Wonder Pens Adventure + New Nib-Tuning Class with Jeffry Fridfinnson

What seems like a million years ago, we cajoled an invitation and invaded our friend and local repair guy Jeffry Fridfinnson's home. He and his wife Erin were both incredibly gracious considering that we invited ourselves over and brought our toddler along as the real party-time. Along with Erin's father, they've been friends of the shop for a long time now, and while we've only been in business just over three years now, it's long enough for us to really and truly appreciate what that means. I always love seeing them poke their heads through the shop doors, and to hear everything they've been up to. We visited them more than a few weeks ago, and being as ultra prepared as I usually am, I took some notes while we chatted. For example, I see here in my notes that I wrote:

-US dollar -repair work -e-mail -mostly stubs -churn tuyere tytg

You can guess how helpful these notes have been as I write this blog post. It has been a test of memory and logical deduction and some imagination, of which I have a-plenty. Jeffry and Erin live in Cabbagetown, which is not too far from the shop, and a great neighbourhood - I taught at the school just down the street from them, so it was a bit nostalgic coming back to the beautiful old houses and shops along Parliament and Carlton. It's sort of a bit ridiculous for me to say that, since Cabbagetown really is very close to Leslieville, the neighbourhood we're in now, but it's so different to see a neighbourhood by walking the streets as opposed to just driving through. Jeffry is an artist himself, and got into fountain pens after discovering the work of artist Mattias Adolfsson and seeing that Adolfsson uses fountain pens himself - in particular a Pilot Falcon. Since then he's been amassing fountain pens and adjusting and tweaking them, and from there, learning to take them apart and fix them. Over time, he's also been investing in more and more tools and equipment to fix up pens properly. Fun facts:

1. He and his wife taught English in Korea for three years.
2. His favourite ink is J. Herbin Stormy Grey.
3. His favourite vintage pens are Parker Vacumatics.
4. In his pen roll (at the time of the interview) were: a Conklin, a Parker, a Namiki Falcon, a Sailor and three TWSBIs. huu

Jeffry now repairs vintage pens, and also adjusts and grinds nibs, doing stubs and changing tips sizes as well. In fact, we keep Jeffry's card on file in the shop for people who come in looking to get their pens repaired - doing great work and being close by to the shop help, but I can also personally attest to the work he's done on my Parker Lucky Curve (now twice...). This is clearly a man you can trust with your most valuable fountain pens. (Really!)
Jeffry's advice to people adjusting or tuning their nibs is to go careful and slow (of course), but also that nibs are not as fragile as people may think. I know it's always a balance, and that you never want to risk springing your nib or bending it completely out of shape, but that nibs have their own strength in them. And of course I have to include a slightly blurry picture of their gorgeous girl Morley. Jeffry and Erin both mentioned that they were worried Morley might be too excitable for Caleb, but Morley was a complete sweetheart. The truth is in the calm look on Caleb's face - having grown up with Super around, the dog who barks at his tail and jumps up on everyone, he is now completely fearless when it comes to "excitable" dogs. Of course in my notes, my only complete sentence is "Morley is ten years old." And out of all this! We're very excited to offer our newest upcoming class: an Introduction to Nib-Tuning and Adjustment Workshop with Jeffry Fridfinnson, on Thursday, July 14th from 7-9pm. Jeffry will be covering a bit of the fundamentals of how a fountain pen works, in order to explain and demonstrate how to adjust nibs to get it writing exactly as you like it. I am hoping to attend myself! I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything will go well with the little monkey and also the dog and the cat and I'll have the evening to get my fingers inky.