Phew, what a day! There’s been a hive of activity:
Leonardo Momento Zero (Devil’s Kiss) out on hire:
I’d bought some spare nibs for the LMZ because it’s always useful to be able to give different options, and I’ve also done this with some other pens. With manufacturers like Pelikan, TWSBI & Namisu, changing the nib unit is easy – just unscrew one and screw in the new one. The LMZ is a friction fit so there’s always an element of trepidation – those fins on the feed always look like they could break if manhandled. So I popped the nib unit in the freezer for 5 mins to hopefully get the nib to contract slightly, which it did, and I carefully wiggled it out and replaced the existing F with the B which the hirer had requested.
I was under a bit of time pressure to get to the post office after a late start to the day (thanks to the first of many Lockdown 2.0 hangovers). I always include an ink sample with the hire so rather than faff around filling a sample bottle and labelling which in normally do, I just filled the pen. Let’s see if there’s much leakage.. fingers crossed.
Pelikan M405 Streseman out on hire
Much more straightforward than the LMZ but I still had to fill the pen rather than a sample bottle. Still managed to write the usual notes for both and got to the Post Office with 15 minutes to spare.
TWSBI Diamond 580 back from hire
This particular pen took TEN DAYS to arrive with the hirer! It was posted signed for, so it was insured, but caused a few sleepless nights!
And on the way back to me, it took another 8 days! So it spent longer in the Royal Mail network than it did out on hire! Pensharing T&Cs state the hire period excludes shipping times, and using a signed for service means there is proof of arrival date which is great.
The hirer borrowed the 2 spare nibs for it and as they’re just screw in/out as mentioned above, nice to be able to have some variety for different purposes eg EF for note taking and stub just for fun!
Leonardo Furore Blue Emerald back from hire
A successful hire to first time hirer Adam who, like absolutely everyone else, thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is already planning the next hire.
I’ll now get to enjoy this beauty for a while – I literally sent it out on hire the day after it arrived!
I used, as I always do where possible, the packaging designed for shipping mobile phones – the pen stays perfectly protected under the tight cellophane membrane. And it means it can be posted as a large letter rather than a small parcel, so postage is much cheaper.
TWSBI Vac700 back from hire
The Vac700 is a great pen. What makes it even better is the matching filling bottle – I always offer it as part of the hire. But it’s quite big, and means that you can’t use the packaging I mentioned for the Furore.
So I used the original Vac700 cardboard box and liner, and used 2 new washing up sponges: firstly removing the scrubber of course! Then removing a portion of each to accommodate the bottle, and finally cutting a channel to accommodate the pen. Worked rather well, and both bottle and pen made it there and back in perfect condition.
Pensharing 