What pens am I carrying today? Find out here.

Pens on this page are part of my personal collection and are not for sale. Click the magnifying-glass symbol () next to any pen to view a zoomed image for more detail.

My newest stylograph (in terms of manufacture) is one of the most unusual pens in my collection, a Kueffel & Esser Leroy technical pen for use by draftsmen and illustrators. New when I bought it in 1970, it’s actually a barrel and a set of eight interchangeable pen units with tips of different sizes from 000 (0.2 mm) to 5 (1.0 mm). The user chooses the pen that will produce the line width desired. This pen is 4²⁹/32" capped, 5³/8" posted. It is intended for use with India ink, but it works with fountain pen ink. The only drawback is that it must be held vertically in order to guarantee a consistent line.

Caran d’Ache, la Maison de Haute Écriture, hails from Switzerland. Founded in 1924 to make mechanical pencils, the company later expanded its line to include fountain pens and more. Introduced in 1947 and still in production today, the Caran d’Ache Ecridor line features a slender hexagonal profile in silver, engraved with one of several attractive patterns. My Ecridor pen and pencil came to me as a surprise gift from a Swiss client who found them, so the accompanying letter ran, in a local Brockenhaus (an emporium for all sorts of secondhand goods). The pencil (4¹³/16") is a vintage piece, the pen (5¹³/32" capped, 6²¹/32" posted) is more modern. The pattern on these pieces is called Rétro, and it really is evocative of something you might have seen at the height of the Art Deco era. Yes, I’m a sucker for Art Deco — but I like these two instruments for their own sake.

No. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Nice idea, though.

Among the pens I think least collectible are Limited Editions. (Among other things, I don't like the idea of writing instruments that are manufactured just to be collected instead of used, and I really don’t expect the vast majority of LEs to appreciate anyway.) The foregoing understood, I became the owner of the pen shown here, a Montblanc Dostoevsky, through an extraordinary circumstance, and — surprise — it’s an attractive pen (strongly reminiscent of the Montblancs of the 1920s), of a nice size 5³/4" capped and 6⁷/16" posted, and remarkably good in the hand with a silky smooth fine nib. For the Montblanc haters out there, give it up. They may have changed their marketing focus to become a luxury goods company, but they still know how to make some pretty doggone good pens. You may not like them all — I certainly don’t — but some of them…

Being a Namiki/Pilot dealer doesn’t get me on the inside track for pens that Pilot doesn’t sell in the U.S.A. So when a friend offered me a Pilot Custom 742 with an FA (flexible) nib, it’s not as if I’d turn it down. This pen is very traditional and laid back, very “Japanese,” in appearance until you see the cut-out shoulders of the nib. Those notches allow this lovely nib to flex wonderfully, and the pen is a definite keeper. It’s 5³/4" capped — rather long for a guy who likes ordinary-sized pens — but it posts to only 6⁷/32", and that makes it a very comfortable writer.

© 2008 Richard F. Binder

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