Recapping the 2019 D.C. Pen Show: It's Still The Big Show!

Let’s face it … the D.C. Pen Show is always a bit of a hot mess. It’s a 3-day event with hundreds of vendors and thousands of attendees crammed into two hotel ballrooms and a few hallways. Pen shows don’t have the budget of Comic-Con or even major trade shows, so hotels are usually a bit too small and lack amenities that attendees would otherwise be used to, such as ready access to food and beverages.

Yet you still go. Other shows are catching up - San Francisco and Chicago in particular - but D.C. remains the big annual event, and I suspect it will remain so for the immediate future. It’s the only place where you are likely to see brands of all sizes and price points, ranging from Montblanc to Franklin-Christoph to small startups such as Narwhal Pens. Though this year saw a number of notable absences, D.C. is also the show where you can expect to find most of the large pen retailers, high-end vintage dealers, and fountain pen repairmen and nib grinders. Because of this diverse presence, lots of people still attend, regardless of the logistical challenges and bad locations, and the D.C. Pen Show presents one of the best opportunities out there to meet everyone and to catch up with friends. So what were the notable things I saw this year?

• Galen Leather. The feel-good story of the weekend was Galen Leather, who attended with a seriously impressive stockpile of inventory, including their leather pen cases, notebook covers, and brass accessories. More on what I purchased below. I’m also happy to announce that Vanness Pens is now the exclusive U.S. retailer for Galen Leather, so you will be able to purchase Galen Leather products from a U.S.-based source, reducing shipping cost and time for those of us in the States!

• Matthew Martin Custom Pens. After debuting his pens to much fanfare in Atlanta, veteran knifemaker Matt Martin came to D.C. with a serious stockpile of “The Original,” his machined fountain pen that comes in various designs and materials including titanium, brass, copper, and zirconium. Matt uses a special technique to reduce the weight of the pen, which makes them much more comfortable to use than many heavier machined pens made from brass and copper.

• Faber-Castell and Graf von Faber-Castell. For the first time I can remember, representatives of Faber-Castell, USA attended the D.C. Pen Show, and they were a lot of fun to get to know! These two brands, with some of the best nibs on the market, unfortunately tend to go unnoticed at shows, but this year a LOT of people were purchasing Faber-Castell pens, and I picked up my first Graf von Faber-Castell, a now-discontinued Guilloche model.

• Kanilea Pen Company Aolani. Apparently a large stock of Aolani pens came to D.C., but only a very few were left by Sunday, making the pen wildly successful. Check out my first impressions here!

• Atelier Musubi. Daryl traveled all the way from Singapore toting his gorgeous fabric journals, including some unique prototypes. More on Musubi as a brand here.

• Straits Pens. Everyone who came looking for unique sizes of Tomoe River paper was directed to Sunny at Straits Pens, who was attending his first D.C. Pen Show. For future reference, Sunny also does nib grinds, and will be attending the San Francisco Pen Show.

• Vinta Inks. Some of the biggest draws at the Vanness Pens table this year were inks from Vinta, a new brand out of the Philippines that has both standard and shimmer options. I’m looking forward to testing these out soon. Blue Blood and Sikatuna Sandugo both caught my eye.

Galen Leather was set up in the front Ballroom, and Zeynep from Write to Me Often was working the table all weekend!

It’s amazing how much self-control you can exercise when you’re behind the table all weekend, and the show is so busy that you don’t have time to browse and find anything to buy until Sunday. My one Friday purchase was something I have coveted for a long time: a Writing Box from Galen Leather, and they had at least 20 of them there to choose from. (Seriously, the logistics of moving the volume of product they had at the show was impressive!) On Sunday, I managed to snag two really sweet deals: a Graf von Faber-Castell Guilloche fountain pen from the Faber-Castell distributor that was on clearance, and a Franklin-Christoph Model 20 “Marietta” prototype in a dark green-flecked acrylic. I also took home a bottle of the special show ink, “Supershow Teal” from Monteverde that will be available at retail at some point. It’s a nice color!

By the end of the day on Saturday, there wasn’t much Colorverse or Akkerman Dutch Masters left, and our stock of both was depleted even further on Sunday.

Takeaways from this Year’s D.C. Pen Show

The D.C. Pen Show is undergoing some “transition” pains as it recovers from the loss of its long-standing location at the Sheraton Tysons Corner, and new people become more involved in running the show. After a bit of a slow start on Friday, however, Saturday and Sunday were extremely busy and it was back to business as usual for most vendors. The most frustrating thing about this show, to me, doesn’t have to do with the show itself, but rather the location and lack of food and entertainment options within walking distance. This not only hurts the vendors - most of whom don’t want to drive to dinner after having been on their feet for nearly 12 hours - but also the attendees, who lose out on show time, parking spaces, and just an overall better experience. As I’ve mentioned before, taking time out of pen shows - even 20 minutes - to eat, rest, and recover is important, and you don’t have many easy options unless you want to visit the mediocre hotel restaurant and bar.

The two on the left are my 2019 D.C. Pen Purchases, shown here in a Galen Leather A5 Zippered Notebook Folio in Crazy Horse Brown distressed leather. Check out my review of the Galen Leather A5 “zipfolio” here.

That said, I will be attending the D.C. Pen Show as long as my friends are, since I go more to socialize and meet readers rather than shop. People have been talking about the “decline of the D.C. Pen Show” for nearly 10 years now, and nothing significant has changed other than moving locations. As I mentioned above, for the time being D.C. is still the biggest event of the year in terms of sheer numbers of vendors, makers, and attendees, and it’s difficult to recapture the spirit of this show elsewhere.

D.C. was the last pen show that I have planned for this year, though I may try to attend San Francisco (unlikely since it’s so close), Dallas, or Ohio as a last-minute trip. If not, I’m looking forward to the Philadelphia and Baltimore Shows in 2020!

Just a teaser of my new Galen Leather Writing Box - more pics coming soon!

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates. All of the products purchased at the D.C. Pen Show were paid for by me with my own funds, though I did get a slight discount on the Faber-Castell Pen since I was working at the Vanness Pens table.

Scenes from Friday and Saturday at the 2019 DC Pen Show

Friday at the D.C. Pen Show was a bit slow…. Much slower than in previous years. Vendor and attendee traffic seemed a bit down, though it picked up towards the end of the afternoon to the point where we even had a bit of a rush just before closing. Several Saturday attendees told us at the table that the show mailer confused the dates, and did not make clear that Friday was open to the public if they paid the early “Trader” admission. Oh well. It was still the D.C. Pen Show, so there was still a ton of stuff to see and I took advantage of the lulls in traffic to look around the ballrooms. Saturday more than made up for a slow Friday, as the line started forming at 8:00 a.m. and did not let up until an hour after the technical “close.” I actually don’t have many pictures from Saturday since it was so busy, but the pictures from Friday are better anyway because vendors still had most of their stock. Some tables were pretty bare by mid-afternoon on Saturday, which is the sign of a great show!

There’s still one full day left! I’m behind the Vanness Pens table to the right of the show entrance, so be sure to stop by and say hello! We have plenty of pens to sell, along with our remaining stock of Akkerman and Colorverse ink. Hope to see you later! A full show recap will follow this week.

Kanilea Pen Company brought all of their various models of pens, including the new Aolani (shown below)!

I can’t wait to swing by the Kanilea table on Sunday and see how many of these are actually left after the Saturday rush. Check out my initial thoughts on the Kanilea Aolani that I published last week.

Dan Smith at The Nibsmith brought the entire spectrum of Leonardo pens, as well as Sailor, Visconti, and other brands.

As you know, I’m behind the Vanness Pens table all weekend, and while our stock of ink and paper is somewhat depleted, Sunday is a great day to get a good deal on a pen, like this discontinued Montegrappa Passione that has been sitting in front of me calling my name for two days straight. Someone come buy this pen before I do! You may remember that I reviewed this exact model/color combination a while back.

Yoshi Nakama was here, though I still haven’t quite found the pen that speaks to me yet!

The Sailor 1911 Large in the “Ringless Epinard” Design. This pen gets a lot of attention, and looks good, but come of the design choices leave me scratching my head. For one thing, the pen has ruthenium trim but a rhodium nib, and I’m not sure how I feel about the cap edge.

Ian Schon of Schon DSGN brought his new pocket fountain pen! I didn’t get a chance to come back and see him on Saturday, but

If you haven’t already, you will her much about Matt Martin Custom Pens. Hands down the best machined fountain pens I have ever seen. He even makes his own screws for the clip!

Zirconium pens from Matt Martin!

On Saturday, the line began to form early.

And by Saturday afternoon, the main ballroom was plenty busy. (This was taken after the main rush, probably around 3:30 or so).

In terms of Akkerman and Colorverse, what’s out is what we have left at the Vanness Pens table! If you want it, act quick and come get it!

Special Edition Ink Alert: Two Papier Plume Inks for the Chicago Pen Show

Every year, Papier Plume releases one or two special edition inks for the Chicago Pen Show. Building on last year’s Bootlegger’s Sacrament (a wine red) and “Da Blue,” (a Chicago Bears-inspired blue-black) this year’s inks include “Lake Michigan Winter,” (a turquoise/teal) and “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” (you guessed it).

For those of you attending the Chicago Pen Show from May 2-May 5, you’ll be able to purchase these inks at Papier Plume’s table, and from their website after the show. Most of the Chicago Pen Show inks have always sold out quickly, however, and Papier Plume typically only makes a single batch, so if you want to get your hands on either of these you’ll need to find someone attending the show to hook you up or quickly place an order afterwards.

Generally speaking, Papier Plume inks are unsaturated, so they play nice in most pens and offer good ink flow and shading. I’d compare them to Callifolio, Waterman, or standard (non-shimmer) Herbin, though the colors tend to have more pop than the Herbin inks. Papier Plume inks also offer good value, with the larger 30ml bottles costing $8 for the standard lineup of colors and $10 for special editions. You can also purchase smaller 15ml bottles of the standard colors for $5. Count me a fan!

Papier Plume also specializes in wax seals, an example of which you will find on the caps of their special edition inks.

Disclaimer: Papier Plume provided me with these two bottles of ink at no charge for review purposes. Many thanks!

Recapping the 2019 Atlanta Pen Show

I don’t know where to begin with this 2019 Atlanta Pen Show Recap. Everyone always remarks that the Atlanta Pen Show “feels like family,” to the point where it seems cliched, but it’s not - that’s the best way to describe it. Alongside Baltimore, Atlanta puts on one of the friendliest, most open pen shows of the year, somehow managing to keep the physical size of the show relatively small while attracting a high-quality group of exhibitors and vendors. Be warned - this will be a lengthy recap. This year’s Atlanta Show had so much to offer in terms of new products and new vendors that I’m still not sure I managed to catch everything.

When I arrived late Thursday night, #penshowsafterdark was already in full swing!

By far one of the more anticipated releases at the 2019 Atlanta Pen Show were Pilot’s 100th Anniversary Iroshizuku Inks. Vanness had all of the Iroshizuku Inks and the Lamy Crystal inks at their table.

Show Setup and Venue

For as long as I’ve been attending, the Atlanta Pen Show has been held at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria. The location is fine - the hotel is clean, outside the center of Atlanta so traffic is as much of a non-issue as it can be in Atlanta, and there is a reasonable variety of restaurants within walking distance or a short drive. The main drawback to this hotel is that the staff seems anywhere from indifferent to annoyed at big groups, which limits the after-hours activities somewhat because they always try to shut the bar down by 11 p.m. and this year even turned the lights off on everyone Saturday night to try to make them leave. Given this, and the fact that the show itself has now outgrown available ballroom space, I wouldn’t be surprised at a change in location over the next couple of years.

Jonathon Brooks and his new helper. If I had sold that many pens, I’d be in good spirits too!

The Leonardo Momento Zero: quite possibly my favorite pen on the market at the moment.

Top Five Takeaways from the Atlanta Pen Show

I’ll run a vendor-by-vendor breakdown later on in the recap, but while I was taking some time to collect my thoughts on Sunday night, I put together the following list of “show highlights,” which are, of course, highly subjective.

1. Leonardo Momento Zero. Dan Smith of The Nibsmith now carries Leonardo, and while the pens aren’t yet up on the website, I understand they’re coming soon. Dan basically had the entire line set up at his table, and I added yet another Momento Zero to my collection, this time in matte black. It’s early, but at Leonardo’s price point, this pen has the potential to kill the Sailor Pro Gear Imperial Black.

2. Pilot Iroshizuku Inks (100th Anniversary and Standard Colors). Much of the pre-show buzz focused on the release of two new series of inks: Pilot’s 100th Anniversary Iroshizuku colors, and the Lamy Crystal inks. I picked up two of the Iroshizukus (Hoteison, a dark green, and Bishmonten, a pinkish red), and one Lamy (Topaz) from Vanness Pens. Look for reviews of these inks soon.

3. Newton Pens. Shawn Newton has gotten me bad at these last two shows, Little Rock and Atlanta. Since he added some new machinery and lowered the price point on certain production-line pens, it’s become increasingly difficult to walk away from his table without buying something, and this show I acquired three (!?!?!) pens from Shawn: a Prospector in blue and gray ripple Japanese ebonite, and two Orvilles.

4. New (to me) Vendors Matthew C. Martin Custom Pens and Truphae. Matthew Martin’s machined metal pens are about to take off big time, and he was clearly the sleeper hit of the Atlanta Pen Show. And while I had heard of online retailer Truphae, mainly on account of their “Inkredible” subscription box, I had not seen their collaboration with Visconti on two gorgeous Opera Masters: Stardust (featuring ruthenium trim) and Corvina.

5. Conid. While Conid wasn’t officially present at the show, a group of enthusiasts who collectively (and maybe individually) owned ALL of the different models of the Bulkfiller set up tables to show them off and let people test the pens. Once again, I’m blown away by the generosity of the pen community, since I’ve been considering a Bulkfiller and these tables were incredibly helpful in deciding which one I want to order.

A few Shawn Newton Orvilles in some gorgeous custom acrylics that I had never seen before.

A Quintet of Conid Kingsize Bulkfillers (with a Conid Giraffe peeking out at the back).

Visconti Opera Masters from Truphae, with the Stardust pens on the left and the “Corvina” pens on the right.

Other new discoveries included PK Custom Goods pen cases and wraps, which you can purchase from their Etsy store. I picked up Star Wars and Harry Potter-themed versions, and you’ll see a review up on the site at some point in the future. Here’s a further run-down of some other things I saw at the show, by vendor:

• Total Fine Writing/The Pen Show. Jimmy and Suzanne Dolive once again organized a great show, and they also attended as vendors with multiple tables that included one of the show’s largest selection of Montblanc limited edition pens and inks (as well as the Penlux Snake).

• Papier Plume. Patrick always attends the show from New Orleans, with the full range of Papier Plume’s hand-mixed ink, wax seals and stamps, and fountain pens from brands such as Cleo-Skribent that you don’t see very often. I also picked up two bottles of the exclusive inks that Papier Plume always makes for the Chicago Pen Show, which I won’t reveal quite yet.

• Nock Co. Instagram is on fire with pictures of the “Coleman” tall-boy cozy - I mean pen case. I’m not sure whether or not Brad and Jeff plan to make these available on the site or whether they will be show exclusives, but they sold well and I definitely saw dozens of them walking around (mostly used as actual pen cases).

• Tactile Turn. Will and his team are now attending more pen shows, and he has, IMHO, perfected the design of the Gist fountain pen, now available not only in Titanium and Delrin, but in “fireblue” Titanium! Look for a review of the “Gist 2.0” soon.

• Carolina Pen Company. Jonathon Brooks brought tons of pens turned from his “Primary Manipulation” acrylics, and they went fast. Somebody picked up the pen I had my eye on when I was taking an initial turn around the room - one of the perils of hesitating at a pen show!

• Franklin-Christoph. It wouldn’t be a pen show without a mad dash to the Franklin-Christoph table first thing after opening to grab the latest prototype acrylics. This year I finally picked up a Penvelope 6 pen case, which was long overdue.

• Dromgooles. These guys can cost you a LOT of money. Dromgoole’s brought an expansive selection of Danitrios, Graf von Faber-Castell Pens of the Year, Pelikan, and Montblanc, a few of which featured custom urushi and maki-e work by Studio Bokumondoh.

• Vintage Pen Shop/Jessica Coles. Jesi was set up directly behind the Nock Co. table with her vintage Esterbrook pens and nib testing station. If you’re interested in testing the waters with Vintage Pens, Esterbrook is THE place to start, and Jesi has you covered.

• Kenro Industries. Cary attended with samples of Esterbrook’s upcoming line of pen cases, as well as Loclen, a new line of machined metal pens out of Italy that feature a unique design incorporating an integrated converter/piston.

• Luxury Brands. The distributors of Platinum, Noodlers Ink, and Benu Pens had a table, where a display of updated Platinum Mix-Free Ink bottles caught my eye. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, the Mix-Free Inks are designed to - wait for it - be mixed together to create your own ink colors. Apparently Platinum is releasing these inks in new bottles and as part of a set.

Look for this line of Esterbrook pen cases later this year!

Dromgoole’s always brings an unparalleled selection of high-end Japanese Pens, including custom urushi work from Studio Bokumondoh, Danitrio, Pilot, and more!

You rarely see Graf von Faber-Castell “Pen of the Year” editions, much less are you able to handle them. I love the size and balance of these pens, despite the fact that they are heavy, both figuratively and literally. (I’m not kidding when I say that the Dromgoole’s table can do serious damage to your wallet.)

You know the industry is truly evolving when a pen case that doubles as a tall-boy cozy becomes a reality.

Look for Loclen pens soon at your favorite Kenro retailers!

The PK Custom Cases table on Sunday (minus the two I bought).

Other vendors included pen show staples Desiderata Pens (with Pierre’s Soubriquet pens!), Michael Sull, Nik Pang, Ryan Krusac, Bittner Pens, Toys from the Attic, and many more!

The second ballroom late Saturday afternoon. The Nock Co. table had already sold a bunch of cases!

Overall Impressions

I spent time at the show during all three days this year, and traffic seemed pretty steady in all three ballrooms, with most vendors reporting brisk sales skewed towards entry-level pens and inks. The friendly, open atmosphere of the Atlanta Show lends itself to beginners, and many people I met described how they were attending their first pen show. Their excitement is always contagious, and there was a lively after-hours crowd in the bar every night (at least until the hotel staff kicked us out by turning out the lights). You can bet I’ll be back next year!

Note: I missed the live podcast recording this year, since my family joined me in Atlanta and I spent some time with them on Saturday, visiting the Georgia Aquarium and going out to dinner that night. I did listen to the show afterwards, and you won’t want to miss this year’s special guests!

My preferred way to close out the Atlanta Pen Show.

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

The Damage From Atlanta: 2019 Show Haul

My recap from the Atlanta Pen Show is going to be a doozy, so I figured I’d break it out into a couple different posts. The first one is simple: a picture of my “show haul,” since I went a little crazy this year. (Hey, I’m not attending another show until D.C. in August, right?) Pictured here, clockwise from left: Penvelope 6 from Franklin-Christoph, Wax Seal Stamp from Papier Plume, Iroshizuku 100th Anniversary Hoteison (green black) and Bishmonten (a pinkish red) from Vanness, Lamy Crystal Topaz from Vanness, a Leonardo Momento Zero in Matte Black from Dan Smith (the Nibsmith), three pens from Shawn Newton (two Orvilles and a Prospector), and two hand-sewn pen cases from PK Custom Goods! More details to come via a full recap later this week.

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