Posts Tagged ‘fountain pens’

Guest post: Vintage pens

Posted January 30, 2012 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Product Reviews | Add your comment »

Guest blogger Kate Marshall of K’s Notebook went to the Philadelphia Pen Show last weekend and came back with a gorgeous antique Waterman. If you’re not jealous after reading her description, check out these photos on Flickr.

So it’s probably been well established that I like fountain pens. Me + fountain pens = TRU LUV 4 EVAH!

I’ve almost always stuck to modern-day pens until last week at the 2012 Philadelphia Pen Show, when I stumbled across a Waterman pen so old that it was probably around when Edward Cullen was still a human. I’m not quite sure what made me stop and notice this relic of the Woodrow Wilson era — was it the oxidation of the black hard rubber? The Waterman No. 2 nib with its jaunty, heart-shaped breather hole? The clear and crisp imprint stamped in the middle of the pen’s chasing? The ringtop cap, which may or may not be original to the pen? Who knows, but at the end of the day, I came away with a black hard rubber Waterman No. 12 PSF pen in reasonably good condition, and my contemporary pens all felt slightly jealous that they were still 60-odd years away from collecting Social Security benefits.

After doing some quick research on sites like Fountain Pen Network and Richard Binder’s website, I learned that my 12 PSF was the precursor to Waterman’s famed Ideal No. 52 fountain pen (still in high demand on the vintage pen market). The thing to remember about flex nibs is, they aren’t magic like unicorn horns. They won’t automatically turn one into a professional calligrapher any more than a new…scrub brush…will turn a someone into a master…scullery maid…whatever, there are a lot of analogies that could work here. But sometimes, a nice flex nib can add a certain “je ne sais quoi” to a person’s handwriting, because the nib responds to changes in writing pressure. Plus, the idea of writing with a 97-year old pen is pretty cool. My great-grandparents (or maybe even my grandparents) could have used a Waterman No. 12 back in the day. What sort of adventures did this pen’s previous owners get into during the past nine decades? How did the pen finally wind up among Susan Wirth’s wares at the show? Most importantly, what might the future hold for it?

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What’s on your stationery wish list?

Posted November 29, 2011 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 8 comments »

We’ve talked about office supplies; now it’s time to talk pens and paper… What’s on your stationery wishlist? I’d like another Pelikano since it’s a pen I find myself reaching for all the time, and a Duo Cover for my Space 17.

What about you?

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Do you use an ink blotter?

Posted October 6, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 7 comments »

Quill etc

Sometimes, when a piece of paper doesn’t absorb all the ink you try to lay down, that doesn’t mean it’s not fountain pen friendly. The paper in our Journal 21, for example, is modeled after old ledger paper. The goal is to be thin and strong, with no feathering or bleed through. Frustrated by how long it takes your ink to dry? The solution is simple: blotting paper.

I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t tried this old technique — I usually just wait till things dry — but I’ve always been curious about it. I love the looks of those antique ink blotters, and have been thinking about getting one… even if it does threaten to add to the clutter on my desk!

Do you use an ink blotter?

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Desk pen, pocket pen

Posted September 28, 2011 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 2 comments »

I just got a new pen — a Faber-Castell E-Motion that’s the happy consequence of needing to use some frequent flyer miles before they expired. I’ve inked it up with Cacao du Bresil and have been writing with it all morning.

Pictures and thoughts will follow once I put it to more use than just scribbling, but in the meantime, first impressions have me wondering about desk pens and pocket pens. With its chrome cap, this thing weighs nearly 2 ounces, as opposed to the quarter ounce of the Pilot rollerballs I prefer when I need to write on cheap paper. My other fountain pens are nowhere near that heavy, either, I guess because they’re mostly entry-level plastic models. (Even my steel-capped Pelikano is light!)

At any rate, the E-Motion is obviously going to be a pen that takes its position on my desk and doesn’t move much from room to room. It’s exactly the sort of fountain pen I never thought I’d want — the sort of pen that a younger, snider me would have called unnecessary and officious. Of course, now that it’s come into my possession, I’m far from unhappy to have it.

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Do you prefer textured paper?

Posted June 1, 2011 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 12 comments »

I read a Pen World piece about fountain pen friendly paper the other day (it’s not online, alas) and was interested to see what people like and why.

No feathering, no bleedthrough — those are givens, really. Another thing people felt strongly about was texture. Several sources voiced a preference for smooth paper, praising Clairefontaine and Rhodia because, as Pen World contributor Jil McIntosh explained, “The fine and extra-fine nibs I prefer just glide over them.” Others were partial to so-called “toothy” paper, particularly for correspondence (McIntosh, for instance, believes it’s more pleasant for the recipient to hold).

Which do you prefer?

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Fountain pens and post-its II

Posted September 13, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Product Reviews | Add your comment »

I was intrigued to read the comment that Ruby made to my post about fountain pens and post-its. She suggested that the sheen that makes post-its so fountain pen unfriendly is actually a residue from the adhesive, and that if you write further down, the ink should adhere better. Another commenter gave it a try and reported good results.

Now, we may all be working with different brands of post-its (I’ve got the “Post-it” brand, which is made by 3M), but my results were underwhelming. A Phileas loaded with J. Herbin’s Bleu Nuit seemed to confirm the effect, but a Perle Noir-loaded Safari performed equally terribly at the top and the bottom of the post-it. So did my Pelikano, which had Poussiere de Lune and whose results I didn’t photograph.

Bottom line, YMMV. I guess I’ll have to get that glue stick Sara mentioned… Maybe I can pick up a liquid pencil while I’m at the stationery store!

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Fountain pens and post-its

Posted July 12, 2010 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 6 comments »

It’s not hard to appreciate the virtues of thick, strong, smooth paper. Now that I write with fountain pens, I value them even more — what better way to showcase my lovely J. Herbin inks? For the past year, I’ve been using my fountain pens for everyday deskbound tasks like writing and note-taking and lists. (The next step, as I mentioned earlier, is taking them out of the house.) And I’ve been able to integrate them into nearly everything I do at my desk, with one strange but stubborn exception: Post-it notes.

I don’t use post-its that often now that I’ve begun to incorporate a Rhodia mousepad into my quote-unquote time management system. But I’m always looking for ways to prevent myself from overlooking the little things I need to do or keep track of each day, and bright yellow Post-its are a still an integral part of that arsenal.

Post-it brand post-its are actually pretty sturdy. But they’ve got this strange sort of sheen overlay that’s just death for fountain pens. Even Herbin ink performs badly; it’s splotchy and there’s lots of feathering. Here it is in a fine-nibbed Pelikano:

And here it is in the same pen on 90g Clairefontaine:

In the grand scheme of things, of course, this is hardly a big deal. (For whatever reason, my Phileas, whose medium nib is comparatively thin, performs somewhat better on post-its.) I’m still curious, though: what does the sheen accomplish? Does it make the post-it stronger or less susceptible to water damage? At this rate, you’d be better off writing on cheap printer paper. Maybe I’ll have to try the 4X4 Post-its that get such good reviews on FPN…

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Why a good pen is like a nice umbrella

Posted May 5, 2010 by
in Editorial | 8 comments »

Image via (((o.kvlt)))

I am one of those people who is constantly misplacing pens… I put them in my bag, in my pocket; I take them out, put them somewhere else, and pretty soon they’re gone. It’s one of the reasons I’m hesitant to let my fountain pens leave the controlled chaos of my desk, because it’s one thing to misplace an inexpensive Pilot V-Ball, and quite another to lose my pretty Waterman Phileas, or one of my Pelikanos.

For environmental reasons, however, I’m trying to cut back on the number of disposable things in my life, and there’s no reason pens shouldn’t be a part of that effort.

Generally, I believe that when it comes to organization, it’s best to work around your habits rather than trying to overhaul them all at once. But then I think about umbrellas. I used to lose them all the time, too, until I spent a year in England and decided that enough was enough. So I went to a department store and bought a pretty black-and-red umbrella for the princely sum of £18. I was a graduate student at the time, and it wasn’t an easy decision. But it’s been 8 years since then, and I still haven’t lost that umbrella.

Anyway, I’m going to start small, and keep one of my less expensive fountain pens in the pocket of my bag. If that goes well, maybe it’ll be easier to use them in other non-deskbound settings. Here’s hoping!

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Guest post: Waterproof inks

Posted March 22, 2010 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »

Guest blogger Kate Marshall is back this morning with a good subject for the accident prone: waterproof ink.

So one time, I was transcribing notes and accidentally knocked over my glass of water. Yes, all over my notebook. Luckily, my notes were okay because I’d written them with a waterproof fountain-pen ink: Noodler’s Black.

Yes, such a thing exists. Recently, I did a quick and dirty test of three waterproof Noodler’s inks, a J. Herbin fountain pen ink, and two waterproof J. Herbin inks to see how well they hold up against liquid abuse.

The inks I tested were:

I. Noodler’s (recently purchased during the 2010 Philadelphia Pen Show)

1. Black
2. Bad Blue Heron (a new turquoise color)
3. Old Manhattan Black (exclusive to Fountain Pen Hospital)

II. J. Herbin (provided by Exaclair)

1. Perle Noire (not specifically labeled waterproof but more on that later)
2. Encre Authentique (“Lawyer’s ink”)
3. Encre Chine (“China ink.” Also can be known as “India ink”)

Continue reading »

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More fields

Posted March 3, 2010 by
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

We just got a couple new images from Christian Skagen’s “Horizontal Fields” series, which we blogged about last week (with my apologies for having flubbed the title; sorry — it’s “Horizontal Fields,” not “Horizontal Lines” as I first wrote).

Anyway, click through to see some pieces Christian made with J. Herbin Rose Tendresse and Bleu Azur and a Pelikan M250 EF:

Continue reading »

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