Guest blog - Tom Sherwood
I am delighted that Tom has agreed to do a blog for the website. I regularly bump into Tom at pen shows where he is a well known figure. This blog takes a slightly different format - I had a few things I was keen to ask Tom and get his views on, so we are doing a Q&A! Just a quick note - Tom has been very generous with his time, and this is a long read - so grab a coffee and make yourself comfortable before you start!
“1. Welcome Tom to the Global Pens UK blog - thanks for agreeing to do a post about collecting fountain pens. Please tell us a little about yourself?
Frankly I'm mostly just an idiot that buys too many pens! I suppose that's not the kindest self-description, but really I'm just an example, or perhaps a cautionary tale, of what happens when an obsessive and impulsive neurodivergent ends up hyper-focussing on our beautiful fountain pen hobby! This has led me to a substantial collection numbering over 350 pens across all brands, national origins and price points, and ~190 bottles of ink! I also run the Inktensito Pens Facebook page and @inktensito_pens Instagram account and have a small website at www.inktensito.com
2. When did you get into fountain pens, and what got you started on your FP journey?
I actually started using fountain pens from a very early age. I remember already using a fountain pen when I was first being taught joined up writing at school and doing handwriting practice! My father had brought some kids fountain pens back from a business trip to Japan, and that, together with a pencil case with buttons to pop out spring loaded compartments, kickstarted my love of stationery! I used fountain pens throughout my schooling beginning with Parker 15 , Vector and Frontier models, progressing through an excellent Parker 45 Flighter, a brief flirtation with a Sheaffer Triumph Imperial 2444 and the guilt of a self-destructing Parker 61 Flighter borrowed from my dad. I was given a Parker Sonnet Flighter for my 17th birthday, but that was too precious to me for everyday use so eventually settled on a matte black Lamy Safari for taking to school.
My school pens - T2B: Parker Frontier Two-Tone Green & Black (M), Sheaffer Triumph Imperial 2444 (M), Lamy Safari Charcoal (M)
Unfortunately 2005 saw the start of the dark years where, following one too many inkcidents provoked by running late to lectures and my pen bouncing around too much, I swapped to ball points. This persisted until I found my way back to the hobby in 2019 when I inherited some fountain pens from my grandfather and uncle. These included some very special pens including a leaky Waterman Le Man 100 Briarwood (Stub), Parker 65 Presidential Flammé (M) and a Parker Premier Ciselé (BI) as well as a couple of other lesser Parkers. That connection to my departed family members, and my desire to honour them by properly caring for their pens, rekindled my interest in writing instruments and researching and restoring those pens were the embers that gave rise to the conflagration!
“The pens that drew me back to the hobby - my grandfather Clive Sherwood's pens. L2R: Parker 61 Presidential Flammé (M), Parker Premier Ciselé (BI), Waterman Le Man 100 Briarwood (Stub)”
I became curious about what modern Parker models were like compared to the pens of my school days in the late 90s and early 2000s, and I started buying a couple of pens, and a few inks in common colours that appeared to be well thought of. Unfortunately the pens I'd bought left me somewhat underwhelmed, and I felt there must be better out there. In conducting further investigations I stumbled across the Goulet Pens Youtube channel. Brian Goulet opened my eyes to the existence of pens like the Visconti Homo Sapiens, Pilot Falcon and the wondrous retractable Pilot Capless/Vanishing Point! These were a revelation for me, and I was captivated by their unique materials, engineering design and the writing experiences they purported to offer. I began in the fountain pen hobby on a quest for the ultimate writing experience, whatever that meant!
3. How did that journey evolve - did you start to focus on curating collections of specific pens/brands/types?
I think my journey evolved the way many of us experience really. First there was the initial shock of learning that there was a whole world of fountain pens out there waiting to be discovered. Then there's the "exploration" phase, where we get a feel for what's out there, the main brands, house styles and key characteristics. That goes on for a while, but little by little we gradually see more of the "exploitation" phase supplanting the exploration, as we start to learn what we each like and focus more on that.
That exploitation phase is very personal and different for everyone. For myself, I found that in typical ADHD fashion, novelty was a big factor. I became interested in pen design and filling mechanisms, exotic materials like celluloid, ebonite and artisanal resins, and in techniques like urushi, makie-e (especially raden) and guilloché. Meanwhile I found my definition of "ultimate writing experience" coalescing from those vague and nebulous three words to mean "smooth, soft and bouncy feeling nibs with generous but not excessive ink flow". I also found that I harboured a strong preference for silver-tone trims and a corresponding dislike for gold trims.
While these criteria were certainly not exclusive and there were many missteps and exceptions along the way, I did find a few brands and models which resonated with me more than others.
I really enjoyed the writing experience of Pilot's nibs, especially their 14k Soft nibs (SB/SM/SFM/SF/SEF) and their larger 18k offerings. I think the former are criminally slept-on by our community. Despite its almost exclusively gold trims, the Pilot Custom 823 Clear Demonstrator (SM) was a natural favourite as it had both a visible vacuum filling mechanism, excellent balance and weight distribution, and the nib feel I loved.
The discovery of the Leonardo Officina Italiana brand was also a key point in the evolution of my collection. My first Leonardo was a Momento Zero Grande in Brooks Primary Manipulation 4 resin with rose gold trims and an Elastic Fine nib mated to an in-house ebonite feed. This was back when both Brooks resins and the Jowo elastic nibs were still a novelty and not nearly as widespread as they are today. The PM4 MZG was only the first of many many exotic material Leonardo pens that found their way into my collection, as the brand were leading the charge bringing out pens in interesting materials, as well as filling the gaping void in the Italian pen market left by the closure of Omas and the dormancy of Delta. I began recklessly hoovering up special edition and retailer exclusive Leonardos, naively thinking that I could collect them all. By the time the total number of Leonardos I owned peaked at around 63 pens, I had (too) many stunning and sought after pens, a love for celluloid and Leonardo's huge, soft and juicy #8 size 14k nibs.
Whilst predominantly a collector of modern pens, I didn't ever quite lose my interest in "semi-vintage" pens which I consider to be those from twenty years ago all the way back to maybe the mid 1960's. I'd started mostly with Parker, but I found that it was the Japanese pocket pens from the 1970's that really caught my eye. I loved the long-cap style pocket pen design, and how they fit in my hand when posted. I began collecting examples from Pilot, Sailor and Platinum, but the Pilot Myu with its stunning streamlined one-piece combined nib and grip section and the grid pattern Elite models with their rhodium trims and inlaid 18k nibs emerged as clear favourites.
1970s Japanese Pocket Pen Collection - Pilot (upper row left), Sailor (upper row right), Platinum (lower row)
Although I'm probably best known for my Leonardo and Japanese pocket pen collections, I'm also slowly collecting pens from the Classic Pens CP series. These are extremely beautiful sterling silver pens made for Classic Pens by a variety of manufacturers based on their flagship models and showcasing intricate guilloché work by Murelli in France. Collecting these is a long-term project for me due to their scarcity and their high cost, but the craftsmanship is truly something special and I find tracking them down and gradually seeing the set come together very rewarding.
Classic Pens CP Collection, capped. L2R&T2B: CP1 (left), CP4 Set Richmond & Washington (centre-left upper), CP5 Set Modern & Vintage (centre-left lower), CP7 Set Pacific & Atlantic (centre), CP8 Flammé CT, Vannerie GT, Vannerie CT Rollerball (right)
4. Tell us about some of the grails you bought during the journey?
That’s an interesting question because I struggle with the idea of "grail pens" on a number of levels! Not only is there a "never meet your heroes" element to it, but I think it's pretty rare that anyone actually gets their grail pen and says "right, that's it, I'm done now" and really stops there permanently! Even at the grail end of things, "good enough" seems to be an illusion with "good enough for now" often being more accurate. Furthermore, not only do many people, very definitely including myself, enjoy or crave novelty, but tastes and preferences change over time, as well as how much weighting we give each of those factors.
Putting that philosophical discussion aside though, sure, for better or worse I've had a few "grails" during my fountain pen journey so far. The first would be a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age (1.3mm stub) which somewhat predictably wrote quite poorly out of the box, and was a huge disappointment until I eventually had it worked on. There was also a Pelikan M1000 Raden White Ray which was stunning when the light caught it just right, but unfortunately looked a rather dull cream colour most of the time! That it also wrote horribly and cost so much I just wasn't comfortable using it, really cemented this one as one of my worst mistakes. Well, at least until I sold it on at a modest profit anyway!
Pelikan M1000 Raden White Ray (M)
Thankfully, my grail pen experiences haven't all been so depressing! The Pilot Custom Urushi Vermillion (B) is utterly wonderful and is the best writing pen in my entire collection. It's in a league all of its own and only the Pelikan M1000 and the very best of my #8 nib Leonardos even begin to come close!
Pilot Custom Urushi Vermillion (B)
Speaking of Leos, my MZG in turquoise celluloid is phenomenal, that one has rhodium trims, a 14k #8 nib with a Medium Cursive Italic grind. Another favourite is a purple celluloid Furore Grande with rose gold trims and a 14k #8 Broad nib. If those pens had ink windows those would probably be getting pretty close to perfect for me! Sticking with Italian piston fillers in rare and beautiful materials (but alas still sorely lacking ink windows!), I've collected a few that pretty certainly could be considered grails. The Omas Paragon Burlwood HT with its lovely 14k Extra-Flessibile Fine nib is definitely one, both for the body material and the less common nib. There's also the new-shape Grand Paragon Arco Bronze HT (BB) and the Tibaldi Impero (F) these both initially had issues but with a little perseverance and patience are back to being highlights of my collection.
As I'm talking about this, I'm already starting to feel quite uncomfortable and embarrassed that there's so many to talk about here, and I'm not even close to finished yet! A lot of my collecting mindset has been about identifying what I think is special or remarkable in some way, and so it makes sense that quite a few of the pens that make it into my collection would be exemplars of this and would often be thought of as grails! My Montblanc 146 Solitaire Martelé, the only Montblanc in my collection so far, is a good example of this, as is my Lamy 2000 Bauhaus and my very pretty Platinum #3776 Century Kumpoo LE with its rather rare soft medium (SM) nib.
Montblanc 146 Le Grande Solitaire Martelé (M-stub)
Platinum #3776 Century Kumpoo L.E. (SM)
Not all grails have to be expensive though! One pen that's a grail for me, despite being in a more modest price bracket, is my Esterbrook Estie Sparkle in Montana Sapphire, which has a "Journaler" nib grind by Gena Salorino which is based on a vintage Esterbrook nib and similar to a medium stub. That pen took a lot of work for me to track down, and the Diamondcast material really is beautiful. That's a pen I'll probably never sell, even though I've been offered silly money for it! I'm really keen on Diamondcast Estie Oversize models generally, the resins are stunning and they're a good chunky size pen and never dry out due to great cap sealing. The Cosmic Wine Estie is also a firm favourite.
Esterbrook Estie Sparkle Montana Sapphire (Journaler)
5. One thing I have noticed is that there are an awful lot of new pens coming out on a frequent basis - new materials for existing models, completely new designs, some of these are limited or special editions and so on. Did that have an impact on your collecting approach?
Oh absolutely! This was a really huge factor for me! In some ways I'm very impulsive and so anything that's special or limited, and so liable to sell out quickly, I typically feel a strong purchasing urgency as well as anxiety that I might miss out and regret it later. The FOMO was very real for me indeed. My character and mental make-up also gives me a heavy predisposition for collecting and completing sets, and that was also a contributing factor in my collection gradually getting more and more out of control over time.
At one point I was collecting Lamy Safari/Al-star/Lx/Joy models, Lamy Studios, Kaweco Sport/AL Sport models, Montegrappa Mia, Leonardo SEs, LEs, and Retailer Exclusives, and retailer exclusives from retailers that I liked such as Stilograph Corsani and Pen Venture amongst others.
Over time though, keeping up just became more and more overwhelming and unsustainable. I'm all for brands and retailers experimenting with small batches and new ideas and materials that just wouldn't be viable for a regular production offering, but recently I can't help but feel that it's become excessive. Lamy is probably the worst offender for this. They used to release an annual special edition colour in each of their Safari, Al-Star and Studio product lines. Occasionally there were a pair of colours released together and that was totally fine and a cool thing to collect. Since then though, colour pairs and even trios have become the norm, and the offerings have been expanded to other lines like the Scala, Aion and even the flagship "any colour as long as it's black" Lamy 2000 model.
Leonardo Officina Italian is another brand that really frustrates me with this stuff. I love the brand and their pens but Leonardo releases so many special edition lines, website exclusives, retailer exclusives etc, that I've heard fellow collectors joke that owning a regular production model is actually probably rarer than having one of their specials!
They're not the only ones either, the proliferation of limited releases seems to be endemic to the fountain pen industry right now. Almost every Scribo release is limited to a certain number of units, Kaweco releases various seasonal "Collection" editions, Platinum does a LE #3776 each year and collections of Preppy Wa models, and Sailor is almost as bad with annual ebonite KoP and North American exclusive releases. Almost every brand does it and these ones I've called out, and probably offended, are just the easy examples that first come to mind!
Of course, you don't have to collect them all, and you can ignore these releases entirely! However, there's just no getting away from the fundamental problem which is that the more special releases there are, the less "special" they each become! Over time customers will gradually realise this and I suspect that all the pen companies who are perhaps becoming too reliant on the extra profits they can make from selling higher priced specials, will see demand start to drop off.
This is exactly what happened to me. I gradually became disillusioned with the constant procession of limited and special releases, and couldn't help but start to see it more cynically. Somehow when it's this ubiquitous my brain rebels against the artificial constriction of supply and resents the manipulation of my FOMO! Sure that's an emotive way of putting it, and it's probably just considered smart business by the pen companies involved, but something about it just doesn't sit right with me anymore. Now I limit what I collect pretty ruthlessly. I don't buy pens I don't like just to complete sets and I'm vastly more intentional about what series or types of pen I collect.
Someone once gave me some great advice, which was to only collect vintage pens. The reasoning was that this way you know exactly what you're getting into. You know how many pens there are in a given collection, you know their rarity, and their cost has already stabilised. Best of all, there's no chance that more pens will be released suddenly devaluing what you already have or taking the set in a direction you don't want to continue towards! I wish I could remember who gave me this advice as I definitely owe them a beer!
6. Where are you now with your pen collection?
Honestly? I'm somewhat overwhelmed! I'm very much in a transitionary phase. I already have way more pens than I can reasonably give proper attention to, and despite my ongoing attempts to the contrary, I'm still acquiring more! I'm trying quite hard to be much more reserved with what and how many pens I buy, even as I downsize my collection and keep only the ones that I love most. This is kinda a long running and emotionally difficult process for me, but I'm hoping that with reduced inflow and greater outflow I can slowly get to a place with my collection where I'm more comfortable!
I've still got over 40 Leonardos in my collection and ~20 vintage Japanese pocket pens, as well as various models of "semi-vintage" Parker and Sheaffer models. My Classic Pens CP collection is up to 10 of the 20 models produced. I also have quite a few Pilots and a smaller number of pens from lots of other brands like Visconti, Graf von Faber-Castell, Gravitas, Pelikan, Lamy, Omas, Esterbrook and Onoto.
I touched on previously how I'd abandoned collecting certain model lines, but that has left me with lots of pens that I no-longer want, most notably a vast number of lower end Lamy models. That collection is what's really bothering me right now, as I don't quite want to sell it, but also don't want to continue buying multiple Safaris and Al-Stars per year to continue it, all the while as it quietly nettles me that it remains incomplete!
7. What has brought you joy and what has led to challenges? My personal journey has certainly had its ups and downs, and I certainly lacked focus during part of my journey which has led to a bit of a sell off now as I try to bring that focus back…
It's easy to get caught up on the negatives sometimes, as those are the experiences that bother us, but I think it's important to remember the joys too, and thankfully those have been many. There's the little everyday joys like putting a really good pen/nib to paper and how that feels, to rarer things like the first time I wrote with a vintage Pelikan 400nn and experienced the wondrous bouncy nib feel those pens have. I have a similar memory of my first time writing with a Sailor King of Pen Naginata Togi Medium nib, which was just perfect for my writing and showed me a new grail.
Weirdly, some of my favourite joyful moments have been when I've sold pens to people who were over the moon to receive them. There's something quite special about selling a pen that didn't mean all that much to you to someone to whom it means the world! I remember one specific occasion where a lady had somehow found out that I owned a Leonardo Momento Zero Grande #8 in Omas Saffron celluloid, and reached out to me to ask me to let her know if I ever decided to sell it as it was a grail for her and was a unique piece. At that time it had been neglected in my pen box for about a year, unused and unloved (partly due to its gold trims!). I immediately offered to sell it to her for the price I'd paid for it, and she promptly agreed and we've been friends ever since! Knowing one of my pens is going to a great new home where it will be treasured and loved by its new owner in a way I never could, is definitely something that warms my heart and brings me joy.
As for challenges, there have definitely been a few of those too! I think I've mentioned receiving expensive pens that don't write well or live up to expectations, but there's also been bad experiences with nib work that didn't resolve the issue, and one particularly knotty problem where a well respected repairer has had a very expensive pen of mine for over 2 years and has now stopped responding to comms!
Perhaps the greatest challenge though was keeping track of a large collection. Understanding what I had, when I purchased it and who from, how much it cost, and how much I might want to sell it for, or even who I sold it to and for how much etc. Also, keeping track of when pens were out for repairs or needed work done, or when I was waiting to receive or dispatch something. In the end I created a multi-related database in a program called Notion, which does all of these functions and more, and even runs my little website too! That was quite a lot of work and very challenging indeed, but proves its value over and over again!
8. Looking forward to the future, at what point will you feel happy with your collection? - what is the optimum collection in terms of types/numbers of pens?
I think I'll be happy when it all fits into a Toyooka Craft 100 pen box! (ok maybe 2x boxes!) I'm not really sure whether I have an optimum number or any idea of a set number of different types etc. I kinda think it'll be a "I'll know when I get there" type of thing! I think I'd like every pen to have a reason for being in the collection, whether it be because I simply find it pretty, or because it's interesting in terms of material or design, or I'm friends with the maker or designer, it doesn't matter to me. It just needs to have a reason for being there that isn't "because I've not gotten around to selling it yet"!
There are also a few key things I still feel that I'm missing from my collection. Certainly that I don't yet own a Sailor King of Pen is a pretty glaring absence. I'm picky though so I'm looking for one with a Naginata Togi Medium nib, rhodium trims, a clip and ideally a cap band. That's a surprisingly hard combination to find, especially with the older nib stamping that I prefer too! Sticking with the Sailor theme, I'd also dearly love to own a Classic Pens LB5, which is based on s Sailor KoP but slightly larger in size and made in the sought-after diffusion bonded acrylic material. Those LB5s were pricy to begin with but have shot up in value to the point that I doubt I'll ever be able to justify owning one. Coming back down to earth a little, I'd dearly love to add a Pelikan M1005 Stresemann to my collection, as well as a Nakaya Dorsal Fin, but I'm in no rush and the right opportunity will probably come along sooner or later. There's a few other obscure pens too, but I'd probably better keep my big mouth shut on those so you lot don't buy them before I can get there!
9. What has been your best fountain pen related experience so far? A pen show?
Winning the FPUK Christmas Quiz for the 2nd year in a row! Nah, I'm just kidding! That's actually a really hard question, to answer. As we talked about previously there's been a vast number of individual joyful experiences, so it's almost impossible to pick one and set it above the others. I think I'm going to have to cheat and pick something a little more nebulous.
Having struggled with mental health, self-worth has been a bit of an issue for me, and so some of the validation, friendship, trust and respect I've received from the community has been something that I've found really touching. Stuff like people complementing my pens, or actively wanting to know my opinion on something, or trusting me to look after their table at pen shows while they take a break, that kind of thing. Hell, that you asked me to do this interview thing has got to be up there! Those experiences make me feel connected and valued, and help me to feel proud of what I've achieved, well beyond what I see as the worthless superficial nonsense of having thrown enough money into pens to build an enviable collection.
10. Do you have any advice for new comers to the FP community whether users or collectors?
Absolutely! I always encourage newcomers not to rush into the more expensive pens. Price all too often doesn't correlate to user experience. I have plenty of cheap pens that write wonderfully and never fail to put a smile on my face, just as I've had plenty of very expensive pens that have been absolutely miserable to write with! There's a big risk that newcomers will think that to get a better experience they need to spend more, and that's rarely been the case in my experience! The reality is that a well tuned nib in a cheap pen that's comfortable in your hand will likely bring you more joy than an expensive one that's not quite right for you. It kills me to see people making the same mistakes I did in jumping with both feet into a Visconti Homo Sapiens before they've spent some time enjoying a Twisbi Diamond 580ALR or Pilot's mid-level offerings. There's tonnes of pens in the £50-£250 range that can provide a world of enjoyment, and no need for escalating to the >£500 range. The only exceptions to this I've found are the Pilot Custom Urushi, the Pelikan M1000 (when it works and you know what you're getting into) and a Sailor KoP Naginata Togi Medium (NM), everything else above £500… unlikely to be sufficiently different from something else to be worth the money!
For more established collectors, I'd highly recommend doing something along the lines of what I did, which is to keep a record of your pens and details of the purchases etc. Not only is this good for the grim situations like insurance claims, or if something happens to you and someone else is left to appreciate or dispose of your collection, but it's also valuable in understanding your collection and it's place in your life. I learned the hard way that there's nothing quite like adding up the total value of your collection to show you if something needs to change in your behaviour. It's not fun, but trust me, do it before you find yourself regretting that you didn't!”
Thank you Tom, it has been very interesting and thought provoking to hear your thoughts. I hope our readers enjoy your considered views on some key topics for users and collectors. I look forward to seeing you at a pen show soon!