Tag: fountain pen

Posted in Fountain Pens

New Pen Day (Parker 25)

Posted on by Charlie

When I dove back into fountain pens I didn’t think I’d start collecting “vintage” pens. Sure, my mum picked up some fountain pens in Germany that could very well be vintage if I could figure out how to date them with no discernable marks other than a green ink window. Vintage pens didn’t exactly interest me until I watched one of the many videos from Doodlebud (YouTube). While I can’t recall exactly which video it was in order to link directly, it was one of his videos about starter pens and he recommended a Parker 25 if your budget allowed for it.

I looked for one on eBay off and on over the course of a year, I think. Not putting too much effort into it honestly. I particularly like the blue version which was ubiquitous when first made but now you usually find the black versions on sites for sale. At least, that seemed to be the case for me. I’m hesitant to purchase things on eBay so it took me a while to find a listing that I felt I could trust as being real and was at a price-point I was comfortable with paying.

A brown box with the word Parker in the right bottom corner in a pale cream color.

The pen I purchased came in its original box. On the end of the box are stickers indicating the pen name, material, nib size and suggested retail price ($20.00). I haven’t figured out what the number below the suggested retail price is yet. I’m assuming it’s an inventory code, but I could be incorrect.

Image of the side of the brown Parker 25 box that has stickers indicating the type of pen, nib size and suggested retail price

The pen arrived in excellent condition. It had all of the original parts including the original converter. I soaked all the relevant parts in warm water to make sure there wasn’t any dried ink leftover before filling it to test how it writes.

close up of the nib section on the parker 25

It writes really well, with only the occasional skip (which could be the paper), and if not, I think will work itself out with a smooth and tune from someone more capable than I am. It’s a broad nib but feels more like a medium. For a stainless-steel barrel the pen is surprisingly lightweight and very comfortable in the hand.

One of the fun things about getting a vintage pen is figuring out exactly how old it is. The listing didn’t have any information in regard to this. So, it required some sleuthing on my part. I learned that the Parker 25 was produced from circa 1974/75 to 1994.

view of the parker 25 on a pen rest

It took some additional digging to figure out how to read the marks that indicate when the pen was made as well as notable differences between versions (mark 1, 2 etc.) I referenced ParkerPens.Net (website) an excellent resource on the history of Parker pens. From what I can tell, this Parker 25 was made in 1982, making it a 44 year old pen. It is possibly the oldest pen in my collection if I don’t count the pen that I carried over from Germany when I was a kid.

As I said in the beginning, I’m not big on collecting vintage pens. But I think it would be rather neat to have a pen in my collection that was made the year I was born, and if I can find a mark 1 of the Parker 25 it would likely be the one I add.

As of right now, this pen has been designated to be permanently inked with Waterman’s Serenity Blue.

Posted in Ramblings

New Pen Day (Pilot E95S)

Posted on by Charlie

May 2025. Finally, after several years of debating with myself about which gold nib fountain pen to add to my collection, and all the research I had done, I decided to purchase a Lamy 2000. It fit beautifully in my hand. I loved the weight of it. I went with a broad nib. I looked forward to a smooth writing experience. I wasn’t disappointed. For the most part. It tends to skip/stop writing. Not because of the angle I hold the pen at but because it naturally rolls to the left in my grip even if I use the little nubs on the sides as a way to keep the nib oriented correctly.

To be completely honest, I’m not entirely sure that I don’t do this with other fountain pens I write with. I haven’t really paid much attention since this was the first pen that I actually noticed it with. I could very well rotate all my pens when writing but for whatever reason it’s never been an issue before. Someone somewhere on a forum suggested that rotation is more common with a hooded nib because we take visual cues from seeing the whole nib and adjust accordingly. It was also suggested that the rotation occurs because of learning how to write with a pencil and that we unconsciously fall back into that rhythm. Regardless, the Lamy 2000 was cleaned out and put back into its box after having written one or two letters to pen pals and hasn’t been used since. As much as I love everything about the Lamy 2000 it turns out that it just isn’t the gold nib pen for me*. Something I wouldn’t learn until the beginning of 2026.

December rolls around and I am listening to all the chatter about the coming price increases to the fountain pen world due to price increases to gold and various other factors. There were some significant increases being predicted and of course anyone looking to get something particular should probably try and get it before those hikes hit.

I don’t remember why I looked up the Pilot E95S. I’d seen it mentioned randomly here and there over the years and for some reason thought it out of my reach. In truth I think once I found out about the Lamy 2000 I had sort of tunnel vision regarding gold nibbed pens. But there I was looking at the Goldspot website’s listing for the E95S. I always thought the Burgandy and Ivory version looked really nice and clearly influenced by all the chatter; I went ahead and made my last pen purchase of 2025 – an E95S with a fine nib.

A close up of an inlaid 14 c gold nib on a Pilot E95S. behind it is a flower pen rest and the cap for the pen.
Close up of the 14c. gold fine nib on a Pilot E95S. Photo take with iPhone 14 Pro.

The pen arrived in early January 2026 and I inked it up (with Pilot Iroshizuku Take-Sumi) almost immediately. When I say the writing experience with the E95S was the same yet different than the Lamy 2000, I’m not talking about the line width difference going from a broad to a fine nib or that it’s a pocket pen. The E95S glides across paper with ease and nary a skip to be had. It fits comfortably in my hand, perhaps a little more than the Lamy 2000, and I have to consciously slow my hand down or my words might skate right off the page. I enjoyed writing with the E95S so much that I actually wrote it dry! I do not think I have ever written a pen dry before. Left a pen sitting with an ink cartridge to dry out? Sure. But writing one dry? Nope.

A capped E95S Fountain Pen in Burgandy and Ivory sits on a pink flower pen rest beneath it is a page written in a common book.
The E95S – just might be my perfect gold nib pen. Photo taken with iPhone 14 Pro.

The E95S has in the past few weeks become the pen I most often reach for when I am sitting at my desk in the studio for most, if not all, writing. And, as long as Take-Sumi is being produced that will likely be the ink that it gets filled with. (At least until I feel brave enough to put De Atrementis archival black into it – if ever.) And it will be a while before I feel comfortable taking it out of the house even if it is a pocket pen that’s supposed to be carried about. That’s just a me thing.

-C

*I am not the type of person that needs to have more than one gold nibbed fountain pen. While the Lamy 2000 isn’t the pen for me I am sure it is for someone else.