MKE's view on pens

 Originally posted at Instagram. Click on a photo to see it enlarged. Lisa makes quality control and protects my set of Pilot Iroshizuku inks on March 16, 2019 . Lisa is blind which doesn't hinder her to be found on all tables and chairs.  On July 3, 2019 , she inspected an incoming package from La Couronne du Comte. What did she know that she would have soon some helpers to do that work. The new ones helped me choosing a new pen, inspecting every pen on a huge list: October 4, 2019 . Please try and identify the non-pen artifact in the picture. I know it is difficult. November 23, 2020 Brothers of my cats (same mother) - special editions 2019, 2020 and 2021 - unfortunately all of them have died due to illness or car accidents. In memoriam. Tom and Lisa show interest in a cloth from Bokumondoh .  I don't call myself a collector - I am a hoarder. Not only do I hoard pens, but also inks and papers and - cats. Felix (18 years in 2024), Cherie (5), Lisa (6) and Tom (5) in 202...

Since I am in the pen business, ahem, I mean the hobby of using pens, I always wanted a set of gold pens. In the beginning of my quest for such a pen, I focused on Montblanc pens until I realized they are overlays, just a thin sheet of gold over a normal resin pens. That is not what I wanted. A few years ago, I met online the CEO of Waldmann pens, Stefan Schnirch, and through his help I got a very special set of gold pens. Actually, they are vermeil pens, gold-coated Sterling pens. Here they are - excuse the bad hand-writing, I am still working on improving that. The base of these golden pens is the model Precieux Lines in Sterling silver which is meanwhile out of production, I bought the two last fountain pens and the last rollerball.  Ball-pen and mechanical pencil might still be in stock. These solid silver pens were then coated with 5 um of 24k yellow gold. I also have a fountain pen coated with rose-gold instead of the yellow-gold. That pen even has an 18k gold nib coated with...

Do you have an idea how one can avoid that converter leak ink into the piston shaft area? How do you clean it there? I have seen converters where one could unscrew the back part but most, even the converters from Schmidt Technology, like this one, lack that possibility. Just tested what happens if I let stand a water-filled converter horizontally (corresponding nib-up). In less than 5 minutes the water was leaking through the back part out of the converter.