Well, "Rants and Raves" saw so much response last month that they're going to let me do it again.
First, I'll take a moment for an announcement/shameless plug for Penlovers' new Bulletin Board format. I've been looking at changing the board to a threaded format ever since I purchased Penlovers several years back. Now, I've gone and done it and it seems to be going great. If you haven't checked it out lately when you're through reading Stylophiles, click back to the home page and then the bulletin board. You can always congratulate Bill on his great photography there.
Then, I'll give Anna, who regularly writes for Stylophiles, a paragraph for a shameless plug of her own. She'll be with us at the LA show and plans to offer individualized handwriting lessons at a very reasonable fee. She's not sure yet if she'll offer a group seminar also, but if you're going to the show and you have terrible (or even "blah") handwriting, this is not an opportunity to miss. Be sure to look her up and check it out.
I
mentioned last month that I'd talk about a "Cross Emperor" this
month, so I guess I better get to it. If you haven't heard by now, Sailor
Pen Company is making a big splash back into the U.S. pen market. CEO
Dick Egolf heads Sailor Pen Company of America and he has assembled a
great team of folks that put the rest of the company together. Of all
the pen companies to watch this coming year, I'd say to be sure to put
Sailor on your list. It's working to bring the entire Sailor line of pens
to the U.S. market. This includes everything from the inexpensive but
a very nice-writing Sailor Innovation line of gel pens to the $10,000+
limited-edition Maki-e pens that they are known for in Japan.
The middle of the line, say the $200-$1000 pens, are the heart of the company, but what makes these pens really nice is the OOTB (out of the box) writing characteristics. Ever heard of a pen company that ink tests each pen before it leaves the factory? Sailor does. What about a company that brings from Japan to the larger pen shows its most renowned nib master to hand-tune the nib on your purchase of a Sailor pen? Sailor does. Why is this so impressive? Because there are modern pen collectors out there who. . . well, that's going to be in the "Rant" column, so let's finish with Sailor first.
I
spoke of a Cross Emperor, but you may not know that I'm talking about
a nib. Sailor's own Mr. Nagahara, whom I've met and with whom I've had
dinner, created these nibs. It's slit both ways to increase ink flow,
and let me tell you, if you like to lay down ink, this nib does it. The
nib is available on Sailor's upscale pens and is an investment on its
own.
It comes in several variations from the basic Naginata Togi nib to the Cross Emperor, which combines the cross nib with an Emperor bar, which lays down the top of the nib toincrease ink flow. Depending on the nib's angle to the paper, you can get lots of different line variations. Plus, you can turn the pen over and get an excellent fine line for the times you need that.
Sailor
plans to be at most of the major pen shows this year. You can go to the
table and test with an inked pen almost any of their pens or nib choices.
What other pen company lets you do that? You'll have to buy from your
favorite retailer at the show, but if you happen to be at a show where
they've brought Mr. Nagahara from Japan, you're in for an extra treat.
After you've bought your pen go buy some ink and write with it for a bit.
Then get in the line for your visit with Mr. Nagahara.
Even if there is a wait, you won't regret it. You'll speak to him through his interpreter. He'll watch you write, then take the pen and do his magic to it. It only takes a few minutes and you'll have a real treasure of a pen-show experience and writing experience to come. I got my Sailor pen with a Cross Emperor nib at last year's DC show, and it's had ink in it and been used almost every day since. How many of your new modern pens can you say that about?
That's why I think Sailor Pen Company will be a company to watch this year.
By now you must be thinking enough with the Raves! Let's get to the Rants! Be careful, though; I may be talking about you. You wonder what about you is rant-worthy? Well, it might not be all of you and I may be able to go as far as to say it may be only the modern-pen collector. And then maybe only some of them. In fact, maybe only a few of them. But for the sake of it, I'm going to generalize, so excuse me for that.
I
read several of the pen discussion boards and one of the things that bugs
me the most is when a person posts a message about a modern pen that won't
write correctly or skips. This is not to say this hasn't happened to me,
because it has. But I don't go on a public form whining and crying about
it. All this does is invoke the "piling on effect" -- the "that's
happened to me" or "me too" syndrome. None of this solves
the problem; I look at it as venting frustration more than anything.
I'd be willing to bet that almost every modern pen collector has purchased a new pen that for some reason didn't write correctly or skipped. So why go online and complain about it, especially when you haven't tried to fix it or have it fixed? What good does that do? I've followed up on several of these complains back channel, listening to the story from the dealer or manufacturer side, and many times the pens were never even returned to them for adjustment. This tells me that the individual making the complaint just likes to complain. Should you have to send a pen back for tweaking or repair? Well, no, I can agree with everyone on that point. But sometimes you do. Or do you?
Let's
go back say 70-80 years to the golden age of fountain pens. There weren't
any ballpoints, rollerballs, mechanical pencils, or computers. Folks who
needed to write used a fountain pen. Now, in those days I don't believe
that there were any large retail pen shops. You would probably buy your
pen from a variety store or maybe a stationer's or jewelry store. It would
be very inconvenient to return the pen to the manufacturer so I'd guess
(and since I'm not that old, I am guessing) that you'd learn to tweak
your own pen. Oh, my goodness! You're going to have to get your fingers
dirty with ink and learn to tweak your own pen to make it write.
Back to the present. Yes, you should have to learn to make simple tweaks to your own pens. Frank Dubiel of "Da Book" fame used to say something like (and maybe still does), "A 10-second fingernail nib adjustment is all it will take to make most nibs write correctly."
Now I realize and mostly agree that we should expect our newly purchased modern pens to write without a problem. But each of us writes a bit differently. I may write faster than others; you may use a different nib-to-paper angle. The variables are infinite, so maybe, just maybe we need to learn how to tweak those modern pens to our own writing styles. There is, in my opinion, a great opportunity for someone to write a modern pen version of "Da Book" focusing mainly on nib and flow adjustment, but not leaving out simple repairs. I do know a great photographer for the images and illustrations if that someone needs one.
I'll give you some of the steps that I might go through to make a "skippy" modern pen write.
1. Try different inks. This is very important as some nib-feed-converter combinations just don't work with some inks. And different inks have different flow characteristics. If that doesn't work,
2. Flush the pen's filling system with soap and warm (not hot) water. This includes the converter, feed, nib, and everything in between. I just use liquid dish soap diluted in water but you could use diluted 409 or ammonia also. Re-ink the pen and try different inks again.
If that doesn't work, you'll have to wait until next month for my simple nib tweaks and my toothpaste trick. But in the meantime, re-read the simple nib adjustments in "Da Book" and don't go on the board and lists complaining about your new pen that doesn't write without either learning how to tweak it or returning it to the place you bought it or contacting the manufacturer. I've only had one pen ever that simply would not write, even after several trips back, and it was returned for a full refund. All the rest (and there are plenty) I've been able to do some simple tweaks to make the pen write.
Till next month, happy collecting, and if you're at the
LA show stop by and say hi.