My friend Chris knows more about fountain pen ink than anyone I know, and she also bought good amount of ink last year, making me feel more “normal.”
I’m going to publish Chris’s 2015 ink purchase highlights soon. But before that, I asked her a few questions about last year’s inks.
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Boy, 2015 turned out to be a fun year. What’s ahead for 2016?
I’ve got an amazing envelope chock full of samples from Konrad & Agnieszka at KWZ Ink. I’ve swabbed them all. They all look great, and I’m super excited to use and report on these inks. We’ve got iron gall and regular. Some blues, reds and greens and interesting browns. They all look fantastic.
A few people have asked for a post about the pen that’s pictured in the blog’s banner, a Montblanc Agatha Christie. I can do that! It’s just a killer pen. No pun intended.
I’ve also got some Kaweco inks to review. I’ve really enjoyed using these excellent inks. I’d like to see more attention paid to small companies like KWZ and Kaweco that are putting out really great products at a great price.
I’ve got some more fun nib grinds to show off. One of my favorite things is to try something new. These are pretty great.
December always flies by, but I can’t believe we’re at the very end. I actually didn’t spend much time with fountain pens this December, but it’s still been a good month. I hope you enjoyed it, too, and I wish you and yours the very best in the New Year.
Here are December fountain pen highlights for me.
1. Pelikan Stockholm and Berlin. Finding these was the best pen-related thing that happened all year.
2. Cool Nibs. My friend Dan Smith sent me a bunch of nibs that he’d ground, which I’ve been using all month. These have been such fun to use.
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Photo by Dafne Cholet, Flickr, used under Creative Commons license.
I entered 2015 with the firm determination to hold off buying new ink bottles until I used up ink I already owned. Excellent, sensible resolution. And how did I do?
Very badly.
When I went through my inks, I realized that I had purchased thirty new bottles of ink this year. Plus a box of ink cartridges. Too many bottles to fit in one photograph.
Yes, I did use up some bottles of ink. And I sold many. But, still, adding thirty new bottles is not what I wanted. Time for the walk of shame.
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I like to do an end-of-the-year “accounting” of the pens I bought, not to create the illusion that there’s any business-like veneer over my acquisitiveness, but more like an assessment, to see if I can learn anything.
This year was just fantastic. I got great pens this year. I did totally blow the budget in the last week. But I’m still thrilled.
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So, I was on the phone with Fountain Pen Hospital, feeling so lucky to have found a Pelikan Stockholm, when I jokingly said, “Boy if you had the Berlin and the Madrid, too, I’d really be in trouble.”
And the super nice Fountain Pen Hospital guy (I think the owner, but maybe Kris Kringle), said, “Wait a minute, we just might have the Berlin here, which I didn’t get on the website yet — let me look.”
Indeed!
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Pelikan M620 Stockholm. I’ve been hoping for one of these for years. All of a sudden, I saw that Fountain Pen Hospital had one. And they made sure it arrived on Christmas Eve. I love that store.
I’ll post more photos soon. It may have brought a friend.
Fountain Pen Follies 