Here you’ll find my restored fountain pens — for sale, bargains, recent sales, and my personal collection — as well as thoughts from my workbench. Please bookmark it, return regularly, and join my email list!
What’s new!
September 2022
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Autumn, although we’ve only had one cool day here in New York City.
Last you heard from me, I was on the edge of retirement from my professional work, and that happened just before Memorial Day. Since then, I’ve succeeded in transferring my pen work to daylight hours, which has enabled me to dive into projects that have been waiting their turns and take on far more repair and consignment jobs from you. The future is bright!
This batch is a significant restocking in For Sale and Tim’s Bargains, since the shelves had gotten pretty thoroughly cleaned out during the summer.
Starting this fall, Tim’s Bargains and Clearance will be continuously restocked; For Sale will continue to receive a periodic batch restocking, as it is now.
Restoring an Italian pen with a mechanically curious clip got me thinking about clips, which is the basis of the new Thought.
Two peripheral comments: first, following a misadventure with USPS International shipping, which now re-labels and bulk ships all international packages, I am in the process of transferring my international shipping to Fedex. It appears to be in the same cost range as USPS. In addition, although I’ll have an “away” notice on email, I will be traveling overseas for much of October. I’ll certainly see and return email every day, and will of course be able to receive packages, but the shop will be closed during that period.
Please do feel free to let me know if you want a pen that isn’t listed here. I have a pretty large variety of pens on hand and might have what you’re looking for! As always, I enjoy and learn from your correspondence, please keep it coming.
About timsvintagepens…
My journey into the fascinating world of fountain pens started with a Parker 21 in the 1960s. For the next forty years, I was a user, adding a Montblanc 149 and Pelikan 120 in 1970. In 2007, my tastes broadened with presents and the addition of my late father-in-law’s Parker 51s, and suddenly I wanted to know how pens worked and how to make mine work better. In the years since, my pen use has blossomed into a fully-grown practice of restoring and selling pens and a constantly changing personal collection. With effort, much good teaching, and continual study, my skills have steadily become more sophisticated, so that I am now able to restore most vintage pens I see to a level of functioning and appearance that is at least as good as they were when new.
However, I am a hobbyist — I restore and sell what I find interesting, and I am now accepting pens for consignment sale and repair from customers and the public. I strive to restore and make available a wide a variety of American and European pens, from the well-known Parkers and Sheaffers to the lesser known and less often seen, many of which suffered only from inadequate marketing. To me, vintage pens are endlessly fascinating objects, and enabling their return for new careers is my passion.
I can always be reached for inquiries or to just talk about fountain pens, via the Contact form or by clicking Contact at the top of the page. If your writing preference is a written letter, I also have a mailing address!
Tim Ettenheim
Vintage Fountain Pens / Sales & Restoration