2013 DC Pen Show Loot!

[reprieve]

I just returned home from the 2013 D.C. Pen show, and it was grand! I was there almost all day on Friday and (very early) on Saturday morning. I got to talk to some of my favorite pen people, see thousands of neat pens and pen paraphernalia, and spend some quality time exploring one of my favorite cities.

Here is a list of my loot:

An Edison Menlo pump filler in Tortoise Lucite, with a steel medium nib. Brian Gray tuned the nib to be juicy with just a hint of feedback, and it is indeed an excellent writer. I love the size, the shape, the balance, and the filling system. The tortoise lucite material allows you to see the mechanics of the pump filler; it's a pseudo-demonstrator that looks more like fossilized amber than plastic.

A Pelikan M400NN in tortoise with a nicely flexible fine nib from Rick Propas.

A large, lined TWSBI notebook from Anderson Pens. Also from Anderson pens, bottles of Sailor Sky High, Sailor Ultra Marine, and Iroshizuku Yama-guri. I almost bought a lovely grey Esterbrook from them, but I had to show some restraint!

An couple of Rhodia dot pads and a purple Clairefontaine 1951 carnet from a friendly North Carolinian art supply shop (whose name I have now forgotten--sorry!).

A handbook journal with watercolor paper from the National Gallery of Art's museum store. I left my ink journal at home, and so I picked this up on Thursday morning so I could play at the giant ink testing table. The paper takes ink wonderfully, and it is very nice to write on with both flexy dip pens and fountain pens. The writing feel of the watercolor paper was a nice surprise; I will be buying more of these notebooks from Amazon.

I spent an obscene amount of time at Sarj Minhas's table. He was incredibly kind, and he let me ogle some fairly rare pens. I was sorely tempted, but I had already spent most of my budget and had to walk away empty handed. Next time I will stop at his table first!

Here is a quick photo of my loot (inks not pictured):





What followed you home from the D.C. show?

[jde]

Beautiful pens! When I saw you were going to the DC show, you left me looking forward to seeing what you splurged on! Alas no pen show for moi. But this is about you!!

Isn't the tortoise lucite a great material? Cool to see it on the Menlo! (I've got that material in a custom Edison. Love it.)

Lovely photo, reprieve. Thanks for sharing!

[ethernautrix]

Very nicely done!

Sarj is one of my favorite pen people - Sarj and Jas. They are lovely people.

[quinden]

Awesome haul, reprieve! I've had my eyes on one of those Menlos as well

[fountainpenkid]

Sadly, nothing went home with me from D.C. Friday was nice but I didn't manage to meet anybody from the forum(there weren't that many people there), and I only was able to spend about four hours at the show. That said, my family and I had a great time in D.C. reprieve, that is one nice haul!! Enjoy!

[earthdawn]

Great haul !!!

I hope you get a review up of that Edison...

The Pelikan looks really nice.

Sounds like you had a great time there.

Congrats of the goodys

[Robert]

Iroshizuku Yama-guri is my favorite brown ink - - it will go quite nicely in those new tortoise pens!

[penultress]

Wow, we were thinking alike! That Menlo in tortoise lucite is on my wishlist after seeing it in person! I envy you! I'm not able to pull the trigger on an Edison just yet.
Also, the brown Pelikan 400NN with a flex nib is one I would go for. I have 2 modern Pelikans that I love but a vintage one would be a great addition.
I also picked up a TWSBI notebook from the Andersons. The reviews are great, so I had to have one!

I picked up all vintage pens: a Majestic from Pendleton Brown, a black Morrison from Mike Blum and a black Moore pen with a wide gold band from John Corwin. All with flexy nibs!
Besides my purchases: Richard Binder put a nice crisp italic on my Parker 51. This pen was my Dad's and it wrote nicely after not having seen daylight in 25+ years, but it wasn't interesting. It's now a beautiful writer! Ron Zorn re-sac'd and replaced a broken nib on another Moore pen I had and now it has new life!

I had a great time meeting new people and talking pens. It was a great first DC show for me!

[TMac]

Reprieve, I'm speechless and more than a little jealous. Great haul. Looking forward to some reviews of the Edison.

[Jon Szanto]

Lovely choices. As others have said, an Edison is one of the few modern pens that I have on a short list to add, and this model - and your choice of material - is perfect. My wife has an identical 400NN Tortoise, and ever since I got it for her I've been jealous! Congratulations on what looks like a lovely time at the show!!

[Tracy Lee]

I picked up a few things - but meeting folks and then hanging out last night with some awesome geeks and the Anderson's was just fantastic. So, this is the pen I picked up, a Delta with rose gold furniture and a big stub nib. It is also a 0/18, totally amazing find at Pen time from Bryant Greer:uploadfromtaptalk1376265222302.jpguploadfromtaptalk1376265239503.jpguploadfromtaptalk1376265259766.jpg

And a pen stand I had to have, pictured here with my Jupiter:
uploadfromtaptalk1376265391386.jpg

A bottle of Diamine Umber, and a tiny rocker blotter I simply had to have, hand made in Italy:
uploadfromtaptalk1376265471773.jpg

Paper from a new place here in the US, being launched at the show:
uploadfromtaptalk1376265567239.jpg

And met the Goulets in the lobby, they brought gifts!
uploadfromtaptalk1376265615332.jpg

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[Bogon07]

Great haul Tracy Lee. Nice selection of goulet samples too.
Have you decided which colour will have the honour of christening the new Delta ?

[Tracy Lee]

Great haul Tracy Lee. Nice selection of goulet samples too.
Have you decided which colour will have the honour of christening the new Delta ?

Via Twitter, the vote was a gray, like Iroshizuku Kiri-Same. I have a bottle home. I'll let you know what I do! :-)

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[writingrav]

Terrific Tracy. I'm really jealous but happy for all of you at the show.

[dr.grace]

Lovely choices. As others have said, an Edison is one of the few modern pens that I have on a short list to add, and this model - and your choice of material - is perfect. My wife has an identical 400NN Tortoise, and ever since I got it for her I've been jealous! Congratulations on what looks like a lovely time at the show!!

I agree, that Edison is stunning. I also have a 400NN tortoise, which I love (although I swapped the original nib for a Binder Condor).

[Tracy Lee]

Sadly, nothing went home with me from D.C. Friday was nice but I didn't manage to meet anybody from the forum(there weren't that many people there), and I only was able to spend about four hours at the show. That said, my family and I had a great time in D.C. reprieve, that is one nice haul!! Enjoy!

I looked for you, was really hoping to meet you!!!

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[reprieve]

Isn't the tortoise lucite a great material? Cool to see it on the Menlo! (I've got that material in a custom Edison. Love it.)

I saw your blog post about your custom pen. It is gorgeous! Tortoise lucite is a stunning material no matter the pen shape.

[reprieve]

Sadly, nothing went home with me from D.C. Friday was nice but I didn't manage to meet anybody from the forum(there weren't that many people there), and I only was able to spend about four hours at the show. That said, my family and I had a great time in D.C. reprieve, that is one nice haul!! Enjoy!

I loved how "quiet" it was on Friday. Just a bunch of pen people talking and having fun. It was great! That is what makes pen shows so special--the people. The pens are just a bonus.

[reprieve]

I picked up a few things - but meeting folks and then hanging out last night with some awesome geeks and the Anderson's was just fantastic.

Congrats on your haul, Tracy! It sounds like you had a wonderful time. Your new Delta is gorgeous!

How do you like the Write notebook?

[Frank]

Great find(s) for both of you! Congrats!