This is my second year attending The Los Angeles International Pen Show, and I figured that I would write about it, after all what’s the point of blogging, if I’m not blogging about everything right?

I felt official

After last year’s show I was honestly a little hesitant about attending this year’s show. Last year was chaotic and crowded and I felt a little overwhelmed trying to get anything done. This year I decided to pay to enter the show as a Trader, which would have been 55 dollars had I just pulled the trigger on this idea earlier, but I ended up paying 65 at the door. Honestly, this was probably the wisest choice, I got to walk around Saturday with hardly anyone there and I really got to take a lot of the pens, inks, and paper goods in.

Let’s goo!!!

Okay, so I’m not going to lie… I didn’t really have much of plan, I had a general idea of things that I wanted to accomplish, but that’s about it. I knew that I wanted to geek out over Lemur Ink. Yup that’s right I’m not ashamed to admit it, I have been listening to The Leaky Nib podcast @lemurink does with @inkykatwrites and I love it. Once I knew he’d be at the show I had to go make sure that I showed my support. I was rewarded with a Lemur Ink and Leaky Nib Sticker. I also got to buy a TWSBI mini AL Mint Blue, and a bottle of his exclusive Blackstone Ink Lemur Lime.

The Lemur Goods

Ok, so next I knew that I had a few more tables to stop at; If I didn’t spend a single dollar on stationery goods, I knew I couldn’t leave without getting some of my most stubborn pens worked on… As fate would have it the very next table to Lemur Ink was Custom Nib Studio. I had heard a lot of great things about Gena Salorino (@customnibstudio), and there she was… busy… so we waited (my 10-year-old son and I). Finally, it was our turn. I was extremely nervous considering that I had never had any nib work done, she was nothing but extremely helpful, extremely nice, and just awesome. I wanted to get an architect grind done on one of my pens, she talked me out of what is her most expensive nib grind, for a less expensive nib grind she thought would suit my writing style better. Needless to say, she has a customer for life, and quite honestly I’ll probably only take my nibs to her from now on. What can I say, she hit me with the business 101. Thanks to her great work I now have some amazing pens, she even managed to tune and smooth that “Dream” nib on my Visconti Homo Sapiens.

The Miracle Worker

Renewed Life

Next, I wandered… until I stumbled upon a pen that I have seen a lot over the last few months. The Fine Writing Instruments Bronze Age Brass pen, and I thought to myself Pen #2, and so it was done. To my surprise the pen they had let me sample was a broad, something that to this day I had never tried before. This is why pens shows are important, I tried a broad nib for the first time ever!!! and let me tell you… I’ve been missing out, I love them. I bought this beauty in a broad nib that was just perfect for me. Something that I would have never dared to try before the show. I inked it up with Diamine Oxblood. Just another reason why sometimes you just gotta hold a pen.

What a thicc line.

I ran into Matthew Martin (@mcm.pens) of Matthew C. Martin Custom Pens and I was in complete shock and awe over his absolutely stunning pens. I wanted one of his pens so bad, but I couldn’t decide on exactly which pen, but I knew at this moment that I would not be leaving this show without one of his pens.

I continued my laps around the show until I finally came across Ian Schon (@schon_DSGN) from Schon DSGN. The first thing that I want to say is this, Ian Schon is probably one of the nicest people you can come across at a pen show. Talking to me and my son about his pens, and the process in which he makes them, he told me he doesn’t want to just have a transaction, he wants to have interaction and man what a great 20 minutes buying one of his pen’s was. I was able to buy a pen that is sold out on his website the Pocket Six Deep Space, he even had a nib section that matched perfectly. My son was such a trooper listening to us geek out over pens that Ian gave him a free SchonDSGN pocket notebook, made by Write Notepads. If you haven’t checked out Write Notepads, I highly suggest that you do.

To die for!!

Another surprise treat, I was able to test out the new Platinum Curidas, a pen that I had already pre-ordered, before the whole pricing debacle? Fiasco? I don’t know if it was more debacle or fiasco, whatever it was, I’m not here to debate that. The pen itself was amazing, I did not feel the clip whatsoever. Also the fine people at Luxury Brands USA had tried to demonstrate the clip removal, and well that didn’t go as expected… even they were having a lot of trouble taking it off and putting it back on. Let’s just chalk that up to how new the pen is. The pen was also a lot thicker than I had expected. It is as long as you might expect while the nib is retracted, when the knock is activated, and nib exposed it felt perfect in my hand. The length only worries me for pen case storage purposes. Okay, just one point on the pricing, it is absolutely an 80 dollar pen. I love it at that price, I got mine for 65 and would have paid 80 without question. Come on Platinum… Make up your minds.

Honestly, I have high hopes for this freaking pen!!!

Okay, at this point I had to get back on track, I also knew that I wanted some Tomoe River Paper. There was a lot of different products to choose from. The Endless Recorder Notebook was however what caught my eye. Stocked with a little heavier Tomoe River than I’m used to. It was an impressive notebook, that had found it’s way into my bag. It also came with a brooch that I loved that was engraved with “I’ll Ink to that”. I don’t drink, but I do Ink quite heavily.

With that my son also had a blast, he got so much free swag that he was overwhelmed with how amazing everyone was to him. He enjoyed himself greatly. He was also super impressed with Gena at Custom Nib Studio that he took my new Pocket Six and said, “We can’t leave without getting the nib polished”. After explaining to him that she was grinding the nib into a custom grind. He walked over to her table and said, “We have another pen”. So, another Cursive Italic found its way to into my collection. My son pleased with himself, gave me the okay to leave the pen show and that wrapped up day one for us. I got him to go to the pen show, by telling him maybe he could find supplies for the comics that he loves to draw! I think the show had a lasting effect on him.

Made this after the show.

WAIT!!!! If you had made it this far you’ve probably asked yourself which MCM pen I got, well I didn’t. So, I got up a little earlier than usual on a Sunday and I managed to make my way to back to the pen show. Wow let me tell you the crowd was way more intense than Saturday, but so much more manageable than last year. I decided to do a couple more laps and circle my prey… Oh look Sailor has a table today. There were by far more tables, and different shops here today. However nice it was to see these beautiful pens; I had my eyes set on an MCM pen. I walked away with what was absolutely an amazing pen, that was one of a kind. After all, I dubbed this the year of the individual pen maker.

What a bad ass pen!!

Overall, I had such a great time at the pen show that I can’t wait until next year. The goal for the rest of the year is to continue to make friends in the community and hopefully expand knowledge as always. Maybe next year be able to be a bit more social and go to a few more meet ups if I can.

Thank you for reading, if you have any questions or comments you can find me on Instagram and Twitter @greatwarpanda. Thanks, hope you come back!