The Pen Museum

August 21, 2016

You know when you walk into a room like this that you're in real nerd's territory. The +Pen Museum in Birmingham is an awesome example of the genre: 1000's of nibs, pens, ink bottles and other exotica related to the Birmingham Pen trade.

The machines on the left allow a visitor to make their own nib, from punching the blank out of a steel sheet, cutting holes, imprinting logos, forming it into the curve and then finally splitting the tip (although that last step requires a heat treatment that visitors won't normally see). The reason I know all this was because one of the denizens was kind enough to take us through the process to us while we visited, and give us the nibs to bring home.

All for the amazingly princely sum of a £1 donation.