🔗 🖋️ Thursday Drops: TWSBI ECO-T Mint, Nakabayashi Paper, Lamy Restock and More! — The Gentleman Stationer

I have enough ECOs in my life that I won’t be buying this, but as someone who prefers the ECO-T to the standard, I’m happy to see so many new color options come out recently.

I was already ordering some inks from Dromgoole’s, and threw this one in on a whim after hearing @brad talk about it on an episode of The Pen Addict. Again, my photography skills don’t show it off, but I may have a new favorite ink, especially paired with the rose gold pen.

🖋️Yesterday, I received one of my grail pens. I had a major work milestone in January, and planned for months to celebrate by ordering this pen. Everything about the experience was perfect. From phone calls with the owner on nib tuning to its appearance and how it sits in my hand. I’m in love.

🖋️Forgot to post my last Atlanta Pen Show Pen! This is a bad picture of a gorgeous pen from the folks at Hinze Pens. My dad and I got matching ones. Mixed with a brown shimmer ink, this thing is incredible. Look at that nib!

🖋️Another ATL Pen Show Acquisition. Not a new pen, but a new nib grind and ink. The grind and ink took this pen from one I liked to one I love. It’s Mark Bacas’s version of a Naginata Togi nib, and it is my first specialty grind. I absolutely love it.

🖋️Next Atlanta Pen Show purchase. I’ve seen pictures of Vanishing Points, but never got the appeal. Seeing them in person, I was immediately drawn to this (hard to photograph) Blue Matte. I’ve read @brad raving about this ink for years, so I had to try it. I love the subdued pen/bright ink combo!

🖋️Atlanta Pen Show Haul items 2 & 3. This is a great example of why shows are great. I wanted to try this nib and an Estie badly. As soon as I walked up to the Kenro booth, this finish called my name, and the nib is great. And this ink! It’s like a shimmery Shin-kai (maybe a shade lighter).

🖋️Amazing day at the Atlanta Pen Show. I will make sure to post my haul later today, but for now I want to thank @brad for always being so gracious with his time to everyone in this community.

🖋️ Not gonna sleep well tonight. I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve because I head to the Atlanta Pen Show tomorrow! This is my second time attending, and a I’ve been counting down the days. With no pen stores near me, it’s my only real chance to see things in person. Let’s see what I come home with.

🖋️I shared yesterday’s post because I knew today would be New Pen Day! I wanted to share the context of visiting the store in Europe.

This is a Casa della Stilografica exclusive Leonardo Furore Flame Grande. It’s number 29/43, and comes with Leonardo Arancio ink. It’s a perfect Craig pen.

🖋️My favorite pen. Purchased when my wife and I were in Florence Italy last December from the amazing Casa della Stilografica. It pairs so beautifully with Yama Budo. An amazing memory saved in a beautiful pen.

🖋️ 🔗 Ink Review: Laban Greek Mythology Apollo Orange and Aphrodite Pink — The Gentleman Stationer

Unlike many orange inks, Apollo Orange isn’t a particularly dry writer, so I’ve not had any issues with hard starts or nib crud. I’ve also found the ink cleans out of pens fairly easily, which is always a pleasant surprise with oranges.

Uh oh. I may know what my next purchase is going to be.

🔗 🖋️ Ink of the Week – Iroshizuku Yama-budo | Fountain Pen Love

Now that I think about it, I don’t know if I’ve ever come across anyone who doesn’t like it!

It took me a little while to come around to this ink, but now it’s one of my favorites, and in one of my favorite pens at all times.

I didn’t start listening to the Connected Podcast at episode 1, but I started in the first few months for sure. Then came other Relay FM shows like Upgrade and Cortex. For those of you who don’t listen to these shows, they have something in common: Myke Hurley.

I listen to shows Myke doesn’t host as well, but it’s safe to say I like his work in tech podcasting.

I had always known Myke also hosted The Pen Addict with Brad Dowdy, but I was so deep in the paperless lifestyle¹, I didn’t care about pens.

This isn’t to say I never cared about pens. Throughout my school days, I loved a good gel ink pen or mechanical pencil. But I thought I had outgrown that. The Apple Pencil was the only non-keyboard based writing tool I needed.

On March 4, 2020, Myke and Brad published Episode 400 of The Pen Addict, titled Pen Addict 101. I recall on some of his other shows, Myke made the case that if you had ever been slightly curious about the pen thing he did, this was a great starting point. And so I listened, enjoyed it, but didn’t really do anything with that knowledge.

And then just days later, the world changed.

Suddenly, like so many of us, I was working from home, trying to teach my kids, scared, and stressed. I needed something to bring a little beauty to my world, and that episode of TPA popped back into my head.

I began researching fountain pens.

Because I’m me, and I research way too thoroughly before I make a purchase, I thought about it for weeks, but on 4/19/20, I ordered my first pen: A Slate Gray Pilot Prera.

The early pandemic days seem like a blur, so I honestly don’t remember exactly which came first, but I also started Bullet Journaling around this time as well. It helped me keep track of the days that all dragged on and felt the same, and keep my sanity. I didn’t do the beautiful instagram spreads. I just took the basics of the system. But a nice pen helped make that more fun.

Slowly, and then quickly I went deep down the rabbit hole from more beginner pens to more expensive ones. I’ve even been to a pen show (and met Brad Dowdy himself!), and no longer use any digital task manager. I still do a slightly modified Bullet Journal in my A5 Plotter.

I’ll share some of my favorite pens and how I’m using my Plotter on this blog in the future. But this post is about finding small things that bring joy and beauty into a world that has seemingly moved on from COVID, but has left me working from home. As an extrovert, this is a real struggle for me. I need to find those beautiful things to ease the struggle of being by myself in a home office all day.

So what is it about fountain pens that I love? It’s two things. First, every time I hold a nice pen in my hand and write, I have the thought “This is so nice.” It’s a joy to have a high quality tool at your disposal all day, and I have yet to get tired of the experience.

The other is the ink on the page. Fountain Pen Ink has some unique qualities, and seeing what it looks like on a page, even with my horrible handwriting, is a delight. In fact, I might even enjoy trying new inks out more than new pens.

So that’s it. That’s how I got started down this rabbit hole. I now have somewhere between 15-20 pens (is it bad that I don’t know how many?). I have an order in for one of my Grail pens, and have my eye on several more. I would say it’s become a problem, but it’s also been so good for my mental health, that I don’t really worry about it.

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1. I will never forget the day I found out about Evernote. ↩︎

🖋️ New Pen Day!

🖋️ If you followed me before my return to blogging last month, you probably read about my love of digital task managers. A desire to slow down during COVID led me to a new love of stationary and bullet journaling. My A5 sized plotter now runs my life.

🖋️Final photo of Penmas. I’m having trouble capturing how pretty this pen is in the light at my mom’s house. This is the Pen Addict 15th Anniversary Benu Euphoria, and it is gorgeous. Had to ink it up with some PA/Robert Oster Fire on Fire.

🖋️I am so excited about my next Christmas pen. My first Sailor. The Pro Gear Christmas Spice Tea. A burnt orange pen with gold glitter in it? Matching ink? There isn’t anything more Craig.

🖋️My family has graciously supported my fountain pen addiction this Christmas. I’ll post some of my presents over the next few days. First up, a Fountain Pen Case from Toyooka Craft in Japan! @brad, you are a bad (good) influence.

Currently Inked 🖋️

I promise I use non-Iroshizuku inks fairly often, but I’ve been on a kick lately.