I confess: I started out biased against the Platinum Izumo, based on pictures on the internet and five minutes handling one in a pen shop.
To me, the design seemed just plain oddball. Take a pen that looks lovely capped: almost dolphin-like curves, beautiful urushi lacquer, strong proportions.
Take the cap off and what the… Continue reading
Month: March 2019 (Page 2 of 2)
The Yard-o-Led Viceroy Grand Victorian (from now on, the Viceroy) was sent to me for review by a loyal reader. I was jumping up and down with excitement to get my hands on it.
It’s easy to see why, because Yard-o-Led makes pens like nobody else, and you don’t see them around very often. The… Continue reading
I call today’s first-ever London Spring Pen Show, hosted by the London Writing Equipment Society (LWES), a great success. Or at least, I had a great time.
Partly it’s because I think I’m getting the hang of this pen-show lark. I followed my own advice:
Go for the early bird entry at 9.30. The place… Continue reading
The Montblanc Geometry, reference 118097, is an unapologetic statement piece. It’s all metal, platinum plated, and engraved with a marvellous geometric pattern that catches the light, and the eye.
The numbers are big: 64g in weight, £1,215 in price, 18k in nib. The cap weighs a fair chunk, but the pen itself is a real… Continue reading
A few weeks back I posted about my Montblanc nib replacement. I promised to follow up.
Two days ahead of the promised four-week turnaround, I received an email from the Montblanc boutique informing me that my pens were ready for collection. I went in today to collect them.
I have to say, I was very… Continue reading
12 weeks of anticipation
It took more than 12 weeks to get my Conid Regular Bulkfiller from the time I hit the ‘buy’ button (on the 3rd December 2018). I was mentally prepared for a wait of 8 weeks, but the last month of delays felt like agony.
When you anticipate a purchase for that… Continue reading
I moaned in my State of the Collection blog recently that I had a lot of old favourites sitting unloved in my pen drawer. So for this week’s loadout I’m leaving the Karas Ink, Nakaya and Conids behind and rediscovering old flames.
I’m taking a brief trip for work to Manchester this week, which will… Continue reading
24 pens
It’s been a while. I’ve just sold a few pens, and my collection is feeling trim and tight. Here’s how it stands today. Not included are pens that I’ve cleaned up and put away for sale.
The Italians (and French)
Five Italian pens in my collection. I consider that a decent amount, but… Continue reading
Fountain pens are tools, but they should also be fun. And there’s nothing more fun than laying down a Sharpie-sized wet line with crisp line variation too.
I was getting bored and frustrated with the EF nib in my Ocean Swirl. As beautiful as the pen is, I wasn’t using it much. I plan to… Continue reading
The Karas Ink is one of those pens I kept adding to my cart, for literally years, without pressing the ‘buy’ button. I was attracted by its design (particularly the clip) and colours, but I guess I wondered whether I needed another fairly generic metal pen in my life, and I also worried about the… Continue reading