For those who don’t know SFPL, it’s an acronym for “Singapore Fountain Pen Lovers” and it is the Facebook group of fountain pen enthusiasts in Singapore. Clearly, I am part of it and even an administrator there, and recently I had done up some hyperactive chat sessions tagged #PenTalkFriday to get the group a little more involved (although it’s not like people aren’t already posting and commenting a lot around there already!).
Soothing inks
In my first #PenTalkFriday session, I asked members to share which inks (brand and colours) they found the most soothing. We received a swarm of answers in just a few minutes and the conversation continued even till the wee hours of Friday night!
My personal favourite soothing ink colour is the Pelikan 4001 Blue, but then again I haven’t tried enough inks to make the best judgement! On the chat thread, it seemed like many found some colours in the Iroshizuku, J. Herbin, and Noodler’s ranges of inks most soothing. I have never tried a single Iroshizuku, have only 1 bottle of J. Herbin, and 1 bottle of Noodler’s. That’s a pretty sad thing for a fountain pen user who is in love with colours. Anyone wants to sponsor me some bottles of these inks? 😀
Other brands mentioned include Sailor, Parker, Mont Blanc, De Atramentis, Diamine, among many others.
Somehow in the middle of the chat, the topic seemed to have morphed from “most soothing ink” into “favourite ink” and sometimes “favourite inkssssss (plural!)”. See how excited fountain pen folks get when we talk colours!
Note that this is not a representation of the entire group of SFPL. Not every member has participated in this chat session, so this information cannot be used as a representation of ink preferences of the group, or of Singaporeans, or of anything else.
Sunday with FP lovers
I had an eventful weekend already, and what better activity can it end with, than a fountain pen meet?! I had not been attending the pen meets due to a super hectic and busy year, but now that my full time job is slowing down a little, I grabbed the chance to attend one this Sunday. So, after my movie and event discussion with my colleague, I rushed down to meet the group at a restaurant.
There were fewer than expected who turned up – past meets could have turnouts as many as 30 or 40 pax, but this time there were only 10 or so members. It didn’t matter, as we had a great time talking about pens. It just makes me wonder how it is possible for us to talk SO MUCH about fountain pens! I suppose this is what a hobby really means! And meeting fellow enthusiasts who can understand how you feel about fountain pens really is something exciting and fulfilling!
I won’t write too much, but I’ll show some pictures that I took of the pens and stuff that were shared today:
Someone brought a whole bunch of inks. Cool!
TWSBIs and all that jazz
Look at all those scribbles as we test out one another’s pens!
Someone has a collection of very attractive and ahem… expensive pens! But they are really nice to write with, and that’s the most important!
Here’s my own little stash plus new stuff that I got during the meet. And of course I brought my name cards to give to the members… I had to!
Of course I had to give my name cards out. I’m really happy to know that a number of them know about On Fountain Pens and are enjoying the posts that I put up…
Some of the interesting stuff I tried out today included the
- Lamy Vista with OM nib – supposedly a leftie nib… I tried this out for the first time and found it pretty nice!
- Pelikan 25 with an oblique nib
- Kaweco Liliput with a gold body – very interesting capping/posting mechanism!
- Edison Nouveau Premiere 2014 Winter Edition – love the marbled look!
- Sailor 1911
- Pilot Custom 823 with a very interesting brownish ink cocktail that the owner of the pen mixed by himself (I suppose it’s a secret recipe!)
- Montblanc Meisterstuck
- Montblanc Heritage 1912 – looks like a safety pen, very interesting screw mechanism to get the nib out (reminds me of lipstick, oops!). I almost gave the owner a heart attack as I motioned capping the pen while the nib was still out, while asking him if that was possible to do. Of course I didn’t really do it! I wouldn’t have been able to afford the damages. 🙂
- Pilot Vanishing Point – as per my own curiosity and the enthusiastic encouragement of the owner of the pen (who also was appalled when he found a ballpoint pen in my stash lol)
- Visconti Homosapiens Bronze – wonderful pen!
I also met fellow fountain pen bloggers like Junee (Alt Haven) and Nicholas (Inky Passion). Really nice people they are. Fountain pen lovers are nice people (of course).
As I always tell people who are new to fountain pens: come to such pen meets, don’t be shy, there is no requirement to bring any pen (although it would be great if you could bring your pens along of course!), there is absolutely no requirement in terms of how much your pen should cost before it is “worthy” enough to attend a pen meet. So don’t be shy, join us the next time! I’ll be planning one in early-mid December before everyone disappears for Christmas, so look out for the invitation on the SFPL Facebook group!
Did I enjoy myself today? You tell me. 😀
I am the founder of this website.
Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time.
I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty.
