Recently I’ve been doing A LOT of writing. I’ve been sending postcards to voters about the upcoming US election at the rate of 10-15 per week.
The upcoming election in the United States is a very big deal. Never have the two candidates been more divergent, and given issues like public health, the economy, immigration and more there’s a lot at stake. And I’ve felt like I needed to get involved in some way.
So I’ve been writing postcards to voters. In today’s day and age (and in the US) we receive tons of pre-printed direct mailings about which candidates to vote for. But how often do we receive a handwritten postcard encouraging us to do our civic duty? My intent in simple: encourage people to vote because their voice matters.
And so each week I’ve been sitting down with my Ink Joy Gels (who doesn’t love a little color?), some USPS pre-paid postcards, and writing to people I don’t know to encourage them to make their voices heard.
I’ve been using a lot of dark and pastel inks lately, and earlier this week I suddenly decided enough was enough. I needed some pink. And not just any pink… I wanted bright, in-your-face, rebelling-against-your-bad-day pink. It also occurred to me that I didn’t have a single Sailor inked up, but I didn’t really feel like any of my Sailors matched up well with the type of pink I had in mind.
Did I choose to give up on the perfect pink, or did I ditch my Sailors for another pen brand?
Neither. Instead, I grabbed one of the smallest but most impactful accessories in my pen collection. Then, I reached for my hot pink Franklin Christoph, carefully borrowed a nib from one of my Sailor Pro Gears, and just like that, my pocket 66 was eye-dropped with rebellious bright pink and fitted with one of my favorite nibs.
Flexible Nib Factory makes a variety of nib housings and feeds that allow you to take your pen customization to the next level. The housings are specifically designed to take nibs from some of your favorite brands like Pilot, Sailor, or Platinum, and fit them into standard Jowo or Bock housings. This opens up all kinds of new possibilities, including allowing you to use some the best nibs on the market in some of your favorite custom pens.
In addition to custom housing, Flexible Nib Factory makes replacement housing and feeds for Jowo nib units. The goal here is to keep the Jowo nib, but change up the feed and housing- either for the sake of asthetics or functionality (or both!). One option is a clear acrylic feed which looks particularly good in clear demonstrator pens.
You can also purchase ebonite feeds and housings, which improve ink flow and even come in a red version. These ebonite feeds are especially useful for flexible nibs, as they help provide a more steady and consistent ink flow as you change line variation on the page.
The pocket 66 (or any Franklin Christoph pen that takes a #6 sized nib) is a particularly great choice for the swap as the majority of Flexible Nib Factory’s custom housings do not allow for the use of a converter or cartridge (i.e. to use the feeds you must be able to eye-dropper the pen). This means you want to make sure your pen of choice does not have a metal body, section, or threads.
The hot pink match-up sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole. I quickly had an army of pocket 66s fitted with a variety of Sailor nibs, Platinum nibs, custom nibs, and crazy grinds.
A couple of notes:
At first, I was nervous (an understatement) to remove my Sailor and Platinum nibs from their original pens. A year of pen-shows at the NibSmith table will train that fear right out of you. The most accurate way of describing it would be that swapping nibs between pens is not as tricky as you are likely imagining it to be, but it’s also not something you just do on a whim without thinking about it.
Pens have different ways they fit into their respective feeds. For some, the entire section with nib, feed, and housing simply screw out of the pen- and you can easily screw in another nib, feed, and housing of your choice (Franklin Christoph, Carolina Pen Company etc.). However, not EVERY pen works this way, so you want to verify how your pen of choice functions before you start trying to twist or yank the nib out. For example, with Sailor pens the nib and feed are friction fit into the section of the pen. So you will need to grab some type of grippy material and pull the nib and feed directly out of the pen for removal.
Even for nib housings that screw out of the pen, once you have the housing, nib, and feed removed- the nib and feed are typically (but not always) friction fit into the collar. The photo below shows a Carolina Pen Company Jowo nib and feed that have been removed from the housing.
Putting the nib and feed back into housing is pretty easy, but you want to make sure you understand exactly where the feed should be aligned with the nib, and keep that alignment as you insert the nib and feed into the housing.
Flexible Nib Factory includes detailed instructions on their site, but if you’ve never fully removed a nib, you may want to watch some videos or read some articles about your specific pen and practice on pens at the lower end of your collection first. TWSBI Eco nibs and feeds are friction fit into the section and removed in basically the same fashion as a Sailor or Platinum so they may be a good first candidate if you have one on-hand (BUT TWSBI feeds are significantly more fragile than Sailor or Platinum feeds- so you have to be extra careful to not push too hard on the feed against the nib).
Those new Well-Appointed Desk nib stamps are fire.
Once you get the hang of things, swapping nibs between pens could not be any simpler, and Flexible Nib Factory housings and feeds are one of my favorite ways to bring even greater variety and customization to my pens. Everyone needs a hot-pink eye-dropped Sailor-Franklin Christoph frankenpen in their life this week, don’t you think?
Van Dieman’s ink line. Wow. Australia seems to have some amazing inks recently and Van Dieman’s is no exception. One thing I have noticed about these Australian ink makers is the huge number of inks they create, so I have been forced to believe that Australia is just a more colorful place that needs many inks to describe the variety.
Van Dieman’s has an incredibly large lineup at the moment so Ana and I have divided up the line in order to bring you a preview. Lisa and Davina from Vanness sent samples of these inks so I could review them – thank you ladies!
I’m a big fan of Mountain of Ink’s palettes, especially those coordinated to the various months or seasons of the year. I love that these Seasons inks fit so well with each season.
Spring makes me think of new growing things and rain storms.
Summer gives me a feeling of bright water, violent storms, plentiful fish, rocks baking in the sun perfect for a snake.
The Autumn inks remind me of forests changing color and harvesting the last produce.
I found myself very drawn to the Winter inks in this line, especially Launceston Fog and Morning Frost. Morning Frost and Huon Festival are shimmer inks, with Huon Festival containing a lot of sparkle. I already have a full bottle of Launceston Fog ordered and on its way to me. Once I inked up two pens with very different nibs (one broad italic, the other a Japanese extra fine), I fell in love with the ink that can range from medium brown to light olive green to warm grey, all with a teal undertone.
There are the four Seasons! To show a comparison of each ink to another ink (that way you can hopefully get a fairly accurate idea of the color) and sorted them by color groups.
Blue to Purple:
Green to Blue:
Yellow to Green:
Brown to Orange to Pink:
Some of the Van Dieman’s inks are somewhat watery when first going down on the page – not free flowing or lubricated. Somewhat like J. Herbin or Callifolio inks. They each darken as they dry. I found Pink Fairy Orchid and Swallowtail Butterfly to especially show this quality. Launceston Fog is nearly the same – darkens quite a bit as it dries. The wetness in writing is average and there was never feathering or bleed through – Launceston Fog and Deciduous Beech are both very easy to clean out of pens.
These are also amazing inks for using in art rather that just in writing. I’ve been told there are several artists specifically using Van Dieman’s inks.
The price for Van Dieman’s bottles is $12.95 for 30mL or $2.50 for 4mL samples at Vanness – a great price for these colors.
DISCLAIMER: The inks in this review were provided free for the purpose of reviewing including the Col-o-rings which are provided to me by Ana because she knows she can keep me writing all the time in exchange for the wonderful cards. Please see the About page for more details.
When Papier Plume sent me the newest edition to their New Orleans Collection of ink, Iron Lace ($10 for 30ml bottle), (“a not-so-basic black”, it says on the bottle), they included a note that it was a “subversive black alternative”. Yes, please.
Like all Papier Plume inks, the bottle is topped with the melted red wax and their fleur de lis stamp. The bottle is printed with graphics that represent the iron fences seen throughout New Orleans.
Papier Plume clearly decided that black was a little too humdrum so they decided to spice it up, like everything in New Orleans. They found their inspiration in their surroundings, the iron work fences that are so prevalent in New Orleans. Iron Lace lives up to its reputation as a black with a distinct green undertone like the black fences hint at the underlying metal or the moss and lichen that grow upon it.
Iron Lace is not so dark as to be a blackout black. It has some shading to it which gives it a lot of character. It’s not quite a grey ink but it’s not black-black. It’s a wonderful in-between.
I found some unusual inks to use for comparison with Iron Lace — some are grey but others are inks that fall into that “in-between” space. I would say that Robert Oster Graphite is probably the closest in color to Iron Lace though I don’t think it has quite as much shading. Penlux Charcoal is also similar but it is a little warmer in hue and doesn’t shade much either. Diamine Graphite is the same cool tone but is darker I think. Colorverse Vortex Motion is just an oddball being neither grey, nor blue, nor black, nor purple, nor green. Colorverse Anti-Matter is a purply grey-black and Kobe #46 is a bluish grey, almost black. These just show a range of not-so-black blacks.
(Shown above, top to bottom: Kobe #46, Colorverse Anti-Matter, Penlux Charcoal, Diamine Graphite, Colorverse Vortex Motion, Papier Plume Iron Lace and Robert Oster Graphite)
I had fun playing with the ink a little bit using a pipette. It feels appropriately fall-ish and ready for Halloween. In a wider nib pen, you are likely to some of the range of hues seen here. This makes Iron Lace entirely work appropriate while still being a little fun, a little… subversive.
Go ahead, break the rules… use a not-so-black black. I won’t tell.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Papier Plume for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Behind the scenes here at Desk HQ, we cranked out about 700 Col-o-ring Ink Testing Books and are in production to make another 300+ Col-o-ring, 250 Col-o-dex and 250 Col-o-ring Oversize books. As a two-person production team, our focus has been filling back orders for our wholesale clients and getting them boxed and shipped out.
We’ve also been making (or in some cases, plotting) new products for the shop.
Some things we make are not cost effective to sell wholesale because they are too labor intensive. The Col-o-ring Dippers are a prime example. They require the same amount of labor as a full-sized Col-o-ring but we charge a fraction. So wholesaling them is just not feasible. As a result, we are trying to find ways to make the Dippers and some of our other products more easily available to non-US customers.
We think we may have found a way to do this. But it gets complicated. And requires maintaining two inventories. Let me explain…
Etsy is not my favorite venue for small makers. They charge a lot to list merchandise (0.20 per item plus transaction fees and an insistence on offering free US shipping and you don’t want to get me started about how SHIPPING IS NOT FREE!) and they have not been all that vigilant about keeping out a lot of larger manufacturers from flooding out the smaller makers. Anyway, the one upside to Etsy is that they do offer package forwarding for international (non-US) packages that greatly reduces shipping costs. This makes it worthwhile to list some of our US-only merch on Etsy for non-US customers.
So, how do you all feel about Etsy? Particularly folks who are not in the US? Would you make a purchase if The Desk had a shop on Etsy?
Are there any other small makers who maintain more than one online shop? How do you keep your inventory separated?
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2020 has been a strange year, and despite the fact that the Desk LOVES planners, clearly we haven’t needed them in months. A few weeks ago, Pebble Stationery Co. asked if we would be interested in reviewing their new Traveler’s Regular Sized Undated Planner ($17.99) and planner love won out and I eagerly accepted.
One of the best parts about this planner is that it’s UNDATED, meaning I can start using it whenever I wish! Given the uncertainly in our world these days, that flexibility is fabulous.
So let’s start outside and work in!
The new planner is Traveler’s sized (4 3/8″ x 8 1/4″ or 110mm x 210mm) and approximately 1/4″ or 6mm thick. It comes with a gorgeous vegan leatherette cover in either Navy or Red.
The inside front page is cardstock and includes a place for name and contact information if your notebook should ever get lost!
The paper inside this planner is a treat! It is white 52gsm Tomoe River meaning it’s perfect for all those fun sheening inks we love so much. The paper is 3.6mm dot grid, in light grey ink. The planner is organized into three main sections.
At the front is the year at a glance section with two six month 2-page spreads (say that 10 times fast!)
Then comes the month at a glance section, with each month as a 2-page spread. There are 12 monthly spreads.
The third section is the week at a glance section. On the left side you have the days of the week and the right side is unformatted dot grid. There are 52 weekly spreads.
Finally, at the end of the book are several extra pages of dot grid, available for notes, ideas, and jotting down anything important.
And, to keep your place, there are two ribbons (red and navy).
I did a quick paper and fountain pen ink test and it performed as expected. It’s lovely to write on and drying times were fairly quick. However, as with most 52gsm Tomoe River paper there is quite a bit of ghosting on the opposite side, so you’ll have to be comfortable with that.
Overall, if you’re looking for a slim, elegant and flexible planner for the coming year, I think Pebble Stationery Co. has provided a great option!
DISCLAIMER: The item included in this review was provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I’ve gone around over the years about my feelings regarding the size and shape of the Robert Oster 50ml ink bottles and, while they are not the most romantic, elegant bottles, they really are pretty easy to use once you get the hang of them. The plastic is a standard #2 plastic making them recyclable in most major cities and towns worldwide. It also means they are pretty nonbreakable if your bottle gets dropped or tipped over. This also means that there is considerably less merchandise loss for vendors who often get this Australian ink shipped to the other side of the world and then repackage it to ship to you. The plastic is lighter than glass reducing the overall costs to ship as well. Once in our individual ink collections, the bottles take up considerably less space and are easy to store multiple bottles.
Now, that I’ve waxed poetic about the bottles, let’s get to the actual review.
I was so flattered that the brothers at Federalist Pens asked me to review their new custom ink color, Robert Oster Frankly Fifth which was created to celebrate their fifth anniversary. The brothers said it was a way of bringing everything full circle since it was way back in 2017 that I first reviewed their first ink collaboration with Robert Oster, Frankly Blue, to celebrate their first anniversary.
A lot has changed for everyone this year. I’m sure the intention was to release the new ink in time for the DC Supershow but well, we all know how that turned out this year. I say that because the new Frankly Fifth is definitely a brighter, more indigo blue that makes me think All-American, true blue, denim and red, white and blue. In writing though, the color has a more violet cast than I expected. In my medium nib, it reminds me a little of some of the washable blues from the vintage pen eras. Or maybe the color of the ink from school mimeograph machines.
When I was writing the heading, my nib still had a little water in it and the writing had that light, almost periwinkle color of the Sailor Studio/Manyo inks. Curious. There’s some lovely shading with this ink but no sheening. It dries pretty quickly on the Rhodia paper I was testing it on. It’s funny, the more inks I use, the more inks I love and not the other way around.
In comparisons, Frankly Fifth is pretty close in color and shade to Sailor Ultramarine and Nioi-Sumire as well as Diamine Bilberry. I included the Monteverde DC Supershow Blue from 2018 since I made reference to “show inks” but it’s a bit more ultramarine with no hint of violet.
I pushed the swatches closer for a better look and you may notice that Bilberry is slightly more purple and probably has less shading. If price/value is an issue, the Frankly Fifth compared to the Sailor colors is a much better deal $/ml.
I’ll go back to my previous statement that I’m often hard pressed to find an ink I don’t like. I may find an ink that’s a better value or better suited to a certain pen or certain mood but if what you want is to maybe think your paper might smell like cornflowers or a mimeograph, this might be the ink for you.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Federalist Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
