Snail Mail

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Alright y’all 

I was talkin with someone the other day and the conversation turned to those old school envelopes that had the red an blue striped boarders around the edge, like you see in old movies,

after some online searching I learned they were originally called air mail envelopes,

Now down the rabbit hole I did some more searching an I found there’s a lot of them in different styles still to be had!

some where pretty cool lookin with world maps an some were made to look aged, ect…

then I got sucked into looking at fountain pens… (really cool looking but a Rhode Island Red has better penmanship then me with a regular pen so I’m not sure I need one)

then I came across wax letter seals also like you see in the movies! 

An it went on an on looking at stationary stuff lol

i got to thinking (yes I know that’s dangerous) that I hadn’t wrote a letter in 12-14? Years

an it’s probably been the same amount of time since I’ve received a handwritten letter from someone,

Most all of use have forged a letter opener but other then bills an junk mail how many personal handwritten letters do y’all actually get anymore? 

Don’t know about y’all but I remember when I was a kid I used to get all kinda excited when I got a letter in the mailbox! 

since cell phones went mainstream most people call or text anymore, alot of people don’t even check their email regularly,

well as I thought about all this an followed the rabbit hole I might’ve kinda sorta dropped some items in my shopping cart that I really didn’t need 

Lol well now I have some cool looking stationary on the way…

what’s worse is in all my nostalgic excitement I’ve ordered a wax stamp an some sealing wax candles… an I don’t have any experience using them lol

im guessing it’s pretty straight forward you light the candle drip some wax an shove the stamp into the puddle of wax?

i was curious if anyone has experience using them?

Is there an art form to using them? or are they pretty easy to pickup? Or am I just the one crazy person who just had to have one? Lol

[Scott NC]

  I correspond with two people by hand written letters.  It is fun to get a "real" letter in the mail.  I don't wax stamp them though....  I got curious if you could send them through the USPS and evidently you can, but the sorting machines might scuff the stamp up.  I would love to get a wax stamped envelope/letter in the mail!  Hint-hint....

[Glenn]

As you say, light the candle drip some wax an shove the stamp into the puddle of wax.  Trick is to put the seal where the edges of the paper fold together so it is "sealed" and can not be opened without breaking the seal.  

Seals are a personal signature of sorts, much like a touchmark.  If it is sealed, then the owner of the seal applied their mark or it was done with permission.

Another way to insure the envelope has not been opened is to put your signature across the edges of two or more edges of the envelope.  If the envelope is opened, it will show as it is near impossible to get it to march perfectly.

[Frazer]

I still like pen and paper for notes (to myself and others). I find I'm much more likely to remember something (even without referring back to the note) if I write it down rather than typing etc.

I'm a bit of a writing implement enthusiast.. I use a fountain pen at work, but they're a little delicate for an EDC. Diamine Archival Registrar's Blue Black is a nice ink. It's an iron gall in ink, which can be rough on some nibs, but it's permanent (not all fountain pen inks are) and it oxidizes (darkens) over time.

I carry a copper pen (takes pilot G2 refills) and pencil around with me and use them all the time.  They both have my number etched on them.

When my Ma travels she sends me post cards from wherever she happens to be at the time. My grandma will also occasionally send me a handwritten card in the mail, but other than that I don't see many. Mostly I just get bills and fire starter in the mail.

As an aside, it's nice of these companies to send me enough kindling to light the forge indefinitely.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

41 minutes ago, Nodebt said:

I would love to get a wax stamped envelope/letter in the mail!  Hint-hint

I’ll see what I can do!

13 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Seals are a personal signature of sorts

I didn’t have this one custom made but it is a personal symbol to me, I also have a pretty big tattoo of it from my navy days lol

Frazer,

that’s pretty cool! I didn’t know that about ink!

do you have a picture of your fountain pen?

[Frazer]

There are too many different inks out there..

Lol.... which one....? I have a Twisbi Precision, a carbon fiber Monteverde and a Pilot Metropolitan. All with extra fine nibs. My handwriting (printed) is on the smaller side so the wider calligraphy nibs are not for me..

My favorite is the Twisbi. The Monteverde is okay, but I've had some trouble with hard starts. Probably a mixture of a bad nib and the cap not sealing well enough. The pilot is inexpensive, but works well. IIRC you need to buy a separate converter (also inexpensive) to use your own inks, but don't quote me on that.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

37 minutes ago, Frazer said:

Diamine Archival Registrar's Blue Black

This one that you said oxidizes an darkens over time! That’s pretty cool 

I might have to get a fountain pen and try my chicken scratch with it! 

they way you talk about them they sound pretty cool!

[Frazer]

I don't mean to idealize them. At the end of the day it is just a slightly more fiddly pen that may or may not like cheap paper and has an increased likelihood of leaking at inconvenient times.

They also fall into the category of goods (straight razors are another example) where price and quality don't always align. There is a lot of expensive, fancy, pocket jewlery out there that was made for gazing upon rather than actually using. If you feel inclined to use such an object for its supposed purpose then white gloves are (obviously) required and only the finest of baby bottom soft paper, hand pressed from virgin tree pulp which has been blessed by monks can grace it's mighty nib.

I should be a pen salesman.. Jordan Belfort might hire me!

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol ill look for the easy to use one that comes with training wheels and can write on cheap paper! 

i don’t need a fancy expensive one because my shop eats pens! 

i don’t know where they go but somewhere is a giant mountain of writing utensils that I’ve lost! Lol

[Anachronist58]

Every now and then, the tide comes in, and scads of pens wash up...

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

So that’s where they are! 

Hey!! Wait just a minute! Who’s been stealing my pens and taking them to the ocean?!?

[Frosty]

Do they bloat and explode?  Is rotting ink harder to get out than rotting whale innards?

I used to use a fountain pen with green ink. My high school teachers hated it but not one explained red/green color blindness, they just complained. Getting the teachers worked up was enough for me to buy extra refills. I even tried calligraphy but don't have good penmanship on a good day so drawing attention to it didn't last.

Are you using sea blue ink Billy? Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Frazer]

If you bring them on a plane and leave them full of ink they just may!

The story wont be as explosive as the one you shared about the whale though.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

14 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Are you using sea blue ink Billy? Hmmmm?

Jerry

I haven’t got my stationary yet but when I do I’ll probably use blue ink!

i did order sea blue sealing wax for my stamp though!

Frazer,

exploding pens sounds like something out of a spy movie!

[Frosty]

Anybody who used a fountain pen in S. Cal either wore super pocket protectors or their Mothers got on them for ruining clothes with ink stains. I ever even considered taking one on a flight! 

Some of the kids in school who used sealing wax used to swirl a couple colors before stamping it. I always thought that was pretty cool.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Martha always prefered a fountain pen but that may have been her love for older technology.  In our geologist days the pistol she carried in the field was a .36 cap and ball revolver.

Also in our geologist days we used Rapidiograph drafting pens for making maps.  For drafting on mylar you could use Pelikan K ink which would etch the mylar (do NOT make any mistakes!) but you had to make sure that your pens had no plastic parts because the ink would eat them.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

Some of the kids in school who used sealing wax used to swirl a couple colors before stamping it

That sounds pretty cool!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Congress authorized U.S. postage stamps in 1847. They went on sale in New York City July 1, 1847. A letter with one affixed went out that day. It was delivered yesterday in Ohio.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

That was before they had forever stamps! They move a lot fast now! 

[BillyBones]

Not sure where they are at but when my grandmother passed she had a huge stack of letters in those airmail envelopes. Made sure to keep them becuase they were all from my dad and other family members when they were in Vietnam. Especially the ones from my cousin that came home under a flag. 

[Frosty]

My Grandmother and Mother never threw away a letter or card and my Sister has them all in her garage. I can't seem to throw cards away either and I don't get many letters but they're around here somewhere.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  When we bought our new house here in NC the attic was full of boxes that were supposed to be gone when we moved in.  All full of old letters and I looked at a few, they were sentimental.  We contacted the sellers through the real estate agent but they didn't want them.  Didn't care.  It was their family's letters and keepsakes.  Diplomas, awards, personal letters, etc...  I took them to the dump with mixed feelings.  Old, old stuff.  Nothing signed by G. Washington, Edison or Samuel Langhorne Clemens though.  Just kidding, I didn't look much.  It was pathetic pushing that load out into the dumpster.

[Anachronist58]

14 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

It was delivered yesterday in Ohio.

Had a package sit in the Post Office for 15 days.  The staff is trained to tell me that it did not happen, without even checking.  Audit trails (tracking #'s) are so unreliable as compared to USPS Unicorn Stories...

Yeah Scott, more human history into the dustbin of time...

Edited July 2, 2022 by Anachronist58
addendum

[arkie]

How many of you remember the old fountain pens with the little bladders in the handle, and a recessed lever you had to pump the ink into the barrel.  We used the Scripto(?) ink in the two-part glass bottles, one large side for the ink supply and a small thumbnailed size compartment above to place the pen nib in to fill.  One had to tip the bottle over on its side to fill the upper reservoir......ever forget to tighten the cap when you were tipping to fill the top???????????????  Some inks were washable, others were permanent!

Then the lifesaver invention of the little plastic filled tube cartridges you just inserted into the pens... wonderful.

[Frosty]

I remember filling fountain pens, Mother made me do it on a cookie sheet wearing shop clothes. The plastic cartridge pens were a BIG improvement. Not that they wouldn't leak but they were much easier. 

For a brief period I used a pen and ink well till Mother banned it from the house. What ME spill the ink?!

Frosty The Lucky.