessary, but a couple of years later, no such thing has happened.

The town has applied for and is waiting on the results of the grant application from the USDA.  The USDA?  Why is the US Department of Agriculture involved in any way, shape, form, or fashion in the funding of a small-town civic center?  Of what importance is this to the topic of agriculture?  For that matter, why has it been the USDA that has been involved in our town's loans for sewer line projects?  I fail to see a single provision in the US Constitution that allows for Congress to make provision for any such program or projects.  Why should someone in Montana be paying tax dollars to help renovate a civic center in Podunk, North Carolina?  I commented on this very project on my TV commentary as far back as 2015.

Whenever a town gets money from the federal government, it is still money extracted from the pockets of taxpayers.  When a town borrows money from the feds, it is even worse.  We have to be taxed to supply the funds lent to the town.  Then we have to pay taxes to the town to repay the loan to the feds at interest, so we get doubly taxed on all such subsidies and loans.  The only good thing about a grant is that we pay the tax money once, not twice.

I, for one, am tired of seeing small towns attempting to suckle off the federal government teat and often settling for the crumbs that fall from Caesar's table, instead.  I am tired of seeing our government run money laundering schemes and overtaxing the citizenry for the sake of retaining power over people and local governments.  I am tired of local politicians agreeing to be beholden to the national pork barrel spending projects that are bleeding us taxpayers dry.  And I am tired of seeing the national government spend money upon projects that are wholly unconstitutional.

Fountain pen advice for newbies

The Road to Smurfdom

You may have heard of the book "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek. I am thinking about writing "The Road to Smurfdom" since I discovered the formula a few minutes ago.
1. Open the mail containing several ink samples among other things from The Goulet Pen Company.
2. Open another package that has a pen you have been drooling over for a while and finally got.
3. Open a sample tube of Noodler's 54th Massachusetts blue ink.
4. Find that the breather/filler hole on the Waterman Carène will be a bit higher than you like and so you tip the sample tube to try to get a good ink suction going. No, I did not pay anywhere near as much for the pen as it shows in the link I just provided.
5. Only get some bubbles with very little ink.
6. Set down the sample tube without putting on its lid while you clean up the pen with a paper towel.
7. Tell yourself that you were stupid for not trying the nice bottle of Waterman Serenity Blue ink you had on the shelf.
8. Knock over the open vial of sample ink, thereby confirming your negative self-affirmation.
9. Attempt to clean up the spill using more paper towel, Windex, and even Clorox bleach spray cleaner.
10. End up with blue hands and a now permanent blue stain on your beige colored desk.
11. Fill your new Carenè with the ink you should have used, to begin with.
12. Enjoy the new pen and realize that for this one, you need bottled ink and never sample ink vials.

Lesson learned about ink

I am still learning about fountain pens.  I watch a lot of videos and read a lot of reviews, web sites, and do research on pens that I have just purchased or want to purchase.  I want to learn from others who went before me, so have spent some of my spare time reading and watching.


One thing on the Lamy 2000 I discovered today is actually good news. I used to have a bottle of Waterman ink which I eventually depleted and found a bargain blue-black ink by Hero. I have been using the Hero ink for a couple of years now, since I only had the one fountain pen that I was using regularly. So that was the only bottle on hand when I started buying other pens and use it to ink them as well. The good part of that is that I got to see how they compared one to another using the same ink. The bad part is that I was disappointed a little bit in the Lamy with the Hero ink. I ordered a bottle of Diamine Oxyx Black ink that arrived today. Not knowing if I would like it or not, I got a small bottle to try. The first pen I inked with it was the Lamy. I excreted out the old ink, flushed the pen well, and put in the Diamine ink. The Lamy writes much better with that ink than with the other, so I am at least happy that my higher priced pen is writing nicely now rather than being a bit of a downer.

Also, my little town has a lot of antique shops. It is known for having that theme for its downtown shopping, so I figured I would start looking in those stores to see what vintage fountain pens I could find. I picked one shop to visit today and we looked around. We only found one fountain pen, an old 1960's Sheaffer 304 cartridge (later called a "Student") pen. For just $4, I figured I would give it a shot. I probably need to clean the nib since it still had an old cartridge in it. While there I also found an old Warren Mfg. 1890 dip pen, which is also in the picture.  I will see whatever finds I can hunt up over time. I have primarily been finding pens via ebay, web sites, and private sellers so far.

 

Adventures in fountain pen ownership

I love fountain pens.  I always have.  Ever since I first wrote with one, I liked the feel and flow.  I remember buying my first one, which was a cheap one at Wal-Mart or some other department store in the stationery aisle.  It was dark green and took ink cartridges.  When I could no longer find cartridges, I stopped using it and threw it in a storage tote along with other pens I owned.  Recently I found it and can't even find the brand name on it, so I don't know what brand of cartridges to seek or if it will take an international cartridge.

A few years later, I bought a Waterman gift set that had a nice Waterman Phileas that came with different color ink cartridges and a bottle of ink.  It has been reliable, writes well, and has been my favorite pen for almost two decades.  Sure, it was nothing fancy.  What would I expect for a meager $40?  Of course that forty bucks was a lot to me at the time.  I still use it often.

Recently I decided to buy some more pens and see what ones I liked.  I bought a JinHao fairly inexpensive pen from China.  It was a sturdy pen that wrote fairly well, at least for the first little bit.  Then it stopped writing.  I may work on it some eventually.  I tried some cartridges from JinHao since the converter would not pull in ink, but it still won't write.  I probably need to work on the nib feed path some.

For Christmas I bought my wife and my mother-in-law each a cheap fountain pen to see if they liked them and would figure on getting more expensive ones if they like and actually used them.

I have been doing a lot of reading online, joined some Facebook groups, bookmarked a lot of pen web sites, watched YouTube videos, and read some more.  I learned about nibs, filling systems, brands, and found that not every pen is worth the money, but many are.  I found that some less expensive pens can out perform more expensive ones.  I found that some pens that write well are inexpensive ones that I might want to use when I travel since they were only about $5 and I won't fret over losing one.  From personal experience shopping in fine jewelry stores, I found that Mont Blanc pens are still considered some of the finest and along with that comes a high price tag.

From there, I decided that since I no longer have any real hobbies, I might want to collect a some pens.  I bought a few of them and tried them one by one.  I asked for some recommendations from friends on Facebook in case anyone was into fountain pens.  I got a few suggestions from one guy in particular.   He had two primary suggestions for a Pilot Metropolitan and a Lamy 2000.  I got the Pilot Metropolitan a while ago and I like it so far. For the price, it is hard to beat.

I did some research and found that just about every big time collector and pen expert rated the Lamy at the top of their list of quality for the price and some of them, it's their favorite of any pen they own. I kept searching for a decent deal on one, and especially for a medium nib. I seem to like medium more than the fine or extra fine nibbed pens I have purchased so far. I have bought some cheap pens, some "not as cheap", and been looking for a new favorite. I kept looking and waiting while picking up some pens by Parker, Hero, an old Sheaffer (that turned out to be unusable), JinHao, Platinum, and EastVita. Out of those, the Platinum Preppy and the Pilot Metropolitan were my top picks. Still, my old $40 Waterman that I have had for nearly 20 years has been my favorite, though those other two are nice and I reach for them as well. Yesterday my Lamy 2000 arrived with a medium nib. I inked it and tested it. So far, I really like it and will keep using it to see if it becomes my new favorite.

Many of the pens that I have I simply ordered on ebay.com.   If you are willing to wait, you can get cheap pens from China for a dollar to five dollars.  Beware, though.  I bought a pen from IsleofPens.com that purports to be a Parker Sonnet but is instead a cheap Chinese knock off.  Well, I could have ordered a Baoer 388 from China for an eighth of the cost and that is the exact same thing, just sold under a different name.  It even has the Parker clip on it and came with a medium nib instead of that cursed extra-fine one that the Parker impostor pen had.

The Sheaffer Imperial I mentioned earlier as unusable came in the mail just fine.  I bought it off ebay and it is from pre-1947, which means it is pre-Touchdown model production (1949).  The reason I know it was circa 1947 was that it had a written note on the box of being a gift to someone in 1947.  It came as a set with a mechanical pencil, which is still in excellent shape.

The Imperial was full of crusted, dried ink.  The lever was hard to move on the lever fill and I heard crunching.  I moved the lever again and again, freeing it more and more from the crusted ink.  I could not disassemble the pen since it was crusted together and I figured it was just junk at that point.  I messaged the ebay seller to let them know that the pen was pretty much crapped up and unusable.  He offered to refund my money if I returned the pen, but I just held onto it as a lesson learned of caveat emptor and as a personal challenge.  I got all sorts of ink dust and dirt out of the pen as best I could and soaked the nib trying to clean it up and see if I could ink it.  Nope.

I put a Pyrex measuring cup of water in the microwave for two minutes and got the water to about boiling then set my pen in it.  I had already been wondering about its anatomy since it had to come apart somehow.  I was reading about what a pen sac was, having seen the term used by a seller on ebay.  He is selling "vintage" fountain pens, i.e. old and used pens.  He kept saying that his pens had a new sac.  I saw it especially on the lever action pens, and my Sheaffer is one of those types.  Well, if the sac can be replaced, my pen must come apart, hence the soaking.  I figured that I had nothing to lose and I was not willing to pay for someone else to fix it.  I looked at this as a learning experience.

I ordered some new sacs online, along with a sac sealer.  Those will eventually arrive, but for now I got to play Mr. Disassembler.  I got some rubber jar lid grippers and worked with the nib housing in one hand and the pen barrel in the other and finally the pre-soaked pen came apart.  Just as I was figuring at that point, there was no sac left.  It was probably original to the pen, some seventy years ago.  I soaked the parts a little more and scraped off what was left of the sac neck from the pen and even used some brake parts cleaner (I know that some pen aficionados are cringing right now) and tried cleaning out the nib path and any crusted up ink in the barrel.  Hey, what did I really have to lose?  I know that videos listing mistakes that pen owners make included soaking the nibs or pens in rubbing alcohol or turpentine.  I figured that I am not soaking the pen in this stuff and the brake cleaner was really helpful in getting dirty firearms clean for me.  Well, no crusty ink or ink stained liquid came out.  So, I went back to soaking it in water for a while after thoroughly flushing the pen with water in the sink.

The lever action now works much better than previously, the pen seems fairly clean, and I am waiting on the new sacs and sac sealer to arrive.  I am hoping to give putting it back together a try and seeing if I can resurrect this old gem.  If it writes finally, I will have a sense of accomplishment.  If not, I learned something about fountain pens.

I still have my sights set on a nice Mont Blanc Meisterstuck pen.  I fell in love with its elegance decades ago.  I have bid on some on ebay but have let people outbid me since I am in no hurry to get one and I want to get a bargain, especially if it is used and there are no guarantees as to its quality.  I did OK with the Lamy 2000.  I saved anywhere from $40 to $80 by getting the Lamy used.  Maybe I can find a good one.  I am nowhere near being a major pen geek, but I do like nice writing instruments and do prefer fountain pens over ballpoint ones.

A few pens that are already on my hit list are
Pelikan M800 or M1000
Lambrou LB5
Sheaffer Ferrari series
I am sure that I will add many more to the list over time.

Don't settle for high costs of diabetic testing supplies

I have seen a lot of people decry the high cost of blood glucose testing supplies lately, especially under the ACA and declining coverage. This is the second time I will share this tip. eBay. For the second time, I scored some test strips at a bargain price. Diabetic testing supplies are OTC items at the pharmacy. WalMart has meters and strips right on the shelf. But even after insurance, my testing supplies were outrageously high priced. My last purchase was for lancets and test strips. I scored 400 lancets and 300 test strips for $111 cheaper than what my online pharmacy wanted to charge me for fewer supplies than that. They work fine with my meter and spring-loaded lancet device. I still have 100 days worth of test strips on the shelf and I just opened a vial of 50 to put with my meter. I just scored 8 vials of test strips (50 strips per vial) for $80 including shipping. That for me is 400 days of test strips plus the 150 I still have, so I am stocked up for a while. I will eventually have to buy more lancets since I have about 250 left, but that will last me more than another 6 months. My point is simply that you can find supplies if you look hard enough and for a price that will not kill the bank. Also, if you buy off eBay and then submit the receipts to your Rx plan, you may or may not get reimbursed. If you don't, the total can still be counted against your out of pocket maximum for the year. That is what happened to me last year. Another thought is that I previously had purchased a brand new (still sealed in the original packaging) duplicate meter that I keep as a spare, use at my work desk, and take with me when I travel.  It was only $10 for a second meter of the exact same model that I was already using. Just a tip.