San Francisco Pen Show 

Hi David. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to drop by Rickshaw. It was fun to show you around the shop. I’m looking forward to collaborating on a special Figboot pen case. All the best, Mark

"The memory of the effort fades, but the memory of the experience stays." There's a Figboot quotable! As well as "death pipe" and I appreciated the restaurant letter. A well-rounded review of your trip!

Hello David You are certainly an entertaining person, by far ! RS Canada

This was a good report about the show. I am sorry to hear about Lisa Vanness' loss. My heart and condolences are with her.

Dave: one word "OUTSTANDING". The the best pen show review I have ever watched and the only one I have watched to completion. Your inclusion of your side adventures kept the video entertaining... Keep up the good work...Your formula works.

Wow you got to see LCD Soundsysten during a trip?! What a good stroke of luck! Love to see how much you maximized your trip to the Bay 😁

Thanks for taking all the pains to show the many clips, and giving so many details; it was very satisfying and much appreciated!

Wow, Esterbrook flex nib option? Fantastic- can’t wait to hear more about this!

Such an engaging video. Thank you for the shot of FC #45’s..

Thanks for the video, that vintage pelikan pen brotught so much memories. My father used to own the exact same one.

“For a hand poured pen full of ticks, it was very well executed.” 🤣 I hope it doesn’t have much competition!

Great video! Thank you for sharing 🤩👍🏼

Really enjoyed this. I am the very start of my pen thing. I just found a fountain pen in a desk drawer that an ex-student gave me, and I added ink and got pretty excited. (Actually, I dipped the tip in ink-- I guess based on movies showing how they wrote the Declaration of Independence--and tried to write with it, and then googled to find out that I had to use the converter to suck in some ink!) I have been watching lots of your videos and enjoy them. Perfect timing for creating my holiday gift list. Then, I watched your review of this show and realized that the SF Pen Show is about 5 miles from where I live! I'll be there in 2023! Probably by bicycle.

Nice video, wish i could see more vintage pen offerings.

This was a fascinating video. Loved see your adventures.

After watching your videos over the years, it was so nice to meet you! SF Pen Show is such a great show and you did a really good job showing it in this video. Also fun seeing Cali and all the dog pictures! Thanks again for taking the time to make these fun and informative videos!!!

Looks like a really fun show. I love seeing your purchases, especially the Toyooka pen tray. Thanks for sharing with us!

Looks like a nice show. I usually go to the show at Fountain Pen Hospital in NYC and the Philadelphia pen show. At both shows the vendors are very helpful to the customers and to each other. At the Philadelphia show they will try to find a pen for someone by announcing it over the intercom. I found the people that attend these shows are very genial and willing to converse with each other with sort of a camaraderie not now mally found, generally. Love San Francisco and San Diego has a different vibe but still very nice.

Thanks for sharing your adventures during the trip! It was nice to see folks getting back to the shoes!

Excellent presentation 👏. Very well done and satisfying to watch. Felt like I was there. Thanks 😊

Very interesting, thank you for taking the time to document your trip.

What fun! Thanks for taking us with you, David.

Very nice indeed. Glad you had a great time.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing since I could not go myself. Loved the pens you purchased and looking forward to their videos. BLESSINGS

Great overview! I grew up in San Diego and live in the Bay Area so enjoyed the extra reports.

Thanks for the great review of your trip. Looks like a fun show for sure! Looking forward to the pen reviews of your haul 😊

Thanks for sharing David!

That was my first show ever and it was an interesting experience. Vids like yours encouraged me to try to go to a show. I actually ran into you and said hi and asked about the LCD show. Nice recap. I'm glad you got to have a good vacation too. You did a lot in a short amount of time.

This video was a very nice review of the show and it’s “stuff”..

Great show review! You were thorough yet concise and kept a good pace during the narration.

This was a great look at your trip, you left me really homesick for a double double and Warwicks! I'm happy for a brick and mortar in Phoenix, but there is no place like home. Can't wait for the pen reviews!

It's awesome that you were in the Bay Area! I went to the show on Sunday! Next year I'll get time off so I can go Friday =)

Thanks for your video, others always mention the sf show. I enjoyed shopping with you in this video without spending any money. Thanks again and look forward to your reviews

It was great talking to you a bit at he show! Thanks for checking out my Chinkin Dragon emperor! :D

I always enjoy the unique and personal details you include in your videos. As a dog owner with woods on my property, I could live without the Kiwi tick pen. Yuck! Great to see the Rickshaw workshop too. I have a Sinclair R on order and on its way.

That Kiwi pen- oh my. lol

cool video very detailed and dynamic

Great video and review - well done 👍

im glad u enjoyed my city !

I live in Seattle which has essentially no brick and mortar shops for fountain pens besides a tiny selection at the UW bookstore. I went to San Diego (and California itself) for the first time in April of this year and out of curiousity searched up for any fountain pen retailers in the city and Warwick's came up as the most promising location. We happened to be in La Jolla one day and I got to spend some time looking around in the fountain pen selection which was the best I'd ever seen in person in my life. I picked up a Lamy Al-Star Turmaline (the 2020 edition I believe) which is a beautiful teal blue that looked exactly like the bright blue ocean water that was so foreign to the native of the dark and rainy city that I love. I use the Al-Star very frequently and have it loaded up with Pelikan turquoise ink to match. It always reminds me of such a great time in San Diego and it was a fun surprise to see that shop featured here! Hopefully some day I'll make it to a pen show as it looks like tons of fun and I'm glad to see you had a great time there!

Nice. I only was able to to make it to the SF Pen Show on Sunday... Feels like I missed out on a lot! I went to graduate school at UCSD and one of my favorite shops was Warwick's. Glad to see that they're still there... and now that I can afford the more expensive pens, might be dangerous if I make it back over there!

I saw you there looking at the Pelikan! We were at the same booth, the older gentleman , penguin I think? Anyways I was so starstruck ... I turned over to my gf and whispered "that's figboot!" .... it was great

Per that red notebook, that is what God made duct tape for.

Great video! Wish I had said hello when I was standing next to you at the FC booth. FYI, there’s an aviation museum near the pen show in SF.

Have you ever seen the book "If you give a mouse a cookie"? This is what your story about your relative reminded me of. Sounds like a super trip. Thanks for sharing!!

David, sometimes you just need to pull that 24 hour stint to get the most out of life! Well done.

I"m sorry I couldnt make it to the show I saw in almost every picture someone I knew so it would have been fun to see those people and hang out with more people ;)

Sol Food! I live just a couple blocks from there. Saw you at the show on Friday, but didn't want to interrupt your conversations with folks or your time with your family member. Also, it was my first show so I was busy taking everything in. Looks like it was a good trip for you, that's awesome. :)

I visited the MontBlanc boutique at Fashion Valley the week I was there. Your statement that Warwicks is the only brick and mortar store selling pens and inks is still true. Their stock was limited and I knew more about some of it than they did and I’m not an MB fan particularly. I also love the approach into SAN. While I was in my 30s and 40s when I lived there, San Diego feels like home to me too.

While I was busy looking at all the pens, I did look up briefly a few times searching for you, David. I was looking forward to meeting you in person and talking a bit about Point Loma.

Really enjoyable video. It is interesting to see the differences between the pen shows. Your travels around California made me realize how much I miss it. When you said the kiwi pen was disturbing, I thought you were a bit over the top. What could be disturbing about a kiwi resin pen? Afterward, I thought maybe you undersold it🫣😬 Looking forward to your review of that lovely Montegrappa pen.

Puppies and pens! 😍😍😍😍

Well-done fries - I knew you were a person of good taste

I thought I saw you at the show. I was there Sunday and spotted you in the main room, but after I had finished making a purchase at the Rickshaw table you were gone. I wish I had a chance to meet you. Perhaps at a future pen show.

Definitely fill the tick pen with oxblood ink.

I feel like I'm just now making the change from being an online only pen person to also being an in-person pen collector as well. I've been looking for a brick and mortar pen store in the bay area besides the Lamy store and would love any suggestions, and i am so bummed i didn't hear about the show until after the fact! I knew all about when the DC show was happening but was totally clueless as to when the show was happening in my own backyard

Oh that macaron, and that coooooooookieeeeeeeeeeee!

👍Greetings from Moore, Texas. Nice video, I agree with you on Whataburger (terrible) but I disagree on In & Out (food for late night drunks), my wife and I get the best burgers at a Mexican restaurant.

Great video. Has anybody been to Allard’s in Fresno, Ca? They have an incredible fountain pen counter.

Love the Oru, lol. Pricey, though. And not great for creeks, lol.

It's very sad to hear that new about Lisa Vannes. Losing a child is one of the worst things you can face in life.

Was going to attend, but was concerned about lack of face coverings by attendees. From the video, glad I did not go. However, I would have liked to purchase 1 or 2, of those restored Pelikan 140

Looks like a mega event. sadly I am 10 timezones away. I will have to get to one of the European shows next year. I'm almost 3 years into the hobby, but there is nothing close enough for me to attend :( The Esterbrook flex looks suspiciously like the Leonardo. are they both just an off-the-shelf Jowo product?

Ticks are not insects - they have 8 legs, rather than 6! They are arachnids, so she was an Arachnologist! My wife would love that pen! She is an Arachnologist.

David: Thanks for this wonderful video. Noticed that you had fountain pens on the plane. No issues with leaks or burping?

I lived down the street from Flax Pen to Paper while attending graduate school at UCLA. Not really a good experience with pretentious owners (female owner in particular) and bad service, hence my lack of patronage for them with the exception of the odd bottle of ink. Too bad because I would have purchased a few Sailor pens from them. Another example of how pen "celebrities" have vastly different encounters with vendors than us lesser mortals. No matter. I will still buy pens, just not from Flax Pen to Paper. Nonetheless, check them out on Gayley Avenue next to Whole Foods. Maybe the owner will not be rude and impatient with you.

Hello! It looked like so much fun! What is a micarta pen?

how could you not tell us the ink you bought for the 140.... it'd also be nice if you could leave a link for the people like "Skagsi pens?" I couldn't find them on google?

Having never been to a pen show, I have a question about them: are prices better than what you'd find outside the show? Worse? The same but available right there? Or something else??? (Thanks in advance if you answer!)

A very interesting video, thank you. I have noticed in this and in other pen-show videos when you talk about your travels you say "we." Do you travel to these shows with a significant other or a friend? And if so, is this person as enthusiastic about pens as you are, or are they being dragged along? The answer to this question is pertinent to my own situation.

Enjoyed your trip review. Can you spell sgazzy? Are they online ?

Maybe a strange question. Amy from Skogsy Pens. is that Amy Bruni from Kindred Spirits? The paranormal investigator? Or it's her twin

Should you bring cash or card to these shows?

*Don't be so narrow minded that you see racism, where is does not exist.* *Some things are appropriate for some nations, and not so in others, this is often not about racism, but rather is about cultural differences.*