MKE's view on pens

Since 2017, Renee Meeks from Scriptorium Pens is providing me with custom-made pens.  It was always a pleasure to discuss with Renee how the pens should look and I am very grateful to her for her advice and for making such beautiful pens available to me. There are so many more woods which I like but ... Thank you, Renee. from left to right: Custom design in Olive Wood (Palestine, Extreme Figure) & SEM Ebonite Sand 06; Bock 380 18k M CSI grind (by  @nibgrinder ) Custom design in Ancient Kauri Wood (New Zealand) & SEM Ebonite Honey 10/8; Bock 380 14k EF Custom design in Mahogany Wood (Honduras) & SEM Ebonite Brown 04/08; Bock 380 14k EF Custom design in Camatillo & NYH Cumberland; Bock 250 in Pt950 XXF grind (fpnibs.com) Custom design in Amboyna (Heirloom Quality) & NYH Cumberland; Jowo6, 14k, semiflex Custom design in Snakewood & NYH Cumberland; Jowo6 18k, EF CI grind (by  @nibgrinder ) Custom design in Nikko ebonite, aftermodified to midori tamenu...

Books in English 1) Maki-e: A Story Waiting to be Written – A Journey through the World of Lacquered Fountain Pens. Alberto Gerosa 2012 2) Collectible Stars 1 1908-1947 2014 edition Jens Rösler, Stefan Wallrafen 3) PELIKAN The Brand Detmar Schaefer 2013 (in transparent cellophane dust jacket) 4) Fountain Pens: Vintage and Modern Andreas Lambrou 1990/1995? 5) Fountain Pens: United States of America and United Kingdom Lambrou, Andreas 2000 6) Fountain Pens of Japan Lambrou, Andreas; Masamichi Sunami 2012 7) Fountain Pens of the World Lambrou, Andreas 1995 8) The Ultimate Book of Pens Dietmar Geyer 2010 9) Collectible fountain pens : Parker, Sheaffer, Wahl-Eversharp, Waterman Bowen, Glen 1982 (10) Lacquer : an international history and collector's guide Jonathan Bourne ... [et al.] 1984 11) Fountain Pens = Penne Stilografiche (Bella Cosa Library) Fortis, Alex; Vannucchi, Antonio 1995 12) Pen Passion: a Cylindrical Obsession by Jac Zagoory, Rachel Yohai, Hilda Chan 1992 13) The Pen: ...

The company Waldmann Pens exists since more than 100 years. Due to destruction of the Waldmann factory including the archives during WWII, all information before this event is lost. After the death of the founder in 1964, the owner changed several times until in 2007, the recent owner, Stefan Schnirch, took over. And only since his start, catalogs of the produced models exist. You can see and download the catalogs from 2008 until 2025 from my Goggle Drive. I got permission from Mr. Schnirch to offer them here. GoogleDrive

  Just be cautious to know the difference between the different silver types if you buy a silver pen - I use some lines from Wikipedia - do not claim I could say it better.   Real silver Fine silver  is 99.9% pure silver. Argentium silver  (patented in 1998) is a brand of modern tarnish-resistant silver alloys, containing either 93.5%, 94% or 96% silver. Argentium alloys replace some of the copper in the traditional sterling silver (92.5% silver + 7.5% copper) with the metalloid germanium. Argentium 935, Argentium 940 and Argentium 960 alloys exceed the standard required for hallmarking as sterling silver, and Argentium 960 silver meets the standard for hallmarking as Britannia silver (95.84% silver). Silvadium, Sterlium  is 93% silver, and other metals Sterling silver  is an alloy composed by weight of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925.   and then there i...

 It's play time. I asked Gemini to create some fountain pens. Unfortunately, Gemini still has some problems in creating a fountain pen. I am still working on how to make reliably such a pen with Gemini. The problem could be with my prompts or it could be on the Gemini side. Nevertheless - enjoy!