MKE's view on pens

PENNA Fountain Pens & Lifestyle This year must be their 25th anniversary, judging from the 2013 title "20 years". I didn't know about it until recently. But it is well-worth to read. It is bilingually written in Italian and English, so you could also train your knowledge of Italian. Part of their archive is open to read and some of the issues can be downloaded as pdf. LINK Happy reading! Some advertisements of Japanese pens are better than those here available in Japan and some of the (Japanese) pens I have never seen advertised here. 8/26: Addition The last issue of the magazine is from 2017 - so no 25th anniversary.

I not only wait for my Lotus pen - I wait for autumn too. Humidity and temperature are lower and I also like the colours of autumn - see here a time-lapse view - autumn pictures taken in Japan. LINK I also wait to reach the top of the waiting list at Scriptorium Pens . Fortune said that reaching the top spot will be a little bit earlier than the autumn colours in Japan. So I can have a pen in these autumn colours - for autumn. (Fingers crossed that it will work out.) My idea is to get an Idyll from Scriptorium Pens. Link to Renée Meeks' Idyll HP . Picture borrowed from Scriptorium pens How the pen will exactly look like can only be decided when I am the top of the waiting list - 1-2 more months to wait. But the pen seems to be ready for the autumn season. I don't need a clip. I plan to have a JoWo #6 18K in F. There are four pen sizes available - see chart below. My preferred pen size is the MB149. That would be a medium but I will see how the Lot...

I recently joined some fountain pen groups on Facebook to see what other people have, trade or want. I stumbled over a presentation of this pen - a Lotus Virat from Lotuspens in India. The first one was a commissioned pen for an Indian collector who graciously allowed me to use his photos. I really like simple pens, especially if they are red and so I ordered one nearly immediately. And now I am counting the days until end of September when it will be delivered. It is made from Nikko Japan's red-colored ebonite and is only polished - not lacquered. Here is another view. My new pen will additionally have red instead of black threads - my motto is "if red, then red". What you don't see on these two photos is the sheer size of this pen. Total length  173mm Barrel with nib length 152 mm Max diameter of cap  19.5 mm Max diameter of barrel 17mm Section diameter 14-13.5 mm This size corresponds to the size of a Manupropria Bo Medium or a Danitri...

Sometimes you are just lucky to find a pen which is unique or very rare. It happened to me to stumble over a Parker Arrow where I couldn't find any additional information on the internet. Asking around, I was told that especially Parker had one-to-several piece test-runs and this might be one of them. So, I proudly present a rare or even unique Parker Arrow fountain pen: On the trimband is written PARKER, the Parker France icon MADE in France AC and another Parker icon. According to the Parkerpens.net's Parker pen code pages, AC means that this pen was produced in the 2nd quarter of 1982. Parker seems to have played around with such kind of designs, see the torsade finish of a Parker 180 which is from 1981. From the 4th quarter of 1981 is my second Parker Arrow, 12K gold filled (cap&barrel), Made in USA.  cap tassies of the rare and the 12K gold Parker Arrow pens weights will follow later The nib writes really smooth. The lines are...