Pelikan M450 Tortoise with fine nib. This beautiful pen is my favorite of the modern Pelikan tortoises. The binde is translucent and leans green rather than brown or honey. Cap and piston knob are vermeil.
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Fall Color Inks
These sunny October days and cool nights have put me in the mood for my first fall ink colors.
To my new favorite orange, Caran d’Ache Electric Orange, I’m adding two longtime favorites. These are Stipula Verde Muschiato, a muddy green that I adore, and J. Herbin Ambre de Birmanie, which brings the warmth in a wider nib.
Two newer inks round out the selection: Diamine Carnival, which struck me as my most autumnal red, and Stipula Sepia, a warm brown ink.
All of the pens are old favorites: two Pelikans, two Lamys and a custom Edison.
One Minute Ink Review: Caran d’Ache Electric Orange
Caran d’Ache Electric Orange. A gorgeous ink, with beautiful but not distracting shading. I find Electric Orange a worthy successor to Caran d’Ache Saffron, which it replaced. This is a vivacious but elegant medium orange. It’s legible even from a fine nib, but is never so bright that it sears the eyes.
An everyday ink? In October, certainly.
Pen Review: Karas Kustoms Fountain K
My friend Dan loaned me this pen to try out his Architect’s nib grind. I love the nib modification, and I was taken with the Karas Kustoms pen as well.
This particular Fountain K pen is a prototype. The final version should be ready for sale in December. Paul Bennett of Karas Kustoms said that based on user feedback the section will end up being longer and wider, but that the pen will otherwise have the same look and feel. I’d like to do a quick review of the prototype.
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Pen of the Day: Parker 51 Double Jewel
Parker 51 Cedar Blue with fine nib. This is a vacumatic 51. It belonged to my mother. When we found it this January, it hadn’t been used for decades. It was inside an old jewelry box, unseen and forgotten. The body jewel and tassie were missing, and I didn’t have to test the filler to know it needed a new diaphragm.
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Architect’s Nib
Quite a Night
Pardon me for this very off-topic post, but tonight is a big sports night in Chicago.
I am a huge sports fan. It’s no doubt due to growing up in a sports-crazy town, but it’s also something I picked up from my family.
My father is a sensible man, so he has always been a football fan. On Sundays he’d rake the leaves and watch the Bears. He was happy for company in either activity, and I was happy to join him. Being a Bears fan was not exactly easy. But they were usually competitive and always had a few great players. You always felt the Bears were just a quarterback away.
Being a Chicago baseball fan, in contrast, usually meant suffering. But my mother’s side of the family were all baseball fanatics, and they were all Cubs fans. I became one, too.
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Pen of the Day: Pelikan M101N Lizard
Pelikan M101N Lizard with medium nib. This pen is a special edition that I think doesn’t get enough attention. It has two tortoise brethren, which are also quite nice. But this is the one for me. I mean, lizard! And a sleek black. And a few sparkly bits in the binde.
Always remember that I am a complete sucker for “ooh shiny.”
It’s a gorgeous design, a modern updating of the 101N brown lizard models from the 1930s. Look at the beautiful curves of the clip, and the Pelikan Germany engraving on the cap top — those and other details quote the original 101N.
The original models were all quite small, compared to most modern pens, and the M101N Lizard is as well. That’s the only thing that I would mention as a caution, though the pen can be used posted. The nib is wonderful and has a bit of softness, unlike most modern Pelikan nibs.
The ink is Diamine Shimmering Shadows. As my friend said, I’m sort of cheating with this Pen of the Day: I used it last week and have kept it inked. But can you blame me? Fantastic pen, fantastic ink. Plus, ooh, shiny.
Diamine Shimmertastic Blue Pearl Comparison
I like every single Shimmertastic, but Blue Pearl is my very favorite. It’s a medium blue with silver particles, with shading and sheen.
A friend had an inspiration about Blue Pearl, noting that it looked similar to Diamine Blue Velvet.
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Shimmertastic Sample Winners
Thanks to Random.org, here are the winners of the Diamine Shimmertastic samples.
Blue Pearl: Daniel
Sparkling Shadows: plume145
Magical Forest: rhyming is fun
Night Sky: Dronak
Thank you to everyone who commented. If you are one of the winners, please use the Contact form to email me your name and mailing address.
Fountain Pen Follies 