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UKFP Uncapped: 1st November 2019

On my mind

This week was Fountain Pen Day, which is from one perspective our community’s Black Friday, filled with deal-hunting and shopping. But I’ve been thinking this week about the opposite: generosity.

Just today, my daughter received a pack of pens, ink and notebooks from a kindly benefactor (thanks Ian!). He went out of his way to help bring a new generation into our hobby.

Earlier this week, a pen maker in the US offered to send me a pen, not for review (in fact, he specifically doesn’t want a review because he can’t handle extra orders) but just because he wanted me to have it.

That pillar of the community Brad Dowdy landed a cool old Field Notes edition on my doormat as part of his awesome notebook redistribution project. It’s costing him time and money to share free stuff with Pen Addict members all over the world. Lovely stuff.

And a couple of readers also sent me emails out of the blue just to say how much they enjoy reading my posts. Those kind of emails always make my day.

Aside from all this generosity, I gave my Nock Burton travel setup a workout this week on a short break with the family. Riding in it were the Pelikan M1005, Lamy 2000 Bauhaus, Sailor King of Pen and Montblanc Homer. I really enjoyed having such a formidable setup all safe and accessible.

Published

Just as promised, I took it easy this week. Just a rant post and an updated State of the Collection.

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It feels like a long time ago, but I also published a review of two pens from Eureka, a new brand out of South Korea. Definitely one to check out if you like ebonite. As part of my attempt at generosity, I loaned them to Dapprman!

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On my doormat

I caved and bought my first modern Parker, a Sonnet Great Expectations Blue Pearl with 18k nib to be precise. It’s small, but feels surprisingly high quality. And the nib wrote out of the box, which is not always a given.

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I was curious to see whether this would be a good gold-nib entry level choice for my buyer’s guide. You can get an 18k Sonnet for under £100. Time will tell.

At the other end of the price spectrum, just in time for Fountain Pen Day, I received the Aurora Oceano Pacifico, number 474. This was a big purchase for me, so I have been sitting on my hands as the celebratory FPday discount codes hit my inbox.

Ferris Wheel Press sent me a gift set to review, including their Brush fountain pen, a bottle of ink, a notebook and a folio.

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Look for a review soon, but first I have to figure out how to do justice to the beautiful design work with my shoddy photography skills and feeble winter sunlight…

My latest order from Birmingham Pens landed, too, after the obligatory customs charge. Some cute ink cartridges, a spare Nemosine stub nib, a couple more Tomoe notebooks, but mostly I wanted three new inks — a swamp green, an orange called Marmalade, and a bright blue called Snowflake.

A lot of my Birmingham inks are from the first releases when they focused on murkier colours, so I’m thrilled to have some brighter inks that have the same great page-feel. Incidentally, the new cardboard boxes for the 30ml ink bottles are gorgeous.

On my credit card

I finally put my money where my mouth is and got in the queue for one of Jonathon Brooks’s pens. There’s only so much temptation one man can take when it comes to Primary Manipulation.

I also went maverick and ordered a Pilot Silvern from Japan. With a solid silver body and inlaid nib it rather reminds me of a Sheaffer, or a bigger Pilot Elite.

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I’ll let you know how I get on, but the actual ordering process was screwed up somehow between Rakuten and PayPal. Didn’t I just post about being done with international shopping?!

I’ll never learn.

1 Comment

  1. Jackie

    How totally gorgeous! Happy FP Day! Jackie
    x

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