Welcome to- The Fountain Pen Community!

Just wanted to introduce myself to this community. While I remain active on FPN, I'm happy to be in a smaller, more intimate forum of users as well.

I've been a user/collector for about 4 years. I've accumulated 142 fountain pens, of which 60% are new or restored vintage. I have about 50 that I rotate among as users.

I don't have a focus for my collection, I just amassed pens that seemed interesting for one reason or another. However, my mess-o-pens turned out to be primarily Parkers, Sheaffers, Esterbrook, and Waterman. I've also got a nice handful of Rotring and a couple of Lamy. I've a bunch of vintage third tier pens which I haven't bothered to restore. I find them quite interesting, though. The others are just 2 to 5 of various.

From time to time I gift or sell one of my Esterbrooks or Parker 45 and "51" as I have accumulated several duplicates.

I'm not really interested in filling "holes" in my collection because it isn't really a collection. It is more correctly described as an accumulation. Somewhere in my future is a nice user PFM.

I started playing with Fountain Pens because of my wife. It is all her fault. She is a calligrapher, but hasn't done much work over the past many years (Mommy and money work were a priority). So, I was cleaning up and came across her pens and started cleaning them and then filled one and wrote with it and then filled another and wrote with it and then I bought a new Phileas and it has been downhill ever since.

I've been to the Los Angeles Pen Show twice and met many interesting and experienced vendors, collectors, and buyers. I don't expect I'll travel far to another show, though. Once a year is enough (all my wallet can stand).

In real life, after a 30 year career managing nonprofit organizations, I now work as a Regulatory Research Analyst for an Environmental Wastewater Firm. I'm a good cook, excellent eater, and couch potato.

I look forward to my involvement here on TFPC. Some photos of my pens and other oddities are on my blog, the link is in my signature.

Andy