Japan’s biggest pen club commissioned a turquoise Platinum 3776, based on the standard Nice model, in 2018. It sold out fast.

Tokyo International Pen Show (TIPS) and pen club Wagner’s autumn event, in one weekend!

Gary is a fountain pen enthusiast from southern Japan with a knack for chemistry. A few years ago, he started experimenting with iron gall inks. This eventually led to a collaboration with Platinum, resulting in the Classic Ink series. He has also made inks for Pen Saloon and Wagner.

A few months ago, Gary published a few observations and lessons using iron gall inks in fountain pens, on his Japanese blog. Given his knowledge on the subject, and as iron gall ink safety is a question that often comes up on pen forums, I thought it was worth summarizing his findings in English.

Pen Trading in Tokyo (ペントレ) is an annual pen show organized by “Pen Collectors of Japan”. It is arguably the place to find rare Japanese pens, and thus attended by some of the most dedicated collectors around. It is not just about vintage pens though.

This year’s show was the 19th. It was a three-day event, with the first day focused on presentations, paraphernalia, and Kakuno hacking, and the two remaining days on gold-nibbed pens, new and old.

Wagner is a Japanese pen club that I have previously written about. On December 30th, Wagner held a year-end meetup and sale event at their favorite venue in Ryogoku.

As usual, there were plenty of exotic pens available, including Wagner-commissioned limited runs, various vintage pens, and other rare items such as y.y Pen Club’s red Sailor Realo.

A new ink, a turquoise iron gall one called 喜望峰 (Cape of Good Hope), was available for testing and pre-order. This ink has been developed by a Wagner member and ink mixer called Gary, who’s also worked with Platinum on their classic inks.

This autumn was a busy time for stationery fans in Tokyo, with no less than four events between late September and early October.

Starting it off was Pelikan Hubs. The one in Tokyo was held in trendy Meguro, in Atlas Tower near Naka-meguro station. It was my first time joining, so I didn’t know what to expect, but around 20 people showed up, almost half of them foreigners.

Most people had brought far more exotic pens than I did, including vintage Pilots, rare anniversary Sailor KOPs, Bokumondoh-customized Pelikans, and more. My own pen case contained, among other pens, a vintage Sailor with soft nib, a pre-production PenBBS vacuum filler, and a pen with a Franklin-Christoph SIG flex nib. The last one garnered most interest.