Author: Laura

Pen of the Day: Kaweco AL-Sport Grey

Laura7 Comments

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Kaweco AL-Sport in Grey with medium nib. I shared some photos of this pen yesterday, since it’s my newest purchase. I just really like it, so it’s Pen of the Day, too.

This one has a very nice medium nib.  It’s narrower than the medium nib on my Pelikan M400 White Tortoise, which you can compare here. I’m using the Kaweco with a wetter ink than the Pelikan, too.

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I’ve got my new AL-Sport inked with Waterman Blue Black, now sold under the name of Mysterious Blue.  Waterman Blue Black is a traditional blue black with a greenish tint.  It’s not perfect.  It’s not an ink for a dry pen, because the color looks better with more ink flow.  And on some lower quality paper the ink color can lighten with time.  But Waterman Blue Black is very feather resistant, it won’t show through poor quality paper, and it’s a wet ink that works with most pens.

I use either Waterman Serenity Blue or Blue Black with every newly purchased pen.  That way I can tell right away how the nib writes. This one writes a little bit wet and is super smooth.

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Pen Clutter

Laura5 Comments

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I was trying to find my yellow Line Friends Lamy Safari the other day — for the blog, of course.  Instead I found a clown car of pen-related clutter — boxes and boxes of it — all on a tiny shelf.  Which is not my only shelf of pen and ink things.

But I’ve learned my lesson, and I’ve turned over a new leaf.  And that is called: ignorance is bliss. From now on, I’m not going to pay any attention to what’s on my shelves.  Unless something happens to fall on me.  At which time, I’ll shove that item back on the shelf and walk briskly into the other room.  That’s called: just good common sense.

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Pen of the Day: Pelikan M400 White Tortoise

Laura1 Comment

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Pelikan M400 White Tortoise with medium nib. I feel like this is the Kevin Bacon or Kevin Hart of writing instruments for me. I seem to make it Pen of the Day a lot.  And for good reason. For a pen I long hesitated to buy, I like it very much.

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This time, though, I was mostly focused on the ink.  My friend was talking about Pelikan Edelstein Amber, so I wanted to dip into my sample.  You’d think this would be a perfect ink for one my five yellow Safaris, wouldn’t you?  Yes, that would be sensible.  But moving along ….

Pelikan Edelstein Amber is a nice ink.  I find it similar to J. Herbin Ambre de Birmanie, which I also really like.  Edelstein Amber is a touch darker and drier; and for me it does not shade quite as much.  Amber is also a past ink of the year, so harder to find.  But lovely.

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Five Yellow Lamy Safaris

Laura1 Comment

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I have five yellow Safaris? Yes, I have five yellow Safaris. I really had no idea.

The truth is, yellow pens are not exactly necessary in my life, since I never use yellow ink.  Let’s say I own 9,043 bottles of ink.  Admittedly, that’s a rough estimate; the actual number might be higher (cough).  But I do know that, of those roughly 12,000 bottles, exactly zero contain yellow ink.  It’s not exactly legible, at least not to me.

But I still like the yellow Safaris.  And that photo puts a smile on my face.  The cute Line Friends Safari is especially adorable.  Though it lives in a box.  Which I had to search for. Because it was in a storage box.  In the basement.  We’re talking deep storage. I really only use the regular yellow Safari.

The funny thing is, as shocked as I am by the breadth of my yellow Safari ownership, I know that Lamy has made more than five different yellow Safaris.  There’s a lighter yellow with black clip for sure.  And there probably are other special edition Safaris in yellow: I think I’ve seen some with logos.  I just don’t buy the ones with logos.  Or the rare and expensive ones.

Rest assured that I am okay with not having every yellow Safari.  In fact, I’m thrilled.

It might mean a tiny bit of sanity prevails.  But you know me better.  It really means: more room for my blue pens!

Hey.  If I put a few more of these in the storage box in the  basement, wouldn’t that mean … there’s room for that blue Pelikan M205?!

A New Pen is Announced: My Six Stages of Perfectly Normal Behavior Indicating Excellent Mental Health

Laura9 Comments

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Pelikan has announced it’s bringing back the Classic M205 Demonstrator in Transparent Blue as a special edition starting in April.  Pelikan is a weakness of mine.  As are demonstrators.  Also, blue.

I can admit that I don’t happen to love the modern M200. It’s an excellent pen, but it’s a little lightweight for me, and it has the steel nib and I just have never bonded with it. Still, of course all I needed to do was to see the photo, above, to start salivating. It never fails.  Aurora, Pelikan and certain Montblancs affect me like a butcher’s bone does a dog.

Here are my stages, which are essentially invariable.

1. Infatuation. Oooh, shiny.

2. Reasoning It Out. Boy that looks so nice.  And I don’t have the exact same pen already. I mean not exactly the same.  Or, if exactly, I only have one (maybe two, tops) of the exact same pen already.  What if one breaks? And I could always use a different nib size in this pen.  Or a different color.  Or heck the box is probably different if everything else is the same.

And it says “special edition.”  That means: not around forever. Remember that I never got that yellow special edition that, okay I’d never use, but the point is that now I have no yellow pen.  Okay, no yellow pen other than my three yellow Safaris. No, okay, four yellow Safaris. Five? But let’s not confuse the issue.  This isn’t yellow anyway.  It’s so much more useful than yellow.

And for heaven’s sake, I haven’t bought anything pen-related for a week.  Yeah, okay, maybe it’s just four days, really, now that I think of it.  Then there were those cute pants, too.  But sometimes four days can feel like a week — or even a month.  You know that’s true.  And let’s be honest: these last four days have felt like a month.  A pen every month or so is really frugal.

3. Annoyance. What? It’s not out for six whole weeks?  We’re supposed to wait that long? That’s almost cruel.

4. Uh oh. (The price.) Wait, how much is it? Is that dollars or euros? Without shipping? Oh boy, yeah, well that is sort of … yeah.  That’s slightly more than a Safari to be sure.  But it’s not like I waste money on Starbucks lattés every day or anything.  So think of all the money I save there. This is the equivalent of….  Oh.  It’s the equivalent of [33/81/175] Starbucks lattés.  That is a lot of lattés, isn’t it?   Yikes.

And, okay, strictly speaking I already have [four/eight/nineteen/I can’t count that high] other pens of the same brand.  Some of which I bought last year with what I honestly considered “this year’s money.”

And, okay, the stock market laughs cruelly at me, as our “retirement accounts” shrink to the level where they wouldn’t fund a weekend at a Holiday Express.  The credit card bill is on the counter.  My children, annoyingly, “like to eat.”

5.  Acceptance. Sigh. A person is rich in proportion to the number of things which he or she can afford to let alone. Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.  Something something makes us stronger.

6. A Few Weeks Later.  Oooh, I just read online that there’s someone offering it on Amazon dot Freedonia at 10 percent off.  Let me just crunch those numbers again.

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The image of the forthcoming Pelikan Classic M205 Demonstrator in Transparent Blue can be found here, along with more information about the pen.  Drool with me.

Fountain Pen Favorites for February 2016

Laura1 Comment

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We have an extra day this February, which means I’m celebrating with an extra post.  Sorry, readers!  But let’s do an Oscars theme, in honor of yesterday’s Academy Awards.

The “Mad Max: Fury Road Sweeping All Categories” Award goes to KWZ Ink.  I’ve only reviewed four KWZ inks this month, I think, but I’ve got at least two more in pens right now.  This mighty little brand continues to impress me: beautiful inks, different styles, all so easy on my pens.

The “Gosh, That ‘Room’ Kid Has Gorgeous Parents, Too” Award goes to MY63’s beautiful leather pen cups. Here and here. Put them next to his wonderful leather pen cases, and the whole family is beautiful.

The “Chris Rock Rocks” Award goes to Lamy, a company that certainly could diversify past the color green, but at least is finally making its fans happy with a forthcoming purple Safari.  Now on preorder, by the way. I’ve seen a lot of people excited about that purple Safari, and about the Charged Green Al-Star that arrived this month. It’s nice to see people excited about pens.

More Inks for Lamy’s Charged Green Al-Star

Laura2 Comments

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Here are a few more ink possibilities for the new Lamy Charged Green Al-Star, these suggested by readers of the original post, here.

The first is Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-rin, as suggested by Rafael.  I think Chiku-rin really works with the suggestion of celery green in the pen.  It might be slightly greener, and the pen slightly more yellow, but I like more green, and I like this combination.

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Second is Derek’s suggestion of Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrün. This is a very popular ink with nice shading, that I think of as an avocado green.  And I think this color really works beautifully with our Charged Green Al-Star, too.

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Chiku-rin and Alt-Goldgrün are both yellow-greens.  With the Charged Green Al-Star, that’s clearly the way to go — or else greenish yellow inks.  Thanks to Rafael and Derek.