Well… it’s an OK day, a little overcast, with Winter definitely announcing its impending descent.  But it is the first Friday in November, so it’s Fountain Pen Day!  I could hardly let the day pass unnoted.

…and because this is meant to be a place for update announcements, I’ll mention the addition of pages for Ohto and two of their products.

This has nothing to do with fountain pens whatever, except to point out one of the ways of using them in a highly tangential manner– I’ve opened a new site at which my fiction writing (generally creepy) can be seen. Unlike the writing you’ll find lying in drifts at this site, what I post there goes through several drafts before it’s cast into the light of public attention, which puts it rather closer to art most of this non-fiction material I’ve produced.

But just so it’s not entirely non-pen, I do have a page for the OMAS Arte Italiana, an object which is itself very like art.

Artist’s impression (may not reflect real event)

On Saturday, 29 August, I will be holding the third of my free pen-tuning clinics in the front window of Paper Umbrella (or, as they’re known on Facebook, Paper Umbrella).  That’s free flow adjustments, point smoothings, and minor cleaning, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., offered to everyone that comes to the store with a fountain pen.  It’s also, given the venue, a stirling opportunity to buy some ink, some rather nice stationery, and even… a pen!

Those who read the news here regularly will no doubt be wondering why no mention was made of the previous two events.  I’m strong on pens, but I’m sadly weak on self-promotion.

{Edit: I’m so bad at it, that it only belatedly occurs to link also to the Facebook Event page; if you’re in the area and thinking of coming out, why not let us all know?}

I often begin these update announcements with a revelation of my own fallibility, and this one adds to that heap.  It seems for years I’ve been applying the name of Pennant to one of Wearever’s pens which is no such thing.  The Saber (which, I explain for non-US readers, is how they spelled it) just happens to be almost identical in looks to the Pennant.  An easy error, and now corrected.

Not yet proven to be riddled with mistakes is a new page for the OMAS 360, one of which I’ve just had a chance to unbend the point of.  This being the first OMAS pen I’ve had a look at, there is now also a new page among the Company profiles.

A few days off of The Regular Job allows me to finish off a couple of updates, although the regular examiner of this site will spot that some of this has been public for a while…

…like the “new” page for the Faber-Castell e-motion, which I got as a Christmas gift but which was not in hand for some months (it’s a long and slightly stupid story), and the redone anatomization of the Sheaffer Stylist to be found on the Dissections page (the reason for which is a story of a similar sort).

Actually new today, though, is a picture of the Lamy AL-Star, which nicely rounds out the Safari entry.  More interesting and possibly even useful is an all-new page for the Waterman Number Five, part of the grand old company’s creaking response to the appearance of festive celluloid pens.

Two new pen profiles are posted:
– The Sailor Professional Gear, of which the example I examined was in an all-black “stealth” mode;
– Something claimed to be a Pilot L-150MS. No, I’ve never heard of it before, either.

I’ve recently been handed some extra resources for a vexing patch of history; Sheaffer in the 1940s. As a result, I have found several embarrassing errors in my pages for the Triumph years (and if you want to imagine me pulling nervously on my collar while a comically large sweat drop appears on my forehead, it would be only just).

Amendments have been made. Perfection is still probably a long way off. If I’ve started any arguments with my goof-ups, I apologize.

Since the last update, I’ve had a chance to look into Japan of the previous generation.  From the era of the The Great Japanese Pocket Drought (when pockets were withered, stunted, and shallow), there’s two new pens of the “pocket” type, the Platinum PKB-2000 and the Sailor 102 (although I’m not absolutely certain that is it’s name).  From the end of that tragic and completely made-up chapter of Japan’s history comes the Murex, which is notable not only for being a normally-proportioned pen but also for having an integral point.

On the subject of points, there has been an expansion to the Point chapter in the Anatomy section, examining the distinction between firm and floppy points.

Finally, not wanting to be accused of going all posh with those high quality Japanese pens, I’ve got a page posted for some of Waterman’s cheapest pens; Jifs and Jiffies.

Thanksgiving is, in the Canadian context, properly digested, the weather has been uncommonly cheerful, and I’ve got a basket of new developments on the site:

New pens!  Both low end, for the youth market– the Twist from Pelikan, and the Kakuno from Pilot.  Each has amusement to offer, but of different flavours, shapes and sizes.

New not-pen!  For reasons that only a psychologist could hint at, I went and got an Esterbrook 407 Dip-Less well.  I may now have to write a novel to justify putting so much ink on tap.

New images!  There’s yet another ink on the Diamine page, and a picture of a PFM V (for the legions of us who don’t actually own that pen to pine over).

As I’ve just posted a page for a vintage Faber-Castell pen, I feel I should put up an update… even though there’s not a lot of depth to that page.  I’ll also mention that since the last update announcement, I’ve added a non-junior Waterman X-Pen to that page (and slightly un-illuminating shot of same to the Dissections page), and a picture of the Pilot Décimo to the Vanishing Point page.

Also, the temperature is about 15 Celcius degrees below seasonal normal and I’ve got a cold.  Is it any wonder I’m unenthusiastic?