Firstly, happy New Year to you and your loved ones!
I originally planned to post every few days, but somehow eight weeks slipped by. Life got in the way, and unpacking everything from storage took a little longer than expected — but we’re finally there!
Fortunately, the house I’ve recently moved into has enough space to partially spread out the collection. That alone has made a huge difference and will make working through everything far easier.
So… what have I been doing for the past eight weeks since the last update? Unpacking boxes!
At first it didn’t feel very productive, but now I can finally start breaking the collection down into sections and put together a loose game plan.
👉 If you’re interested in behind-the-scenes collection work, this is exactly what I’ll be sharing more of on this page so please follow. I don’t want to flood the groups with small things I might find interesting… but most others won’t!
1. Vintage Fountain Pens
The first big task is creating a spreadsheet to capture relevant details about each fountain pen, including condition and whether it’s boxed.
So far, I’m recording:
- Unique pen number / Brand / Model Name / Model Number / Colour / Boxed
- And of course condition / state of repair, but my knowledge is not present to make that assessment yet.
👉 Collectors: What information do you track? Is there anything you’d consider essential that I’m missing? – Please let me know!
Snapshot of a couple of boxes of pens below, theres a couple of historical serial number systems in place … but none in sync hence starting afresh.
2. Pen Ware
The goal here is to figure out which pens belong with which items. As I’ve gone through some of the boxed fountain pens, it’s been great to discover that a few have optional accessories that allow them to be paired with Carlton Ware (or equivalent).
👉 If you enjoy seeing pens reunited with their original accessories, you’ll definitely want to follow along.
3. Ballpoint Pens
There aren’t many of these, and I’ve decided not to focus on them unless they’re part of a set.
4. Vintage Propelling Pencils
Some of these date back as far as 1850. I think this was the next area my dad was planning to expand his knowledge in. Right now, there’s only one book in the collection I can reference, so I’m going to park these and revisit them much further down the line.
👉 If propelling pencils are your thing, let me know — I’d love to know what the best resource is for identifying these.
5. Books, Posters and old Magazine adverts
There’s a mix of barcoded and older books. This week is the first time I’ve properly sat down to read through some of them and start building my own knowledge. There’s even some VHS tapes and training manuals here.
👉 Would you find it useful if I shared some of the instruction sheets my dad created and used to hand out on his own pen repair classes?
6. Empty Pen Boxes
Another task is figuring out whether any of the loose pens originally came from these boxes.
Matching pens to boxes feels like a puzzle — and a satisfying one when it works.
7. Tools
I’m sorting through what’s unique, what’s a day-to-day fountain pen repair tool, and what’s duplicated and can be removed.
👉 If you’re interested in restoration or repair tools, that’s something I can cover in future posts.
8. Spare Parts
Without much context, it looks like a substantial collection of spare parts — ranging from new nibs to plastic housings, sacs, and more. This will definitely take some time to understand properly.
👉 If you’ve worked with vintage spare parts before, I’d love to hear your experience.
Finally, Thanks for sticking with me after the quiet period.
If you’d like to follow the progress, see interesting finds, or help shape what I focus on next please
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More updates coming soon — and this time, hopefully without an eight-week gap!
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