u/willvintage

Just got back home from a week among the Cypress trees, winding paths and windy bluffs, and a lake so massive, goes down 1/2km in depth, up there almost 2 km above sea level.

I wish I can bring that cool wind and amazing views home. Alas, all things come to an end, but I still have my fountain pen to sketch from memory. It was a lot to unpack, but for starters, how about a sketch of a Cypress tree covered path?

I took this versatile and so reliable Pilot Myu striped for the trip and it didn't disappoint. Ink is Diamine Evergreen.

I'm visiting with relatives in the San Francisco Bay Area. This time we made it to the beautiful Lake Tahoe, amazing vistas across California and Nevada.

So the quick sketch was inspired by the surrounding sceneries. The pen is Conklin Endura (the original from the 1930s).

Happy 4th of July to those who celebrate.

Happy Wednesday.

You know what's funny, I was planning to take this Pilot Myu stripe (more uncommon than the smooth ones) to the conference that I was sent to last week. But I didn't, because I misplaced it the night before (sign of aging).

Anywhoo, I filled this pen with one of my green ink bottles (Diamine Evergreen) which I got in a bulk purchase. So those shades you see in the sketch is from that same ink. Quite lovely greens leaning towards teal just a tad.

Here's an interesting one. I forgot which batch of bulk purchases I rescued this pen from, but I was cleaning up some of my "project" pen boxes when I saw this pen again.

Upon inspection, there is nothing wrong with the pen other than the old ink sac needs to be replaced (it's a button filler). It is a genuine Parker made in the 1930s in the middle of the Great Depression era. You can tell from the distinct finials made out of the same celluloid material.

What is missing from this pen, is the clip. Somewhere along its decades of existence, the original clip was gone. But fear not, I can just order a replacement from Amazon. Right?

Not so. If you restore vintage pens, you'll soon appreciate the meaning of the word "patience" at a whole new level. I have to wait until I stumble upon the right clip for this pen. Who knows when.

Rummaging through my box of parts, this Brause clip happens to fit the pen, as if it belonged there. So I'll leave it there for now until I can source the right one.

The nib is a 14k Parker writing in Medium almost Broad-ish. Which makes my sketch a bit more "cartoony" than usual. But that's why it's fun to sketch with different nib sizes and characters.

For the ink, I refilled my sample vial of Taccia Aoguro so I can use it again. I missed the beautiful shades that this ink can produce.

So what do you do when the flight that is supposed to take you back home got delayed... again... and again... and again?

First, you thank the heavens that you brought one of your vintage fountain pens (the big Diamond Point ca.1930s), with ink in it, which you use to take notes during a conference for which you're traveling in the first place.

Second, you wait until a table is available, and then you start sketching (and charging your phone while at it).

That was what I did yesterday during a 4.5 hours delay. Instead of getting upset, why not focus on making a stress-reducing scenery, such as a nice and calm creek-side house sketch.

I didn't want to break out my brush, so I kept it as a line-art, which I realized that I haven't done in a while. Like it?

Ink: Sailor Manyo Shirakashi, my favorite olive-green/brown ink.

For the longest time this pen gave me a puzzle. This super handsome 1930s Diamond Point is the biggest and most pristine Diamond Point that I have. So of course, I'd like to keep using it. During restoration there wasn't anything that stood out. But whenever I test it for a few days, towards the end of the testing period, ink droplets started to form under the nib.

Usually that means there's a tiny hole in the ink sac that lets air in, pushing ink out. But I made sure that the ink sac (big #22) was good, so that is not the issue. I put this pen aside for a while, and recently I pick it back up to continue solving the problem.

One day it dawned on me that it must be the heat from the hand that warmed the air in the ink sac, causing it to expand and expel the ink droplet out from the nib. This is consistent with the fact that the leaking never happened when the pen has just been filled because at that point there aren't enough air pocket in the ink sac to push the ink out.

I tested this hypothesis and sure enough, I can write and sketch for days without a single issue, then the ink started pooling at the end of the nib. I quickly refilled the pen and the leaking stopped.

So the solution is to keep the pen filled out, just like eyedroppers. I may try fitting in smaller ink sac which will hopefully reduce the heat transfer from the hand. But that's a story for another day.

Now, let me first say it, I like how the sketch turned out, but I'm not crazy about the ink which is Noodler's Ottoman Rose.

Oh well.

I have two Pilot Myu pens.

One is missing the inner cap clutch (showed it to Pilot at the Dallas Pen Show and they said they will check with Pilot Japan, but later came a polite email informing me that they couldn't source the clutch). So that's that, until I luck out finding a Myu cap with no body, there's little I can do.

Now, this one you see in the photo, is the other Myu, which is the more uncommon of the two. And since I love pens with stripes, it has become my favorite.

Interestingly, for a Japanese nib, this one writes a bit wider than typical. After I smooth it a bit, it became a nice writing and sketching nib.

The sketch combines my love for old trucks and old style buildings.

The ink is the dusty Pink Gerbera from Birmingham Pen Co.

Or for this particular pen, it just back from my restoration workbench. It is also now back to its original function with new ink sac. That long section is a bit difficult to part with the barrel after being together for 90+ years. But patience and gentle heat wins in the end.

Again, the nib on this pen is just amazing. See the fine lines that renders the shadow area.

The sketch is to commemorate one of the best vintage cameras that I have ever owned, the classic Hasselblad medium format 500c model. Trivia: One of these actually went to the moon and back.

Looking back now I kick myself for selling mine. Or did I?

Another thing that makes this sketch so much fun is that "fickle fox" ink, Sailor Kitsune Biyori from the Yurameku family. If I didn't tell you, would you have guessed that all that you see in the sketch came from one single ink?

And yes, I used my trusty small brush to apply the washes.

Enjoy the sketch and the rest of your Friday.

Y'know, when it comes to vintage nibs, most people rave about Waterman nibs. But for me, I love, love Moore nibs, especially from the Moore pens from this era 1920-30s.

Just like its Black Chased Hard Rubber (BCHR) brother the L-94 which you can see it in action in my previous posts, this green "jadeite" celluloid sister, which is marked L-95 even though it's just a smidgen slimmer and shorter has a wonderful nib.

But let's rewind a bit to the moment I got this pen. The seller told me that he can't put the cap on the pen. Without knowing exactly what he meant by that, I pushed through the sale anyway and when I actually got the pen in my hand, I saw what he meant.

That little bullet-shaped metal thing (part of vintage pencil maybe?) was stuck inside the cap, and I do mean stuck. It took me a while to wiggle-pull it out using various tools and gentle heat. Why so careful? Because one yank with too much force in the wrong direction, you will end up with a chipped 90+ year old cap. We don't want that.

After that thing is out, the cap regained its function and the condition of the pen is actually very good. The darkening of the celluloid on the barrel is to be expected for the age, and to me it doesn't at all diminish the beauty of the pen.

So there, now I have a brother-sister big Moore pair in my collection. To celebrate, a house sketch with my favorite green shader ink, Sailor Manyo Shirakashi.

Like it?

Everytime I pick this big hard rubber Moore L-94 to do a sketch, I feel inspired.

If hypothetically I was given a choice between owning this pen and ... let's say for example Pilot Custom 823 (or insert your favorite modern pens), I'd take this pen 10 out of 10, day and night.

One of the most common views around here is that how a pen writes determine whether the pen is worth owning or not.

I don't ascribe to that view. To me, how the pen looks, feels in the hand matters.

What story it may tell, and how unlikely it is for something this old to still be restorable matters even more.

This pen writes delicately; the nib produces EF lines that is crisp. Add a touch of pressure and it flexes beautifully. Not in the over-dramatic way like some videos shows, but in a controlled, soft and expressive way.

So it is a gem from that perspective, but this pen has more value (to me) than how it writes, I just love it. The size, the shape, how the unbelievably thin chasing pattern is still preserved for 100 years. It's the total package.

The sketch was done with L'Ecritoire Prune ink. I love the shading from this ink.

Sorry to some of you who may be sick of seeing this pen.

Now that I have completed the restoration of this 1930s Conklin Endura, I'm just having fun sketching to finish up the ink.

I like to sketch odd and unusual cars (vintage of course), and I haven't done one this year, so why not now? The sketch was inspired by the Citroen DS 23 Pallas from the 1970s.

What makes this sketch fun is the shades that the Kyoto-Iro Gion Cobblestone ink can produce, I just love the warm brown/grey-ish hues.

Happy Mother's Day to all wonderful moms out here.

Just to close the loop, here is the final state of the beautiful orange Conklin Endura. I have filled all the 4 grooves with blue, so this pen is now as close as its original state after 90+ years of existence.

Taking my time in restoring this Conklin Endura. Now you see that the grooves nearest the ends (cap and barrel) have blue colors in it. Sorry, the contrast of the photo makes it harder to see, but in person, it's quite nice looking.

Two more grooves to go. For those who are curious, filling in the grooves is a messy and annoyingly slow process.

The sketch is done using Kyo-Iro's Gion Cobblestone which is a lovely brown/greyish ink capable of producing beautiful shades.

This beautiful orange celluloid pen is a long awaited addition to my collection of Conklin Endura Senior from the 1930s. The largest in the Endura lineup, it is one of my favorites to collect because of several reasons.

That big gold nib is one, I have not yet encountered a Conklin Endura Senior nib that I don't like. Yes of course they have to be tuned, but that's part of the restoration. But once they are tuned, all of them are excellent sketchers. Yes, I don't write with my fountain pens, I sketch with them as you can see here.

Another reason is the design, styling and proportion. Simple and elegant is the way I'd describe it. The see-saw clip design has a rich history and one of the factors why this pen looks so cool. The short lever is another distinctive signature.

And, I am not done restoring this pen. In the final state, you'll see blue lines where you see grooves now.

Now the sketch, what blew my mind is the ink, Sailor Yurameku Kitsune Biyori. Is it grey, purple, cream, pinkish, brown, what? Amazing shades. This is the type of ink that is mesmerizing when applied as wash (with a brush).