Thoughts are brief essays about vintage pen subjects of interest to me and which I think will be interesting to a reader. Feel free to enjoy them, ask questions, beg clarification, disagree!
Digging around in the Fountain Pen Network’s subforums while planning my recent trip to Heidelberg, Germany, I found a link to an old Pentrace post about a fountain pen history museum in Handshuhsheim, a Heidelberg suburb. Knowing that Heidelberg was an historical center for fountain pen manufacturing, the Museum gave my trip far greater potential […]
Longer term readers are probably thinking “what, he’s rethinking his collection again?” My collection started almost twenty years ago with a few pens and the desire to only own vintage pens I like and use, without thought to growing volume, scope, or resale value. I had planned to use every pen every year to keep […]
In a few past Thoughts, I dissected the roles played by ink, clips, and feeds in the functioning of fountain pens. Now, it’s time to consider why pens are the sizes they are. Pens are, first, sized to be sold, to fit the hands and writing styles of their owners. A pen can’t be too […]
I’ve written before about my interest and growing practice of parts fabrication for vintage pens. Over the past year, I’ve been devoting time to focus on fabrication, because I’ve discovered that one can’t multi-task when in a project. The fact is that there are no easy fabrication jobs: every one requires planning, design, usually some […]
For some time, I’ve wanted to write about why I love the vintage Aurora 88s. Giving it more thought, I realized there are six reasons…
When faced with multiple Parker 51s and Vacumatics, Sheaffer Balances and Triumphs, as I have these past two months, one cannot help noticing the significant differences in manufacturing methods, in addition to these two companies’ very different designs and filling methods. By the advent of World War II, Parker and Sheaffer dominated the American market […]
Is your favorite pen not writing as well as it used to? If a good pen is just not working well, before setting it aside or or having it restored unnecessarily, flush it out and try a fill with different ink — the right combination of pen and ink may well be within your grasp! […]
I noted in my previous Thought that having retired from professional work, my pen shop was becoming my full-time/daytime activity. With the passage of a full summer, and my work now actually happening during the day, I’ve found that pen restoration has become far more deliberate, with my thoughts now focusing on the pen in […]
As everyone on the Timsvintagepens email list knows, this end of May update is my last inventory batch produced during evenings and weekends. What happened? I recently retired from my professional position, so Timsvintagepens will be moving to the daytime! No, I’m not expecting to close up the shop and move somewhere warm…New York City […]
“Please treat this pen to a case to protect its finish” are words I often use to end a pen’s listing, and since I’m often asked for a recommendation of a case, this Thought is a good opportunity to make the case for cases. Using a case is a healthy practice to protect both your […]