What Do I Collect?

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Blackhorse

Trading Post Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
B of B Supporter
Council Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2010
Messages
13,263
Reaction score
1,826
Location
Oregon City, Oregon - USA
Me? I have mostly new stuff. Or at least recent. And instead of focusing on one genre I've gone ALL over the map regarding my modest little collection. It includes everything from brushs and brush pens, glass dip pens, steel nib art and lettering pens and related nibs, ebonite eyedroppers, new vacuum and piston fillers (mostly TWSBI which is from Taiwan but some Japanese and Euro) but mostly mid-level to very low cost what I call "standard" fill pens (those that take either standard international or proprietary cartridges plus have a converter to use with bottled ink.

Due to some bizarre internal psycho twist I have a special love for things that are very low cost and yet perform way above what should be expected. So I have a BUNCH of Chinese pens by Hero, JinHao, Bauer etc. that tweaked my interest. There's always a percentage of nibs that need adjustment. With expensive pens the percentage is lower, but it's not zero. But if you buy a lot of Chinese stuff you gotta figure on knowing how to do nib adjustments.

Then there's the INK! OMG...the ink. For me, one of the big reasons behind using a fountain pen at all is the ink! The colors...the shading...the sheen...writing...drawing...doing a wash! So much fun.

And beyond that there's the paper...ahhh...the lovely paper. At one time it used to be Strathmore and Crane and high end Arches and Canson watercolor papers...but after recent discoveries for fountain pens it has centered on very fine but moderate cost Japanese bound, Notebook and tablet papers. Brands such as Tomoe River, Maruman, Life, Apica, Tsubame, Midori, blah, blah, blah. Even though French watercolor papers are fine indeed, the Japanese have an almost mystical relationship with paper and it's myriad subtleties.

Interestingly, in perhaps the most literal case of Zero to hero in existence, Mitsubishi makes some of the above papers. Well, be that as it may, there you have a running description of what I'm into. No major thrills but it keeps ME interested.
 
For myself, my collecting focus started 35 years ago when I got my first Parker 51, a lovely black twin jeweled first year set, pen/pencil that had been my grandfathers. Spent the next decade focusing on the Parkers made pre-war and post war, mostly Vacumatics and 51s. Was naot a big fan of the Duofolds. Then I got my first Pelikan, a lovely post-war green/black 101 with my first soft Euro nib and I was hooked !! Began collecting mostly post war German pens, Kaweco, Pelikan, Geha, Faber-Castell, Sonnekan, and Mont Blanc. The time frame was from 1945 till 1959 when the Germans , particularly Mont Blanc were making writing tools ( after 1960 MB began making pocket jewelry and I don't and won't own ANYTHING they made after then. ) which did as they were designed to do WRITE !! :twisted:
During this time, I like many other collectors went through the ink and paper mania till I had three big boxes full of ink bottles going dry and paper yellowing from non use. I'm not actively collecting much anymore as prices have gone through the roof and besides i have MORE than enough pens and paper to last me the rest of my life. These days my paper choices are limited to 4 cotton rag papers and 6 variety of inks from Waterman, Aurora, Pelikan and Private Reserve. My fave post war Mont Blanc which is in pocket most days is my 1950s 256 with a fantastic soft 14k OM nib that gives fantastic thick/thin strokes with my fave 1956 Tortoishell Pelikan 400's with another beautifully soft 14k M nib that also gives nice thick/thin strokes to ones writting!!

Mont Blanc 256 :



Pelikan 400 NN:

 
Top