Leigh Reyes. My Life As a Verb.

The first fountain pens were eyedroppers. The entire barrel held ink. I expect this was a relief to scribes weary and wrist-sore from dipping nibs into inkwells. (Centuries before that paper from plants rescued generations of goats from becoming papal bulls. Science, ever forward!)

The Waterman 12 is a slim eyedropper. It was quite popular in its time. It’s not as expensive as other vintage pens, and can often be found for considerably less than a hundred dollars. The nibs vary in flexibility but I have yet to encounter one that does not flex. If you’re in the market for a starter flex pen then keep an eye out for the Waterman 12.

Mine has a simple, sturdy accommodation clip.

The nib is a Waterman’s Ideal New York #2, and it has eye-popping flex. The tines spread and spring back easily, and the controlled flow makes for fine lines, not overwhelmingly wet, with obvious shading on downstrokes.

Flexible nibs demand respectful use. With too much pressure over time, tines will refuse to return to their original shape.

Can you gauge if a nib is flexible just by looking at it? Sometimes you can. The classic shape has long tines that come to a fine point, and narrow shoulders.

Inky fingers are a given with this pen. I don’t mind being inky. I like to think scribes and illuminators went around with iron gall stains and specks of gold leaf on their hands with pride, and so do I.

I sold my first Waterman Carene Deluxe. It was dependable, it wrote even if I’d left it inked and unused for weeks, it was deep blue and sterling silver, it was… well, it was the kind of guy you married, I suppose, as guys like that usually come with medium nibs. I dislike medium nibs.

Then National Bookstore slashed their prices on the Carene. Did I miss it? At that price, I certainly didn’t mind giving it another chance. Around the same time, I discovered a seller on eBay who sold Carene and Charleston nibs (with sections) separately. He had stubs available.

Now, a Carene with a stub is another thing entirely. It’s the pen equivalent of finding out that boring reliable guy collects old issues of The Invisibles.

Waterman Carene stub, in box

I placed the order before the holidays, and fretted about its non-arrival all throughout, but when the stub unit arrived in its blue Waterman box last week, it was the holidays all over again.

Waterman Carene, stub nib

I cannibalized the Waterman converter from the Oldwin (which is being used as an eyedropper, anyway), and inked the pen with Pilot asa-gao.

Waterman Carene stub, writing sample

The ink flow is steady and controlled, a touch on the dry side – which makes this pen a good choice for signing documents. Now I have a medium nib unit sulking on my desk. Does anyone want it?

(Note that very mild humor invoking stereotypes was used in the writing of this blog entry.)

I first had two lists: top ten modern pens and top ten vintage pens. That I had acquired enough pens in 2008 to make two lists plus have others that didn’t make it to either list gave me pause.

I decided to stick to one list. That was harder than I’d expected. What about the Well Koi and the Sterling eyedropper, my flex-nibbed surprises? Or the Visconti Mazzi Dragon with the stub nib? None of those is in the list, because – well, as much as I treasure them, they do have minute issues. The Visconti is a hard starter (but flows very well once it does start), the Well Koi has a crack at the bottom of the barrel (a definite minus for an eyedropper) and the Sterling’s nib has hardly any iridium left, and so must be used sparingly.

Top Ten Pens, 2008

What did make it to the list:

1) Danitrio Silver Wave – an aesthetic delight to use, and once I adjusted the flow, the flexible extra-fine nib can now handle the pressure I inflict upon it in the name of line variation.
2) Nakaya longer Piccolo in the ishi-me kan-shitsu finish – a direct order from Nakaya, placed during my visit to the Platinum table at the Hong Kong Stationery Fair in January 2008. Its nib is an elastic extra-fine.
3) Nakaya Piccolo in kuro-tamenuri – with a stock flexible fine nib, this seminal Nakaya pen sees regular use.
4) Sailor Hannya Sutra – wards off evil spirits and signs checks at the same time.
5) Sailor 1911 Demonstrator – I just wanted one. This has a music nib which, like all Sailor nibs I’ve encountered, lives up to Sailor’s reputation as the smoothest nibs on the market today.
6) Pilot Custom 742 – not the most original in looks, but definitely the most flexible modern factory nib I’ve used.
7) Oldwin, classic ebonite marbrée – bought in Mora Stylos in Paris, my largest pen and one of my most used.
Waterman 7 in red ripple with Pink flexible nib – it’s vintage Waterman, it’s a 7, it has a wonderful, expressive nib, and I am a sucker for red ripple.
9) Frankensnork! – the only Sheaffer that’s ever made it to any top ten list of mine, this Snorkel is here because it is made from five different Snorkels, is fitted with a rare flexible stub nib, and most of all because it’s from a dear friend.
10) Wahl Pen 3 – A small beauty, not in any way difficult to find, but this one is a most elegant writer.

Top Ten Pens, 2008 - the written list

These are at 1280 x 1024. Just click on the thumbnail and save the image that opens in a new window. 

Stubs are the smartly-cut jackets of the pen world. They can make anyone (and their signatures) look better. Stubs make broad vertical strokes and thinner horizontal strokes. Unlike italic nibs, the corners of the stub nib are rounded, so upward strokes don’t bite into the paper.

A Stub Sampler

Here’s a sampler of my stubs. They’re all factory stubs, meaning they’ve not been modified from other nibs. The Bexley stub writes a tad dry compared to the Danitrio flexible stub, which gushes like a schoolgirl with a crush.

Stubs - writing samples

I hope to have a stub on my Waterman Carene before Christmas. I don’t think it will make it in time to address holiday cards, although if it did, I will consider that a fine gift.

I love red rubber. Mottled, woodgrain, ripple, it makes me think of bikers in flames.

It’s a classic material in pens, like vinyl in bondage wear. The earliest hard rubber pens came in any color you wanted, as long as it was black. Then manufacturers brought on the bling – repoussé bands, filigree overlays, full shiny metal jackets. It was the Industrial Revolution. Nothing was impossible. Yes, rubber could be red.

What pleases me in particular about red and black pens is  the patterns are integral to the material. They’re not painted on. No two are alike.

From bottom to top:

Waterman 12. I found this in Tiendesitas, of all places. The lady I bought if from said, “Only engineers buy those.” Call me Engineer Leigh. It came with an incorrect nib – an Eversharp with a good amount of flex.
Conway Stewart 200. A rare early Conway Stewart I bought from Jonathan on eBay. I hope Jonathan is somewhere in heaven surrounded by the few Conway Stewart pens he didn’t have in his earthly collection.
Swan S.F. 130. I have its cousin in black rubber. I swapped their nibs. Now this one has a broad stub that lays down a wet, juicy line.
Wahl Eversharp Gold Seal in woodgrain. Fitted with a flexible nib that’s easily one of the stars of my collection.
Waterman 7 with a Pink nib. Another favorite writer.
Oldwin. A modern pen, crafted from fifty-year old ebonite.

I am very conscious of these pens’ age when I use them. That is a huge part of their appeal; that they remain so stridently, bravely red, two world wars and many revolutions after.

My intense flirtation with iMovie 08 continues, even if I had to restart the application thrice during editing. I had not realized the mpeg-1 format my Sony Cybershot N50 uses was incompatible with iMovie. Thank the galactic overlords for Visual Hub. It was a simple drag-and-drop from iPhoto (which selfishly imported both jpegs and mpegs from my digicam) to the Visual Hub window. (The hover message on the cancel button is the coolest I’ve seen: “It sure is a tempting button to push, isn’t it?”)

The pens:
Waterman 12 with artist nib
Mabie Todd Swan 3212 with overfeed
Wahl Eversharp woodgrain
Parker Lady Vacumatic
Waterman Hundred-Year Pen
Well Koi
Omas Milord Arco with Mottishaw nib

The paper:
(Mostly) Vergé de France (G. Lalo)
(And a bit of) Rhodia ePure soft journal (a review of which is forthcoming)

Rhodia ePure Soft Journal