Pen of the Year 2008

The Pen of the Year 2008 by Graf von Faber-Castell is a unique limited edition fountain pen, in magnum size, which incorporates the world's smallest herringbone pattern (parquet) of no less than 84 individually cut pieces of carefully-selected satinwood. Due to the naturally varying wood grain and colouring, no two fountain pens are the same and the craftsmanship is simply incredible. There is a chessboard-faceted citrine gemstone mounted in the end-cap, the metal fittings are platinum-plated and the nib is of bi-colour gold which has been largely hand-finished including a final 'running in' stage common to all fountain pen nibs in the Graf von Faber-Castell range. Medium, fine or broad widths available.

The edition is limited to manufacture during the year 2008 and, if all previous years are anything to go by, these delicious writing instruments are likely to sell out completely soon after the year end.

Owners may register their purchase with Faber-Castell for a professional clean and check which is completely free (correct at time of writing).

Each of these limited edition fountain pens is individually numbered and comes in an exclusive wooden case which includes a beautifully designed brochure plus authentication certificate bearing the personal signature of Count Faber-Castell.

More details on the Pen of the Year 2008 by Graf von Faber-Castell here.

National Handwriting Day (U.S.A.)

Today (23 Jan) is National Handwriting Day if you live in the U.S. This is the day to pick up a writing instrument and get writing, rather than clicking away at your keyboard (now... if only I could blog without using one of those!). With a traditional fountain pen in your hand, you can rekindle the sometimes lost art and true creativity of handwriting. So, if you haven't written a poem lately, updated your journal for a while or started that book yet, today is the day to get begin!

So, why January 23rd? Well, apparently, it's because today is the birthday of a certain Mr. John Hancock .... and his is the large, bold signature on the Declaration of Independence. The date was chosen back in 1977 by The Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA).

Parker inks & refills - adaptable & inexpensive

It was only a matter of time before we added refill and ink products by Parker to the on-line pens and writing instruments shop. So, now available are Parker ballpen refills in black, blue and red, Parker rollerball refills and Parker Gel pen refills. We have also added Parker / Quink writing ink to the site.

It was of interest for us to note that the Parker ballpoint pen refills and the Parker Gel pen refills are both of an identical size and shape, which apparently fits over 90% of all ball point pens and are therefore interchangeable - you can convert your ballpen to a gel pen - or the other way around!

Moreover, we noted that, being the standard international size means that they can replace many seemingly identical - but much more expensive - pen refills supplied by other manufacturers such as Faber-Castell, Porsche Design and Pelikan. In some cases the Parker refills are less than half the price of the other makes even though Parker claim their ballpoint refills can write for 3500m and their gel pen refills 600m.

Don't forget - London Pen Event - Sun 7 October

Just a quick reminder; The London Writing Equipment Show 2007 is only just over a week away.

Venue: Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX
Time: 11.00am to 5.00pm.

Full details of this exciting pens and writing instruments event are on our previous post.

That's it!

The London Writing Equipment Show returns

Sunday 7 October 2007 will see the return of the London Writing Equipment Show. The venue this year will be Kensington Town Hall and will take up both the Great and Small halls as well as further ancillary rooms.

The all-new show is, this year for the first time, organised by the Writing Equipment Society (WES) and promises to be the biggest and best ever. There will be dealer tables, displays by special interest groups, workshops, pen repair information and a seminar programme.

Another of the new items will be the manufacturers' exhibition area which promises to show all the latest products available to pen collectors and writing enthusiasts.

More information is available at the London Writing Equipment Show website.

Pen refills - some brands are hard to find

A Google search for Schneider topball refills will, incredibly, show up only something like only 8 suppliers in the whole of the UK. If you know your exact pen model and make your search even more specific (e.g. search for Schneider Topball 850 rollerball Refill), it only shows 2 different UK suppliers! Add in quotes around that search phrase (so as to force the search engine to search for sites containing exactly that phrase) and, at time of writing, only one site pops up in the results. Quite incredible. www.pensfromheaven.com seems to have a very nice pen refills niche!

Bear in mind that Schneider is one of Europe's most popular brands and you really have to ask yourself how come they're so sparsely represented on the web. The answer lies in the fact that, while big in the rest of Europe (and certainly growing nicely in the US), they have only been represented in the UK in very recent years and, it seems, writing instrument retailers are a little slow to catch on. But not so with pensfromheaven.com ...

Let's try another make on Google, this time for a Pelikan pen refill: type in "Level L5 refill" and, again, it's www.pensfromheaven.com who are the ONLY result in the whole of the UK. And a search for (incl. quotes) "Porsche Design Ballpen refill" turns up the same result. Did I mention the phrase, "nice niche"?

So, what other difficult (and easy) to find pen refills do they sell? Just about any Caran d'Ache refills, Faber-Castell and Graf von Faber-Castell refills, Pelikan refills, Porsche Design, Schneider and Tombow writing instrument refills. So, if you're having trouble locating that illusive refill for your favourite writing instrument, you know where to look first.

Hey, by the way, in case any of you from across the pond spotted it, 'refil' is spellt 'refill' here in the UK; it's no mistake ;-)

The oldest fountain pen on the planet?

With a barrel made with 360 million year old petrified wood, Graf von Faber-Castell's "Pen of the Year 2007" could quite possibly get away with such a boast. Limited in reality to production only during the year 2007, this beautiful magnum-sized fountain pen should become an important collectors' piece and will regrettably not be available for too much longer (the Pen of the Year for the previous year, 2006, is on the verge of becoming completely sold out at time of writing; most preceding years' pens are already unavailable... maybe we should say 'extinct'!).

The eight fossilised wood panels inlayed around the barrel of the 2007 have been expertly crafted by world-class gemstone cutters to give a subtle sparkle which has many jewel-like qualities. Every pen is different because of the unique qualities in the petrified wood material.

The cap, ends and other metal components are platinum-plated and like a jewel in a crown there is an expertly inlayed petrified wood end-piece in the cap. Again, beautifully crafted and showing the grain of this rare but intrigueing stone material to great effect.

Like all Graf von Faber-Castell fountain pen nibs, the nib of the Pen of the Year 2007 is of 18-carat bicolour gold which has been 'run-in' by hand, the final stage of about 100 production procedures, many of them by hand, which go into the making of just the nib.

Supplied in a beautiful wooden case with a brochure and a certificate showing the personal signature of Andreas Crummenauer, the master craftsman of the Herbert Stephan gemstone manufactory, the fountain pen is available with a fine, medium or broad nib.

EU price (incl. VAT @ 17½%): £1840. Rest of the world (VAT-free): £1565.96 from www.pensfromheaven.com. More info....

The Pens From Heaven blog - welcome!

Pens From Heaven, is the home of fine or luxury pens and designer writing instruments from brands like Faber-Castell, Graf von Faber-Castell, Caran d'Ache, Pelikan, Tombow, Schneider, Sheaffer and Porsche Design. Available to buy online at www.PensFromHeaven.com, using any major credit card, debit card, or PayPal, our writing implements are truly “to die for”!

So, for fine, luxury or designer fountain pens, rollerballs, ball-point pens, mechanical pencils, propelling pencils, writing accessories or desk sets, pen refills and ink, please feel free to drop by the website and take a look! We have something for everyone and for just about any budget. Prices are amongst the most competitive and if you find an identical pen or product cheaper at another genuine pen retailer, please let us know and we'll do our utmost to beat it if we can, and give you a genuine saving.

With outstanding writing instruments, pens and accessories, we strive to always offer an outstanding personal service to match. After all, we want pen lovers to be happy and come back again! All online orders are personally acknowledged and subsequently despatched as soon as possible, most orders being despatched well inside a week, often the same day as the order comes in.

Come and take a look!