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Since 2007 I have been providing superior service to my clients and assisting them in resurrecting vintage pens, or obtaining custom nib grinds. My 3 years of fountain pen restoration experience and my commitment to excellence have earned me the reputation as the premier fountain pen restoration tech in Canada.
I grew up in small town Ontario, where as a left handed writer there was little chance that I would be able to successfully use a fountain pen. My grandmother, a local librarian, was adept at cursive handwriting and calligraphy. She usually had a dip pen with some nibs sitting around for use as crafts for the local kids which often got some use when I was visiting. The frustration that I had with using a fountain pen, and the attendant blue left hand, was enough for me to basically give up on fountain pens for a couple of decades.
I would, every few years, look longingly at a nice fountain pen that was found in the local stationary shop. Not surprisingly it was a Sheaffer as there was a plant in Goderich for years. Usually I would handle the pen, scribble a few lines on a piece of paper, and put it back with a pang of regret.
In 1993 I began my career as a process engineer at a high precision bearing manufacturing company. The requirements of that product introduced me to micron tolerances, and surface finishing processes which would translate later into my work on fountain pen nibs to remedy misalignment, correct flow and increase smoothness.
Jump forward to 2005, I was working for a large factory automation company, and was fortunate enough to go to Shanghai, China on business. Strange customs, unidentifiable food, and the occasional fountain pen were thrust on me for a few weeks that year. In fact many contracts required the use of an “ink pen” and not a ballpoint! I decided, when I returned that I would try these formerly leaky, smudgy, messy pens to see if there had been any changes in the last decade or so.
To my surprise the first pen I bought was a vintage Parker Vacumatic off of ebay. Of course it did not write, and leaked all over my hands once I managed to get some ink in it. Then I came across the site of a man who would eventually become a mentor, Richard Binder. Richard’s site became a daily read so that I could figure out how to get that pen working again.
I found that the repair of various fountain pens, was not only something that I seemed to have an affinity for, but was a wonderful distraction from daily pressures that went along with working in the automotive business sector.
Of course, the fateful thought that there might be one perfect pen for me, soon crept into my mind. This began a rather long succession of vintage pens that came across my bench, all of which needed some type of restoration or another. This taught me the techniques which I use today, the same tools which I now consider the basis of my restoration business. I am always interested to touch base with others in this field to learn new techniques, which will allow me to offer even more services to my clients.
Over time, friends who were also in the fountain pen scene came to me with pens which required restoration. Also around this time, I started to divest of pens which I had restored that did not suit my writing style. Between selling restored pens and restoring them for friends, the beginnings of PenRx were formed.
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