MKE's view on pens

In Japan, an association called "Japan Imported Pen Association" exists. What they exactly do, is unknown to me. But, they bring out a very nice catalogue on imported foreign pens. This seems to be a catalogue which is only available for shops who are selling foreign brands of fountain pens/ball-pens/roller pens/mechanical pencils. And only paying member companies are included, I was told. The content page of the 2018 catalogue is shown on the left and the full catalogue is accessible here: LINK . Some years ago, Montblanc also paid to be included, now, they don't do any-more. As you can see in the linked pages, it is very informative information about available pens of a brand. However, unfortunately, it is not complete. Especially, limited editions are sometimes missing. I question the PR and sales departments of many pen makers. Why don't they don't put together all their pen information in pdf catalogues? What be the disadvantage of doi...

When I visited Germany recently, I had the chance to buy my first Otto Hutt pen . It is a Limited Edition which was produced for the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the first jewellery and watch factory in 1767 in Pforzheim (Germany). Details of the pen see it's brochure: LINK . It was available with a steel nib or with a 18K gold nib, which o f course, I choose. A gold pen needs a gold nib. I also had the chance to borrow a standard model of this pen, black matte with a steel nib in F for comparative tests.  Design OH left, CdA right The name of this pen is Design 06 - for further information see the homepage at Otto Hutt - Link1 (Design 06 page) and Link 2 (Configurator page).  The pen is cigar-shaped, 14 mm at the belly and 9 mm at both ends. I like this design. I have some highly valued Caran d'Ache pens (modell Geneve from the 1990s) with very similar geometry (see photo left).  Goldpen left, standard right The photo on the right shows t...

German TV "SR Fernsehen" shows and streams a television show about the making of silver fountain pens. Focus is on Waldmann Pens "Handwerkskunst! Wie man einen edlen Füller macht" (Translation: Craftsmanship! How to make a noble fountain pen) Video link " To make one Waldmann pen, in total, nine companies are involved and production takes weeks. And even if the actual filler is mounted at the end in one minute and five seconds, it remains true craftsmanship "Made in Germany"." July 27, 2018 21:00-21:45 MESZ Addition: "SR Fernsehen" had visited Waldmann before: Video link . The part of Waldmann pens starts around 55:25 min. And the TV "Deutsche Welle" also visited them some years ago. Their short video in English about Waldmann can be found on Youtube . I also own a small collection of Waldmann pens: Waldmann Manager (their only piston filler apart from the 2018 LE ) Tuscany from 2008 (or earlier)...

This pen is called "Ohto Tasche", where "Tasche" is the German word for pocket. Japanese companies like to use foreign words because Japanese think this is so cool. The product code is FF-10T if you want to search for it. The pen comes in four colors (black, silver, pink and blue) - Link to the Tasche HP . It is a small, slim and light pen, except when it is posted. Length 9.8 cm (closed) or 14.6 cm (posted) - 8.5 cm when the cap is removed. Diameter 9 mm at the silver part and 10 mm at the pink part. Total weight 13.5 g (without cartridge) - 5.6 g for the cap and 7.9 for the feed assembly. The nib inscription says "Iridium Point Germany" which indicates that it is certainly made in China (this should not be considered a devaluation). The pen uses short international cartridges. With Pelikan 4001 Royal-Blue, the nib writes 0.5 mm lines, classifying it as a medium - the maker says it is a fine which is clearly wrong - at least here in Ja...