2018 Ohio Pen Show Recap and Conclusions: Day 4, Sunday

Day Four: Sunday

By Sunday, everybody’s tired. We’d had an extra hour of sleep or whatever with the time change. I’d gotten up around the same time as usual, and read a book with muh kids before heading in to work. I did much the same routine as I did Saturday, hitting the donutland to get stuff, then heading out to the ‘otel to brew coffee by 8AM.

I’d run out of cups and half-n-half by now and I forgot to get more at the shop. Fortunately there were cups and cream around so folks were fine.

My friend and teacher Deb came in for coffee as I was taking out my Penlux, which I’d been able to put the Ralph nib into finally. It was out of ink though, so Deb was kind enough to go grab a bottle of Blue Quink from her room, and I got it inked up like a mutha.

Another highlight of the show was when Jake Weidemann came down for coffee (he drinks lots of coffee, I knew he was a good guy.) and took a couple of my nibs for a spin. That was freaking awesome. If there’s one thing I respect, it’s a Master Penman, and Jake is the third I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

Before the noon hour I ran over to Kroger for more half and half and maybe 2 6ers of beer. It’s Celebration time, so I got some of that and a 6er of the CBC wet hop IPA, Citra Noel. Those are really delicious beers. I shared them for sure. For sure.

I tried to help this guy jumpstart his car, but his battery was too far gone. I had to get to the coffee, cause people were trying to have coffee, you know? I saw him later, I think he did ok with his car eventually.

My Penfriend Delee came through on her way out of town to let me try a couple of her brand new Taccia inks, which are really nice. I made a no-no and put them in my Visconti and my Faber-Castell, so there’s not a lot to go on as I’m unfamiliar with those nibs, but whatever! I was drinking beer and having pens and it was a blast.

In a beer induced haze, I left the cozy confinies of room 150 to go find some strange inks to try. I stopped by Lemur Inks and settled on two Blackstone inks from Australia. One’s blue and one’s green, and I bought em for the sheen!

Over at Federalist Frank’s table I opted for a bottle of Diamine Dark Forest Green, a Clairfontaine notebook that has since become my new roaster log, and a clear Pilot Kakuno– I really like the Kakuno and I didn’t have a clear one, so there.

I rattled around for a while and remembered to get some photos with some pen friends.

Things were really starting to clear out. I spent a little time at Dan Smith’s table and picked out some ink and paper to send as a thank-you to my buddy Steve. The least I could do, yeah?

It was 5pmish and the show was over. I gound myself in the main ballroom showing my Flexxies to John Corwin (the guy with the Flexxies!) he is a fun guy. Finally I got a chance to talk pens and life with Bob Leeds, a guy I hadn’t seen since about 2012.

I’d met Bob at the Ohio show and he spent some time talking to me and showing me his Pelikan 100Ns. He told me about how good the nibs were, and let me write with them. I’ve always remembered that conversation, and to this day the 100N is one of my very, very favorite pens, maybe my favorite pen design of all time. I was so glad he came to this show and I got to spend some time.

New Blood in Ohio.

Ohio has been a favorite show of mine for a long time. This show in particular was fantastic– I felt it was a really nice mix of older and younger pen people. It was so cool having some young exciting pen people here for the first time– I’m talking specifically about Jake Weidemann, Pierre Miller and Ralph Reyes, and generally about a lot of other young folks I recognized from Instagram and elsewhere. The Black Pen Society was there in force and the Ohio Pen Club had

an absolutely epic meetup in the bar on Saturday evening– I wish I’d have had more time to hang out at that one, but there’s never enough time to do everything you want to at a pen show.

 

Thanks to everyone who came. Thanks to everyone who had a cup of my coffee, and special thanks to those who took home a bag or two. Thanks to everyone I got to say hello to, and thanks to those I missed– I’ll see you at another show, ok?