I’ll preface this discussion with this: Pen shows are fantastic if you are an extrovert, but if you’re introverted or socially anxious they can be super overwhelming. So this discussion is very skewed towards my experiences.
Okay, on to the good stuff.
We arrived at the hotel late Thursday evening and got situated in the hotel and kind of scoped where everything was in in terms of layout. There was some “free for all” trading available Thursday, and a wine and cheese party in the evening, but it wasn’t something I was interested in, and like I said, we got in on the later side.
The hotel was very nice, and because we had registered under the show, we got free breakfast vouchers for Friday and Saturday (the two days we would be there). After, we got registered at the main entrance. It was a little confusing because I wanted the Early Friday admission which was $25, but wasn’t sure if it included a partner (it did), but there was some confusion because there was also a Weekend Registration for $50 which also included Thursday and the evening parties Thurs, Fri, and Saturday. We got it all sorted in the end and life continued on. However, I will admit, I’m not too sure if the Early Friday admission was really worth it. The show opened to the public at 1pm Friday, and early admission was at 9am. However, a lot of the vendors weren’t set up by 9 (probably 1/3 were, and by 10 I’d say about 1/2 were set up, all of them by 11).
I beelined to Edison Pen Co.’s table as I’d been wanting to check out their pens for a while, and picked up a Beaumont in McKenzie Penworks Diamondcast “Unicorn Poop” and while the name is a bit of a turnoff, the color is lovely pastel swirl of pink, blue, yellow and purple with a subtle sparkle. Brian tunes the pens as well and my Fine nib is a lovely wet and smooth writer.
After, we wandered to River City Pens where I picked up another Shadyside in a White Pearl which Rich said was often picked up, but never bought until today. It’s an unbranded Bock Extra-fine that I haven’t had a chance to test out.
We wandered around a lot, ended up taking a short break before I had nib work done at Pen Realm with Kirk Speer. I had picked up a broad nib for my Opus 88 I wanted to do something with and I had a Leonardo Momento that needed tuning as I had some so-so experiences with it before. I went with a Speerpoint on the Opus, so in regular writing it’s a sharp fine, but on the reverse it’s a juicy smooth bold. The Leonardo was easily fixed with some quick adjustments on Kirk’s end and I’m eager to ink it up again.
While there we also picked up a new nib unit for my partners Esterbrook “Dip Less” desk pen that was his grandfathers. Plus he learned a good bit about the base and how it all worked. He’s pretty happy with it, but definitely has a bit to go in getting it all cleaned up.
We also picked up some Legendary Pencil Company mechanical pencils. I got a Black Model 2 with the Iona pattern, which has a lovely image from the Book of Kells with bands of the triquerta interlaced with circles on each end. My partner got a green Model 3 which is a narrower pencil for himself.
After we went to a local vegan deli, Seitan’s Realm, where I proceeded to have the best sandwich of my life. It was so good, I got a shirt. Also I love the logo and the metal/horror movie vibes of the place.
Saturday was a very abridged day. We had breakfast, made a lap around 9am, when the public show opened and most of the vendors were again… not set up. I had an appointment with JC of The Nib Tailor where I had one of my Sailor Pro Gears worked on and turned into a mini naginata-togi to give it a) a better writing experience and b) set it apart from the 3 other Medium Fine Sailors I own.
When I was done, we made one last lap of our hotel room and headed home. I was more than pleased with my purchases and my big focus had been on getting nib work done, not adding to my collection.
The Ohio Pen Show is very much vintage focused, with the bulk of the vendors being individuals selling by themselves or with their spouse. There were a few more “modern” pen shops and obviously newer makers, but the bulk is vintage. Which, if you’re looking to learn more about fountain pens or vintage pens, look no further because there were TONS of people to talk to. Of course, the downside is that it can be difficult to find more modern pens to check out (I had walked around for 4 hours by the time I found a Waldman Tango Inspiration to look at. Very nice), and there wasn’t much in the way of ink to choose from. I had managed to forget to take ink with me, so my pens were basically unusable the rest of the weekend. Lesson learned.
Overall, the Ohio Show is a good pen show. There’s a lot to look at and plenty of people to talk to if that is your thing. I didn’t get a chance to go to the seminars due to poor planning on my part, but they’re always informative. Some aspects of it just aren’t quite there yet, mostly in that the website is a little rough around the edges, and they updated the vendor list like the week before the show and most of the people I wanted to see disappeared. Not sure what happened there. I’m also a little surprised there’s no online registration. I’ll be the first to admit I’m a little leery of sending money in the mail, but at least day of registration is super easy. I also know that it’s the last US show of the year, just before the holidays and most “big name” vendors attend larger shows like San Fran or DC in August, but I do wish there was more to the show.
Happy I went, loved what I experienced. It’s not a show I would go to every year though. Cheers for another year, some other time.
Casual Crossings 