True Writer Group Photo

I recently had my digital camera repaired and today is the first day of my vacation. Thus, it seemed like a good time to take stock of my fountain pens. I wasn't sure how many True Writers I had; so I gathered them up for a group photo. Even after I gathered them up I wasn't sure - I have this uneasy feeling that I have left one somewhere. At any rate here they all are - I hope: three demonstrators, one black, one True Blue (translucent), one Kyoto, one Starry Night, one pearl Metallist and one blue Illuminator.

Speaking of the camera repair: three tumbs up to Samsung who repaired my Samsung S85 without hesitation, according to their one year warranty. Customer Service was outstanding and the camera was repaired and returned to me within one week, and they paid the shipping. It did not cost me a penny.

Sheaffer Balance Fountain Pen Writes Very Well

The Sheaffer Balance that I won on Ebay came in last week, and it is a beauty! I filled it with Noodler's Marine Green ink - although I don't know how. What I mean is, I don't know how the filling system works. The end unscrews and a long plunger pulls out and when you push it back in there is a funny popping sound and there's ink in the pen. I read some history on Sheaffer who was quite the inventor and revolutionized the pen industry at the turn of the century - he invented the lever and bladder system for fountain pens, so that people would no longer have to fill them with eye-droppers. He also guaranteed the nibs for life, which you can see if you zoom in on the nib (with lingering green ink) pictured here. I think this pen dates back to the mid 1930s but I am not sure. This pen with a 14ct gold (extra?) fine point nib, is the smoothest and easiest writing pen I have ever used. It is a much smaller than what I expected, which is ironic because I returned a Levenger Decathlon because it felt too light weight and I wanted a a larger heavier pen. Well, not everything that is "vintage" is larger and heavier. The Sheaffer Balance is narrow and light weight but at least it is long enough at 5.5". The long and short of it is that you simply do not care because it writes so well.

It probably appears as though I have nothing to write about but pens. Actually, I hope to have time in the near future to post some photos of my grandfather's and dad's old handtools, but I have to pull them out of storage before I can do that. One of the benefits of fountain pens is not only their unique beauty and utility; they take up very little space!

Vintage Sheaffer Balance Fountain Pen

Reading other blogs, such as Brassing Adds Character has opened up a new aspect of fountain pen collecting for me recently that I had not anticipated. Every time in the past, that I have looked at old fountain pens in glass display cases at second hand stores, I have been disappointed by what I saw. They are always a sorry piece of tattered junk. So, I was much intrigued when I read Rroossinck's review of the "vintage Sheaffer Balance" in his "Best of Class under $80" post.

I followed his links to vintage pen dealers and discovered to my disappointment that they were out of my price range. Next, I reluctantly followed his advice to check Ebay. I say "reluctantly" because I have never much cared for Ebay. I fear I may now be hooked. I lost the bidding for my first choice (the pen above on the green felt) because the automated snipe tool failed to work. I was watching the bidding online seeing no one outbid what I knew was my maximum bid when suddenly the bid closed and someone else won the bid with an offer slightly below my maximum bid. Oh, the agony of defeat! The sniping software service was itself sniped by constipated internet activity and could not submit my bid. So, as a wiser bidder, (Thank you to Jacqui for teaching me the ways of Ebay) I went to my second choice pen and followed the bidding without the use of the snipe tool. The result being that I won the bid on the vintage Sheaffer Senior Balance 14ct gold nib pen pictured next. The picture is not as clear as the first one above but the description indicated the pen was hardly used. We'll know for sure when it arrives in the mail and I will report on whether or not it was a good buy after all.