Julian Vance
Portland, Oregon
Former architectural draftsperson turned fountain pen enthusiast and restorer. Julian lives for the tactile experience of a well-tuned nib on paper and understands pen mechanics with the precision of someone who spent fifteen years at a drafting table. He's the guy bringing neglected vintage pens back to life, one careful restoration at a time.
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Latest from Julian
View all →The Last of the 52gsm: What Happens When the World's Best Fountain Pen Paper Runs Out
Toyo Denki's 52gsm Tomoe River is running out—and my old-stock stack is down to forty sheets. This is not an elegy. It is a technical accounting of what the paper actually did, why nothing replaces it exactly, and what I am using instead.
The Pen Show Pilgrim: What a Nib Tuner Actually Shops For (And Skips)
A pilgrimage protocol for pen shows: what to bring, how to assess a vintage pen in ninety seconds, what to skip, and why the real value is never in the dealer cases.
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The Nib Width Lie: Your Japanese Fine Is My European Extra-Fine
There is no ISO standard for fountain pen nib widths. A Japanese Fine runs 0.3mm. A German Fine runs 0.5mm. The letter on your nib is a manufacturer's declaration — and a century of parallel craft traditions that never compared notes.
Thirty Years of Silence: Restoring My Grandfather's Parker 51
A Parker 51 sat sealed in dried iron gall for thirty years. Here is what three evenings at the bench, a size #14 sac, and some patience can bring back.
The Iron Gall Equation: What 2,000 Years of Permanence Means for Your Writing Practice
Iron gall ink doesn't coat the page — it becomes part of it. A technical deep-dive into the chemistry, history, and honest writing philosophy of the world's oldest surviving ink formula.