I became a dad (again) at the weekend, so my “free time for blogs” bucket has felt pretty empty the last few days, and I expect that state of affairs to continue. But a few quick updates to make you aware of:
Lamy notebooks: worth a buy
Write Here sent me a couple of the… Continue reading
Tag: inks (Page 2 of 3)
A commenter recently asked whether I still reached for a particular blue ink, more than a year after I reviewed it. The answer was ‘no’, but it got me thinking about which inks I do still regularly reach for.
Even after I cleared out a load of 70 inks earlier this summer, I still have… Continue reading
I’ve said it before that ink accumulation is a much bigger problem (at least for me) than accumulating pens. Ink is cheap (ish), so it hardly seems worth selling individual bottles. It’s heavy and fragile, so it’s a pain to post. And when you use an ink, you’re actually consuming it — a used pen… Continue reading
I’ve had a few requests recently for ink-related posts. Despite my mediocre photography, I thought I’d share a few inks that I’m really enjoying at the moment — and a few that disappointed.
Winners
Edelstein Star Ruby
After the faded sadness that was Edelstein Ruby, Star Ruby is simply fantastic. Vibrant, well-behaved, non-staining, and a… Continue reading
As is my way, I went to Japan with an exhaustively researched shopping list. I knew which items I wanted to investigate, I knew where was likely to stock them, and I knew roughly how much they were going to cost. But I still gave myself a few surprises.
Inks
Tokyo is the home of… Continue reading
If you remember way back to the start of the year, I set myself a challenge of using only 12 inks for my daily use in 2019. My only exceptions were to be for reviews and other ‘one off’ uses.
So, three months in, how am I getting on?
In short: much better than I… Continue reading
What does an empty ink bottle look like?
I watched in amazement in 2018 as people on my Instagram feed actually finished bottles of ink. The #emptyinkbottlechallenge seemed to me as crazy, admirable and impossible as running an ultramarathon.
As of today, I have 166 full-size bottles of ink (excluding sample vials and duplicates), and… Continue reading
My poor pen collection has had a very disruptive week. Two of the pens in my week four selection (the Pineider and Diplomat) went into the ‘for sale‘ pile, so I took them out of rotation. But I wrote the Lamy 2000 dry, and had good runs with the 149 and Optima.
And then today… Continue reading
I swore to myself: no new pens before Christmas. But (predictably) I failed. The Black Friday discounts got the better of me. I’m undecided how I feel about this ultimately consumerist holiday, and what it means for the small retailers and brands that I try to support. But my actions speak louder than my words.… Continue reading
Last week’s seven turned out great.
I used every pen heavily, with the exception of the Pelikan M400. At last I managed to gel with the Pilot 823, although it still doesn’t feel ‘right’ to me every time I pick it up. The Montegrappa Extra and Montblanc 1912 proved deliciously smooth for evening journalling; the… Continue reading