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Category: Stationery

Delights from my Dislikes

Posted in Fountain Pens

As promised, I’m back with delights from my disliked pen brands. Once again, this is based on a video from Angelica Nyqvist.

Disclaimer: I’m calling this “dislike[d]” brands, but that’s really for the alliteration. I don’t necessarily dislike the brands, it’s more that their pens don’t tend to work for me.

Montegrappa

I’ve had hard starting issues with most of my Montegrappa pens. It’s the reason why I’ve sold the ones that I have. But, my Extra 1930 Shiny Lines/Dove is a true delight. The nib is wet. The material is stunning. The nib and cap band are beautiful. The only thing I would change is the ink capacity, as I keep writing it dry.

Montegrappa Shiny Lines/Dove

Cocoa Paper: Quality Custom Cover

Posted in Paper

I enjoy color. I know, it can be hard to tell. 😉 Unfortunately for me, my favorite notebooks don’t come with colorful covers. So, in June last year, I made a custom fabric cover. It turned out… alright. It was a bit too big, and the construction wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t too bad for a first try. I used some gorgeous fabrics, and that’s really the only reason I’ve kept it as long as I have.

Switching to a different notebook brand with my current notebook seemed like a good time to abandon that old cover. Unfortunately, while the Rhodia is more colorful than the Firma-Flex, it stains badly.

Back of Rhodia Goalbook showing staining
Look at all that ugly staining. The front and spine are just as bad.

So, I went looking for a new cover. I didn’t think it would be so difficult.

Fails from my Favorites

Posted in Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

I’m not sure where it originated, but the other day I watched a video from Angelica Nyqvist about fails from her favorite makeup brands. Seeing as I had so much fun with adapting the makeup tag to pens, I figured I could do the same thing with this. So, without further ado, here are some fails (for me) from some of my favorite pen brands.

Disclaimer: I’m calling this “fails,” but that refers to failing to satisfy my pen wants & needs. These aren’t bad pens, I just don’t like them. Also, the alliteration is fun.

My 200th Pen

Posted in Fountain Pens

5 years, 8 months, and 19 days after buying my first fountain pen, I purchased pen number 199. Granted, I haven’t kept all of those pens. Between selling, gift, breakage, and loss, I currently own 121 pens, of which 110 are in regular use.

But, the main point is that my next purchase will be pen 200!! That’s huge, and deserves an appropriately special pen.

Because I wasn’t carefully cataloging my pens yet, I blew right past pens 50 and 100 — although, by sheer dumb luck, #50 was my first 18111 pen. And I didn’t think to save 150 for a special pen, so 200 has to be awesome.

18111 Ivy Pen
Pen number 50. She’s certainly gorgeous.

Dark Radiance

Posted in Fountain Pens

Before I get started, let me say I take no responsibility from pen envy or impulse purchases resulting from this post. Pen porn abounds. You have been warned. Now, enjoy!


I fell in love with my Tamenuri Studio pen when Michal posted his close up images (see image 2).

I sent him a message ASAP, and, luckily it was still available. Michal was kind enough to send me some photos of the whole pen. It lost nothing in the further distanced photos. He posted them a little later, so you can see them, too.

An Underrated Ink

Posted in Ink

Several years ago, as part of my Fountain Pen 101 Series, I wrote about inks. In that post, I mentioned how some “inks are considered “tried and true” in that they work well with virtually all pens and flow well.”I cited Diamine and Pilot Iroshizuku as two “tried and true” inks. I’ve since learned that Waterman inks have a similar reputation. However, in my own experience, I’ve discovered another ink brand that should have been on on that list: J(acques) Herbin.

Capsule Pen Collection

Posted in Fountain Pens

DISCLAIMER UPDATE (6/24/22): TWSBI and Narwhal have released a joint statement which I cover in my most recent TWSBIgate post. While not completely satisfied with TWSBI’s response to the situation, I no longer feel the need to dissuade people from purchasing their products.

DISCLAIMER (5/1/22): Since writing this post, TWSBI has been involved in some unsavory actions, and I am currently boycotting them. For more information, refer to the #twsbigate tag page.

Ink Journal’s September 10th Flex Nib Friday issue included a link to ukfountainpens.com‘s article The Three Pen Collection for £1,000. The idea was based on a series of posts on the watch blog Worn & Wound called the three watch collection for $5,000. UK Fountain Pens adapted the idea to pens, dropped the budget to $1,000 because “watches are much more expensive than pens” — *chortle* some watches are much more expensive than some pens — and limited picks to pens you can go out and buy today.

It’s an easy enough premise. My problem, however, is that the pens I’d choose don’t work out well with the budget provided. So, I gave it some thought and decided to curate two collections, one with the adjusted $1,000 budget and one with the original $5,000 budget. As a note, I did not include taxes when figuring out my choices.

Journey to the Right Layout

Posted in Paper

I always feel a little presumptuous, writing these “here’s how I do things” posts, but you all seem to really enjoy them. So today, I’m sharing my current notebook layout and how it’s evolved into this over the years. I’ve just started a new notebook, and this seemed like the perfect timing for the layout post I’ve been planning.

Note: Please excuse the redactions. Some info I just can’t share with the world.

My current layout.

My Perfect Pen Case

Posted in Storage

For most of us, our pens are precious. Even more so as we venture into more expensive territory. Considering how much a pen can cost, it’s no wonder we spend freely on protective cases. With the purchase of my most recent pen case, it occurred to me that I have some very specific ideas when it comes to a perfect case.

There are sleeves, roles, and penvelopes; leather, fabric, and wood; portable and leave-at-home. But, in all of that, we still don’t have a perfect multi-pen case — in my view.

Hear me out. I’ve had several cases in my time. Some of them are near perfection — Girologio — and others left much to be desired. But none of them offered my ideal mix of crush and scratch protection.

A Fun New Pen Case

Posted in Storage

Recently, I purchased a Raymay Detecool Pen Case after watching a JetPens video (Detecool segment starts at 0:16). I wasn’t sure how it would work out for my pens, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

The Detecool case zipped up.

After using it a few times, I can happily say it’s my favorite traveling pen case. Here’s some of what’s so great about it.

Link to JetPens photos: https://www.jetpens.com/Raymay-Detecool-Pen-Case-Gray/pd/30952

The Fountain Pens Tag

Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens

The other day, I watched a video on Theresa is Dead’s YouTube channel covering The Eyeshadow Palette Tag. It was an old video, from a year ago, and based on an idea from Allie Glines and Samantha March. However, it occurred to me that I could have fun with it — with some modifications — for fountain pens.

Some of these questions were hard for me to answer, but, let’s give it a try.

1. What is your newest fountain pen?

At the time of writing (9/5/21) my newest pen is the Retro 51 Wings of the Monarch fountain pen.

Retro 51 Wings of the Monarch

I decided not to get the rollerball version last year, and regretted it. So, when a fountain pen version was released a few days ago, I jumped on it. No regrets here. It’s stunning, and I already did a Makeup Monday look with it.

Unseating the Firma Flex Notebook?

Posted in Paper

Three years ago, I wrote about my favorite notebook at the time, the Franklin-Christoph Firma Flex. It remained my favorite notebook for years, until, sadly, it was out-of-stock for an extended period of time late last year and early this year.

In that time, I went looking for a replacement notebook. This was partially because I wasn’t sure if the Firma Flex would ever be available again and partially because I’ve been looking for a notebook with paper that will better show ink shading.

Ink Dupes #14: Maruzen and Taccia

Posted in Ink

Wow, I didn’t really think I’d do another of these. They’re a bit time consuming. But, I came across this pair, and knew I had to share. I’ve decided to leave off the chromatography strips, as they take the longest, and don’t tell you anything about how the inks look coming out of your pen.

Jim found Maruzen Eternal Blue a while back when a local pen peep was selling off some ink. He fell in love with it, and went out of his way to find a second bottle on eBay. It’s pretty hard to get a hold of, so I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that one of Taccia’s new Jean inks is a near perfect dupe.

This one was trickier to scan, since there is some sheen, so I also took a photo.

The Inks

Maruzen Athena Inks Eternal Blue
Price: $40?
Bottle Size: 50ml
Price Per Ml: $0.80
Availability: Maruzen store in Japan or eBay

Taccia Navy Blue Jeans
Price: $18
Bottle Size: 40ml
Price Per Ml: $0.45
Availability: Readily Available

Jowo Update #3

Posted in Fountain Pens

Well, here’s hoping this is the last Jowo update. I’m honestly getting a little tired of Jowogate — my blog is meant to be a fun space — so I don’t know if I’ll write additional posts even if there is more information in the future. Time will tell.

Anyway, Jowo finally released a statement. I’ve included it below in case you don’t want to check their Instagram. In an interesting… coincidence (?), their website is down reading only “Diese Seite wird derzeit aktualisiert. Bitte haben Sie noch etwas Geduld,” and their contact information. Which, according to Google Translate means, “This page is currently being updated. Please have a little patience.”

Jowo Update #2

Posted in Fountain Pens

Once again we interrupt our scheduled programming on the 2021 DC Pen Show for a special bulletin on Jowo issues.

After my last update, I received comments and messages about the too-tight housings. So many, in fact, that I decided to measure my nib housings. Clearly, I’m not the only one who’s experienced the super-tight housings.

So, being the data nut that I am, I carefully measured some of my housings. The results were inconclusive at best. Let me start with disclaimers.

  1. I can’t give manufacturing dates for my housings. The best I can do is say a housing was manufactured before I received it.
  2. I don’t recall precisely which nibs were in cracked housings when I did my big cleanout a few weeks ago. With the obvious exception of the two cracked housings listed, I don’t THINK any of the ones I measured were. But I’m not 100% sure.
  3. I did my best to measure everything in the exact same location. But, I’m human, and humans are neither perfect nor precise. So consider that when looking at the results.

Jowo Update

Posted in Fountain Pens

Once again we interrupt our scheduled programming on the 2021 DC Pen Show for this special bulletin on Jowo issues.

Things have moved quickly since I decided to write about the Jowo nib housing issue. Because of that, I have two updates for you today.

Official Statement

I can’t call this Jowo’s response. This is Meisternibs’ response. It’s a good response. Brian acknowledges that the issue is more severe than they thought and provides a temporary, easy fix.

The following was copied and pasted from Meisternibs.com on 8/17/2021 at 4:20pm to preserve the message for future readers.

Housing Issues

On behalf of Meisternibs, I would like to recognize the issues that have been occurring with nib housings.

We truly appreciate all of the feedback from penmakers and consumers so that we can make the best decisions and offer the best products. We have been aware of and have considered all of these issues since they were initially reported.

In the beginning, this issue seemed to be isolated to a very small percentage of our nib housings. However, after receiving reports over the last 7 days (not only from penmakers but also from consumers) we now understand that this issue is larger than we had originally thought.

We believe that this issue is related to a few faulty batches during the injection molding process of nib housings. We also believe that the issue has already been addressed and fixed months ago and that no faulty housings are currently being shipped to our penmakers or consumers.

However, please understand that a faulty nib housing from our facility would have come from the overseas factory, then to us as a distributor, then to a penmaker, and then to the consumer. This period between manufacture and consumption means that faulty nib housings from months ago could still be out there.

Considering this, we have made sure that we have replacement housings available to all of our penmakers and consumers as needed. These housings are from the latest moldings that we have tested thoroughly. Anyone who possesses a faulty housing is welcome to request replacements at no charge from Meisternibs.

If this is the case, please email brian@meisternibs.com. Please include a photo of the problematic housing and a shipping address. If you can provide a photo, we will send you a replacement and we will cover the housing cost and shipping cost. If you cannot provide a photo, we will only ask you to cover shipping costs. Photos are preferred so that we can have as much information as possible regarding this issue.

The above verbiage outlines the most accurate information that we have as of today (8/16/21). As more updates are available, we will post them here.

Rest assured that we are working very hard on this issue to ensure quality control.  If anyone has questions, I am always available at the email listed above, or you can use our contact form.

Lastly, I would like to address the "radio silence" that I fully understand has been frustrating. The truth of this matter is that I have never had a means for mass communications besides this website and emails. When Meisternibs began more than 12 years ago, social media wasn't exactly what it is today. Meisternibs caters primarily to penmakers. So when Meisternibs was formed, penmakers became quickly aware of us despite the lack of social media outlets. So even when social media became as large as it is today, we truly did not need it for visibility. Bottom line...I am (and always have been) available for all communications via email or the phone. As these issues have occurred, I believe that every penmaker will attest to fast responses and attention to their needs. I will kindly ask consumers to not confuse a lack of activity on social media with a position of indifference. I have always been available with fast responses via email to all customers, be it penmaker or consumer.

Thank you

Brian at Meisternibs

But it’s not the response I was looking for.

2021 DC Pen Show, Part 2

Posted in Pen Shows

I now return to the scheduled DC Pen Show Programming.

As I mentioned in my experience post, I’m also reviewing the 2021 DC Pen Show. I’m surprised I haven’t reviewed it before. For those unaware, Bob Johnson passed away, and his sister has taken over the show organization. She appears to be more willing to bring in additional help.

Of note, I won’t be as “harsh” as I general would be. With the combo platter of minimal planning time due to COVID uncertainties, a new person running it, and the limitations due to COVID, the show deserves some leeway. Because of that, I’ll likely review it again, next year (or whenever COVID restrictions have been completely lifted).

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