The blog since 2013
261 posts since September 2013 by Nathaniel Cerf: how to start collecting, what happens at the repair bench, inks under the sun, fake Montblancs, and the pens of presidents and writers. "It is a space dedicated to pen lovers old and new."
November has been a crazy-busy month. First, I turned 40 near the start of the month. Friends flew in from Montana, and others locally joined in for much mirth and madness. Here are three trays of new fountain pens for this website. Most of them are already fully restored! The following weekend saw me in…
I have reached a state of predictability. While out on a date with my girlfriend to see “The Intern,” a pen-and-pencil set flashed across the screen. Without missing a beat, she turned to me with a whispered question, “So, what type of pens were those?” “Cross Centuries, my dear.” For those who aren’t familiar with…
Due to clever internet criminals figuring out a loop hole in transaction policies, we are forced to change the way we ship overseas. For more than 7 years we proudly offered $15 uninsured global shipping. Everybody knew there was some small risk that the pen would go missing, but it wasn’t a problem. We have…
Witness more than 300 vintage and modern fountain pens and writing instruments we have recently acquired for the website! If anything catches your eye, ask and we’ll tell you all about it. It has been a while since we updated these pages, but we’ve been extremely busy putting together 3 huge acquisitions of vintage and…
Once in a rare while, I find that the section of a pen has lost its nipple to attach an ink sac. Sometimes, an old nipple is just too heavily damaged to patch together or seat a bladder. On the vintage Wahl fountain pen below from the 1920s, the nipple actually was still attached to…
Back in October of 2013 I discussed General MacArthur’s Big Red Parker Duofold and General Eisenhower’s Parker 51s used to sign the surrender treaties at the end of World War II because I had seen one of them in Paris’ Museum of the Army. The plot thickened when the museum responded with no knowledge of…
Fireworks glow softly just out of focus on the Fourth of July. Congratulations to our winner of the First Ever Lamy Lottery. Congratulations to Dacia N! She won the brand new Lamy AL-Star fountain pen and ink! We had more than 30 entries from between June 4 and July 4. Thank you to everybody who…
This week Drippy Musings’ reader Cheryl B. wrote to us with a special request. Can you help identify and date these dip nibs for fellow reader Cheryl B? She is in the process of restoring the steamer trunk that supposedly belonged to the great grandmother of the trunk’s previous owner. The trunk is said to…
If you have been following these Drippy Musings for some time now, you know that the Sheaffer Snorkel fountain pen has been the bane of my existence for the past decade. I love these pens in all of their complicated filling mechanism glory, but I could never tame those very filling systems. Here are the…
We like you. We really, really like you! We will especially really, really like one of you on the 4th of July! With every purchase of a pen or pencil from ThePenMarket.com between June 4 and July 4 (at 6 p.m.) you will be given a chance to win this great aluminum Lamy Al-Star and…
It isn’t uncommon for folks to write in asking what type of pen they have. I look at it as a fun challenge to i.d. the pen. Unless it is an old Victorian era pen, I usually do okay figuring out who made it. For a brief period in the 1970s, Mont Blanc changed its…
It only seems fitting that a pen company get the nation’s leading animator to sell it’s pens and pencils. Who wouldn’t trust Walt Disney when it comes to picking a new writing instrument?! Walt Disney famously became a spokesperson for Wahl-Eversharp and its line of Skyline pens. The way Disney discusses the responsiveness of the…
