My Name is Will Isaac. I’m a husband to one (the hottest babe on the planet) and father to four (four kids. I drink and often cry over the destruction of all my stuff).
Further, I’m an addict. Pens. Specifically, fountain pens. Though I must admit, I do have the occational trist with a rollerball, once and a while. I’m going broke on pens. Can someone help me? Did I mention I have 4 kids? They’re cute – I’ll trade one for some pens. But they’d have to be good pens…..
Fountain of Pens 
Will,
Is there a way I can send you a photo of a pen in case you can identify it? I love it and would like to try to get a second one.
Best Wishes,
Carl
Sure Carl, I’d be happy to try.
Great! How do I send you a photo? I could send you my blog address and post them there.
You can just email to me: will.isaac1@gmail.com. The blog idea is good too, as someone else might be able to id it if I can’t.
Will, you can see the pen here.
Sorry I forgot the link.
http://liberapertum.blogspot.com/
> Thanks to Jim at PenHero.com for our answer!
Dear wtisaac,
Your pen is a Sheaffer Award. They were nice low end chunky pens with the ubiquitous Sheaffer Prelude nib. Sheaffer made 2 versions of this pen, the early one with a rounded barrel end and the later one with a more straight plastic end. This one is the later version.
Cheers,
Jim Mamoulides
http://www.PenHero.com
It’s nice to know that folks still love fountain pens. Though, I’ve been more frugal in my pen purchases lately and could not honestly call myself an “addict.” And I love inks too; ending-up with more fountain pens lugged around than healthy … but I’m not complaining.
Just came across your site today. I recently received the most amazing gift anyone could ever get from a student (I teach literature at a Catholic all-girls school)… I am the proud owner of a Visconti Opera pen, full size, fine nib. It came in an amazing wood box. Needless to say I’ve been using it (the pen doesn’t leave my desk at home), and filling up Moleskines like nobody’s business. I know the pen is $800., but, I suppose consulting an expert like you will probably yield better reviews than what I have found on the Internet. What do you think of the Visconti line? Is it really worth the hype? Is the craftsmanship really that amazing? Don’t get me wrong, I love the pen and it writes like a dream… I just wanted to see if you had some insight. Thank you very much, JCR http://www.frequencyofsilence.blogspot.com
Unfortunately, I’m not a good source of information on the Visconti line. I don’t own one. I have tried out a couple in stores and was very impressed by what I saw. My opinion is basically this: I think you can find other pens of equal quality for much less money. However, like Mercedes or BMW, you are (to some extent) paying for the Visconti name. That being said, in the niche of high end pens I think I’d rather have a Visconti any day over a Mont Blanc; simply a far better pen, albeit maybe a lesser well-known name world wide and outside of the pen community.
Hello all
I have an old mont blanc meistrstuck fountain pen with a 4810 & 14k stamped on the nib. It has mont blanc meisterstuck written on pen lid with no other numbers apart from serial – which is stamped on clip.
Can anyone tell me which model it might be??
If anyone has any ideas, let Mark know. Unfortunately, Mont Blanc is a line I don’t know much about.
Hello Will,
we are publishing house from Czech republic, we would like to use one of your pictures here for our new book. Please let me know if is it possible.
Viktor
Viktor,
In reference to your question, I don’t think I’d have a problem with it, but before I give an official ‘yes’, what kind of book is it? Could I get a copy of it? Just let me know.
Thanks!
Will Isaac
Hey Mr. Isaac,
stumbled across your blog today. A fascinating place. I too, collect (and occasionally restore) vintage fountain pens. If your kids are particularly fine examples of juvenile delinquency, I’ll be happy to relieve you of them, in return for some Parker ’51’s…Hahahaha.
Feel free to check out my own fountain pen articles in my blog, here:
http://scheong.wordpress.com/
I do hope to add more, one day.
Hello
I have a question I am making 2 Franken pens using 2 vintage nib
Section 1 Waterman’s Ideal #2 and 1 Sheaffer 33 or 3-25 nib. I need
idea on minimum size for my cap section of pens. I have spoken to a
person in Florida who makes Sterling Silver pen parts. I need to know
diameter of the caps so I can order bands for the caps my pens.
What I am looking for is diameter of the original cap that waterman and Sheaffer used so that can I can tell the silver parts manufacturer what dimensions on the caps are at their widest part. The band will be 3mm-4mm thick.
Also artistically what would be a good band thickness? A thin band or
thicker band.
Any help appreciated.
Your
Farhan(London England)
Wow. Somehow or another I missed that there was a comment here awaiting reply. As to your first question about the diameters. …..Uh….I have no idea. Sorry. As to the thickness of a band, obviously, that’s a personal preference. That being said, I’m partial to thin bands such as you’d see on a Sheaffer Craftsman. I just think they’re elegant and understated. Good luck with your build!
Hi I have an Award ballpoint pen, which I love. The clip on the barrel broke off and can’t be repaired, so I’m looking for a chrome replacement barrel. I have tried everywhere in the UK with no luck. Can you help please?
Sorry Jane, I have no idea where to go for ballpoint parts or supplies.
Hi Will,
Just thought your readers might be interested in a few Fountain Pens I’ve just added to Kickstarter printed in 3d resin/titanium/cobalt chrome and Sterling Silver:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2026090977/black-velvet-ink-fountain-and-rollerball-pen
warm rgds,
Kostas Metaxas
Fountain Pen addict
I am enjoying your blog and thanks for taking the time to shoot the cool pictures. I cannot figure out how to comment on your top 5 post from the mobile or full site interface on my iPhone 4 S with iOS 8.1.3. I recognize that the issue could be on my end, but maybe I am not alone. Anyway thanks again for the effort behind the blog. I really enjoyed reading about your top 5.
Kind of embarrassed that I never paid closer attention to how things were set up here now on WordPress, but I don’t think it’s you. Looks like you have to go to the Author page (like you did) in order to leave any comments. I’ll play with this a bit to see if there are other ways to better configure this.
Hi Will – since the Lamy Safari isn’t in your top 5 favourites, would you be interested in selling your orange one? I’d LOVE to take it off your hands if you’re not going to charge me an arm and a leg for it! Let me know, thanks!
Sal.
Thanks for the offer Sal, but that’s one of the ones that slips in and out of the list pretty regularly. In fact, I’ve been looking at the new orange Al Star they’ve released as a limited edition. Have you seen that one?
Oh well at least I tried…LOL. Thanks for writing back. No I haven’t seen the copper orange Al Star in person. It isn’t the shade of orange that calls my name though, so I might give it a pass.
Love your sense of humour on this blog. Write on!
Discovered your site today, and it’s already a Favourite! It is somewhat spooky actually – I’m a low cost pen fan, male and with four children. (The four children is partly why the low cost…) Now I note a conspicuous absence from your reviews and that is that Taiwanese tearaway, TWSBI. Any comments on that? BTW I’m a great fan of Kaigelu – good to find a like minded appreciator.
I have 2 TWSBI’s both Eco’s. LOVE them! I need to do a review on them as well……
Indeed you do, Mr I. And I need to buy one. I’ve had a TWSBI Classic for some years and found the ink system not as successful as intended. I expect that has been resolved. I’m keen to get an Eco – yet another in the line of ‘this is the last pen I’m going to buy, Dear’ followed by familiar eye-rolls. In fact, the habit of buying pens is a psycho-social phenomena that deserves some (but not too much) attention.