Come See Me At The 2018 DC Pen Show!

July 31, 2018

It's that time of year again! From Thursday, August 2 through Sunday, August 5, I'll be attending the Washington, D.C. Fountain Pen Supershow at the Marriott Fairview Park. This year, I'll be at the Vanness Pens table, so stop by and say hello if you get the chance. Vanness will be bringing their wall of ink, pens, paper & more!

Note that Thursday and Friday at the show are "Trader Days," meaning that you will have to purchase a weekend pass to attend ($45). The weekend pass also gets you into the show an hour earlier on Saturday and Sunday. I highly recommend attending on Friday and early in the mornings on the weekend - it's much less crowded, and you'll have first crack at rare pens and inks. Stuff can sell out fast! The show opens to the public on Saturday morning, and single-day admission is $9.

Just one of the Vanness Ink displays that they will have at the DC Pen Show.

Disclaimer: Vanness Pens is a sponsor of this blog, and I will be working for them at the show. For more about Vanness, see my post talking about my visit to their store in Little Rock, Arkansas earlier this year.

My 2018 Atlanta Pen Show haul. You'll notice that not everything from my "favorite things" list made it into my bag, which is definitely good (at least for my wallet).

Five Things I'm Excited About (or, Favorite Things from Atlanta)

April 18, 2018

As I've fallen deeper into this hobby/obsession, and after five years of writing this blog, pen shows have become more about visiting with friends and hearing about the newest releases/industry developments rather than accumulating more pens. Though the latter still happens, these days I usually come home with one or two. I have to get pretty excited about something before I make a purchase. So what new product releases am I most excited about, that will likely end up on a shopping list sometime this year?

New Releases from Aurora and Montegrappa

From left, the Blue Sigaro, the 88 Urano, and the 88 Satin Black.

The Kenro table was full of all sorts of exciting new things, but three of them caught my eye. The first (of course) is something that's going to be essentially impossible to get: the Aurora 88 Urano in a turquoise celluloid derivative. Apparently only a small number pens have been allocated for the entire United States. The others hopefully will be more widely available: a blue lacquer version of the Aurora Sigaro, the Aurora Talentum Full Black, and Montegrappa's new Monte Grappa vintage-inspired piston filler. The Blue Sigaro is simply gorgeous to look at, and the Monte Grappa features new JoWo steel nibs, which I understand have far fewer issues than the Bock nibs the company previously used. The blacked out Talentum has been repeatedly delayed but I understand it's on the way.

Montegrappa Monte-Grappa (three pens in the center)

Red Kaweco AL Sport U.S. Exclusive

Next up is my sole Saturday purchase: the red Kaweco AL Sport, which apparently is a U.S. exclusive for this year. Vanness Pens currently has them in stock, so if you're looking for one, I'm not sure how long they will last. Curiously, I didn't see these pens on any other tables at the show. The color looks great and really pops. As you all know, I don't pass up red pens.

Faggionato Pens

My Faggionato PKS, next to the AL Sport for scale

I've had the pleasure of visiting with Papier Plume twice this year, once at their New Orleans store and once at the Atlanta Pen Show. Both times, I've walked away with a Faggionato pen. Handmade in France by Fred Faggionato, the pens combine a streamlined, highly functional design with some unique materials, including acrylics and cellulose acetates in some nice color combinations. My two pens (pictured here) are a Petrarque in translucent blue tortoise cellulose acetate, and a larger PKS in Conway Stewart's vintage "Dartmoor" material. The Petrarque is a smaller pen that posts, while the larger PKS feels similar to an unfaceted Newton Shinobi (with a clip), and is meant to be used unposted.

Krishna Inks

Krishna Inks are the latest in a series of international brands that have arrived in the United States, courtesy of retailers such as Vanness Pens. While I didn't purchase any Krishna Inks this show (or even manage to get any decent pictures), I did spend a fair bit of time looking at swabs of all the various colors. These inks have crazy sheen - just look at Jungle Volcano and Myrtle. The greens are also exceptionally vibrant.

The Milano from Osprey Pens

Osprey Pens launched with several models priced well under $100 (and some sub-$20), though availability has been sporadic at best. Their largest and most expensive pen, the Milano, was originally available only in ebonite, though Osprey recently announced acrylic versions priced at $70. These materials look very nice, and the pens themselves are a good size. I especially like the "Mud Pie" and "Chiaroscuro" pens. Osprey makes a variety of nib units, ranging from standard stainless steel or gold to a Zebra G "flex" nib unit, which allows you to use Zebra G calligraphy nibs in the fountain pen.

I hope this little Atlanta follow-up has been helpful in providing an idea of what kind of stuff you get to see by attending pen shows. Of all the things I saw, the new Auroras were probably my favorite. I'm hoping to make the Chicago show in a few weeks, but as of right now it seems unlikely and my next pen show trip won't be until DC in August. Until then!

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates.

The Nock Co. table was busy all day, especially with the new Seed A5 case in stock.

Atlanta Pen Show 2018: Friday and Saturday Recap

April 15, 2018

So I'm reporting live from my fifth Atlanta Pen Show! Atlanta has become quite the stop on the pen show circuit, due both to timing (it's the first show in a warm location at the beginning of spring) and the fact that it's the venue for the annual live recording of the Pen Addict podcast. Did I mention it's also a great pen show? Despite it's relatively small size, Atlanta always draws a wide range of vendors, including Vanness Pens, Anderson Pens, and Papier Plume, as well as makers (Jonathan Brooks, Franklin-Christoph, Nock Co.) and nib grinders (Mike Masuyama and Mark Bacas). So you can pretty much find anything you can possibly think of.

Thursday/Friday Recap

I arrived Thursday night, and hung out at the hotel bar with a small group of early birds. We were all pretty tired, so it wasn't a super late night, but it was fun to catch up with people I hadn't seen in several months, and in a couple cases, even a few years.

Dromgoole's from Houston, Texas attended the Atlanta Pen Show for the first time, and brought a full line of TWSBI pens with them.

Friday morning was the first full "show day," and where I did most of my shopping. I always purchase the weekend pass, which gets you into the show an hour early and lets you make a run at the super-popular inks or the rare and hard to find pens. I immediately ran over to the Papier Plume table and picked up a new Faggionato PKS, since I've enjoyed the Petrarque I purchased in New Orleans. The rest of my Friday got a bit derailed by some conference calls I had to take for work, but I managed to pick up some limited edition Montblanc Inks, a Seed A5 case from Nock Co., and a Story Supply Co. Exposition Notebook in Burnt Orange.

Two new pens from Aurora that are sure to be successful: on the left, the Sigaro in blue, and in the middle, the 88 Urano, which I understand will be extremely limited and hard to get. If you're interested, place a pre-order now!

Saturday Recap

Saturday appeared to be crazy-busy at times. The crowds were lined-up three deep at most of the vendor tables during the 10-2 rush, which is fairly typical for Saturday at a pen show. I spent most of the morning taking pictures and chatting with vendors, and most people seemed to be having a very good show, though a few vendors observed that this year's crowd skewed younger and that the purchases being made tended to be at the entry-level end of the price spectrum. Personally, I think that's great for the long-term health of pen shows, and the pen industry in general. I met over a dozen people who were attending their first show, and a few who were purchasing their first pen.

I made one pen purchase: the 2018 U.S. limited edition Kaweco AL-Sport in red. I haven't had an AL-Sport or AC-Sport in quite some time, and I wasn't going to pass this one up when I saw it sitting on the Vanness table. Otherwise, I didn't purchase much else on Saturday. I had Mike Masuyama grind two nibs to .4mm cursive italics (what's become my preferred grind), and I had Mark Bacas grind another cursive italic and tune another pen that was writing dry.

Mike Masuyama was, as always, busy from open to close. I managed to get my name on his list three minutes after the show opened and I was already number 10!

Saturday night, of course, was the live recording of the Pen Addict podcast, featuring guest appearances by both Jim Rouse of Franklin-Christoph and Lisa Vanness of Vanness Pens. You can listen for yourself here, if you haven't downloaded already!

Brad looking serious and preparing to get down to business.

Other Cool Stuff I Saw at the Atlanta Pen Show

In addition to their ink selection, Papier Plume arrived with a large array of wax seals, pens, and pen boxes.

Papier Plume also launched a new ink in Atlanta: House of the Rising Sun, a reddish orange! If there's any left I'll pick up a bottle on Sunday morning.

Vanness Pens had the new Osprey Milanos in stock! The acrylics came out really well, especially the white flecked versions.

Jim Rouse was at the Franklin-Christoph table grinding away, right after the color prototypes were unveiled.

The Pay-it-Forward Table was in full swing with starter packs and the Give a Pen/Take a Pen box.

Luxury Brands USA was in attendance with a full display of Noodler's Pens and Inks, as well as Stifflexible notebooks, newly updated with more fountain-pen-friendly paper.

Brian Anderson of Anderson Pens was hard at work selling pens on Saturday morning!

Barring something unexpected that happens Sunday morning, that's likely it for Atlanta this year! Since this was a show weekend, I'm posting my recap on Sunday and will move links to Monday morning. This week's schedule should otherwise be normal.

Disclaimer: This post contains links to affiliates and paid sponsors.

2017 DC Pen Show: Saturday Recap

August 6, 2017

Well, I stuck to my guns and didn't buy anything on Saturday after what turned into a blowout Friday. That isn't to say that Saturday at the D.C. Pen Show wasn't enjoyable. The crowds were significantly larger than Friday, and from what I heard most vendors did really well because people were buying a lot of pens and ink! I spent most of the day visiting with people whom I hadn't seen in a very long time, and walking around the show just enjoying the experience. I'll try to keep this recap limited to pictures as much as possible, because I know that's what you all want to see!

As always, Brian and Andrea Gray of the Edison Pen Company stayed busy at their table. They brought a large selection of custom pens to the show.

Kenro Industries was at the show, and they brought a selection of Montegrappa Fortuna pens, including these Heartwood pens shown here.

Dan Smith ("The Nibsmith") was located in the back hallway, and kept up a brisk business throughout the weekend.

And, as always, Mike Masuyama had a steady stream of customers. If you want to book a slot with Mike, you need to get to the show EARLY.

Despite being assigned a table in the back hallway, Vanness Pens seems to have had a good show.

After Hours

After the show ended, everyone headed downstairs to a memorial service for Susan Wirth, who passed away unexpectedly in May after the Chicago Pen Show. Her associates set up her booth at the D.C. Show this year, just as she would have, and it was good to see them doing a brisk business all weekend.

Afterwards, Kenro Industries hosted an after-hours event for bloggers and some other show attendees at Top Golf in Alexandria, and they were kind enough to invite me. Check out my Instagram stream (@gentlemanstationer) for some of the antics. Let's just say it wasn't an early night.

Some after-hours folded nib work by Dan Hoisner.

2017 DC Pen Show: Thursday and Friday Quick Recap!

August 5, 2017

It's been a wild Thursday and Friday here at the 2017 D.C. Pen Show, and your correspondent is nearly tapped out already, in terms of both money and energy. The D.C. Pen Show runs for four days, with the first two days being "trader days", and Saturday and Sunday open to the public. Thursday is generally very quiet, with a handful of vendors set up in the ballroom selling to each other before the madness starts. Friday is much busier, but still not as crazy as Saturday. Friday at the D.C. Pen Show might be my favorite day of any pen show that I regularly attend, because admission is limited to the "weekend pass" holders and you can wander this absolutely massive show, scouring the tables for gems that might get lost in the shuffle during the MUCH more crowded public days.

This Friday, However, Had a Hitch...

The seething masses waiting to crash the gates on Friday morning. Torches and pitchforks have been Photoshopped out.

After a quiet Thursday night, which many of us spent at the hotel bar catching up with people we hadn't seen in months (or in some cases, years), we were eager for the show doors to open at 9 a.m. Sadly, due to a LOT of disorganization on the the show promoter's part, some vendors didn't even receive table assignments until nearly noon, and it was after lunch before the show was fully set up and ready to go. Needless to say, there were a lot of unhappy/visibly angry vendors, and understandably so. Even though it's not a public day, a lot of business gets done on Friday (especially on the higher end), and the pen repairmen and nib grinders lose a full half-day of business if they can't get their table assignments and start work as soon as possible in the morning. Hopefully they will make it up on a busy Saturday and Sunday, and that changes are made to ensure that the same thing doesn't happen next year. Otherwise, I'm not sure that the D.C. show will retain its position as the premier pen show on "the circuit," because vendors and attendees can't - and shouldn't - justify the time and expense of attending this show if the promoters can't take basic steps to ensure that the doors open on schedule.

My Friday Takeaways

I kicked off the 2017 D.C. Pen Show by picking up two pocket pens from Ian Schon of Schon Design, who showed up with both his standard line as well as a bunch of prototypes. I've not used Ian's pens before, but have heard great things, so predictably I picked up two: a PVD DLC-coated stainless steel classic version, and a royal blue and gold anodized prototype. Both of these use the Fisher Space Pen refill, which you know I'm a fan of.

Things moved pretty quickly after that. I snapped up three pens, two of which I've wanted to purchase for the past couple of years: an Edison Menlo (with the new draw filler filling system), an Edison Glenmont in Tibaldi Impero Celluloid, and a Kanilea Pen Co Nui Nalu.

From left: Kanilea Pen Co Nui Nalu, Edison Menlo with Draw Filler in blue flecked acrylic, and Edison Glenmont in Tibaldi Impero Celluloid.

Despite the short day, I also managed to have nibs tuned by Mike Masuyama and Dan Smith, and picked up a couple bottles of Robert Oster ink from Vanness Pens (Fire and Ice and Maroon 1789). After the chaos that was Friday morning, everyone pretty much stayed on-site at the hotel for dinner and retired to the bar later for drinks and sharing the day's finds. Hopefully I'll have much more to share tomorrow, after a full day of pens and people! In the meantime, here's a gallery of some pen show shots.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.-Northern Virginia-Maryland area, be sure to visit the D.C. Pen Show this weekend, August 5 and 6! It's being held at the Marriott Fairview Park Hotel in Falls Church, VA, and runs from 9:30 to 5!