tmenyc

I'm a Wisconsin expat, living in Manhattan for 35 years. Professionally a nonprofit executive.  I have been a fp user for almost 50 years (yikes!) since I needed to cure lefthand-backhand ink-smearing in 6th grade. I still own the three pens from my teen and college years -- Parker 21 (1965, bar mitzvah present; recently decommissioned, worn out) MB 149 (1970, high school graduation present), Pelikan 120 (1970, bought 1st week of college when I forgot the 149). The Pel's plastic is pretty fragile and the 149 has a chipped cap, so their service is on my home desk, two of the smoothest nibs I have.

The urge to learn and experiment didn't hit until 2008, when I found and had Ron Zorn restore my in-laws' Parker 51s and Sheaffer Tuckaway which had come to me; through him, I discovered FPN and FPB. Since then, I've built an almost entirely vintage collection that I manage to a challenging approximate limit of 35. I've learned to clean up and restore a widening variety of vintage pens. I have not yet owned an Italian or Japanese pen.

This has become my third hobby. For many years I have been a scale model car builder, and more recently also a structure builder, both in the same 1:24 (1/2":1 ft) scale. Oh, and I grow African violets in my apartment window; they seem to like the noise and grit of Lower Manhattan.

Tim