Bits and Pieces and Lamys and Pilots

Posted on by Laura

So how are we all doing? All good? I hope so. I’m good, too, just super busy doing other things. As a result, I feel like I’ve been more inattentive than usual to my fountain pen blogger responsibilities.

Except, of course, the whole reason I took the job of fountain pen blogger in the first place is that it comes with absolutely no responsibilities. Excellent!

Except the pay? Same.

Still, I do like to check in with everyone, at least every once in a while, if for no other reason than to signal that I’m not dead or anything. So here’s what’s going on here, in pens and other follies.

1. Pilot Kakuno.

Last Sunday someone showed me a Pilot Kakuno in clear plastic. I was taken by it. It seems like a nice starter pen: it’s small but not tiny, with a comfortable grip. And I love a clear pen. Yes, it’s for children. But I don’t hold that against pens. I’m a Safari fan (like all right-thinking people).

2. Almost mine.

I liked the Kakuno in clear plastic so much that I actually put one, with a converter, into my Jetpens cart. Come for washi tape, leave with a pen. It’s that $25-free-shipping offer. It gets me every time.

In the end, though, I didn’t get it. As nice as the Kakuno is, I realized I wouldn’t use it beyond the first “Isn’t this fun!” stage.

3. Great news, Lamy.

You may remember that at the Ohio Pen Show someone took off with my beloved Lamy Pico in Laser Orange. That was a bummer. But this week Fontoplumo announced that Lamy is adding the Laser Orange as a regular Pico color.

The Laser Orange Pico was possibly my favorite pen purchase of 2016, and I’ll buy another for sure.

(There are some other new Lamy colors, too, including a very nice purple Lamy Nexx, for purple fans.)

4. Lamy, Lamy, Lamy.

Speaking of new Lamy colors, it hasn’t been officially announced, but it has been reliably rumored that the new 2018 Safari is going to be a textured black color.

Honestly, my first thought was “blah.” A textured black would be the third not-fun Safari in a row. Is this one necessary? There are three Safari or Al-Star pens in black or charcoal in the regular line already. In fact, a Charcoal Safari is the one pen I always keep inked.

But the idea has grown on me. It may be Stockholm Syndrome, but if the not-fun Safari is going to remain Lamy’s thing, they could do worse than textured black. I like black; probably everyone likes black.

Plus, well, I don’t know how to say this, but … I’d never really looked closely at the Charcoal, despite using it daily. And, now that I have, I think Lamy may have a point. The Charcoal is kind of an odd shade of gray. A textured black Safari might be more appealing.

So I’m mildly looking forward to this new not-fun Safari. Add that to the Laser Orange Pico and the 2018 Vibrant Pink Al-Star. That’s three Lamy purchases on the horizon for me, and I’m feeling positive about all three. Good vibes, Lamy.

5. The Best Lamy.

My favorite Lamy is on its way back to me as we speak — the Dialog 3. Thanks to the intervention of a good pen dealer (the Nibsmith), my pen is in the mail, with its clip apparently all fixed.

And just in the nick of time, too. I missed that pen so much I was debating between nailing Christmas lights to the wall to try to communicate with it, or firing up the shrine to Jobu and sacrificing a Platinum Preppy.

I think the lesson here is that having a good pen dealer is important.

6. Better than Lamy.

Virginia Woolf’s birthday was this past week. We are not worthy. Looking for a reading suggestion? Pick up Mrs Dalloway, or To The Lighthouse, available at fine bookstores and libraries everywhere. I’m going to pick up my copy of The Waves again, and this time, I swear, I’ll finish.

7. Actually.

Actually I have a Virginia Woolf pen. It’s beautiful.

I mean, it’s not Virginia Woolf’s pen. Of course. Fun fact: fountain pens were a new-fangled invention to her. I seem to remember a passage in her letters or diary where she totally dragged this buggy new technology. Yet to us, fountain pens are old-fashioned. I find that delightful. Also a little trippy.

25 thoughts on “Bits and Pieces and Lamys and Pilots”

  1. I tried a Dialogue 3 at the Lamy counter in Raffles City, Shanghai. Wonderfully smooth, and a very interesting design, but a tad heavy for me. Fun to have a go with.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I blame the blue/blood/super moon eclipse for abandoning (my brief flirtation with) Discipline and embracing Fifties Popular Culture Method: I have just ordered the Lamy AL Vibrant Pink which will be on my desk by Monday.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. The universe needs balance. Ying wants Yang. Your empty shopping cart, etc, found it’s counterweight in my couple of weeks of random – some needed, some not – purchases. Everything from elements necessary for work (yes, a Bluetooth foot pedal to turn the pages on the tablet of a piece of music I was performing that literally had NO breaks for both hands to turn pages). And then the 1937 jet black Vacumatic that was simply not to be resisted. What, you say – there’s a pen show coming up? Not to worry: work is going to keep me away and I’ll be lucky if I can drive up to catch one afternoon.

    So, yeah, I’ll not have a pen show bonanza this coming month. Now leave me to my Glue Dots and cheap Chinese prescription glasses…

    (The above, translated: Nice blog post.) ❤

    Liked by 1 person

      1. You can’t say “in my day…” when you are younger than me. It doesn’t work that way. Besides, even orphans refuse to work with percussionists.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. I’m just amazed I could say “I needed washi tape,” and no one called me on that. That’s what’s so nice about pen people: they understand. 🙂

      Like

          1. I have to confess, of all the things I have bought since I began The Quest for the Perfect Pen and Paper, I have still not bought washi tape–in fact, I’m not sure I completely understand what it is.

            Liked by 1 person

          2. Oh, it’s awesome! By which I mean, of course, “another accessory of nearly infinite variety to explore.” Aka, Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”

            Yeah, just leave it…. 🙂

            Liked by 1 person

  5. I am TOTALLY impressed that you were able to not buy the Jetpens pen! Well done! I do wish there were photos of the pens you have mentioned. Pen porn.

    I bought my first Lamy awhile back. The rose gold Lamy LX. I don’t know how it compares with other Lamys but I always have it inked up.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I don’t have a photo of the Kakuno, but you can see the clear one at Jetpens and maybe other stores. 😉 As for the other pens, there should be photos if you follow the links in the post — except for the 2018 Safari, which hasn’t been officially announced.

      I have the rose gold Lx, too. It’s my younger daughter’s favorite pen. The nib is smooth, too, and I’ve started moving it to random Safaris or Al-Stars.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Well, I feel so silly — I didn’t even register those links as, well, links! I will look them all up, Thanks so much! ✨💖✨
        I love your blog, but I think this is the first time I’ve left a comment. Sorry about that. I write a blog, too, and know the value of comments.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I love your comment! Never feel silly about that: I always assume if I have a question, probably others do, too. 🙂 Also, I could have set off the links with something clearer like “click here for pictures.”

          I agree on the value and delight of comments. 🙂

          Liked by 1 person

  6. Just as I was settling into my role of Smug Self-Disciplined, you go and mention a violet Lamy Nexx. I had eschewed the idea of a bright pink Al-Star (although this would be the first colour Al I had missed), I sneered at the prospect of another is it black is it matt Safari. I know that the Nexx is the same pen with just another plastic cap. But it’s violet – and so are many of my inks. Damn.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Even I like that Nexx. 🙂 Such a nice purple! But the bright pink Al-Star is like a dream come true for me. I may buy an extra of that one, just in case. 🙂

      Like

  7. Great post, thank you. Virginia Woolf is, if not a favorite, then she’s up there somewhere…

    “Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
    (Woolf, 1929/1977

    Woolf, Virginia. (1977). A Room of One’s Own. Ch. 4, p. 83. London, UK: Grafton. (Reprinted from presentations made to the Arts Society at Newnham and the Odtaa at Girton in October 1928. First published as A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, 1929, London, UK: The Hogarth Press).

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Me, too! She’s a beautiful writer, stylistically, and so fearless in her writing. But more than that… Well, I just don’t know how to express it. She was a marvel. She had a fearsome intellect, combined with what must have been unbearable sensitivity. “I am rooted, but I flow.”

      Liked by 3 people

      1. She wasn’t even 60 when she died, and from the 1940s on, she could have contributed so much more… to literature and society. We could use a few more more major women authors like her even now; maybe even especially now.

        Liked by 3 people

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.