======================================================================== Nib Noise * Volume 13 Number 9 * December 2014 ======================================================================== Welcome to Nib Noise. We hope you'll enjoy reading this month's issue. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS NEWSLETTER! For comments or questions, send email to: richard@richardspens.com To subscribe or unsubscribe, please DO NOT use the links in the footer of this email. Instead, visit the Free Email Newsletter page on our site: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=nibnoise ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** 2015 Has Arrived! *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Indeed, 2015 has arrived, if only on paper. My annual RichardsPens wall calendar is now available for your delectation, installation, and of course, appreciation. We have CafePress print a brand new fresh copy when you place your order, so here's the link: http://www.cafepress.com/richardspens.745968998 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** The RichardsPens Christmas Holiday Schedule *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We take this opportunity to thank you for the good year you've given us in 2014, and we look forward to serving you in 2015. We will close for the Christmas holidays at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, December 19, and we'll reopen on the evening of Thursday, January 1, when we put up our monthly Pen Show Tray. (As we always do for January, we'll delay the tray one day to avoid interfering with your New Year's Eve party!) While we're closed, our Web store will not accept orders. Here are the days on which we'll be shipping during December: Wednesday, December 3 Saturday, December 6 Wednesday, December 10 Saturday, December 13 Wednesday, December 17 Saturday, December 20 Because of the holiday rush, we can't promise that domestic package shipped on Saturday, December 20, will arrive in time for Christmas. We recommend that you make your Christmas gift purchases before 9 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, December 16, for shipment the next day. Please note that international shipping takes longer; for international clients, we recommend that you make your gift purchases by 9 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, December 9. (This is our best guess; we can't guarantee timely delivery to other countries.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Flex Fans, Take Note *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you're a user of flexible nibs, you might have noted with some dismay that both Pelikan and JoWo flexies are out of stock on our NIBARAMA page. Well, as of tonight, JoWo flexies are back in stock. The Pelikan flexies, sadly, are going to be out of stock for an indefinite time, until Pelikan in Germany gets around to sending some M400 nibs to the U.S. distributor, Chartpak. If you're looking for a Pelikan flexie, you just need to keep watching the NIBARAMA page -- but you can order your JoWo flexie to fit a Bexley, Edison, or Gat4e City pen now! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** The Bexley 2015 Owners Club Pen Is Now Available *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bexley has announced availability of its 2015 Owners Club Pen. All registered Bexley owners can purchase their Owners Club pens now. We're on the road, as noted above, but you can pre-order your pens for shipping when we return to Nashua. If you are a registered Bexley owner and have not received the announcement email, you should contact Bexley immediately. LIMITED QUANTITIES! Please note that Bexley has made only 58 pens in each of three colors for 2015. There is a high probability that one or all colors will sell out before the end of the year, so don't delay placing your order! As always, for an additional charge I can customize your pens' nibs to your order. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Student Pens -- Not Just Stocking Stuffers *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Have you bought one of our nib smoothing kits? If you bought a student kit, you got two student pens with it, to practice on. If you want more pens to practice on -- or even if you haven't bought a smoothing kit but are looking for some inexpensive stocking stuffers -- we know where you can get them. Howard Levy, the president of the Bexley Pen Company, has more of these pens than we've ever had, and he'd like to sell them very inexpensively. Contact Howard by email: bexlevy@aol.com I'm not sure whether this is a wise thing to suggest, but what the hey. Do tell Howard we sent you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Retail Closing Down *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As noted above, we are closing down our retail sales of pens and accessories. As our current stocks sell out, we will not be restocking these items. This section of Nib Noise has changed since last month, so be sure to read it all. * Barbara has moved our remaining new pens to her Attic page; all that we have left are a very few Bexleys and one Namiki Sterling. The Gate City Pen Company already has a new home. Find out all about it here: http://www.gatecitypen.com/ * We still have some accessories, and they would love to find homes with you. Most of the accessories we no longer carry can be found at Indy- Pen-Dance: http://www.indypendance.com/ * Even after our pen and accessory sales are gone, the Pen Show Tray and Barbara's Attic Tray will continue indefinitely. * Also after our pen and accessory sales are gone, we will still have nibs for an indefinite time, and we'll keep the NIBARAMA page running for as long as it makes sense to do so. We have moved our stock (unmodi- fied) Bexley, Edison, Namiki/Pilot, and Pelikan nibs to the NIBARAMA page. * We will still attend -- and work at -- several pen shows every year. Our next show will be the Philadelphia Pen Show, in January. * We will be able to accept some orders for special pens or nibs. For example, Bexley's 2015 Owners Club pens are available now to registered Bexley owners, and we will be happy to order yours for you. We expect to continue accepting orders for Onoto pens indefinitely; find the pen you want on the Onoto site, and email us to arrange the purchase. Special orders will need to be prepaid, and we can guide you in placing your orders with us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Speaking of the Monthly Pen Show Tray... *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The tray page offers some exceptionally nice pens this month. It goes up simultaneously with the mailing of Nib Noise, so you really should hurry over to see what you might not be able to do without, either for yourself or as a gift for someone you like enough to want to share your pens with. http://www.richardspens.com/?pens=tray Don't forget to come back to read the rest of Nib Noise! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Broad Strokes *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Many pens made from in the first three decades of the 20th century were fitted with Z-clips. This clip design is easy to manufacture and install, but the clip also has a tendency to be bent and broken at the point where it enters the cap. Instructions for restoring a Z-clip that has failed in this fashion are here: http://www.richardspens.com/?rep=z_clip ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Pens That Write Right! *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Unless otherwise requested at the time of sale, I personally tune each new pen or nib at no extra charge before shipment. I test each nib in a pen filled with Waterman Blue-Black ink and write with it on paper of better than average quality, adjusting as necessary to bring it up to the RichardsPens.com "factory" standard for smoothness and flow. If you order a new nib with customization, I will modify the nib (for an extra charge), and we will ship it without any extra delay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Follow Us on the Internet with RSS, Facebook, and Twitter *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Follow us on the Internet by subscribing to our RSS feed. Click the orange RSS button at the top of our site -- or plug the following URI into your browser or RSS reader: http://www.richardspens.com/richardspens.rss We'd like to be liked on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NashuaPenSpa And you're invited to follow us on Twitter: @RichardsPens ======================================================================== If you received this newsletter from Richard Binder, you are a Nib Noise subscriber. If it came from someone else, I invite you to subscribe. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please DO NOT use the links in the footer of this email. Instead, visit the Free Email Newsletter page on our site: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=nibnoise Note: We will never sell your name or email address. Your privacy is as important to us as it is to you.