I’ve been a fan of Rotring pens for a while now, i think they take a bit of getting used to and you have to find an ink-paper combination that suits your style but they are definitely worth the effort, outlasting any plastic-tipped pen by months.
I kind of started unintentionally collecting them, mainly out of a fear that they will stop making them and then i’ll have to start again with a new pen system, so i started stocking up, buying a few to replace every one i broke, then buying up old collections from graphic designers or architects who moved over to computers, so i have a decent amount of stuff now, some of it pretty old now.
I only really collect stuff i use, so Isograph only really, but i have a bit of Rapidograph stuff, mainly the rare F and J nib pens and nibs.
The F and J variant pens are really cool, with Tungsten Carbide coated nibs for the F nibs or Ruby tips on the J nibs, designed to be harder/smoother over drawing film and trace, designed with architects in mind i think. These got super hard to find these days, having been discontinued for about ten years, i got most of mine from stock clearance from out-of-business shops.
Some of the older stuff is marked Rotring West Germany on the the lids, later becoming Rotring Germany.
My favorite item is the NOS Isograph Sec-O-Mat set in the last photo, complete with unopened and probably completely out of date ink.
Sec-O-Mat was an expandable pen holder system that they made for a pretty brief time in the 90s, this three pen set was accompanied by a full seven pen set that i’m still looking for.
This is my favorite pen collection and definitely my preferred drawing instrument but i have a pretty good Copic collection and a great selection of Japanese dip-pen nibs and holders, i’l do a little bit about these at some point for y’all to get bored by.
