In Link Love

Link Love: Pen Gossip

Author AnaPosted on 14 Comments
Link Love: Pen Gossip

Several products reviewed this week reminded me thatI heard quite a bit of “insider” news while at the pen show last week.

First, a legal issue has arisen with TWSBI. Just prior to the Atlanta Pen Show, online pen shops received a letter from TWSBI telling them they had until May 1 to remove Narwhal and PenBBS from their catalogs. TWSBI is taking legal action against these companies for using their filling system technology and other components in their pens. I don’t have specifics about the letter but heard about it from several vendors in Atlanta. When you read the review of the PenBBS 456 Cordierite Fountain Pen on The Pen Addict, the similarity of the filling system to TWSBI’s Vac700 is very apparent so I can certainly see the possible issue.

In an effort to get Narwhal and PenBBS to change their designs, TWSBI is pressuring pen shops that sell the competing brands to remove them thereby hitting Narwhal and PenBBS where it will hurt them most — their bottom line. Of course, I question the percentage of overall sales of PenBBS and Narwhal in the US and how much this move will hurt them financially but I certainly understand the action.

Yoseka Stationery has a wonderful video (listed below) that walks through all the products currently available from TWSBI. She talks through all the filling systems and visual differences in the pens if you are not familiar with their whole product line.

Where do you stand on this issue? Do you own any Narwhal or PenBBS pens? Do you think they have crossed the line in their pen designs into copyright infringement territory?

The second issue is with Perpanep paper. I heard a rumor that the creator of the Perpanep line died recently and Kokuyo is not planning to continue the line after the existing stock is depleted. Sadly, I cannot find any news to corroborate this bit of gossip but I really like the paper and was looking forward to seeing where the Perpanep product line was headed. I guess I’ll grab a few more notebooks now, just in case this rumor is true.

Have you heard about either of these issues? If you have links to more information, please include them in the comments. Thanks.

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In feature, Pen Review

Pen Review: Musgrave Duets

Author AnaPosted on
Pen Review: Musgrave Duets

Review by Tina Koyama

Musgrave Pencil Co. of Shelbyville, Tennessee, is one of very few remaining pencil manufacturers in the US. Operating since 1916, it’s still family-owned. As such, I feel an affinity for the company’s history and heritage, though not always its products. For example, the gorgeous Tennessee Red pencils in their cedar box smell scrumptious, and often I slide open the box just to inhale deeply. The pencils, however, are better for sniffing than writing. 

Clicking around Musgrave’s site one day, I did a double-take: Shown among the many pencils were two Duets Pens – bicolor ballpoint pens! What? A red/blue pairing and a red/black one (12/$11.25). Just like Ana does, I have a collection of red/blue editing pencils as well as a more general obsession with all bicolor pencils. But a bicolor ballpoint pen? That’s something I don’t see every day! And here’s what made me do a triple-take: The pens are “cedar wood cased.” Whaaaaat??

Although I didn’t really need a dozen of each color combo, which is the only way they are sold, it was a small price to satisfy my curiosity, now doubly piqued.

Before I get to the Duets, I wanted to mention that, as has been the case every time I’ve ordered from Musgrave, I received a sleeve of two of the company’s most popular pencils as a gift. It’s fun to get anything free with purchase, and these sleeved pencils are an especially nice touch that befits the company’s long heritage. 

Maybe because I use Bic Cristal and Stic ballpoints, I was surprised that the Duets came without caps. I suppose they are more pencil-like without caps, though. Caplessness notwithstanding, the Duets points do somewhat resemble Bics.

The pen body is shorter than an unsharpened pencil and slightly longer than a Stic. It weighs about the same as the Stic and is lighter weight than a standard wood pencil. As for that cedar wood casing, I was initially perplexed. At first glance, it looks and feels like plastic. When I found a rough spot next to the “ferrule” (I don’t know what else to call the collar that connects the barrel with the pen point), I gouged into it with a fingernail, and it was easy to do – it felt like soft wood. On closer inspection, I thought I could see woodgrain beneath the thin metallic-colored paint (which I daresay is the same color as Blackwing’s latest Volume 200, though not as glossy). Hmmm, it doesn’t smell like cedar at all. 

There’s only one way to find out for sure, right?

Yup, it’s real wood – splinters and all – and when I cut it open, I smelled cedar! Does anyone else think it’s odd to make a ballpoint pen out of cedar, then cover the cedar with paint? 

Now I’ll get to the critical part – the ink. For writing, I tend to prefer Japanese “hybrid” inks like Uni Jetstream that flows smoothly and flawlessly. But I also use ballpoint ink as a drawing medium, and for that, my hands-down favorite is the lowly Bic, which contains an oily, viscous ink that layers beautifully like graphite. Upon initial scribbles, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Duets ink similar to Bic’s in consistency.

That is, the Duets were similar if they flowed at all. Specifically, the red side – in both red/blue and red/black – would not flow at all in nearly half the two dozen I purchased. (Ah, so perhaps that’s the reason they are sold by the dozen and not individually: With 12 in hand, you have a better chance of getting a few pens with two working sides.) I don’t mean hard starts; I mean non-starts. Zero ink flow. I wore holes into the paper trying to get the red ink to flow. The blue and black sides flowed acceptably in all pens, especially after scribbling a while. 

I managed to find one of each color combo that worked on both ends, so I made a couple of test sketches. The good news is that the ink is very much like Bic from a drawing perspective: I can build up layers of ink in the same way I do with graphite or colored pencils. However, the red is not as smooth as the blue or black and tends to blob more. Clearly, there’s something wrong with the red ink supply in these pens. 

Though it’s strangely ironic coming from a pencil maker, I give Musgrave credit for this unique bicolor ballpoint pen (with an even more strangely ironic cedar barrel that looks like plastic). Unfortunately, it loses many points for that faulty red ink. 

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Some items were purchased with funds from our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details.

tina-koyamaTina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

In Link Love

Link Love: Travel vs. Home

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments
Link Love: Travel vs. Home
Trays of pens at the Dromgoole’s table

Sometimes the best part of travel is coming home. Traveling to Atlanta this past week for my first pen show in two was thrilling (FRIENDS!!!! Pretty ink! Pretty Pens!!!) and sometimes a little scary (Should I take my mask off? Should I hug my friends?) but coming home and having my cats genuinely miss me, to delight in the comfort of my own bed and share my adventures and goodies with Bob is an equally rewarding experience.

Ollie waiting for me to come home by sleeping on my pillows

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In feature

What’s a Pen Show Like in 2022?

Author AnaPosted on 9 Comments

This weekend was the Atlanta Pen Show, the first pen show I’ve attended in over two years. The last two years have been challenging for so many people that the thought of going to a pen show felt like a mixed blessing. There have still been concerns about the pandemic but the desire to see friends was really starting to outweigh common sense.

Once again, I helped at the Vanness Pens Shop table Kelli from Mountain of Ink.

Of course, the biggest moment of the weekend was getting to see Jesi again in person.

Jesi worked for Dromgoole’s for the weekend sharing her knowledge and passion for ink.

Some of our other favorite pen celebs were spotted throughout the show like Mike from Inkdependence, Audrey and Mandy from Franklin-Christoph, and Brad from Pen Addict. There were nib grinders, pen makers and many of our favorite pen shops in attendance too.

 

Like so many others, I spent some time getting custom nibs grinds done from some of the of the many nib grinders present at the show. Its so exciting to see that there are so many nib grinders to choose from these days. I got a nib ground by both Mike Bacas and Matthew Chen. I look forward to sharing more of the nib work in a future post.

We were also excited to see that Anderillium Inks was at the show and had new inks and formulations to show us. We will have reviews of the inks in a couple weeks.

The best parts of pen shows are the evenings when we get to sit around and talk and drink a bit too much which we did every evening.  Oh, and of course, at least one trip to Waffle House next door.

In Atlanta, there was minimal mask wearing but if you feel more comfortable wearing a mask, no one would give you any guff about wearing it. As a vendor, I ended up without a mask more often than with one. Partly, this was because many people were having trouble hearing me over the general din of the show (we read lips a lot more than you would think) and also because it was ridiculously hot in the ballroom. On Friday morning, my mask was soaked with sweat by 10:30 making it beyond uncomfortable or useful to wear. I had the advantage of returning to KC and working from home for a couple days so I am not putting any co-workers at risk for my maskless weekend. But it was also refreshingly pre-pandemic to not only be at a pandemic but also not to have to wear a mask.

There were more online and brick-and-mortar pen shops present in Atlanta and considerably fewer vintage vendors this year. There were tons of indie pen makers as well as several of the “big guns” like Pilot, Yafa and Kenro.

So what can I tell you about the future of pen shows? The people have spoken and we want pen shows back. While the event was not attended to the same volume as it was in 2019, there were still plenty of people in attendance and many new pen collectors attended seeking their first pen so I think the hobby is continuing to grow.

All this is to say, that I will be attending more pen shows this year. Expect to see me next at the St. Louis show in June. Are you planning to attend any shows this year? If you were to attend, what would convince you to go (a specific product, classes, people)?

In Tools

DIY Planners on Canva

Author Laura CameronPosted on 1 Comment

Recently I received an email from Canva, a fee and subscription-based graphics application. I make heavy use of Canva in my day job, and I was interested to see that they were promoting their planning templates.

Canva has a free, although somewhat limited membership, to create graphics designs both on the web and as a mobile app. I use the free version to create simple graphics for my podcast (everything from Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest images, to YouTube thumbnails). The free program gives you the ability to adjust colors, fonts on a limited basis, upload and include your own photos and graphic elements. You can create simple animations, and there is some stock photography that you can use. The paid version includes many more options (tons of templates, additional stock photography and fonts, creation of color palettes, and more), but the free version is perfectly adequate for simple designs.

Which brings me to their planner templates. We’ve all found a million planners, but not QUITE the one we want. Or you just want to print out a simple calendar that you can update each month. Canva allows you to easily select your size (either through inputting a standard size like A4, or through the custom button where you indicate the dimensions you want). I just took a quick perusal through some of the weekly and monthly options available.

You can take any template and easily adjust colors and fonts to your own preferences, and if you have the hex code for the color you want, it’s easy enough to input that as well. Many of the templates are 8.5″ x 11″ US Letter size, but if you build yourself a custom sized graphic you can adapt the template to fit your size. (A paid account lets you automatically resize to different dimensions rather than recreating each time – a huge time-saver if you’re creating graphics for tons of different platforms at once). You can also share what you create with others and download in a variety of formats (mp4, jpg, png, etc.)

 

 

 

So if you’re looking for a new format for some planning pages, check out Canva and see if you can come up with something that’s perfect for you!

DISCLAIMER: I use Canva’s graphics application as a tool in my daily job. I received no compensation for this review and all opinions are my own. Please see the About page for more details.

In Pen Review

Two Dip Nib Pens Enter…

Author AnaPosted on
Two Dip Nib Pens Enter…

Moonman Capped Green Swirl “Glass Nib” Dip Pen

The Moonman Capped Green Swirl Dip Pen ($16) is an acrylic barrel “glass nib” dip pen with a cap. I have a couple other pens of similar design that I’ve purchased on Ebay over the years. The Moonman version has a removable nib unit that will accommodate a Moonman fountain pen nib unit as well just like their N6 model.

The Moonman Dip Pen uses an acrylic nib. It’s not glass. There are some advantages to the acrylic nib dip pens — the tips always seem smoother on paper than glass nibs, they can often survive a tumble unscathed and are often much less expensive than true glass.

All that said, acrylic nib “glass pens” have a fatal flaw. The material is ever-so-slightly soft and is therefore prone to getting deformed due to heat, hand pressure or just manufacturing issues. This particular pen has some serious issue with flow and consistent flow. It would continually hard start, even in the middle of a sentence. If rotated, it would not write. It had ONE sweet spot. I cannot say that this issue would happen with every pen but it happened with this one. So as much as I’d like to praise this pen and talk about how wonderful it was — it wasn’t. It was frustrating, irritating and generally disappointing. I’ll probably pop a Moonman fountain pen nib unit into it and use it for ink testing that way but this “glass nib” is going in the trash.

Kemmy’s Labo Petal Corset EF Glass Dip Pen

For starters, as much as I fuss about overly fussy pen packaging, the Kemmy’s Labo Corset EF Glass Dip Pen ($48) is on the opposite end of the spectrum. This plain paper board box with grey foam inside is the saddest looking packaging I’ve seen. Particularly with glass pens which are often stored in their boxes for protection, this is the one case where I think slightly more aesthetic and durable materials should have been used in the packaging.

The pen comes with a glass dot pen rest. It’s not super useful as it is tiny and I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to best place the pen securely but its a nice add-on.

The model I purchased is not the most aesthetic looking pen, IMHO. It looks like a snake that just ate his meal, if I’m honest. It feel fine in the hand, particularly if you prefer larger pens in general. I wanted to see if this bulbous design would change my writing experience at all. Mostly, I don’t find myself reaching for it often because I think it’s kind of ugly.

On the upside Kemmy’s Labo offers their REAL GLASS dip pens in a variety of nib widths (EF, F, M, and B). Since i tend to prefer EF and F fountain pens, I thought the Kemmy’s Labo EF glass pen would give me the most similar results to my usual tools.

Of course, I didn’t consider the fact that EF nibs, particularly in a glass pen would be particularly scratchy, even on Rhodia paper. While if wrote at all angles and pretty consistently as long as their was still ink in the grooves, the writing experience was not particularly pleasant. Scratchy on Rhodia means the Kemmy’s Labo on more textured paper like Col-o-ring feels like I’m off-roading with a city bike. The tool is not accommodating the paper terrain.

Final Thoughts

I would not recommend the Moonman Capped Dip Nib Pen. I don’t know why these do not perform as well as other acrylic “glass nibs” but two-out-of-two disappointing results makes me very hesitant to recommend it, even for experimental purposes. With Kemmy’s Labo, I would recommend trying the F or broader in hopes of a slightly smoother writing experience. I like extra fine nibs and even I find the EF too sharp.

Jaclyn did a more in-depth review of several glass dip pens awhile back if you are looking for other options and opinions. Laura also reviewed the Moonman N6 and had a disappointing experience with the dip nib as well, though for slightly different reasons.

So, my bottom line, is that two dip pens enter and they both leave. I might occasionally use the Kemmy’s Labo but the Moonman nib is not staying at all.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.