Sunday, May 20, 2012

Shocking Pen Repair Update!!!

I happened to be looking at Pen Doctor Richard Binder's site and saw this notice!!!

ATTENTION CLIENTS We have discontinued the repair and regrinding of pens that would be sent to us by clients. The growth of our retail business has made it impossible for us to continue to take on this type of work. We will complete all work on pens that are now in house, but we won’t be taking in any further pens for repair or customization.

We will continue to sell new pens and accessories, and to adjust or customize pens or nibs purchased from us, and we’ll still also continue to put up our monthly tray of restored vintage pens. And of course we’ll continue to sell pens and accessories at
pen shows and to work on pens there just as we’ve done in the past.  

Alas! This is a loss for pen lovers everywhere! Boo hoo!
If anyone knows of another pen repair pro out there... let me know!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Return of the Artpens

As you know, if you've read my previous post, I sent away my Koh-i-noor Artpens to Pen Dr. extraordinaire Richard Binder back in November 2011. He said it would take around 16 weeks or so before he could perform miracle surgery on the damaged nibs. 16 weeks is a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time when you are anxiously awaiting their return.
It got me to thinking that there were people out there (I'm talking to YOU Mr. Matt Groening!) who may have more pens stockpiled than I do...and they might have MORE working pens than I have!!!
The weeks went by. Luckily I still had 3 working pens to draw with.

Then I received an e-mail from the Pen Doctor telling me the pens were being shipped on April 18!!! But... there were these words regarding the extra nibs I had hoped would be fixable...
"All of the other art pen nibs are cracked and useless"!!! AAAAARRRRRGHHHHH!


At last! The package arrived!!!

















I opened it and unwrapped the precious, priceless (OK, ebay sellers put some prices on them, pretty HIGH prices, curse them!) Artpens:


Inside were 3 completely repaired artpens!

and the beautiful old pen had been repaired like new!
  and a rebate for the unrepaired ones.

 Moment of silence for doomed nibs:

Moving on... and testing out the pens 















































Oh, happy day! What could be better than dependable pens to draw with???