My trip to the Fountain Pen Hospital was a blast! In today's video I'll share with you a little glimpse of my trip to New York and a walk through the Fountain Pen Hospital store. At the end I'll share with you everything I bought that day and show you a few other pieces from my growing fountain pen collection! I had a little too much fun shopping that day!! I hope you enjoy it!
Love your enthusiasm … and your slight pen “weirdo” vibe 🤣 I am in the UK and feel that we have very few pen specialist shops so it’s great to see you there in New York…… I managed to buy a Conklin in a cute shop in Oxford and a Tibaldi on a recent trip to Rome but haven’t felt able to invest ‘ big bucks’ as yet.. Mostly I have to buy online…. would love to visit a shop where I could try the pens and nibs….you are lucky and I appreciate you sharing your delight! x
So awesome to see your enthusiasm for fountain pens. I’ve been collecting a mix since my university days (30 yrs+). Fountain Pen Hospital has always been a place I want to visit. However it would be so tempting to get a bunch of pens and inks as it would be like a kid in a candy store. 😂
Thanks for sharing, Lori. I am recent to the fountain pen world as well, and I feel like we’re on this wonderful adventure together! On the downside, now I must add an Estie Oktoberfest to my collection; you and Vanessa are engaged in a two-pronged attack on my checking account!
The botanical and Oktoberfest pens are so beautiful. Long ago, the stockbroker I worked for in Seattle loved fountain pens. He let me pick out a Pelikan pen as a gift from him. I wish I knew what I did with it.
Stephanie... That was such a sweet gift. I hope you can find it. I have been eyeing a Pelikan M800 for months. Come over any time you want to try them out! Miss you!
This is what i really enjoy - all about fountain pens. I'm eyeing on the Estie Botanical. It's a gorgeous pen! Your description on each pen you showed really interests me (probably why i love watching your videos!). Thank you for sharing!
Such a sweet comment. Thank you! 💕 The Botanical Garden is really beautiful! I enjoy the medium nib and the versatility I get with ink color choices!! Thanks for watching. xo
I bought my first Esterbrook Estie in the Sea glass colorway and I love it, but then I saw Botanical up close and I cannot wait to get it 😮. May pick it up at the DC Pen Show if not sooner lol. Love all of your haul!!!
SO wonderful to see 1 of my favorite stores on RU-vid. Tfs your haul. Enjoy!! Since I live in Brooklyn, I'm fortunate enough to usually get over to FPH 2-3 times/year. Jimmy & Marvin take GREAT care of me every time. Since you're new to the hobby, I'll suggest Goldspot Pens (NJ), Fahrneys (DC), Anderson Pens (Wisc) & Atlas Stationery (Chicago). Goulet's RU-vid channel content is EXTREMELY educational even for long-term fountain pen aficionados. They're also 1 of the few places one can get ink samples so you don’t have to spend so much on full-size bottles.
Great video! I, too, have two Visconti (Van Gogh) pens. One writes awesomely, the other wasn’t right, right out of the box. If you don’t have one yet, get yourself a glass dip pen. It is a GREAT way to try/revisit inks in your collection. If you get a J. Herbin one, only dip it half way as a full dip will “dump” ink onto the paper.
Thanks so much for watching! I do enjoy my glass dip pen. I haven't tried the J. Herbin one yet. I wish Viscontis were more consistent writers. Grateful mine are both behaving these days!
I have an aunt who lives in NYC and every time I visit her I think about going to the Fountain Pen Hospital, but I haven’t found a good opportunity to go yet. Thanks for sharing your trip with us! That was really fun! I still hope to meet up with you sometime. We can compare our Lamy 2000 pens. I have the extra-fine and medium. I find the capping click on mine to be excellent, so I’m not sure if yours might sound different. I also love brown and other earth toned pens, so I think we might enjoy seeing each other’s pen collections.
Good haul. You should be able to get the taxes back. Every city usually allows outside residents who are shopping in the city to get the taxes they paid to be refunded. Being a native New Yorker, not living in NY anymore, there are few cities that like it. Looks like you enjoyed my fair city.
The Lamy 2000 pen design has existed since 1996 (about 57 yrs. now). If you look just ahead of the ink windows in the barrel of the pen you see 2 metal stubs poking out 180° apart from each other. This marks the area where the section separates from the barrel and those 'stubs' are part of a ring that act like a Sheaffer clutch ring that holds the cap onto the pen. So that clicking sound is the cap interacting with those metal stubs - my 2 Lamy 2000's make the same sound. It's not something that overly concerns me, it's just a different sound than may of the other push on pens that I have.
I enjoyed your chatty video. I'm an old guy, so back in the day, we were graded on our penmanship (both block letters and cursive), In high school, work that had to be handed in and tests were both done with Sheaffer "school pens" $1.00 each at the school book store--cartridge-fill. I still have one of them. Over the years I have collected many of the well-known brand-name pens--Parker, Waterman, Pelikan, Montblanc, Sheaffer, Visconti, Omas, Pilot, Sailor, Platinum, Kaweco, and inexpensive pens made in India, China, and other countries. Lately, I have been buying Chinese pens made by Hongdian; beautiful pens that are good writers at excellent prices. A few of my pens are vintage. Why do I love fountain pens? I love the way they write, and the many colors of ink that are available. They are old but proven technology--most of them are not throw-away items, so they are environmentally friendly (no batteries, either). Some of them are literal works of art, especially Japanese maki-e, skillfully made pens decorated with nacre, others hand-painted by skilled craftsmen, some that are sculpted. There are special technicians--nibmeisters---that adjust/grind nibs--and, the nibs themselves; steel, titanium, palladiium (23K), gold (14K, 18K, 21k), and silver (although I've seen only one nib made of silver). Then, there are the nib choices: XF, F, M, B, BB, stub, italic, fude, &c.It may have been Richard Bender who described a fountain pen's successful design "a controlled leak."
I’d love an update on how your Fine nib Estie handled the shimmer ink! Beautiful combination but I’ve had the worst time with J Herbin shimmer inks clogging my feeds 😢
I'm a New Yorker and, in fact, used to work at a dance center a short walk away from the FPH. I heard FPH is changing management, and that was confirmed on my visit there several days ago. Not sure how that might change things. BTW, I'm here at this video after watching the one where you present your fountain pen collection, and now I'm a subscriber.
Do you have any Leonardo fountain pens? Those are lovely and I purchased a Leonardo Masaico earlier in the month. If you like hand made fountain pens, look up Hardy Penwrites. I am an elementary school teacher and I give my students fountain pens at the end of the year to give them the opportunity to experience writing with them. Thank you for your video presentation. Take care.
I have one Leonardo and I love it! My husband bought me the Leonardo Furore Grande in blue Hawaii for Valentine's Day. The steel nib writes so nicely! I'll definitely check out Hardy Penwrites. I'd love to try a han=-0made pen. I love that you gift your students fountain pens! So sweet!
LOVE Love love the Botanical Garden pen and the Twsbi! I'm trying to come up with a way to display all my cool bottles of inks. They need to be shown off. Your collection is growing! Where do you look for 2nd hand pens? I've been eyeing Mercari, ebay, Shop Goodwill etc. but if you have any "secret" resources, please tell :)
I just go on all of the sites you mentioned...no secret. I just look frequently! Let me know if you figure out a cool display for your inks. I need a good spot for mine too! Thanks for watching!
8:53 I’m pretty sure you didn’t start your FP journey in Sept 2023 😉 😂 I’m in New Zealand, so I’m a day ahead of you, so in the future… but even I haven’t got to September yet 😂 I discovered FP’s 2 years ago and a Lamy Safari Vista was my first 🤗 now you have ink in your veins….. They do say once you buy one FP……
I will probably never visit New York in my lifetime, so I am enjoying your videos! I have 2 Esterbrooks--the Gold Rush and Petrified Forest, because I live in Arizona (and I am such a sucker for purchasing pens/inks based on how they are named because it gives me a "reason" for the purchase!) I have been using fountain pens for years but only had a handful, and I went down the rabbit hole in 2020-2022 after finding RU-vid Videos and online stores! I have heard so many good things about the Lamy 2000, but I just don't like the way it looks. Not sure I will ever be able to get past that!
Hi Lori! Silly me I thought you dropped off your pens to pen hospital not knowing there is a real store. The Visconti Venus is my second fountain pen that I acquired last month in my new journey and for me it’s a great writer. But it does depend on the type of ink you use in it. My pen journey is starting out slow by choice as a newbie. The Noblesse is one my list as I want part of my collection to be vintage Mont Blancs. I wrote with a Mont Blanc for the very first time a couple of weeks ago and it has changed my perspective on fountain pens…it was an amazing experience and one I know I can’t duplicate with other fountain pens. Right now I am on an ink adventure searching for inks to feed these pens. I took your advice and ordered a few Jinhao pens aka Sailor dupes to experiment with inks . Thanks for that tip and also I ordered a Jinhao with a bent tip to experiment. Need to find out what is comfortable for me to write with so I know what to buy without regrets. See my photo? That was my first ink practice session a couple of weeks ago practicing searching…😮Thanks for sharing! Great video as always!
LOL Fountain Pen Hospital. I don't think they do repairs though. I wonder how they got that name? MB are great pens. Those might be fighting words for some. Say whatever about MB, but I feel, what they do well, they do really well. Both my MBs are some of the best shading nibs I have. If I may give you another tip. Get a bottle of Waterman Serenity Blue, and run it through every new pen you get as a first ink up. When I get a new pen, I always inspect everything, flush it with a drop of dish soap, then flush it with water to rinse it out, let it dry overnight and then put SB in the pen. Flushing it out gets rid of oils and residues from manufacturing. SB is a great troubleshooting ink when you have nib/flow issues. Also because it has great ink characteristics and is well behaved you can really get to know a nib. You can figure out if it is wet, dry, shades, sheens etc. Then you can use inks accordingly instead of wasting time what inks go best with what pens. The last thing anyone wants is a dry nib paired with a dry ink. It only leads to frustration. You'll notice immediately - if the color is really pale, it's dry, but when it's a wet nib, SB is rich, vibrant and nice sapphire color. Hope that helps.
@@ironmic9244 Hi! I will definitely will get a bottle of that ink and do what you said about the first flushing of the pen. It’s really nice that there are others out their willing to help a newbie with all these great tips and tricks to these fountain pens. Thanks again for the great tip! I appreciate it a lot…take care!
Thanks so much for the tip. I need to be better about cleaning my pens before I dig in!! I'm just so impulsive when I get home and excited to try them out! Sometimes I'll do a quick flush with the cleaner I got from Goulet pens. I recently got an amazing deal on a MB Greta Garbo pen and I am so in love with it. So far I have gotten lucky with preowned Montblancs. Thanks for watching!
@@timewithtata8004 Yes it seems there are great finds with vintage MB but I love that behind each piece I may find and add to my collection there is a history and a special story behind its previous owner. Thanks for your inspiration always!
Great haul! I‘m thinking about getting my first Estie - I‘m looking at the „Rainforest“. I also love pens where the nibs can easily be switched like on the TWSBI 580, Kaweco Sport, Lamy Safari/Studio, Pelikan, etc. How is the J. Herbin shimmer ink doing with the nib in the Estie October Fest? Are you getting any shimmer when writing? Enjoy your new pens!
Thank you! I hope you get your Estie soon! The Rainforest is beautiful! The Oktoberfest is writing really nicely but I don't see too much shimmer on the page. I'll have to try that ink in my Twsbi stub nib.
Hi Lori! I would love if you did a very remedial video for those of us with no fountain pen experience, to answer questions like - what defines a fountain pen? How is it different than other pens? It seems so high maintenance, so what makes it worth it?
Thank YOU, Lori! I love your voice and enjoy having you on even when I don’t totally understand what you’re talking about 😂 but knowing the pen basics would be a lovely bonus!
So your pens got treated and released from the ER rather than getting admitted? 😉 This video is tempting me to start another expensive hobby I may regret.
I definitely bought into the hype.It's a beautiful writer, it's just not really my vibe. I think I may end up giving it to my oldest son (from this video) once I've gotten my fill....but who knows maybe I'll keep it. I will 9/10 times reach for my vanishing point over this pen.
@@timewithtata8004 Yes, I think the vanishing point is much more attractive. The enjoyment of fountain pens is not just how they write but if I enjoy the beauty of it. Right now, my favorite pen is a kind of simple one, the Kaweco student pen "Soul".. I just love it. There is something so vintage looking about it that just appeals to me
