Parker Vacumatic Shadow Wave and How I Look at Vintage Pens

Our local fountain pen brick and mortar shop is closing down at the end of the month, and it’s a crying shame. There’s been a steady stream of collectors visiting the store to say goodbye and stock up on supplies, and on Thursday I joined them. I bought a few bottles of ink, a few fridge magnets with reproductions of old fountain pen adverts (most of them for Parker, of course), and there was a single tray of vintage pens.

“None of them work, I’m afraid,” the proprietor’s daughter said.

But I saw a Parker Vacumatic Shadow Wave among the lot, and I have a very hard time leaving Parker Vacumatics and 51s behind. I picked it up and took a quick glance. It was clearly a user grade pen, but I didn’t care – it was a speedline Vacumatic, which meant that it was fairly easy to fix. I asked her if they could perhaps be mistaken, and was there a chance that the pen worked. She brought out a cup of water and tried it out. It didn’t seem to hold any water, and she showed it to her dad, the proprietor and a well known pen repairman. “Oh, I can fix it, no problem. It just needs a filler swap”.

So today, in the midst of a rainstorm, I went to pick it up after its repair. It’s still a user grade pen, because it’s full of little nicks and scratches, and it has a well worn name engraved into it. But that’s part of what I love about vintage pens, and it’s something that I just can’t get with modern ones. I got a gold nibbed pen with a unique filling system and lovely material (that allows you to see the ink levels through it), in a classic design, for less than $130. And I got a bit of history, as this little workhorse has been around since the first quarter of 1938, and it’s still doing its job. Finally, there’s the mystery of it: puzzling out the model and the date code, maybe trying to find out about its previous owner (in this case, a Mary Thompson. It’s part of why I have no problem with engraved vintage pens), imagining what it’s been through over the decades. This pen is almost 85 years old. It’s a Junior Debutante, so it isn’t surprising that it belonged to a lady. It was likely a gift, and one wonders for what occasion and who the gift giver was. It was at the cusp of a world war that would change a lot of things for women. Was Mary Thompson starting out at her first job? Had she graduated from college? Did the pen pass to her children? How did end up in a pen shop in Tel Aviv 85 years later?

Yes, there’s a risk when buying vintage pens. There is also always a story, and a chance of a greatly rewarding experience, not to mention the possibility of getting a pen with a nib that writes like this (it’s a fine italic nib with nice amount of spring to it):

Diamine Inkvent 2022 Day 25: Best Wishes and Closing Thoughts

It’s the final day of Inkvent, and so it’s time to both review the final, 30ml bottle of the set, and review the calendar in its entirety.

Day 25’s ink is a larger, 30ml bottle. It’s called Best Wishes, and it’s a very dark and saturated green with green shimmer and a lot of red sheen.

It’s quite a dramatic combination, the dark green base being almost black, the red sheen being very prominent and the green shimmer on top. More Halloween appropriate perhaps than Christmassy.

My camera had a rough time photographing this ink. It’s the combination of the shimmer and the dark ink maybe that made it a bit blurry. In any case, the base ink is so dark that you can hardly tell that it’s a green at times.

Here it is from another angle:

This ink takes ages to dry, because it’s so saturated. I smudged the sketch above and this writing sample took a good long time to properly dry. If you’re left handed, I’d steer well away from Diamine Best Wishes. If you like the drama, then maybe it’s the ink for you. Personally I would have preferred a lighter or more interesting green with a chameleon effect and no sheen.

Writing sample on 68gsm Tomoe River paper

It’s summary time! Looking at this year’s Inkvent, I’m very pleased with the selection of inks, the spread of ink properties amongst them, and the overall value of this experience. I like that we got new chameleon inks, and I appreciated that there were less red inks in this year’s edition, and quite a good number of uniquely coloured inks. Reviewing the whole 25 inks involved, I think that Dusted Truffle, Memory Lane, Solar Storm, Ghost, Olive Swirl, Arctic Blast, Deck the Halls, and One More Sleep are the stand outs for me. Olive Swirl, Memory Lane, Dusted Truffle and Deck the Halls are inks that I plan on buying full bottles of once the green edition bottles come out. Ghost and Arctic Blast might join them too. If you like red inks, the Spiced Apple is fantastic. There are other great inks to have here, depending on your personal taste.

It was quite an endeavour, to fill fountain pens 25 times with ink and write, sketch and post a review of an ink a day. I don’t know if Diamine will create a 2023 Inkvent calendar, or if I will be able to write another set of reviews like this, but it was a wild and fun ride creating these reviews for the blog this year.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. I hope you got some cool pens and ink under the tree.

Diamine Inkvent 2022 Day 24: One More Sleep

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! It’s day 24 of Diamine Inkvent.

Day 24’s ink is Diamine One More Sleep, a standard grey blue ink.

Diamine One More Sleep is a lovely grey blue with a lot a shading and a hint of lavender in the background.

I love this shade of ink as it works well for sketching and for writing. It’s also a calm and relaxing colour, very appropriately named.

Today’s writing sample is a little melancholy, as I reflect on the wave of well established pen shops that are closing down by the end of the year. This ink colour seems to encourage reflection, something I find myself doing more often since I received my cancer diagnosis a year and a half ago. If you don’t have an ink in this bluish grey light purple shade I recommend getting one, whether it’s Diamine One More Sleep or something similar by a Japanese or Korean maker.

Diamine Inkvent 2022 Day 23: Celebration

It’s day 23 of the Diamine Inkvent calendar.

Day 23’s ink is Diamine Celebration, a coral ink with shimmer.

Celebration is between pink and orange, a bright and vibrant ink with plenty of orange shimmer. It look like Diamine Coral with added pizzazz.

This ink would definitely cheer you up on a dark and gloomy day, as it practically glows in the page. Is it practical? No. Is it fun and interesting? Yes, particularly if you haven’t got an ink like Diamine Coral.

Would I use a bottle of this? No. I have a bottle of Diamine Coral already, and I don’t need another one but with shimmers in it. But this ink certainly belongs in this calendar, and I’m glad that Diamine chose this hue instead of another red.

Diamine Inkvent 2022 Day 22: Deck the Halls

It’s day 22 of Diamine’s Inkvent (check out that snowflake!):

Day 22’s ink is Diamine Deck the Halls, a dark purple chameleon ink, and an interesting one at that.

Deck the Hall is dark and saturated, with just a hint of shading and a fascinating chameleon effect. I was expecting something with a silver, green or blue shimmer, but Deck the Hall shimmers from coppery orange to pink.

I don’t really like this dark eggplant colour, bu the chameleon shimmer effect here works very well, because of its strong contrast with the base colour. The effect reminded me of a hummingbird’s wings flashing.

I don’t really like the base colour so I don’t see myself buying a full size bottle of Diamine Deck the Halls. That being said, this ink is very Inkvent appropriate and an interesting ink with a lot of character.

Bonus: the signature I mentioned in my writing sample:

Diamine Inkvent 2022 Day 21: Cosy Up

It’s day 21 in the Diamine Inkvent calendar.

Day 21’s ink is Diamine Cosy Up, a standard bubblegum pink.

Cosy Up is a bright and cheerful colour with a lot of shading. If you like Diamine Coral you’ll likely like Cosy Up too.

I’m not a big fan of pink inks, but this one made me smile. It’s a very Barbie appropriate colour, one that Elle Woods would have loved.

There are a lot of ink options in this shade of pink in the market, so there’s no reason to prefer this one when it comes out, unless you are a fan of the bottle. That being said, it was nice getting a little sample of this in this year’s Inkvent.

One Year Since I Finished Chemo

When you finish your chemo treatments that’s not the end of your journey with cancer. In a way, it’s just beginning. You enter a new phase, one of constant dread, one of “wait and see”. You are in remission – for now.

And who are you to complain? You are in remission. Many cancer patients don’t get to this blessed state, and you are happy you made it, but it’s alway a happiness with an asterisk. Especially during the first year post treatment.

So, it’s been a year. I got my last treatment on the 21st of December 2021 (nice date: 21.12.21), and then had about a month of feeling like absolute trash – like three locomotives carrying every ailment in the world slammed into me at once. I was on old school chemo, not the new fangled targeted stuff, no immunotherapy for me: my treatment was discovered in the ’70s and it’s good enough to remain the gold standard 50 years later.

But I kept on walking, and I kept on eating and drinking and taking my meds, and gradually I started to feel better. I got my tastebuds back. My hair started to grow again. My blood tests started to improve. The number of meds I was on got smaller and smaller until it was replaced just by a few vitamins that I was prescribed to take care of the damages still left. I got to see my doctor less and less often. We’re now at the wonderful “every three months” mark. I lost the weight that I gained from the steroids.

I got back to running: 1k, 2k, 3k for while as my lungs got better, my heart got better, and I learned to deal with my PTSD better. Then 4k, 5k, and back to long runs. These days I run five times a week, four 5ks and one 10k long run. And running means so much to me I can’t express how much it means that I get to enjoy it again.

I also got back to lifting weights at the gym, to meeting people face to face, to listening to podcasts that I used to love (though there are some old favourites that I can’t listen to these days). I went back to the office, back to public transit, back to travelling abroad, back to participating in races. I went to two escape rooms with my friends.

But I didn’t go back to being the same person.

That’s impossible, and all the time I see cancer survivors struggling to come to terms with that. Even if you lucked out and didn’t get PTSD (about 25% of patients do), cancer leaves an indelible mark on you, on the way you think, feel and react.

Thankfully I realised that about halfway through my treatments, and I like the new me. And I’m comfortable enough saying that without hedging, explaining or apologising. Period.

I have another year of high risk of relapse, which means a checkup every three months, and then three more years after that of checkups every six months. Then, at the five year mark, I’m ostensibly free. From the cancer patients groups I know there’s no real freedom from this, but it’s something that I’m gradually learning to live with.
Right now I’m still at the “every twinge, cough and ache is a cause for panic” phase. It’s not a fun place to be, and you get to stay there for a good long while. But I’ve made it through the most high risk year for my kind of cancer, the first year, so I get to celebrate for a bit. I brought a cake to work this week, and I plan on celebrating with my family this weekend, and completely ignoring the panicking voice in my head that is yelling that I am tempting fate. If my cancer returns, it returns and I’ll deal with it then.

For now it’s been one year since I finished chemo and I get to celebrate.

Diamine Inkvent 2022 Day 20: Arctic Blast

It’s day 20 in Diamine’s Inkvent and we are at the home stretch.

Day 20’s ink is Diamine Arctic Blast and it is almost the polar opposite of yesteday’s Silent Night. If yesterday’s ink was a standard and boring blue black, today’s ink more than makes up for it.

Diamine went all out with this one: Arctic Blast is a rich royal blue with both a red shimmer, and a pink to blue chameleon effect. Yes, it is both a shimmer and a chameleon ink, and the result make it almost look neon in certain angles. A colour that would have felt welcome in the 80’s.

This is such a fun combination that you forget that it’s another saturated blue with red shimmer ink, because it isn’t. The chameleon effect makes this ink pop, and the combination may be hard to photograph but is quite striking.

This ink more than makes up for yesterday’s Silent Night, and while I likely won’t buy a full bottle of it, I plan to thoroughly enjoy Arctic Blast’s neon vibes while I still have a sample of it.

Diamine Inkvent 2022 Day 19: Silent Night

It’s day 19 in Diamine’s Inkvent and we’re reaching the point where the calendar becomes very light to pick up.

Day 19’s ink is Diamine Silent Night, a standard blue black, with a little bit of red sheen (because it’s so saturated). That’s it. that’s all there is to it.

There’s nothing of interest to write about this ink. It’s got practically no shading properties, it’s a dark greyish blue ink undifferentiated from the dozens of other blue black inks in the market (including a good number of Diamine’s own lineup).

Here’s a sketch of blue whale and a diver in the sea. There’s nothing much to see here in terms of the ink’s behaviour.

Diamine Silent Night on 52gsm Tomoe River paper

Silent Night, like other blue blacks, is a very good everyday writing ink. Is it festive? No. Is it unique? Also no. Should it have been included in this year’s Inkvent? There are 25 inks in the calendar and there are bound to be at least one or two that are uninteresting, like Silent Night. That being said, some people may want to purchase a full bottle of this to gift away to a newcomer to fountain pen ink. It’s a beautiful bottle, after all, and still a relatively inexpensive ink.

Diamine Inkvent 2022 Day 18: Olive Swirl

It’s day 18 in Diamine Inkvent. Exciting, I know 🙂

Day 18’s ink is Diamine Olive Swirl, an olive green chameleon ink with a good amount of shading and a whole lot of class.

Diamine Olive Swirl is a very cool colour – a pretty vibrant olive green with the coolest chameleon effect. The shimmers here change from pinkish copper to green, and it is a very attractive combination with the base colour.

I like sketching with unusual colours every once in a while, and even though I don’t sketch with shimmer inks, I can see myself sketching with Olive Swirl. The base colour is so good and the chameleon shimmer is subtle and yet adds so much interest to it, that I really enjoyed sketching this sea turtle with it.

Of the chameleon inks so far, Olive Swirl is by far my favourite. Green and pink are a classic combination, and the fact that you see the pink only in certain angles and so very subtly adds a lot to this ink’s charm. Definitely an ink I see myself purchasing in the future.

Writing at Large

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Month: December 2022