Friday Links And Clever Spy Pens

Despite the temptation to think that lockdown days are all alike, retaining optimism for the coming weekend adds a little spiciness to Saturday and Sunday. A few pen links should start things off right.

• Channel Your Inner Spy With These Sleek and Discreet Spy Pens
• Anderson Pens: Montblanc Petrol Blue Ink (Absolutely love this color.)
• Doodlewash: REVIEW: Hahnemühle The Collection Watercolour Blocks and Sketch Pads
• Fountain pen blog: My new approach to notebooks
• Aliette de Bodard Talks Endings, Mythology, and Fountain Pens
• The Well-Appointed Desk: DIY: Make Your Own Pen Flush
• Anderson Pens: Sailor Manyo Inks arriving in August

From the archives:

Five years on, this passport cover continues to have a place in my life. It is no longer available but there are several at Amazon that might entice me to add a second notebook to my writing routine. The Traveler’s Notebooks tucked inside are good with fountain pen ink, Uniball-Signos, graphite as well as a variety of felt tips and gel pens. The paper is thin but will tolerate a light wash of watercolor. In other words, I can use any tool on my desk. Having no restrictions suits me just fine.

Sunday Reads: Pen People And Pen Stuff

…

• The Well-Appointed Desk: In Memory of Susan Wirth (Sad news.)
• From The Pen Cup: Who knew there was so much crap in my head?
• William Henry: Gentac Archive contains a 10,000 year-old fossil Woolly Mammoth tusk.
• Analog Writing: The Montblanc 14
• Scrively: My Top 5 reasons for writing with a fountain pen
• Scribble Jot: Waterman Carene Black Sea Fountain Pen Review
• Umberto Rossini: Watercolor Cityscape (My current favorite artist for watercolor demonstrations.)

Pelikan M200 Binder Stub

Sunday Reads: A Variety of Videos and a Giveaway

YouTube was just the right speed for me this past week…

• Forever Spin
• New York’s Most Popular Dog Names
• Leigh Reyes: Writing on Water (A brilliant video from six years ago.)
• More ink magic
• Crafting the perfect nib for Montblanc’s fountain pen
• How Parker Pens Are Made
• Masters of the Fountain Pen：Harumi Tanaka（Hakase Fountain Pens)
• Quo Vadis Blog: Giveaway! Pocket Habana notebooks

 

Montblanc, Pen Portraits And Dogs

A fresh batch of links…

• Funny Dogs Sliding on Wood Floors Compilation 2013
• Instead Of Throwing Away Old Pill Bottles
• The Well-Appointed Desk: Digital Life: Evernote Alternatives
• Let’s face it, the tie is dead
• Egyptian Artist Uses Fountain Pen to Draw Portraits
• Ken Kessler: From Parker to Montblanc: the appeal of the fountain pen

A Dozen Links From Around The Web

This ought to keep you out of trouble for awhile…

• Facebook Scam Alert – What Really Happens When You “Like”
• Creepy ghost town emerges from sea in Argentina
• Spontaneous Order Experiments Take Hold in Detroit
• Rants of the Archer: It’s Carnival Time!
• New York man finishes writing out entire Bible by hand (Now that’s dedication.)
• 20 ways to keep your internet identity safe from hackers
• Paper Salads
• Win a Danitrio, a Montblanc, or a Conway Stewart
• Sunshine Pen Pals
• Feelgood stories from The Guardian: a daddy, a sea lion, and quadruplets
• 7 Signs of a Bad Doctor
• The 16-Year-Old Who Changed Medicine Is Out to Change It Again

When Only Blue Will Do

Blue is a perennial favorite when it comes to color and ink is no exception. With so many shades available from every corner of inkdom, how can you select a simple palette and still enjoy a range of color? Satisfying properties, ease of use and ongoing availability are important, too. Several companies can fill these requirements but Diamine has three colors that work just right for my basic blue palette.

The first three are terrific together and offer a pleasing palette of blue hues. For a swing towards green on the color wheel, Teal is a versatile color that works well for correspondence as well as in the business environment unless you have a stick-in-the-mud boss who restricts ink to black only. No doubt you can imagine what I think of that.

None of these four are super-saturated colors and they work especially well in pens that are fine or extra-fine. All are easy to clean and don’t dry in nibs and feeds when written with at least once a week.

Another plus to Diamine, at least for the ten years I’ve used their ink, is that none of the ones I use have been discontinued. Lots of new colors get released but the older, good ones don’t disappear as a result. That’s loyalty to the consumer that deserves loyalty in return.

While the tall, narrow bottle may not let your Montblanc 149 suck up to it, the 30 ml bottles straight from Diamine are the best deal around. The cost for four bottles + U. S. shipping is around $21 at the current exchange rate. Just decant to your favorite, empty ink container and enjoy it anyway. C’mon. You know you will.

The dynamic Diamine duos in the image are

• Mediterranean Blue + Platinum #3776 music nib
• Royal Blue + Platinum #3776 Century “Chartres Blue” broad nib
• China Blue + Pilot Custom 742 Falcon nib
• Teal + Sailor Sapporo fine nib

Note that the scan isn’t bad but China Blue and Teal are a bit darker than pictured and Royal Blue is a bit paler. Mediterranean Blue looks just right.

2012 And Some Really Good Pen Stuff

2012 was a very lean year with few items to review and no ink or pen purchases. So there is little new to recommend. Still there are some favorites worth mentioning along with a few new products on my list of

Really Good Stuff

• Best new tool that came my way was the InkJournal.
• Best new paper product was any Stillman & Birn Sketchbook.
• Martha Stewart cahier – The batch I bought was fountain pen friendly and very attractive.
• Canson Art Book cahier – Surprisingly good performance for both pens and watercolors.
• Daycraft Gold Slab journal may not be perfect or easy to source but it sure is gorgeous.
• Rhodia pads got the most action. The orange covers make them a standout in my messy office.
• My regular ink rotation expanded with the inclusion of Noodler’s Ottoman Azure and Black Swan in Australian Roses. No new ink colors came my way but Karen at Exaclair sent three reformulated J. Herbin inks for comparison to what I had on hand that were produced prior to EU meddling. I still enjoy all three, Vert Empire, Lie de Thé, and Poussière de Lune, but they are a bit different.
• Current model pens with stock nibs that were consistently in my rotation included the Lamy Safari with an EF or 1.1mm italic and the Vista 1.1mm italic as well as the Levenger True Writer fine nib. Most of my other pens are no longer in production or have been modified. The greatest difference in my rotation this year was that fewer fine nibs like Pilots and Sailors got used while the Montblanc 220 OB never fell out of favor.
• Custom nibs can be heavenly or not. Nearly all of mine were crafted by different people and in some cases I don’t even know who did the work. However, one Masuyama stub and one Binder cursive italic rose to the top. The former was a dream from the first fill though Iroshizuku ku-jaku is its current best friend. If ever there was a fickle pen this one is it for it will mate with darned near any ink. The Binder sat unused for years until on a whim got paired with Ottoman Azure. Now that Pelikan M-215 Rings is a delight to use. Some nibs are finicky and the right ink can make a huge improvement in performance. Admittedly, a little inspiration helps or that Pel and Ottoman Azure would never have met. So don’t discount what you think might work. Just try it and see what happens.
• The pen that resided in my handbag was the Kaweco Classic Sport. If it accommodated a converter, the Kaweco would get more use and take up residence on my desk.
• Best new (to me) non-fountain pen writing instrument was a tie between the Sanford Uniball Gel Grip medium (utilitarian) and the Pentel Libretto (attractive). The Autopoint remained my favorite mechanical pencil in large part due to its 0.9mm HB lead. The Levenger True Writer Rollerball sporting a felt tip refill continued as my first choice when a fountain pen or mechanical pencil wouldn’t do.

That wraps up 2012. My wish list for 2013 is simple. Buy or trade for another stub or italic nib and acquire a few new inks, mostly Noodler’s or perhaps a Diamine or two. A bottle of Iroshizuku kon-peki might be nice but on that I can wait.

Did you get some “really good stuff” this year? What’s on your list for 2013?

2012 Favorite Pen, Ink, and Paper Products

Noodler’s Ottoman Azure and Black Swan in Australian Roses, J. Herbin Poussière de Lune, InkJournal, Stillman & Birn Sketchbook for Pen & Ink, Levenger True Writer, Autopoint Mechanical Pencil, Rhodia pad, Pelikan Tradition M-215 Black Rings fountain pen.