This is the newsletter that went out to my subscribers, and then posted to the Richard L Greenwald, LLC Facebook page, it then went out to the Custom Pen Artist Group, Pen Turning Supplies Group, and a few others. The first part of the newsletter is not for pen turners, but there are a few things in there that you might find interesting.
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NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2014-THIS IS A LONG ONE!
(unfortunately the photos that went to the subscribers did not show up)
As I have promised myself not to inundate your inbox with emails, and only send them out when I have something to say, it is now time to send one out. Since my last email back in April, we have restocked items, and have put new items up on the website; the list is long so, please bear with me.
But before I get started, I do have an announcement about plastics production, I have decided to cease producing polyester resin (PR) pen blanks. So, when the last of my resin supply is used up making stock of the popular colors, that will be that; then all production of plastics will be of my new ‘FLEXIGRAN’ plastic, which I will make in my popular colors. FLEXIGRAN is very easy to turn and takes a thread with ease; it can be turned to a thin wall, which, if you’ve seen me at pen shows, flexes without cracking or chipping, making it, almost unbreakable. Polishing FLEXIGRAN is the difficult part, but once polished, it shows an amazing depth of color. FLEXIGRAN has already been purchased by two pen manufacturing companies for their limited edition pens. Enough said, on to the new stuff.
PENS:
As seen in “Pen World” magazine, we have had Bexley Pens make a small line of their Imperial Magnum in a convertible model made exclusively out of our FLEXIGRAN material, just for us. It is an oversized pen, with the clip as the only metal showing, which allows the colors of the material to show through without any decorative bands and with the strength of the material, doesn’t need a protective center band. With the convertible feature, you get two pens in one, a fountain pen, with Bexley’s plated steel nib, in medium or fine point nibs, and what we named the
“Rolling Righter,” which is a refillable roller ball that use fill and use like a fountain pen. With each pen, you get two premium converters, so you can use two different colors of ink without the messy cleaning switching off between the two different styles of writing. The FLEXIGRAN Bexley Imperial Magnum Convertible is available in three different colors:
#67001M or 67001F Autumn
#67002M or 67002F Sunrise
#67003M or 67003F Golden Green
Also added is the Stipula Speed line of fountain and ball point pens, a modern Italian designed pen, the ball point being a cap actuated front loading pen with a Schmidt easyFLOW 9000 refill, the smoothest writing ball point ink refill made. The fountain pen having the same modernistic design, which includes a piston filling ink system; no other handmade Italian pen has this with a price under $100. We carry the Stipula Speed line in all the colors that were made, ivory (#66002 &66017),
black (#66001 & 66016), red (#66018 fountain only), orange (#66019 fountain
only), and custom colors yellow (#66007 & 66020), light blue (#66008 ball point only), and just for Richard L. Greenwald, LLC: matte Kelly green with gold trim (#66004 & 66014), and dark blue with rose gold trim (#66005 & 66015). This is for a limited time and when they are gone, they are gone and not coming back.
PEN BLANKS:
FLEXIGRAN:
I will be making some more of the current colors, and will be adding some of the other popular colors that were only available in PR. Keep checking back on the website for new additions.
HAND CAST PEN BLANKS:
As mentioned above, we will be discontinuing the PR Hand Cast Pen Blanks when my supply of resin runs out (which will be soon), but in the meantime, I will continue making the popular colors restocking them on the website, but when they’re gone, they’re gone, so keep checking the website for new additions.
PEN PARTS:
MECHANISMS:
We have added #10132 Twist mechanism, which has not been available from the manufacturer for a few years; it has a softer feel when twisting to propel the refill.
Also added, #10284, which is a vintage Parker 45 cap actuated mechanism, these are original Parker parts and the quantity is very limited.
Part #10281 is also a vintage Parker 75 cap actuated mechanism, these too are original Parker parts, but we were able to get more of them, along with #50249 threaded connector.
FOUNTAIN PEN PARTS:
We have restocked on the silicone sacs, pressure, and “J” bars, and after so many calls for the Schmidt premium K5 converter, WITH the Schmidt logo on it, we have added #20153S, it is the same converter as the standard K5 #20153, but with the logo on it.
Another item added is #50448 Sacshellac, this is my own blend of red garnet and blonde shellacs and is not the standard shellac used in the trade. The standard shellac used is standard 3# blonde shellac used in furniture; mine is a 5# shellac, which is stickier and quicker drying. It softens at 115 degrees and is liquid at 150 degrees. It has been well received by the pen repair technicians.
TIPPING MATERIAL:
Along with the ruthenium/osmium blend of tips that we import from Germany, we have two different types of stainless steel tips that we also keep in stock: #22015, a 1.59mm and #22017, a 2.59mm, tips are made from type 302 stainless steel, a
high chromium content stainless that can be mainly used as a practice material.
We have also added #22018, 2.5mm, and #22019, 3mm, tips to the type 440C stainless steel line; although we “say” it is a practice material, type 440C stainless steel is a high carbon, high molybdenum content stainless that has been heat treated, and are used in manufacturing stainless steel ball bearings, so, I am pretty sure that it will withstand the use of actual writing in a tip for some time before wearing out. But, if your unsure, you can still use the more expensive ruthenium/osmium blend tips, being made from the hardest metals on earth.
NIBS:
We have recently purchased a large cache of new old stock (NOS, for those in the know) gold plated steel nibs, made in the USA, back when writing with a fountain pen was the only way you could write in ink. When I purchased them (and Betsy was a little ticked off), they were still in their original sealed boxes, so these nibs have never seen ink in their 70+ years. Some are for a #5 feed, and some are for a #6 feed, most are a medium width nibs, but there are some fine, and a few with a stub nib. All of these are items #25050 through #25064, although there is a large
quantity, they are vintage, so I doubt that I can find something like this again.
BANDS, CLIPS, AND RINGS:
As soon as I finish with the plastic production, I will be making more decorative rings, and will be plating. We have a new center band that we purchased a while ago, along with clips; and besides plating in the standard, 24kt gold, and nickel finishes, I will also be adding parts that will be rhodium plated. So keep checking back with the website to see when they show up.
PEN BOXES & STORAGE:
The only thing that has been added to this section is a wonderful new 36 pen zippered storage case from Monteverde; as pen storages cases go, it has been well thought out, in that the divider swings up and over the case, instead of one side to another; this allows all the pens in the case to be viewed at one time, and for the money, it’s fantastic (I wish they were out when I was buying cases for my
collection).
MISCELLANEOUS PEN PARTS:
Another one of my “buys” that Betsy wasn’t really thrilled with me about is #50160 Cap Clutch Spring and #50161 Cap Clutch Spring with Inner Cap. These are for a Parker pen that does not use a threaded cap, but rather this spring, that is held in place by the inner cap, which in turn, is held in place by the cap’s jewel or finial; the
spring inside the cap slides over the section of the pen, and grips a clutch ring that is between the section and the barrel. Just think what a skilled pen maker can do, and the possibilities that is opens, not having to fuss with threading, and the ease of taking off the cap by the end user.
TOOLS AND SUPPLIES:
We have restocked #50501 Nib Sanding and Polishing sticks in such a quantity, that we were able to keep the price the same.
For the really adventurous, who really want to try there hand at nib re-tipping, we have #20244 Nib Splitting Blades, that were made for us, and if you order them, please do not forget to order the #20250 mandrel for them. They are EXTREMELY fragile, and will break very easily, as they are thinner than a piece of paper.
This one Betsy found, #50364, a very inexpensive plastic eye dropper/pipette, these little things have so many different uses around the shop and even the house, I just can’t list them; we have them everywhere around the house.
Item #50510, Renaissance Wax, was developed by the British Museum, a micro-crystalline wax compound that gets in the pores of almost everything, including metal, it is the protectorant of choice amongst professionals, it even works on pens.
But before you use Renaissance Wax, you should use #50513, Pre-Lim, also developed by the British Museum, it is an extremely fine abrasive polish, which is finer than the famous Simichrome or Wenol; and as we all know, the finer the abrasive, the higher the polish.
A little doo-dad that I came up with, is #50516, a tine shim; this is used for shimming out the slit of a nib, so that it is wider than the slitting saw blade; this way when the blade passes through the tip, the blade then does not go into the gold/steel of the nib itself widening the slit. Place the shim in the slit before the tip is welded on, then weld, then slit the tip, then you remove the shim before grinding the tip into shape.
Last, but not least, in this category, another item that Betsy gave me “THOSE” eyes on (she was very ticked at me that day), #50503, which is a pocket magnifier. But, it’s just not any magnifier, instead of the normal 10 or 12 power, it has a 30 power lens, but, THAT’S not all, it also has a 60 power lens, and even THAT’S not all, it even has a bright white LED light that comes on when the lens is fully extended out of it’s case; AND, with a flick of a switch, that light goes from a bright
white, to a UV light (which you really don’t need for a pen examination, but
its cool anyway). And for the money, it just can’t be beat (and Betsy wasn’t
ticked off at me on these after we sold out of them at the DC Pen Show, though
she’s still ticked off at me for a lot of other stuff).
OK, it’s now back to stuff that everyone, just not pen makers can use.
INKS AND REFILLS:
BALLPOINT REFILLS:
For those who are stuck with a pen that uses the Papermate style refill, #40177 and #40178 are just the thing for you, a high quality German Schmidt refill for that wonderful pen of yours.
Sick of the high prices on Cross brand refills, tired of trying to hunt them down because the local office supply doesn’t have them, well, here’s your solution, #40529 and #40536 are Monteverde’s answer to that, and if you really want to go “on the cheap,” #40201, which was literally thrown at us at a pen show, black only, they’re old, but they still work.
The undisputed king of the Parker style gel refill is/was/?? the Visconti gel refill, but they changed manufacturers and increased the wholesale cost of them so much, that no one wants to stock them; so Monteverde is filling that need with their Parker style gel refill, now, they have raised their prices too, but they aren’t as greedy; we have them in #40515, black broad point, #40522, blue broad point, #40518, blue/black broad point, #40510BB, blue/black fine point, #40510BN brown fine point, #40510GN green fine point, #40510OR orange fine point, #40510PK pink fine point, #40510PL purple fine point, #40510RD red fine point, and #40510TQ turquoise fine point.
And finally in the ballpoint section, for those who want not just a thick line, but a really fat bold line, there is the Monteverde Super Soft Super Broad refill, #40525 black, and #40527 blue. Now these are a low viscosity ballpoint ink and NOT a gel ink, since with a point THAT broad, you would be replacing your refill after every paragraph with a gel ink in that broad of a tip.
ROLLERBALL REFILLS:
OK, now this one is all on Betsy, she fell in love with the way this thing writes, so we had to stock them, and I’ll admit, it ain’t bad, in fact Parker uses it in their new writing system, except, theirs has a fake feed on it; that is #40180 black, and #40181 blue, Schmidt 6040 fine liner fiber tip refill, which will fit into anything
that will accept a standard 5888 rollerball refill.
And like always, we keep in stock all the plastic bodied 888’s in fine, medium, and broad points, in blue and black inks; all the metal bodied 5888’s in fine, medium and broad points, in blue and black inks; all the 5888 Rainbow edition, in all colors, medium point only.
Now this is a good place to un-confuse the confused about the Schmidt 81XX series capless roller ball refills. First, they are not interchangeable with the 888/5888 series refills, they are fatter and hold more ink. Second, the smaller in size you go, the more expensive they get (can’t figure that one out). And lastly, the last number in the description is the point width, so a 8126 is a .6 fine point, a 8127 is a .7 medium point, and a 8120 is a 1.0 broad point, THAT is the only difference
between the numbers. Sizes range from the 81XX, long refill; the P81XX mid size
refill; and the mini8126 short refill, fine point only. They are all in stock, here in Maryland, USA and on the website (I’m just getting too tired to list all the numbers, so you’re just going to have to peruse the website).
INK BOTTLES AND CARTRDGES:
We have restocked all the colors of the Monteverde ink that we were out of, and to me, it is still the best bang for the buck when it comes to ink.
Now this is the one where there was a reversal, and I gave THOSE eyes to Betsy, we were at a show, and she came back with a bag full of Stipula’s Calamo ink (for some reason I still call it Clamato ink). It is a big bottle of ink, and if you like to write with an ink that gives you that old style feeling, this is it; we have #40424 black,
#40421 dark red, #40407 deep blue, #40416 musk green, #40413 red, #40418
sapphron, #40410 sepia. So my doghouse is my man cave, and Betsy really doesn’t like being in here (too much cigar smoke), so buy this stuff so she can get out.
Coming up sometime in the future, we will add the stash of levers that I acquired, for all of you pen makers who want to make lever fill fountain pens; nibs that have to be repaired or re-tipped, modern and vintage, and then MAYBE, make a pen or two, and make my own hand made nibs. I apologize for this long winded newsletter, but there have been many additions since my last one, and again, I will not send out an email, unless there is something to say.
Thank you for your time and patronage,
Richard