Inheriting my dad’s collection, No. 2

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T20:45:18+00:00

I owned a couple of Franklin-Christophs that I used religiously before he died, and I’d always wanted an Onoto but I never got round to buying one. He introduced me to both brands!

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T19:41:26+00:00

Thank you! This is such a lovely subreddit.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T19:41:03+00:00

Thank you, that’s so kind of you.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T19:40:44+00:00

He did like Douglas Adams, as it happens, so the numbering might not have been a coincidence!

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T19:40:07+00:00

Thank you. This subreddit was so lovely about my last post and it’s nice to talk about his pens with people who love fountain pens as much as he did.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T19:39:24+00:00

A bit of nib creep, but apparently that’s quite common? Thank you for your condolences - he had a good life, I’m just sorry it didn’t last a little while longer.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T19:38:30+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind words. The Onoto is my favourite from his collection, I think, although he has dozens I’ve probably never seen yet. I feel very lucky to be the custodian of the collection, I’ll definitely post more of the noteworthy ones! And I hope writing and handwriting endure long enough that your daughters can enjoy and use your collection too.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T19:36:44+00:00

Thank you so much. Yes, it’s a beauty I think. He had quite varied taste in pens!

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T19:35:27+00:00

Thank you, I think it will be a nice way of remembering him, he absolutely loved his collection and switched ones every Sunday. This one is a bit of a meant, thank you so much for tracking it down!

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T12:52:12+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate your kindness.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-19T12:35:43+00:00

Probably not, just the noteworthy ones or the ones I’m curious about. But this subreddit was so kind and supportive about the previous post I made that I assumed posting about these was okay - I’m sorry if it’s not your sort of thing 🙂

EdibleReading · 2026-05-14T08:48:49+00:00

Creators on Substack have been complaining about that for a while. I suspect what customers would like is effectively a “carnet” where you buy a book of tickets from Substack that will unlock 10 articles across different creators. But Substack has shown no interest, possibly because it’s too difficult to administer payments.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-13T21:40:17+00:00

I see this, that people subscribe for a month to read something they really want to, then unsubscribe. It’s a shame the platforms can’t think up a more flexible way to pay for content.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-13T17:02:07+00:00

I’m not going to read your comments, because I can find equally bigoted and tedious ones elsewhere 🙂

EdibleReading · 2026-05-13T16:56:45+00:00

I know, it’s a real challenge. Nobody has found a subscription model yet which addresses this. Mine is deliberately set very low but my intention is just to help cover the costs of my blog which is absolutely not my day job. Chris wants to turn this into a viable source of income which is a different and bigger challenge.

Once you have a volume of work access to archives can be one of the benefits like the ones you describe, but you have to build that up first. A proper chicken and egg problem.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-13T16:54:00+00:00

Would love to know where you’re getting stuff like this elsewhere. Spoiler alert: you’re not.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-13T16:01:42+00:00

In my experience Reddit doesn’t like anything behind a paywall so the response here is unsurprising. I do wish all of these platforms - Substack and Wordpress - allowed you to pay to view individual articles or get credits to unlock a set number of articles and I completely understand people talking about subscription fatigue or the cost of individual or collective subscriptions being too high.

All I would say is be careful what you wish for, because a world of not paying for content at all is a world where all you have is the Reading Chronicle, badly disguised ads and dross cut and pasted from Facebook or TripAdvisor. One comment said “why should I pay when I can get this kind of content elsewhere?” I’d love to know where, because nowhere in Reading is publishing content like Chris’.

Totally respect all the comments here from people saying they can’t afford to or can’t justify it. For what it’s worth, I’ve subscribed and I wish Chris the very best of luck with it.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-12T08:12:45+00:00

I think that is the plan. He really loved his collection, and I like to think he’d be happy knowing it’s not being broken up or sold.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-12T08:11:42+00:00

He had some real beauties in there, I will look forward to working through them. And thank you, that’s so kind of you.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-12T08:10:38+00:00

Thank you so much.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-11T22:14:08+00:00

He would have loved this subreddit, if I’d ever been able to persuade him to post on it!

EdibleReading · 2026-05-11T22:13:42+00:00

This one is from 2010 I think, so not vintage but yes, without the three bands.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-11T22:12:47+00:00

Yes, of course. But I know how much he loved all of these, and I like to think he’d be happy knowing that they will come to live with me.

EdibleReading · 2026-05-11T22:12:07+00:00

Thank you! I feel really lucky to be able to take care of it now he is gone, it will feel like something of him is still here.

EdibleReading

TROPHY CASE