Hello Again!

 

It’s been a really long time since I’ve written anything on this blog and I’m sorry about that. A few updates however:

• I’m still into pens, inks and paper – very much so!
• I’ve started a stationery company called Pebble Stationery Co – we produce Tomoe River Notebooks – check it out: pebblestationeryco.com (yes, we will be bringing out more products – the next one is set to launch in May 2019)
• This blog will be continued at the Pebble Stationery Co blog site.

Thank you so much for your readership through the years and I hope you enjoy the new Blog site!

If you read this blog, you will know that I have fallen hard for the Pocket notebook. Where I live, there is no Muji and with the rate that I am going through pocket notebooks and my current travel plans to places where there are Muji shops (I have no plans) I needed to find an alternative supplier as my notebook stocks dwindled.

Enter the Story Supply Co Edition 407 notebook. Story Supply Co was founded through Kickstarter in 2015 and the Edition 407 is a celebration of the 407 backers who brought the brand to life. Story Supply Co says that this (limited) edition is bound to have something for everyone – for me it was near perfect. Dot grid? Yes! Burgundy cover? Yes! Nice thick smooth paper? Yes! Readily available? Not overly – being limited edition and only available from a few places.

The notebook has lovely creamy paper which is very thick (around 100 gsm) – it had no problems with gel pens, rollerballs or felt tips that the Muji struggled with. For the fountain pens I tried in it, there was a bit of feathering and there was a little bit of show through, but definitely usable on both sides of the page.

The cover is also very hardy. At the time these photos were taken, I had been using this notebook for about 1.5 weeks (they normally only last 2 weeks) and the cover is still near perfect. Having said that, it doesn’t sit in my backpocket – it has a This is Ground leatherback to live in.

What I really liked about this notebook (on top of everything else) is that when I stick photos or other print out/paraphernalia into it, the pages don’t become too lumpy or bumpy to write on (like thinner pages would). I’ve taken to sticking quite a few things into my notebooks as I use them, so this is a very useful feature, due to its think pages. I am OCD about neat handwriting and I don’t want things I’ve stuck into the notebook ruining my writing or hampering the experience.

The last page of the notebook has some angle guides, font size guides (I think) and some measurements in cm (thank God! Not all of us use inches!) but because the cover is so dark and its printed in black, they are quite difficult for my blind eyes to see without straining too much, so for me they aren’t overly helpful.

This limited edition is still available at some retailers so if you want it you better get moving!

The Edison Pen Company is an American custom pen making company founded by Brian Gray in 2007. The majority of Brian’s pens are custom produced – you pick your material and one of their designs and the pen is custom produced for you. However, Brian also releases a number of off the rack options including this Beaumont.

The Beaumont comes in 4 colours – this Bordeaux, a blue, a gray and a “bedrock flake” which is a brown/gray ensemble and if none of these colours excite you, you can ask Brian to make one in your material of choice. You can also ask him to fill it with some funky filling systems instead of the cartridge converter that comes with this production model.

I had a rocky start with Edison pens, my first, a custom Pearlette which had a bad habit of hard starting, so when I went to purchase this one, I purchase this through Richard Binder, who tunes pens before shipping. So when I received this nib, it was a good performer straight out of the box. The flow is just right and the nib is smooth, but has enough feedback to give you a hint of the texture of the paper. Not being completely glassy smooth is also a good thing, especially on super smooth paper, because it gives you a bit of traction control, as well as helping the ink flow a bit better.

This is a small pen though – for me the length is fine unposted, but larger hands will need to post. This is fine, as the pen is balanced and light enough to accommodate both options comfortably. However, the pen is on the thin side and I think the lack of girth may be uncomfortable for larger hands.

In this price range, (USD$149), there are a lot of competitors out there including the Faber Castell Ambition (amazing steel nib), Platinum 3776 (gold nib – a lot of nib options), Pilot Vanishing Point (gold nib, retractable) and the Pelikan M200 – all of which are cheaper than the Edison. For about USD$10 more you then get into the Pilot Custom 74 and Lamy 2000 range, and I’m talking list American pricing here (you can get all Japanese options cheaper on eBay or through Japanese retailers), so its a little difficult to recommend this pen over the others listed. But then these things are never driven by price alone – its about what you love.

Left to Right: Edison Beaumont, Platinum 3776, Pilot Custom 74, Lamy 200, Pilot Vanishing Point, Faber Castell Ambition

Sailor Grenade Sheen shot

I am very late to the pocket notebook game – as in this is my very first pocket notebook that I own and have used (gasp!). I bought this in Japan when stationery binging at Muji – not really understanding the point of a pocket notebook, but buying it because it was cute and cheap.

I have only recently started carrying this around with me (since the 10^th of June in fact) and only did so after reading a lot about David Allen’s GTD system and the Bill Westerman GSD system. So from a utilitarian and longevity point of view, the Muji Passport Notebook has performed well so far – the cover is not very battered or aged at all, despite use. However, I will say that I usually carry this around in my workbag or handbag and not in my pocket, which probably helps longevity.

The paper is a creamy ivory colour and there are 48 pages to each notebook. Paper performance is well, not fabulous – for rollerballs there is significant bleed through (even for the Marvy le pen fineliner!). For fountain pens there is significant feathering and bleed through – up to the next page as well!

This is not a fountain pen or even liquid ink friendly notebook. However, I like to keep it simple and only ever use my Uniball Signo 207 gel pen in this notebook, so although the paper is not brilliant, it works for me.

The Muji Passport Notebook is marginally smaller than the standard pocket notebook size (88 x 120 mm v’s 88.9 x 139.7 mm) and is available in blank, ruled, graph and dot for JPY120 which equates to roughly AUD$1.45. For that price –  and if you don’t mind limiting your pen usage to only pencil, gel or ball point –why wouldn’t you buy this? If you like to mix things up, well then this isn’t the pocket notebook for you.

Firstly – sorry for being a bit slack with posts. The weather (and hence lighting) has been a bit awful making it a bit difficult to take good photos.

De Atramentis is a German ink brand with inks that are handmade by Dr Franz-Josef Jansen. De Atramentis doesn’t seem to get that much attention in the fountain pen community – maybe its that they are a little more expensive than their Diamine or Noodler counterparts or their colour range is not as extensive? My view is that they have always performed quite well and rank up there with Iroshizuku and Sailor – particularly when it comes to getting a more stubborn pen going!

De Atramentis Steel Blue is a green-toned blue that is a bit darker than your norm in this colour range. This is an incredibly work appropriate colour due to the darkness but also adds a bit of interest and personality to your standard working blue.

I first came across this ink in the Well Appointed Desk’s Ink Drop review (Ink Drop by Goulet Pens has now been discontinued so that shows you how long ago that was!). The theme at the time was “best shading inks” and Steel Blue was one of the inclusions. In the TWSBI 1.1 mm stub nib you can certainly see some shading, which is quite nice considering the saturation of this ink.

Green-toned blues is a particular colour interest of mine and as you can see in the subset of inks swabbed, I have a few in this range. Despite this, Steel Blue is still quite unique in my collection – I find the others that I have to be more green toned than Steel Blue. Iroshizuku Tsuki Yo is probably the closest, but it is duskier than Steel Blue, which is more bright and vibrant.

At USD$12.95 a bottle it is considerably more expensive than its Diamine and Noodlers counterparts – particularly since De Atramentis only offers 35 mL compared to 80 mL from Diamine and Noodlers (often at the same price). However, I would question whether the average fountain pen aficionado *needs* all 80 mL? If you’re only going to have one bottle in your life, well then you could perhaps afford to pay more (because you’re not hoarding like the rest of us crazy people) and if you’re hoarding – well then you’re unlikely to ever go through the whole bottle right?

Anyway – if price is not a concern – give De Atramentis a try.

 

 

Disclaimer: Explicit pen images enclosed.

It may not be fair to be reviewing a discontinued pen from a company that is no longer in business, but I was using the Omas Paragon last week at work and thought I would share the experience with you, as this is a beautiful pen.

Omas was an Italian pen company that closed its doors in February 2016. Following the announcement, fountain pen aficionados scrambled to buy the last Omas fountain pens that were floating around in shops, particularly models in the highly sought after “Arco Celluloid” materials. I sought something less flashy, this Burgundy model which I had been eyeing for a little while.

At the time of purchase, I had hoped to purchase a medium nib with my pen, but had limited nib options due to the closure of the company. So I purchased the extra flessible fine nib instead. I was worried about springing the nib on use, after reading Azizah’s story at Gourmet Pens, but I don’t tend to press hard on my pens, so figured I would probably get away with this nib.

The pen is quite large – it is easily the largest pen I own from a diameter point of view, and it is only one of two pens that I own that is too fat to fit into my Franklin Christoph Penvelope. For longer writing sessions, I find that it can be a bit uncomfortable as I don’t have terribly large hands and it can feel like I am writing with a crayon its so big. However, it is fine and not noticeable in normal writing sessions so its not a huge deal.

The paragon has a piston filling system which is smooth and works well. I have heard that Omas pistons are not as reliable or as durable as Pelikan or Lamy pistons, so that’s something to keep in mind if you are looking to purchase an Omas. The paragon doesn’t have an ink window, so often you don’t know that you are close to running out until its too late. My advice – bring a spare pen with you if you are planning to use this!

Now the nib. There have been a lot of reviews on the Omas Extra flessible nibs – generally all of them have been very positive. I was very concerned that I would spring the nib after the Gourmet Pens story, however, I have used a Pilot Justus set on flexible for normal day to day use without any issues, so I felt I could be trusted to use this pen without issues. I was right – the nib is very soft, but if you write with a light hand, it will just be a very springy, responsive nib for you. I don’t spend a lot of time flexing this (too paranoid!) so its just a nib with a lot of character for me.

The nib is very soft so I need to be very careful when flushing the pen and leaving it to dry. Often after flushing the pen, I need to readjust the nib tines to make sure they are even again.

The fine is not that fine if you are a Japanese fine nib user. Also, given the flexibility of the nib, it often becomes much broader than you expect when in use. However, I really enjoy the width of the nib, so its suits me. Just be warned, that if you are a needle point lover, this equates to more like a Sailor M nib rather than a fine.

I purchased this pen for US$636 as stocks were running out last year, however, you can often find these now for much more on Fountain pen network, or ebay. I’m not in the habit of recommending whether you should or shouldn’t buy a pen at this price point, but this is a wonderful pen with a wonderful nib and I would buy another one at the price point I paid.

In Japan, it seems most fountain pen shops have custom fountain pen inks made by Sailor. This is one from the highly sought after “BunguBox” range. BunguBox is a store in Hamamatsu, Japan, which is roughly halfway between Osaka and Tokyo on the Shinkansen. They have also recently opened a store in Omotesando, which I visited while I was in Japan not long ago.

Unique, custom Sailor inks have always been popular, due to their rareness and uniqueness of their colours – it really is amazing how many different ink colours one single company can manage to produce. BunguBox inks have been so popular mostly due to their unique colour range and also because they are so difficult to obtain – they are rumoured to produce each colour only once a year.

Piano Mahogany is a saturated red-brown ink which is highly reminiscent of deeply lacquered mahogany wood. This is my first and only brown ink so I have no baseline to compare it with colour-wise on a first hand basis. The colour matched my Faber Castell E-motion Pearwood very well.

For such a dark, saturated ink, there is still a level of shading that can be observed in the TWSBI Stub nib. Sailor inks are always extremely well behaved and I can always trust them to behave in slightly poorer quality paper – this one continues that trend – I used this ink in a training session which had rubbish photocopy paper handouts and it didn’t feather or bleed through at all.

As I mentioned, I have no other browns in my collection and I confess that I have no current aspirations to acquire more (don’t gasp – I’m not a fan of brown). When I purchased this ink, my hope was that this colour would be a dark red colour and the brown tone to it would only be slight. So when comparing this ink to others in my collection, the BunguBox “Tears of a clown” would be the closest colour match.

If you use the awesome Swab Shop tool at the Goulet Pens website, you may find something that is more similar or cost effective. To my eye, Diamine Rustic Brown is the most similar. However, if you are keen on this particular colour, it is likely that you will not be able to find an exact dupe – like I said, these inks are so popular because the colours are so unique.

Swab Shop Image – courtesy Goulet Pen Company

Cleaning wise, this is not that difficult to clean – for this tone of colour. Reds seem to be the most difficult to clean, so this is going to be more trouble than say Iroshizuku Fuyu Syogun (blue toned grey) but you are not going to have to spend the rest of your life flushing the ink out.

Now – the cost. This is the most expensive custom Sailor ink I’ve come across and the most expensive ink I own. In Japan, you can get these straight from the store in Hamamatsu (or their new store in Omote-sando) for 3240 Japanese Yen. You can also order these from their webstore in Japanese for that price, but shipping is an additional 4700 JPY (for 1 bottle). Or you can get it from Vanness Pens for USD$43 per bottle plus an additional USD$25 for shipping (up to 3 pounds). So with the exchange rate, you could easily pay close to $100 AUD for a bottle of this ink. You can occasionally get them on Massdrop deals but you do need to get in quick to do this, as popular colours sell out quickly. The colours are super pretty but you’ll need to consider if this is a reasonable price point for yourself.

 

 

I’d heard about Kingdom Note and its legendary wall of inks and how the store was willing to let you try inks to your heart’s content, so it really surprised me how small the store actually was.

About 3 walls of the store was lined with pens – the majority appear to be second hand pens and while I was there a gentleman brought in about 10 MontBlancs to be sold (so a word to the wise, if you are struggling to sell old pens, try here). There was a massive binder of ink swatches for you to peruse and behind the counter, there was the wall of ink.

I asked the lady there if I could test their Kingdom Note line of inks and they pleasantly accommodated. I stopped at trying about 6 inks but I think they would’ve let me try as many as I wanted.

When planning my trip to Japan, I had ruled out going to BunguBox in Hamamatsu because it was a little out of the way from my destinations (it turned out that it is not – if you are going on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka or vice versa, it is a stop right in the middle of that line and Google Maps tells me its not actually that far from the train station). So when I realized they had opened up a store in Omotesando (Tokyo) we set out to visit.

The Omotesando store is not open regularly so make sure you check the website before showing up. Once there – the store is tiny. Its probably about 4×4 metres, predominantly selling their ink. There are a few pens on sale, but not a huge amount.

Once again, there is an ink testing station with all of the BunguBox inks in pens ready for you to try – most of the pens are labeled in Japanese but the lovely lady that works there was more than happy to assist with finding the right pen to fit the ink you are looking for.