Old and New

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Following yesterday’s photo of the pen show, here’s my new pen (red) alongside its twin, a Sheaffer Targa that I’ve had since 1991 — my parents bought it for me as a present for getting into university. My Dad took me along to Owen Clark & Co on Cranbrook Road in Ilford to choose it.

Sheaffer stopped Targa production in 1999, so clearly my “new” pen isn’t actually very new!

They’re both the “laque ronce” finish, individually hand-lacquered 14 times, and then hand-polished. The new one has a fine nib, which I’ve been wanting to try for years: the medium nib in my original Targa is lovely to write with, but it does lay down a lot of ink, and a finer nib might be more useful for smaller-ruled pads and work better with lower-quality paper.