tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20009754081418834212011-11-28T12:33:33.171-05:00Davidnoreply@blogger.comBlogger371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-11802617290617355932011-11-28T12:31:00.003-05:002011-11-28T12:33:33.181-05:00

We had a fine family Thanksgiving this year, and hope that all of our pen friends who celebrate the holiday did so as well!We will be catching up on orders and correspondence today; if you are awaiting an order acknowledgment or a response to an inquiry, all should be back to normal by the end of the day.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-38048906709856504962011-08-15T10:40:00.002-04:002011-08-15T10:53:30.676-04:00

We are back from Washington (Tysons Corner, to be precise) and will be working away to catch up over the next several days. Buying was good, as was overall turnout. This is one of the few American metropolitan shows that has managed to find the sweet spot as far as location: for many big cities, holding the show right in the middle of town both drives up costs and makes access difficult for

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-60755707886434281412011-05-28T08:37:00.002-04:002011-05-28T08:41:04.217-04:00

We've been working nonstop since before the Chicago show a couple of weeks back, so are particularly looking forward to this long holiday weekend and an opportunity to recharge.Best wishes to all our pen friends -- we'll be back in the shop on Tuesday!

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-12025214799287282512011-05-15T22:00:00.003-04:002011-05-15T22:04:34.621-04:00

We bought quite a bit at the Chicago Pen Show this year, most notably dip pens and 19th-century pencils. It will be a while before it is all listed, but we should have a few goodies posted within the next few days.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-72285465361449131452011-05-11T18:49:00.001-04:002011-05-15T22:04:59.694-04:00

We've closed up the shop for a few days to attend the Chicago Pen Show. We won't be exhibiting, but if you'll be around, do say hello.We'll also be doing a bit of double duty, visiting the pipemakers' show the same weekend to show off our newly-made American Art Plastics ebonite and celluloid products.Monday will be back to business as usual -- haven't decided yet what our next featured update

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-30716822632645231492011-04-20T07:58:00.002-04:002011-04-20T08:35:23.010-04:00

We've been having sporadic problems with our phone service for some time. The good news is that we found the problem. The bad news is that it may be several days until we have a permanent fix.Until then, all incoming calls are going straight to voicemail -- so don't be afraid to leave a message and let us call you back (though email is still a faster and more reliable way of reaching us).

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-30734924269162295782010-09-12T11:35:00.003-04:002010-09-12T11:38:45.578-04:00

Apologies to all who have been trying to reach us by phone over the past week or so. We've been preoccupied with packing up and relocating our workshop, and didn't realize until Friday afternoon that our phone wasn't working. All incoming calls were being sent automatically to voice mail, and to a particular mailbox that we don't normally use. Fixing the problem wasn't especially difficult,

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-10975295797512169682010-08-17T16:31:00.003-04:002010-08-17T16:56:51.425-04:00

We are back from the Washington, DC pen show, but things will remain slow for the remainder of August, between family time and moving our workshop.Attendance at the pen show was good, yet it seems that most shows -- this one included -- are becoming more and more dominated by consumers, rather than collectors. This goes beyond the divisions between new-pen and old-pen people, for while few who

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-46081253314090135162010-06-11T09:48:00.003-04:002010-06-11T09:51:37.006-04:00

Fountain Pen Network is back, malware-free. Apparently took a while to clean up, and longer to get Google to de-blacklist them. Word is that Lion & Pen will be back before too long, as well. Perhaps it could be arranged that the regular maintenance payments for hosting and the like be automatically withdrawn from a special Paypal account, to which donations could be made by readers and forum

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-17972510863634393092010-06-10T09:27:00.002-04:002010-06-10T09:31:15.213-04:00

Pentrace is still alive and well, but Lion & Pen has been down for about a week, and Fountain Pen Network got hacked and has been down for repair for a couple of days now. Before it got taken down, I did get warnings from my antivirus program of malware from the site, and it looks as if this was no false alarm. If you visited FPN recently, you may wish to make sure your antivirus protection is

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-71648227856349874952010-04-21T16:41:00.002-04:002011-05-15T22:05:32.923-04:00

We have held a few shipments to northern European destinations for a while, until flights have resumed. I'm sure there will be a backlog of shipments that will take a while to clear, and it seems best to wait a bit until things have settled down a bit.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-43586829802648512262010-04-01T09:38:00.002-04:002010-04-01T09:48:48.758-04:00

Things are a mess in our poor state, but we've been lucky: no damage either at work or at home -- though we did have to set up a portable pump in a low point in the basement to keep things under control. When the water started coming up from the floor in an area where we'd never had problems before, my first thought was to check the downspouts and to consider putting in a second French drain on

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-30997756621929817332010-02-20T10:50:00.002-05:002010-02-20T11:00:00.628-05:00

Another very successful Los Angeles pen show. Despite a handful of cancellations due to the snowstorm back East, turnout among dealers and full-show registrants was strong, and there were some truly outstanding pens on offer, with notable strength in early Watermans. Sunday's "public" attendance seemed to be down a bit, though this is often quite variable at this particular show. In fact, this

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-57257763026441646042010-01-19T21:15:00.003-05:002010-01-19T21:21:21.361-05:00

First pen show of the year is coming up this weekend; we'll be heading down there Thursday, closing up shop until Monday. It's been quite a few years since the last time we were there; used to spend a lot of time in Philadelphia, before moving from Manhattan to Providence.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-13357433124641288862010-01-04T17:16:00.002-05:002010-01-04T17:19:02.390-05:00

Finally got around to fixing some display issues, where fonts were being displayed in miniature on browsers other than Internet Explorer. If any pages look a little funny, a click on your browser's reload button should fix things. Let us know if something looks broken even after reloading, though. Next up: updating filling instructions, pen anatomy pages, and photos on Pen Profiles.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-10924034603906114932010-01-02T21:19:00.003-05:002010-01-02T21:33:08.185-05:00

2010 is here, and we'll be back in the shop Monday, catching up. It's been a pretty hectic holiday season here, enlivened by a fair amount of snow and minor colds brought home by the kids.For the first time in many years, we're planning on attending the Philadelphia pen show, which runs from January 22-24. We'll be bringing some pens, but are not planning on a full setup -- so if you want to

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-26576319145557384802009-11-30T11:51:00.002-05:002009-11-30T11:54:19.194-05:00

We hope that all our American friends had a great Thanksgiving holiday. We didn't do any traveling this Thanksgiving, and played host instead. So if we've been a bit slow in getting back to you, whether by phone or by email, our apologies -- we'll be catching up this week.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-52500323146154671412009-08-31T09:47:00.002-04:002009-08-31T09:53:39.074-04:00

We stayed pretty close to home this summer, and we're now back from our one week end-of-summer break. Much to catch up on (as usual!) -- not least, one of our most notable catalog updates, featuring some incredible Waterman rarities. Most have been sitting for years in a private collection; there are some models which we have never seen before, and many which we have not seen examples of in

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-18872626279640145962009-08-03T12:26:00.002-04:002009-08-03T12:29:03.868-04:00

We'll be closing up shop this week to attend the pen show. As usual, we'll be taking only a small selection of our inventory, so if you'd like to see a particular item, let us know right away so we can be sure to bring it along.Our main focus will be displaying and selling newly-made celluloid and hard rubber stock. You can read more about it at the American Art Plastics website.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-90946685927839923462009-07-19T10:35:00.002-04:002009-07-19T10:38:51.169-04:00

This has been expected for a good long time, with great fear and trepidation. The property has become very valuable, and Parker's current corporate masters don't care a whit about tradition.Plans to close the Parker Pen factory in East Sussex, resulting in the loss of up to 180 jobs, have been revealed.Newell Rubbermaid said it had started a consultation on the closure of the site in Newhaven

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-70587247640581648672009-07-11T21:50:00.002-04:002009-07-11T22:01:04.088-04:00

In years past, summer has been a slow time.  This year has been different -- partly because of kids getting older, and ever more time devoted to their activities, but also because of our new/old plastics venture, American Art Plastics.  We aren't fully up and running yet; we have managed to get some fantastic celluloid rod and slab stock made to our specs, however, and are looking forward to

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-84682397394680346372009-05-22T14:19:00.002-04:002009-05-22T14:22:10.347-04:00

It's Memorial Day Weekend here in the USA , so we'll be off until Tuesday. Summer is just about here, and we still have a big backlog of items to list -- so expect to see some catalog additions once we get back.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-20210227933069639312009-04-27T20:56:00.005-04:002009-04-27T21:01:04.060-04:00

Alas, we won't be at the Chicago pen show this year, for the first time in nearly 20 years (can it really be that long?!) thanks to a family scheduling conflict. Luckily we have no shortage of pens awaiting repair, photography, and cataloguing, so we shall do our best to put our extra time at home to good use.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-2497002891041303972009-02-20T10:14:00.004-05:002009-02-26T08:59:52.409-05:00

We've been experimenting with substitutes for traditional seal materials for some time. In many cases, cork seals can be replaced with O-rings -- though finding the correct and almost always special-order sizes can take some doing.After considerable trial-and-error, we've found what we believe to be the perfect seals for Waterman safety repair. The pen itself requires no modification, and the

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-29205173054291959022009-02-19T22:20:00.003-05:002009-02-19T22:35:15.650-05:00

We got back from the LA pen show Tuesday night, totally exhausted. It was a good show this year, with lots of great pens on offer and consistently good crowds. Despite concerns about the economy, there was a real buzz throughout the whole event. Many dealers reported particularly active buying of cheaper pens, but whether this was the result of purse-tightening or the impact of new collectors

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-59256941604412644922009-02-03T13:05:00.002-05:002009-02-03T13:10:36.101-05:00

What a winter we've had! No sooner had all the ice begun to melt, than another snowstorm arrives. We shut down the office early today and will be working at the repair bench, but we did manage to get several Parker Vacumatics posted to the catalog this morning -- overdue, since we'd come perilously close to selling out on the more common varieties of single-jewel pens from the 1940s.Next

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-8623929605564855542009-01-29T09:00:00.002-05:002009-01-29T09:04:34.966-05:00

We stayed home yesterday after a rather messy snowstorm, followed by freezing rain. Everything was covered with ice this morning, but we'll be venturing out to catch up on packing and shipping this afternoon -- as well as restocking on salt and sand.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-36995994513654456392009-01-23T22:36:00.001-05:002009-01-23T22:37:59.309-05:00

It's still a work in progress, but I've just posted the beginnings of a Pen Profile covering the various Waterman overlay patterns. The initial focus is on variations of the "Filigree" pattern, but I'll expand on this base as time permits.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-9741510878307193802009-01-08T10:29:00.002-05:002009-01-08T11:00:37.127-05:00

I've complained before about all the undisclosed flaws that one ends up finding after the fact -- not just with pens and pencils from flea markets, general antiques dealers, and eBay, but also from regular exhibitors at established pen shows.This morning I pick up my customized 51 mentioned in my November post and I realize the cap jewel is missing. A closer look, and it is clear that the clip

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-91193444664145345492009-01-07T13:38:00.002-05:002009-01-07T13:57:35.403-05:00

A belated Happy New Year to you all! It's been an unusually hectic holiday season here, in large part due to our recently-complete switch to a new hosting company and all the associated changes and updates to the site that ended up going with it. That looks to be mostly done, though there's still more back-end software and database-related stuff pending, and we're still tracking down broken and

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-36667667177049489982008-12-18T10:05:00.002-05:002008-12-18T10:17:46.665-05:00

We get a lot of mail -- and an awful lot of spam. To help us cope with the deluge, we've been putting in some long-overdue upgrades, including a switch to a new server. It's taken up much of our work time over the past few weeks, but the end is in sight and we hope to be all caught up in the next few days. If you haven't heard back from us lately, patience please -- you will!

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-62432325741227991492008-12-10T11:30:00.006-05:002008-12-10T11:50:03.559-05:00

I haven't had the time to explore it yet, but the magazine Popular Mechanics is available now through Google Books -- all of the issues from January 1905 on. What's great is that intact magazines were scanned for this project, including covers and ads. This is not trivial, in that many magazines preserved in libraries were stripped of such material when being bound for posterity. Ironically,

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-86482700373073605382008-12-02T16:20:00.002-05:002008-12-02T16:23:49.341-05:00

We try to mark items "sold" as soon as they are reserved, but because of a site upgrade that our hosting company is now putting in place, we won't be able to update the catalog as promptly as usual. All should be back in order sometime tomorrow, if not later tonight. Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-44761684955872668262008-11-27T13:37:00.003-05:002008-11-27T13:39:54.348-05:00

Best wishes for the Thanksgiving holiday to all our USA friends! We'll be back in the shop Monday, though we plan on doing a bit of catch-up shipping tomorrow.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-67551046306328215042008-11-25T10:07:00.006-05:002009-02-20T10:13:34.226-05:00

If you buy a car and customize it, that's OK. If you buy a name-brand shirt and customize it with transfers or embroidery, that's OK, too. It's also OK to resell what you've customized -- though of course it would be wrong if you misrepresented what you added to the product as being anything but your own work.Some manufacturers, however, don't see it that way. They don't want anyone altering

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-91856553500323065152008-11-19T08:30:00.003-05:002008-11-19T11:38:23.633-05:00

I got back from the Columbus, Ohio show weekend before last. It was a good show for me, with a few keepers for my own collection, quite a bit purchased for resale, and much schmoozing time with collector and dealer friends. But, as usual, the orders and the correspondence piled up in my absence, not to mention stuff on the home front -- so, also as usual, I've only really been able to start

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2000975408141883421.post-21486452653693407812008-11-15T14:47:00.003-05:002008-11-15T15:07:21.665-05:00

It's long overdue, but we've finally taken the step of replacing our old and all too infrequently updated Pen News page with a blog-format upgrade. We'll be tweaking the look and feel of the new Pen News as time permits; in any event, it should enable us to post more easily and more often, and for readers to comment.For now we have set up automatic redirection from the old Pen News address, but

Davidnoreply@blogger.com1