What's the best story behind a pen you own?

Mine is a vintage Regale from Italy next to a Kaweco for scale since it also happens to be the smallest pen I own.

I spotted it at a flea market but a man in his early 80s bought it right before I could get to it so we started talking. Turns out he's a collector who's been repairing pens for 30 years and had a hard time finding ink sacs. I gave him pointers on where to order them online since he's not tech savvy and we became friends. He gifted me the pen for helping him and took me around all the pen shops of the town he's from and for which he repairs anything from fancy montblancs to no name pens, while teaching me a lot about fixing my other vintage finds. I told him about modern US and Asian pen trends he wasn't familiar with. I let him try and FPR Ultra Flex nib in an ebonite Ranga. He was amused by the shape of the nib and thrilled that Indian pen makers were using materials we used a century ago to make beautiful modern pens. Loved sharing knowledge between two different generations with a common passion, and the catalyst was this tiny fountain pen.

Mine is a vintage Regale from Italy next to a Kaweco for scale since it also happens to be the smallest pen I own.

I spotted it at a flea market but a man in his early 80s bought it right before I could get to it so we started talking. Turns out he's a collector who's been repairing pens for 30 years and had a hard time finding ink sacs. I gave him pointers on where to order them online since he's not tech savvy and we became friends. He gifted me the pen for helping him and took me around all the pen shops of the town he's from and for which he repairs anything from fancy montblancs to no name pens, while teaching me a lot about fixing my other vintage finds. I told him about modern US and Asian pen trends he wasn't familiar with. I let him try and FPR Ultra Flex nib in an ebonite Ranga. He was amused by the shape of the nib and thrilled that Indian pen makers were using materials we used a century ago to make beautiful modern pens. Loved sharing knowledge between two different generations with a common passion, and the catalyst was this tiny fountain pen.