2015 Atlanta Pen Show Recap

They say better late than never, right?

The 2015 Atlanta Pen Show was a full week ago at this point, and I feel like I am still coming down from the high. It was such an amazing experience that it has taken me this long to get the words out, much less get back on a normal schedule.

There are so many things to discuss about show weekend. Much of it we have covered on the podcast and there have been several wonderful recaps, but I wanted add a bit to the conversation, especially around the several hats I wore for three awesome days in April.

The Host

If there was one thing I was excited about above all else it was meeting people that I had only met online before. Myke Hurley and I were thrilled that our Kickstarter backers made this happen for us. After three years of recording it was about time we met! And that included having Ana Reinert fly in for the show as well, and the huge contingent of friends and readers who made the trip into town. This crowd sure knows how to travel!

The people were the highlight of the weekend for me. Talking, sharing, drinking, eating, and just being around a group as great as this provided me memories for a lifetime. Words fail to capture how truly great this experience was.

The Retailer

The pen show marked another first of course - the first ever Nock Co. table! It was thrilling, but not nerve racking. Ok, setting up Friday morning was nerve racking, but I am so confident in Jeff and the entire Nock team I knew we had plenty goods to sell through the entire three days of the show.

And sell we did. Being our first adventure I had no idea what to expect and therefore had no expectations on how it would go, much less how much we would sell. As it turns out, we sold a ton of goods and only ran out of one or two small items. That is a huge win all the way around.

Manning the show table wasn't the only Nock Co. activity scheduled for the weekend. We had a party to throw too! We wanted to make sure everyone who was in town for the show got a glimpse of where the magic happens, and despite the constant rain it was big fun. The Nock shop was packed, beer and pizza were consumed at a high rate, pen testing was going on, Field Notes were traded, raffle prizes were awarded, cases were sewn, and I even gave an impromptu little speech. It was nuts in all the right ways.

The Attendee

Finally, something I have done before! This was my third time attending the Atlanta Pen Show to shop, although I spent less time doing that this year than in years past. I think it is pretty obvious why at this point, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

My shopping was broken down into two parts: specific items I came for and general browsing. Friday was the day to handle the first part, and I am glad I did. I had my eyes on two new Franklin-Christoph pens they launched recently - the Model 66 Pocket and the Model 20 Marietta - and luckily they still had both available Friday afternoon. Yes, the show was that busy that F-C was getting low on stock Friday! I went with the Ice 66 or course, with a Mike Masuyama needlepoint nib. My 20 was all black, clipless, and sports a Masuyama fine cursive italic. Actually, the nib had to be sent to me post show, as they only had a few available since it is a new grind for them.

After that, I picked up a bottle of Sailor Bung Box Silent Night that my friends at Vanness Pens were holding for me. It is a rich, dark blue that I think I will like. And that's it for Friday. There was no time to browse with how busy the show and the Nock table were, and we had a party to get to anyway.

Saturday was a day I planned on no shopping as I knew it would be the busiest day of the show. That absolutely turned out to be the case. The only shopping I did was after seeing a nice used Lamy 2000 ballpoint bought by Joe from Gentleman Stationer. He mentioned the vendor had more, plus a 2000 multi pen, which after seeing the old school W. Germany stamped on the barrel came home with me.

A much needed rest day was had on Sunday, at least as much rest as one could have while manning a pen show booth. Traffic was steady all day but not crazy, so that afforded me the time to wander the show and see what else was out there. This is the best part of the show as an attendee. What will you stumble upon that you would never expect? For me, it was a pristine Pilot Custom black stripe steel barrel with an 18k nib from 1971. I did a double-take, thought about the price ($200) and decided to go for it. It was in such great shape I would have kicked myself if I left without it. Plus, I had the opportunity right there to have Masuyama give it the once over. At least that's how I justify the purchase to myself.

Four new pens, a bottle of ink, and three nib grinds later, my pen show shopping was complete. I'll be posting more on all of these pens in the future, as well as the amazing pen Mr. Hurley bought for me.

Recap

My only regret the entire weekend is that I didn't take more pictures. That's what happens when you are as busy as I was, but luckily everyone else who was there took some great shots. Everything else lived up to - and exceeded - any expectations I had. I'm not sure this weekend can be beat!

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Atlanta Pen Show.

Cleaning House Giveaway: Pelikan Souveran M1000

This is not a typo. I am giving away a Pelikan M1000.

I reviewed this pen a couple of months ago for Massdrop, which you can read about here. This is the green stripe model with gold trim and a medium 18k gold nib. I love having this pen as part of my collection but the fact remains that it just doesn't see a lot of action. I reach for a few of my other Pelikans before this one, so I may as well send it off to someone else who will use and enjoy it.

Here is how to enter:

Leave one comment on this post anytime between now, and Wednesday night at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. You are limited to one entry. This contest is open to US and International readers.
For this contest, I will pick one winner at random from the comments section of this post. The comments will be numbered in the order they are received, i.e. the first comment is #1, the second #2, and so on. The Random Integer Generator at random.org will be used to pick the number of the winner.
The contest winner will be posted on Thursday, April 30th. The winner will have one week to email me via the Contact link at the top of the page.

Thanks and good luck!

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Giveaways, Pelikan.

Kaweco Skyline Sport Fountain Pen Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Kaweco Skyline Sport is one of Kaweco's many diminutive fountain pens. Only 4.1 inches long when capped, the pen lengthens to 5.2 inches posted which makes it comfortable for writing. The pen's body is made of plastic, and the nib is steel. The Skyline Sport comes in three colors: gray, black, and mint. I chose mint because it is an unusual color and reminds me of spring. I don't really see much of a difference between the Skyline Sport and the Classic Sport. JetPens says that the Classic is 5.3 inches posted vs. the Skyline at 5.2 inches, but they look the same length to me. The only other difference I could find is that the Classic comes with gold-plated nibs and the Skyline with chrome-plated.

The packaging is nothing special--just a simple black, cardboard box with the pen in a plastic sleeve. The pen comes with one blue cartridge, so if you buy a Kaweco, plan on ordering additional cartridges and/or purchasing a converter to use your own bottled ink.

The pen is simple but beautiful, with clean lines and minimal adornments. The cap has a metal medallion on top with the Kaweco logo, and "Kaweco Sport" is engraved on the pen's body.

The pen does not come with a clip, though you can purchase one for $6.75. The clip I bought for my original Kaweco Sport isn't very functional. If you exert any pressure to clip it to a notebook or a pocket, it slips right off the barrel. I like the design of Kaweco's new deco clips, so I might buy one just to enhance the Skyline's appearance.

Because I don't like being limited to cartridges, I purchased Kaweco's squeeze converter ($3.00).

The converter is tiny and is impossible to fill without a huge mess. I tried filling the converter first, dipping its opening into the ink and squeezing, and I wound up with Diamine Mint all over my hands. Then I attached the converter to the nib unit and tried filling through the nib. No matter how many times I squeezed the converter, I could only get a tiny amount of ink to go in the sac. So, I resorted to squeezing, pulling the nib out, turning the tip up, tapping on the sac to get the ink to go to the bottom, and quickly dipping and squeezing again. After several attempts and very inky fingers, I was able to get the converter mostly full.

To put it bluntly, the converter is a pain to use. It might be better to purchase a syringe to fill the converter or to fill empty cartridges. Or you can easily convert the Kaweco into an eyedropper by putting silicone grease on the threads and filling the body of the pen with ink. One other thing I discovered about the converter: dark inks stain the plastic sac.

I was looking forward to trying Kaweco's broad nib. My Kaweco Sport has a fine nib that writes quite well. I wanted to see if the broad nib offered more line variation. Unfortunately, I'm disappointed with the broad nib.

After writing with it for a day, my hand grew tired because I had to put a good amount of pressure on the nib to get the ink to flow. I soaked the nib and feed in some pen wash while I was at work, rinsed, reassembled, and let the pen sit for a while, nib down, to let the ink soak into the feed. This seemed to help, at first. I got good ink flow and the pen wrote smoothly. But after a few pages, the flow petered out, and I was having to use some pressure again. The nib probably needs adjusting.

I don't really expect much from a $23.75 pen with a steel nib. But my other Kaweco writes quite well, and I don't have to use any pressure at all. From what I've read on the fountain pen forums, Kaweco nibs vary in quality from pen to pen, which is unfortunate.

Interestingly, the difference between the fine and broad nibs isn't all that noticeable. I expected the broad nib to be much wider than it is. When put side-by-side with a fine nib, the broad nib looks substantially larger.

But when you write with it, the portion of the broad nib that actually touches the paper is small.

Writing samples from the broad and the fine nib just don't look very different. The broad nib seems more like a medium, if that.

The Skyline Sport is made of plastic, and it feels rather cheap in the hand. The plastic has a few rough spots, but overall the grip is smooth and the threads aren't annoying.

However, as you can see in the photo of my older Kaweco Sport, the plastic scratches easily with everyday use. Posting the cap leaves indentations in the barrel.

One advantage of the Kaweco Skyline's small size, is that it fits easily into a pocket or purse. My Kaweco Sport kept getting lost in the depths of my bag, so now I keep it in the zippered plastic pocket of my small Midori notebook (it won't fit in the pen loop because the cap is too big).