Originally Posted by
Detman101
I spent a bit of cash on a 1905 Mabie Todd Swan only to acquire a pen that was made for a smurf of a human and unusable for me.
It is VERY beautiful to look at, writes beautifully and is indeed the center of my collection of older items...but I can't use it for more than 2 sentences before my hand cramps.
Vintage pens are just way too small...
This is a teaching moment.
You didn't do your homework, as all it would have taken would have been to ask the dimensions of the pen - length, width, etc - and you wouldn't have had a surprise, and probably saved the money. That's not the pen's fault, you know.
As for the rest, while there were plenty of smaller pens - much of this due to traditional (at the time) marketing to women vs. men - the concept that ALL the pens back then were small is... well, completely wrong. Almost all of my favorite writers from the 1920s are equal in size to your Opus. You just never made it a focus of your search to look for those kinds of pens, and you can't blame the entire vintage market for that.
I'm really glad you ended up with something you liked. That is the main reason many of us stick around on the boards: to try to guide people to the right pen. And it is also a tremendous advantage of going to a pen show.
Anyway, Det, I hope someday you get interested in finding nice vintage pens that you would like, taking your time to get just the right one. I always thought you were a candidate for one of those big Waterman ripple pens with a sexy flexy nib!
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