Although I couldn’t resist snapping up Birmingham Pens’ ‘Unicorn Barf’ beta pen, I’m not a man for loud colours in my pens. Most of my collection is various shades of black and grey.
Luckily, Franklin-Christoph caters to colour-minimal buyers like me, and I find their pens irresistible. The model under review here, the Model 02… Continue reading
Month: March 2018
They call me the Tomoe addict
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Tomoe River paper, or that I’m pretty discerning about my notebooks. I go through at least one notebook a month just for work, and I know what I like. At the moment I’m powering through one of these, and wishing the… Continue reading
I often write about American or Japanese brands, or the big familiar European companies like Pelikan, Lamy and Montblanc.
But in Europe we’re blessed with many wonderful makers producing innovative and beautiful (and often expensive) pens in small numbers. They don’t advertise; word spreads only at pen shows, on FPN, and on Instagram — so… Continue reading
Mabie Todd is one of those vintage pen manufacturers that everyone’s heard of, but I confess I’ve never used one, or even held one. A Google suggests that it started as an American company in NYC pre-1900, but became established as a quintessentially British brand that persisted until the 1950s, long after the American operations… Continue reading
I’ve posted the first iteration of a new page on the blog: my take on a buyer’s guide.
I’ve mulled over the pens that passed through my hands over the past few years and made the tough choices about exactly what I’d buy again at each price point.
No buyer’s guide is perfect, but I’m… Continue reading
I’ve gone a bit mad with ink purchases (and review samples) in the past few weeks.
You’ll no doubt have seen the Pure Pens roundup.
Well, I now have samples of six beautiful new Blackbird inks from British maker Mabie Todd. Here’s a sneak peek:
I can tell you now that a couple of these… Continue reading
Apparently I now have a thing for twisty retractable fountain pens. You may remember my review of the Montblanc 1912. I have a Pilot Fermo on the way. And here is the Lamy Dialog 3.
I’ll say this first: this is a hell of an odd pen. No cap. No section. No finials or any… Continue reading
Most “fancy” pen cases are leather. I get that. Leather is durable, attractive, and has a premium reputation. But for whatever reason, some of us want an alternative: something made of non-leather material that still protects our precious pens and that looks great, too. There are plenty of fabric cases out there, but few of… Continue reading
In the UK we’re blessed with a number of wonderful stationery shops. Pure Pens, based in Wales, is one of them. They’re a fixture at pen shows and a stockist of unusual Noodler’s inks (I bought my bottle of Tianenmen from them back at the LWES). And, like me, they’re Pelikan addicts.
Pure Pens has… Continue reading