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Tag: Caran d'Ache

When You Can’t Get Over It

Posted in Non-Fountain Pens

I thought I’d come to terms with my Caran d’Ache (CdA) 849 Year of the Dragon. But then, Brad, The Pen Addict, reviewed the same pen, and now I have ALL KINDS of additional angry feels. This has effectively ruined the only decent year of the dragon pen release for me.

But, before I get carried away, let me back up for a minute.

Background

Around the middle of last year, I started getting excited for the expected surge of awesome dragon products for the year of the dragon — I was born during the year of the dragon. Unfortunately, as the Lunar New Year products were announced, there was a dearth of dragons, and of products that looked like effort went into the design.

Dupe The Expensive Vibes

Posted in Fountain Pens

If you’ve been a fountain pen person for any length of time, you likely know that their prices have a VERY wide range. But, if you aren’t married to a name brand, you can get the feel of more expensive pens for a small fraction of the cost.

Granted, I make no promises on the quality of the various pens and nibs. Some may be great, some may be crap. But, these let you have that expensive look without the dollar outlay. And, if you’re saving enough on the pen, there’s little a good nibmeister can’t fix.

Note: I’m NOT talking about knock-offs today. That will be in a future post.

Year in Review – 2022 Pens

Posted in Fountain Pens, and Non-Fountain Pens

While it was difficult to do last year, ranking my pen purchases was a useful exercise. So, I decided to do it again. I have to say, I’m embarrassed by the long list of pens I purchased this year. I was hoping to buy less pens this year, not more. But I’ll discuss that in another post.

I realize that this is a long block of text. But, if I added a photo of each pen, it would take absolutely forever to get through. So, for pens that I’ve already discussed in a dedicated post, I’ve linked to that post (and the photos contained therein). For the rest, where possible, I linked to an Instagram photo from the pen maker or store they collaborated with. When that wasn’t possible, I linked to a good photo on Instagram (consider following those fine folks) or one of my own Instagram posts.

My 2022 Brand “Discoveries”

Posted in Fountain Pens

While I didn’t quite buy from 15 new-to-me brands like last year, I did purchase from 9. Now, when I say new-to-me, I don’t mean I’ve never heard of them, just that I’d never before purchased a pen made by that brand.

Nearly all of them are indie brands, which makes me happy as I like supporting indie brands. And my interest continues to be piqued by indie brands more than mainstream brands.

Anyway, let’s start with mainstream brands to get that out of the way, then jump into the indie brands. FYI: The lists are in alphabetical order.

My 10 Most-Used Inks

Posted in Ink

The other day, I was going through my inks, and I couldn’t help but wonder what inks I use most. So, me being me, I dug into my data, and pulled out my 10 most-used inks. To figure out which they were, I looked for which inks have been used in my last four notebooks (since I started tracking inks). Only 6 inks were used in all 4 notebooks. The remaining 4 were inks that I used for both regular rotation in 3 notebooks and had in always inked pens.

Honestly, I was rather surprised by the results, as these aren’t my favorite inks. At least, not the inks I think of when asked about favorites. Maybe I’ll cover those in another post.

Note: This list is in alphabetical order. I scanned my personal ink swabs from my ink notebook. I’ve done my best to make the inks look true-to-life, but I can’t account for everyone’s screen settings, only mine.