Hobbies?

[TDDA]

Sewing clothes is one of my favorite hobbies. It gives me time and a chance to calm down from my normally high energetic way of being.

It's less about saving money than knowing where the cloth comes from, how it was treated (no poisons) and that no children had to work for it. But I don't judge others about it, not everyone has the time for it and good cloth is almost as expensive as the finished product in store.

There's a lot of love going into it though, and just like with cooking, it can be felt, IMHO.

   

[FlyingClayDisk]

No way dude! I collect pens! I have about 100 interesting specimens.
Some are from interesting places I have traveled to, some feature unique design or ink, some are vintage, some are probably worth quite a bit... some I know are worth quite a bit.
I am particularly fond of parkers. I just found a 1970s era Parker CT with blue ink. I haven't gotten a GT yet but I am on the lookout for one. My favorite pens are usually not the fancy ones though, but the ones with sentimental value, i.e. got on a memorable family trip, given by a friend, and so on.

Nice to meet another writing-utensil collector. 

Likewise!  Do you collect fountain pens, or just regular pens (BP, roller, gel, etc0?

Yes, some of those old Parker's can be worth some serious coin.  Schaefer's too, especially some of the FP's (mainly because there's less of 'em)

I have quite a few FP's, but also a ton of just other pens.  I really like some of the Japanese gel pens.  And obviously, I LOVE Japanese pencils!  The Japanese are absolutely nutso over writing instruments (kinda' like me).

[FlyingClayDisk]

P.S. - If anyone ever has a question about a pencil, or pencils in general, please feel free to ask.  I will do my best to answer your questions, hopefully not boring you into a catatonic state in the process, and tell you about this spellbinding hobby I have.

I have a question about pencils.

Ah forget, you wouldn't see the point....



I have lots of hobbies:

- guitars and studio stuff
- airbrushing
- woodworking
- SDR radio
- bushcraft or anything survival related
- 4X4ing

Also, like you I have the farm and livestock to add to all that.

I do a lot of woodwork myself also.  In fact I'm making some cabinets now.  4x4 for us just kind of goes with the territory, we don't have to seek it out; it pretty much finds us!

Cool about the SDR stuff.  One of my other hobbies (as you may recall) is SWL.  When you say SDR, are you talking about building the Russian and Chinese SDR's, or are you just doing SDR on a computer?

Good to see you made it over!

[FlyingClayDisk]

No way dude! I collect pens! I have about 100 interesting specimens.
Some are from interesting places I have traveled to, some feature unique design or ink, some are vintage, some are probably worth quite a bit... some I know are worth quite a bit.
I am particularly fond of parkers. I just found a 1970s era Parker CT with blue ink. I haven't gotten a GT yet but I am on the lookout for one. My favorite pens are usually not the fancy ones though, but the ones with sentimental value, i.e. got on a memorable family trip, given by a friend, and so on.

Nice to meet another writing-utensil collector. 

I collect pens and mechanical pencils, but the heart of my collection is my fountain pens and my quills.

Quills...WOW!!  Now there's a cool niche!  Aside from seeing them and knowing their history, I don't know much about them from a collecting standpoint.  I do love my FP's though which are pretty much direct descendants.  My specialty though is MP's.  I break my MP's down into two categories....old Drafting stuff like lead holders and the like, and then mechanical pencils like we see today.  Lots of really cool stuff coming out of Japan these days, and even some new kids on the block too.  Plus, one of the really cool things happening right now is people building bodies to run on the P-20x series engines.  Don't know if you've seen some of this stuff, but guys like Spoke Designs and I.J. Instruments Designs...really cool stuff! 

There's a guy in HI you might want to check out...Ti2 Designs.  Ever heard of them?  They make some really cool tech pens.  I've got a couple of their Titanium pens.  Slick stuff, and Mike's a great guy too!  I've been buying stuff from him since back in his Kickstarter days.  Got one of the first TechLiner pens while it was still a prototype.  He's a hell of a machinist!

Spoke does pens too, and some of their stuff is WAY cool!  In fact, I think they do the Model 4 in a pen.  Check 'em out.

Cool to know another collector here.  This makes three of us so far.

And the hell of the whole hobby is I can use my hobby to make money!...just by using it!  Us old Drafting guys never really die.  LOL!

[FlyingClayDisk]

Ancient artifacts from dead civilizations...the more obscure and cursed, the better.
Been collecting for decades.

Well, that just goes without saying. 

i mean, you do know what the first "ink" was, right?

Yep, "Signed in Blood" really does have a real-life connotation!

Heh, AM would probably like pens now that he's heard that!!

[fishertail]

Likewise!  Do you collect fountain pens, or just regular pens (BP, roller, gel, etc0?

Yes, some of those old Parker's can be worth some serious coin.  Schaefer's too, especially some of the FP's (mainly because there's less of 'em)

I have quite a few FP's, but also a ton of just other pens.  I really like some of the Japanese gel pens.  And obviously, I LOVE Japanese pencils!  The Japanese are absolutely nutso over writing instruments (kinda' like me).

I have a couple fountains that ended up in a desk drawer somewhere safe, but I mostly collect rollers and ballpoints. I have a few interesting mechanical pencils too, including one that came from McDonnell Douglas Truck Services. It's soft blue with gold trim on the clip. I also have a stunning Cross "Century" chrome/silver mechanical pencil, and, speaking of Japanese pencils, I use a Kerry 0.7 mechanical (black with silver trim) for most of my writing and sketching. I have a few gel ones but nothing exciting. Which Japanese gel pens do you recommend? I wouldn't mind finding some for my collection. 
When I get a minute I will take a few pictures of my favorites from my collection and put them up here. I never thought I'd find a place where other people are as crazy about pens and pencils as I am.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Quills...WOW!!  Now there's a cool niche!  Aside from seeing them and knowing their history, I don't know much about them from a collecting standpoint.  I do love my FP's though which are pretty much direct descendants.  My specialty though is MP's.  I break my MP's down into two categories....old Drafting stuff like lead holders and the like, and then mechanical pencils like we see today.  Lots of really cool stuff coming out of Japan these days, and even some new kids on the block too.  Plus, one of the really cool things happening right now is people building bodies to run on the P-20x series engines.  Don't know if you've seen some of this stuff, but guys like Spoke Designs and I.J. Instruments Designs...really cool stuff! 

There's a guy in HI you might want to check out...Ti2 Designs.  Ever heard of them?  They make some really cool tech pens.  I've got a couple of their Titanium pens.  Slick stuff, and Mike's a great guy too!  I've been buying stuff from him since back in his Kickstarter days.  Got one of the first TechLiner pens while it was still a prototype.  He's a hell of a machinist!

Spoke does pens too, and some of their stuff is WAY cool!  In fact, I think they do the Model 4 in a pen.  Check 'em out.

Cool to know another collector here.  This makes three of us so far.

And the hell of the whole hobby is I can use my hobby to make money!...just by using it!  Us old Drafting guys never really die.  LOL!

I am mostly into the old stuff.

To tell you the truth, I never really thought about what the future in writing instruments would look like. I actually thought people had pretty much given up on them, with digital everything, and with most young people not even being to read or write in cursive. So, I thought that most writing instruments would all be instruments of the past.

You have peaked my interest. I will be looking into the new tech. Thank you.

[FlyingClayDisk]

I build electric guitars for a hobby. Did it professionally for several years. Worked at Hamer guitars and Washburn guitars. Worked as a guitar tech on the road and also toured as a guitar player with a couple bands. That was in the late 80's early 90's.
Now I am semi-retired and back to building guitars and writing a book about boutique guitars. So guitars.

Built this relic from spare parts I had accumulated.

Holy Shit!  That's awesome!!  Building musical instruments is like 3-4 hobbies all rolled into one!! 

Very impressive!  That's really cool!  Love to hear more.

Speakng of Guitars...when I pulled out my old Peavey guitar thinking I was gonna' try to learn (again), I first took it to a music shop to get it tuned up (it had been in the case for 30+ years).  The guy at the shop said it's actually worth quite a bit of money! I didn't think there was any market for Peavey stuff, but according to him they're actually quite sought after now days.  When I bought it, it was a poor man's Strat.  It's basically in brand new condition.  I was really surprised.  No idea how much it's worth (probably not a lot), but that it's worth anything at all kinda' made me happy.

[FlyingClayDisk]

Sewing clothes is one of my favorite hobbies. It gives me time and a chance to calm down from my normally high energetic way of being.

It's less about saving money than knowing where the cloth comes from, how it was treated (no poisons) and that no children had to work for it. But I don't judge others about it, not everyone has the time for it and good cloth is almost as expensive as the finished product in store.

There's a lot of love going into it though, and just like with cooking, it can be felt, IMHO.

Very cool! 

I'm still trying to learn how to sew.  I'd love to learn how to make some outdoor stuff.  I just have a hell of a time threading the damn thing for some reason.  I'd like to work up to being able to do some leather work.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Likewise!  Do you collect fountain pens, or just regular pens (BP, roller, gel, etc0?

Yes, some of those old Parker's can be worth some serious coin.  Schaefer's too, especially some of the FP's (mainly because there's less of 'em)

I have quite a few FP's, but also a ton of just other pens.  I really like some of the Japanese gel pens.  And obviously, I LOVE Japanese pencils!  The Japanese are absolutely nutso over writing instruments (kinda' like me).

I have a couple fountains that ended up in a desk drawer somewhere safe, but I mostly collect rollers and ballpoints. I have a few interesting mechanical pencils too, including one that came from McDonnell Douglas Truck Services. It's soft blue with gold trim on the clip. I also have a stunning Cross "Century" chrome/silver mechanical pencil, and, speaking of Japanese pencils, I use a Kerry 0.7 mechanical (black with silver trim) for most of my writing and sketching. I have a few gel ones but nothing exciting. Which Japanese gel pens do you recommend? I wouldn't mind finding some for my collection. 
When I get a minute I will take a few pictures of my favorites from my collection and put them up here. I never thought I'd find a place where other people are as crazy about pens and pencils as I am.

One thing I learned from living in Minnesota, is that you can always find folk anywhere and everywhere that share an interest in anything and everything.

I used to call Minnesota the land of festivals. Anything that anyone every allowed to travel through their mind, Minnesota used to have a festival to celebrate it.

I haven't lived there for a long time, so I don't know it that is still true.

[kdog]

I have a tendency  , or a more of an addiction towards flash lights. The more lumens, the better.  I love my rechargeable led's.

[TDDA]

Sewing clothes is one of my favorite hobbies. It gives me time and a chance to calm down from my normally high energetic way of being.

It's less about saving money than knowing where the cloth comes from, how it was treated (no poisons) and that no children had to work for it. But I don't judge others about it, not everyone has the time for it and good cloth is almost as expensive as the finished product in store.

There's a lot of love going into it though, and just like with cooking, it can be felt, IMHO.

Very cool! 

I'm still trying to learn how to sew.  I'd love to learn how to make some outdoor stuff.  I just have a hell of a time threading the damn thing for some reason.  I'd like to work up to being able to do some leather work.

The overlock machine I use for visible seams has 4 threads :D.

The other machine, I can determine the stitch patterns freely. It works like a normal one, threading, moving the cloth just the stitches can be programmed with the computer like I want them. Like stitching ....FCD....FCD....FCD....FCD.... instead of .........................................


For leather I have an old foot pedal driven Singer from like 1920s. But for thick leather I think you need complete different ones or sew by hand. I have done leather cuffs but driving the needle through 3mm split-leather is maximum and risky. Not sure what leather you want to stich but I guess it's for what you do on your farm, so, heavy duty I guess?

[FlyingClayDisk]

Likewise!  Do you collect fountain pens, or just regular pens (BP, roller, gel, etc0?

Yes, some of those old Parker's can be worth some serious coin.  Schaefer's too, especially some of the FP's (mainly because there's less of 'em)

I have quite a few FP's, but also a ton of just other pens.  I really like some of the Japanese gel pens.  And obviously, I LOVE Japanese pencils!  The Japanese are absolutely nutso over writing instruments (kinda' like me).

I have a couple fountains that ended up in a desk drawer somewhere safe, but I mostly collect rollers and ballpoints. I have a few interesting mechanical pencils too, including one that came from McDonnell Douglas Truck Services. It's soft blue with gold trim on the clip. I also have a stunning Cross "Century" chrome/silver mechanical pencil, and, speaking of Japanese pencils, I use a Kerry 0.7 mechanical (black with silver trim) for most of my writing and sketching. I have a few gel ones but nothing exciting. Which Japanese gel pens do you recommend? I wouldn't mind finding some for my collection. 
When I get a minute I will take a few pictures of my favorites from my collection and put them up here. I never thought I'd find a place where other people are as crazy about pens and pencils as I am.

Well, just for writing experience (not too collectable really) check out some of the Japanese Pilots.  People know Pilot in the US, but in Japan they have WAY more models.  They've got a "Juice" model which goes down to about 0.3mm.  Another Pilot model is the G-TEC-Cx line.  I've got some of those Japanese gels, even ones down to 0.1mm, if you can believe that!!  And they write SMMOOOOOOOoooooooth!! too!  People think of gel pens like the ones they get at the grocery store, and if they ever tried some of these gel pens out of Japan they'd never use another pen.

Check out Jetpens.com.  They're a Japanese importer out of CA.  They've got an incredible selection.  I order way too much stuff from them (....every month!!!)   Amazon (JP) also has a lot of variety too, but it's just like dealing with regular Amazon where you really have to check prices.  They do honor your Prime though, at least last time I checked.  Sometimes you have to have a minimum order though to get the free shipping.  I never seem to have the problem of being below the minimum order...just ask my wife!  LOL!  She doesn't even bother asking what's in the packages anymore, just hollers out "Some more pencils showed up for you!"

And then there's the wooden pencil thing.  I've actually collected wood pencils for many many years though.  Back about 4 years ago I stopped, but now I've resumed again with a focus on Europe, India and Asia.  Otherwise, I have about every pencil made in North America back to about the 50's and the same for Japan.

This makes four of us now!  Cool!

[AmericanBuffalo]

I build electric guitars for a hobby. Did it professionally for several years. Worked at Hamer guitars and Washburn guitars. Worked as a guitar tech on the road and also toured as a guitar player with a couple bands. That was in the late 80's early 90's.
Now I am semi-retired and back to building guitars and writing a book about boutique guitars. So guitars.

Built this relic from spare parts I had accumulated.

Holy Shit!  That's awesome!!  Building musical instruments is like 3-4 hobbies all rolled into one!! 

Very impressive!  That's really cool!  Love to hear more.

Speakng of Guitars...when I pulled out my old Peavey guitar thinking I was gonna' try to learn (again), I first took it to a music shop to get it tuned up (it had been in the case for 30+ years).  The guy at the shop said it's actually worth quite a bit of money! I didn't think there was any market for Peavey stuff, but according to him they're actually quite sought after now days.  When I bought it, it was a poor man's Strat.  It's basically in brand new condition.  I was really surprised.  No idea how much it's worth (probably not a lot), but that it's worth anything at all kinda' made me happy.

Well when you said you were pulling out the ol geetar again I got excited! I love guitars! Now I don't know what model Peavey you have but I am gonna guess its a T-60 and yeah one in great shape could fetch $700 - $1000 maybe more!
Got several pictures of my guitar building in my thread GUITARS you can stop in there and see how I keep outta trouble.

[AmericanBuffalo]

Likewise!  Do you collect fountain pens, or just regular pens (BP, roller, gel, etc0?

Yes, some of those old Parker's can be worth some serious coin.  Schaefer's too, especially some of the FP's (mainly because there's less of 'em)

I have quite a few FP's, but also a ton of just other pens.  I really like some of the Japanese gel pens.  And obviously, I LOVE Japanese pencils!  The Japanese are absolutely nutso over writing instruments (kinda' like me).

I have a couple fountains that ended up in a desk drawer somewhere safe, but I mostly collect rollers and ballpoints. I have a few interesting mechanical pencils too, including one that came from McDonnell Douglas Truck Services. It's soft blue with gold trim on the clip. I also have a stunning Cross "Century" chrome/silver mechanical pencil, and, speaking of Japanese pencils, I use a Kerry 0.7 mechanical (black with silver trim) for most of my writing and sketching. I have a few gel ones but nothing exciting. Which Japanese gel pens do you recommend? I wouldn't mind finding some for my collection. 
When I get a minute I will take a few pictures of my favorites from my collection and put them up here. I never thought I'd find a place where other people are as crazy about pens and pencils as I am.

Well, just for writing experience (not too collectable really) check out some of the Japanese Pilots.  People know Pilot in the US, but in Japan they have WAY more models.  They've got a "Juice" model which goes down to about 0.3mm.  Another Pilot model is the G-TEC-Cx line.  I've got some of those Japanese gels, even ones down to 0.1mm, if you can believe that!!  And they write SMMOOOOOOOoooooooth!! too!  People think of gel pens like the ones they get at the grocery store, and if they ever tried some of these gel pens out of Japan they'd never use another pen.

Check out Jetpens.com.  They're a Japanese importer out of CA.  They've got an incredible selection.  I order way too much stuff from them (....every month!!!)   Amazon (JP) also has a lot of variety too, but it's just like dealing with regular Amazon where you really have to check prices.  They do honor your Prime though, at least last time I checked.  Sometimes you have to have a minimum order though to get the free shipping.  I never seem to have the problem of being below the minimum order...just ask my wife!  LOL!  She doesn't even bother asking what's in the packages anymore, just hollers out "Some more pencils showed up for you!"

And then there's the wooden pencil thing.  I've actually collected wood pencils for many many years though.  Back about 4 years ago I stopped, but now I've resumed again with a focus on Europe, India and Asia.  Otherwise, I have about every pencil made in North America back to about the 50's and the same for Japan.

This makes four of us now!  Cool!

I had no idea people collected pens and pencils. I suppose i never thought about it. Such a wide variety and from other countries I can understand the appeal after reading through this thread.

[Tarzan the apeman.]

NM. Was trying to insert a picture.

[FlyingClayDisk]

The overlock machine I use for visible seams has 4 threads :D.

The other machine, I can determine the stitch patterns freely. It works like a normal one, threading, moving the cloth just the stitches can be programmed with the computer like I want them. Like stitching ....FCD....FCD....FCD....FCD.... instead of .........................................


For leather I have an old foot pedal driven Singer from like 1920s. But for thick leather I think you need complete different ones or sew by hand. I have done leather cuffs but driving the needle through 3mm split-leather is maximum and risky. Not sure what leather you want to stich but I guess it's for what you do on your farm, so, heavy duty I guess?

Yeah, the leather stuff probably would be ranch / livestock related.  I've done a tiny bit of hand sewn stuff on things like knife scabbards and a crappy pistol holster I built.  I actually drilled that stuff on my drillpress, and then stitched it with rawhide lacing.  That's pretty crude though.  I'd like to make some nicer stuff.

As for the cloth, I'd like to get good enough to do some things like some of the heavy Cordura weatherproof fabrics.  I bought this Singer (forget the model) and it does all kinds of stuff, including heavy fabric, but for some reason I just cannot keep this thing threaded properly.  It's always something jammin' up or breaking on me.  Eyesight is not the issue for me, it just seems to be a littany of other things.  I get frustrated and quit...and go back to my pencils!  LOL!

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

Container gardening, art (various mediums), long walks every day, listening to more music instead of watching television, more calls and video chats with the kids and grandkids, picking up after Kdog, etc.

Last summer we went on the road trip of a life time since we didn't know if it might be our last opportunity with all the tyrannical rules coming and going- this year gas is just too much! Such a pity, our country is full of beauty and wonders that most people never see in person!

[FlyingClayDisk]

Tarzan.....WOW....

SERIOUS WALL-O-TEXT!!!!

[FlyingClayDisk]

Container gardening, art (various mediums), long walks every day, listening to more music instead of watching television, more calls and video chats with the kids and grandkids, picking up after Kdog, etc.

Last summer we went on the road trip of a life time since we didn't know if it might be our last opportunity with all the tyrannical rules coming and going- this year gas is just too much! Such a pity, our country is full of beauty and wonders that most people never see in person!

We tried some of that last year with mixed results.  The inside starting part went fantastic, but the transfer outside went only 'okay'  Everything started off like gang-busters, and then basically just stayed that same size after they went outside.  So our yield was way low.

Probably try it again this year, and maybe not put anything outside except for maybe the barn.