The Well-Appointed Desk

Fountain Pen Review: Pelikan M205 Demonstrator

Laura CameronJune 23, 2020June 23, 20207 Comments

I do love my Pelikans, so when we saw that Pen Chalet had the Pelikan M205 Demonstrator (MSRP $200, on sale now for $120) on sale at a screaming good price, I decided I needed one.

The Pelikan M205 Demonstrator has a pen body made of clear resin. It has Pelikan’s standard piston-filling technology, so it’s only usable with bottled ink, but that’s not a problem in this house! The M205 has silver trim and your choice of standard steel nibs in XF, F and M sizes.

The Pelikan is on the smaller side coming in at 4.875″ long and a measly 0.4oz and 11g.

I find Pelikans to be lovely writers and this one, with a fine nib, is no exception. It fills easily and writes right away out of the box.

This Pelikan joins the other two in my collection; last year’s M205 Star Ruby and an M200 Blue Marbled from the 1980’s from my dad.

It also joins other demonstrators like my TWSBI ECO’s and my Moonman. I do love being able to see the ink and the inner workings of the pen!

Paper: Ghost Paper Notebook ($25)
Pen: Pelikan M205 Demonstrator (MSRP $200, on sale now for $120)
Ink: Diamine Florida Blue (30mL, $7.50)

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

In Tools

Pen Review: Pentastic CxPO Brass Folded Nibs for Testers

AnaJune 22, 2020June 22, 20202 Comments

Last weekend, I went to Kansas for the weekend to hang out with two fellow pen nerds, Jesi and Jaclyn. We played with the Pentastic folded nibs a lot. It inspired me to show these to you, my lovely readers.

I have been using the Toronto Pen Company Pentastic CxPO brass folded nibs (C$40.00) designed for tester bottles (sample vials) since the Toronto Pen Show in 2018. These brass folded nibs were designed to fit into standard dip pen holders and made small enough to fit into most fountain pen ink sample containers.

Folded nibs are dipped into ink like a dip nib and then are applied to paper at various angles to create various stroke widths. They require some experimentation to find the “sweet spot” to get the best flow and the look you want. Some people like to get lots of line variation, others prefer more of a calligraphic look and some like the occasional spatter or bloop that might happen.

Depending on what paper is used, or what ink, folded nibs are far more likely to bleed or feather because folded nibs lay down a lot more ink than a dip nib. Folded nibs are not flexible but, because the surface area is broad and smooth, the line width can vary as a result of the large open slot that allows ink to flow out.

To demonstrate how the nibs work, I tried three different papers, both nibs and two shades of the Sailor North America Ink Series: Colorado and California. The first paper I tried was Rhodia Uni Bloc No. 18 Blank ($13.75), my standard pen and ink testing paper. The folded nibs definitely laid down more ink than the Rhodia paper could handle in this case. I didn’t find this the case with all the inks I tried over the weekend but these inks are pretty wet. Just so you know. The blobbing and feathering occurred most often at the moments when I had to dip my pen.

The next stock I tried was a mixed media sketchbook, the Bee Paper Aquabee Super Deluxe 9″x12″ Sketchbook ($15.59), which also had some bleeding and feathering issues when the ink was heaviest. Again, it was probably most likely when I had just dipped for more ink. The ink colors look better though. The nib on the left created the thinner lettering on the top two lines and the nib on the right created the lettering on the bottom two lines.

Finally, I used the Col-o-ring OVERSIZE ($15) and the Colorado ink and BOOM! I wasn’t really expecting it to outperform the Aquabee paper. I swear. I wasn’t trying to make a pitch for our little notebooks. But the proof is in the pudding, which in this case is a lot of sheen and no feathering. Paper performance aside, the top lettering was done with the folded nib shaped like a butter knife (the nib on the right in the photo above) and the wider lettering at the bottom was done with the folded nib shaped more like a palette knife (the nib on the left with the flat end).

As for the nib holders, the black holder is labeled “Free Penholder” and I have no idea where it came from. The other is one of my favorites as you can tell by the accumulated ink stains. It’s a Tachikawa Comic Pen Nib Holder Model 40 ($8.25). It’s a blonde wood with a soft rubberized grip. If you don’t have a dip pen holder, buy this one. You won’t regret spending a couple extra dollars but you won’t have to empty the bank account.

What we discovered over the weekend was that the Pentastic Folded Nibs were great fun for using up ink and paper. We wrote out quotes, the silly things we said and the ridiculous things the kids said. It was fun to practice our lettering, let loose and play and make a mess. You definitely have to be ready to cut loose and be messy. But it’s great fun and the Pentastic nibs are well made and tons of fun.

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

In news

Giveaway Winner: Retro51 The System Alloy from ClickyPost

AnaJune 22, 2020June 22, 20201 Comment

I absolutely loved all the entries for the Retro51 The System Alloy generously donated by Mike Dudek of Clicky Post. I asked readers to tell me their favorite space-related bit of trivia, quote, movie, or book to enter the giveaway and boy, did they deliver. It reminded me why I love science fiction and NASA and our collective love of what’s out there beyond the stars.

Can I share a few with you?

Alan Shepard hit a 6 iron on the moon. (My roommate pulled a similar shenanigan at the White Sands Nuclear Test Site when we visited)
I can’t fill up a space shuttle with geriatrics! – Space Cowboys
The Moon has a smell. The astronauts remarked it smelled like firecrackers after they exploded on a wet day, or the smell after a carbine fired. Moon dust is especially clingy. By the time the astronauts returned to earth, the smell was gone.
From One Giant Leap by Charles Fishman
“You’re not a space ranger. You don’t shoot laser or fly.”
“Actually, I can fly”
“No, you can’t.”
“Yes, I can.”
“Can’t. “
“Can.”
“Can’t”
“I could fly around this room with my eyes closed.”
“Ok Mr Light Beer, prove it.”
“Okay then I will. [Buzz then walks to the foot of the bed and climbs the bed post.] To Infinity and beyond.”
Toy Story 1995 (quoted from memory)
Live long and prosper
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
42 is the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”. — Doulas Admas
“Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
That story about about Soviet astronauts “just using a pencil” (vs. U.S. Americans developing expensive space pens) is apocryphal. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that graphite dust floating around delicate electronics in microgravity is a terrible idea.
Also Tang was never an astronaut thing, it was just a Tang marketing campaign. (Tang is actually what we’ve named our local stray cat. He’s orange, of course)
“900 years of time and space and I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important.” Doctor Who, Time Lord
We are all made of stars. -Moby
Astronauts left a tiny little sculpture on the moon. (You guys are making me weepy!)
The Fisher Space pen was independently developed with no funding from NASA. They were purchased for $6 each for the Apollo missions. This came after they used mechanical pencils that cost $128.89 each!
Among the top adventures we’ve had as a family was being VIP guests of NASA for the next-to-last (was going to be last at the time) launch of the Space Shuttle. We sat in bleachers near the astronauts families for the launch. Unbelievable sight, sound, and core-shaking rumble along with feelings of amazement, pride, and awe. I’ve been a space fanatic since the Apollo days. These days I pull out my powerful telescope on clear nights for the neighborhood to peer into the wonders beyond our own mother earth.
One of the biggest thrills was seeing the original Star Trek USS Enterprise NCC-1701 model, complete with running lights, at the National Air and Space Museum.
“It’s full of stars.” – 2001: A Space Odyssey
As of the last time I was to the Houston Space Center. Apollo 18 vehicle (canceled due to budget cuts) is still sitting fully assembled.
June 16 is Captain Picard Day (the day this comment was posted… Make it so, Number 1)
Klaatu barada nikto
from the tv show PSYCH: “Did you hear about Pluto? That’s messed up, right?”
Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!
They left it out of the movie, but in Carl Sagan’s book “Contact” the alien tells Dr. Arroway that they have discovered that if you calculate Pi out far enough, it becomes a repeating binary code, 0s and 1s, in base 11. The theological import is staggering, that there must be some intelligent design behind the very creation of the universe for a code to have been hidden in one of the fundamental constants of space and time.
Buzz Aldrin and I are Facebook friends
The original Star Trek episode where Kirk and Ohura kiss still hasn’t aired in some places on network TV.
27% (!!!!) of the universe is dark matter. That scares the crap out of me!
“A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars- billions upon billions of stars. Every star may be a sun to someone.” Carl Sagan – Cosmos
Gas giants are failed stars!
For some reason, this has always struck me as a weirdly romantic way to describe planets like Jupiter and Saturn (because as gas giants, they contain some of the same elements as a star.)
“Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds . . . to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.”

And finally, our winner:

Well, of course you won… you are my people, Brian.

My office mates approve of your quote.

In Tools

Sharpener Review: Blackwing One-Step Long Point

AnaJune 19, 2020June 19, 20203 Comments

Review by Tina Koyama

What is all the fuss about a “long point”?

For this long-time colored pencil user, long points are not needed (or wanted) for most colored pencil purposes. So when I first began using graphite pencils more seriously for drawing and writing and became involved in the pencil community, I was fascinated by the deep discussions I observed regarding sharpeners that can produce the longest points. I’ve been using a KUM Automatic Brake Long Point two-step sharpener on graphite pencils for years, and it makes a nice long point, though I don’t think of it as special. However, the Möbius & Ruppert Pollux seems to be the most popular for producing both a long and highly esteemed concave point. I know of no other sharpener that can do this except the newish one from Blackwing – the one-step long point. I decided to try it.

True to Blackwing’s branding and form (and expected for the price of $20), the sharpener comes in a sturdy, matte black box with a drawer that slides out. The sharpener, too, is all matte black except for the glossy logo. Its shape reminds me of my Redline flashlight. The asymmetrically placed hole apparently bothers some people, but I like it as a design element. When the top is unscrewed, the blade unit is easily removed (you’ll soon learn why this is important), and the large-capacity canister can be emptied. It’s a simple, elegant design.

For my first tests, I chose Blackwing pencils, of course. I just happened to have on my desk a brand new, turmeric yellow Volume 3 limited edition pencil dedicated to Ravi Shankar. Typically with a new, unsharpened pencil, I would not use a handheld sharpener; I would shove that baby into an electric. But it was important to test a pencil from its bluntest of all stages (plus I was eager to sharpen that sunny yellow beauty). I also picked out a Blackwing already in use that was in need of sharpening – in this case, a Volume 211.

It was a bit tedious to use a hand-held sharpener from the beginning, but the one step’s barrel is comfortable to hold. There is no “stopper” feeling as I’m used to with the two-step KUM, so I took the pencil out several times to see how much I had sharpened.

The point that resulted is indeed long, but it looks a bit rough and not exactly concave. I thought the wood, especially at the top of the collar, also looked a bit ragged.

The 211 came out with a better-looking long point without ragged edges and with concavity. The collar looked better also, but still not as smooth as other sharpeners I use. I was satisfied, though, that the Blackwings had been sharpened adequately for basic use.

Next I picked up three other pencils that needed sharpening – a Mitsubishi Hi-Uni HB, a Tombow Mono 100 4B, and a Musgrave Unigraph 2B. The only casualty was the Musgrave, whose lead snapped while I was sharpening. This is where the easy opening and disassembly came in handy: I could remove the blade unit and tap it vigorously against the side of my wastebasket to try to dislodge the broken lead piece. That didn’t work, so I had to use a ballpoint pen to poke it loose. All three sharpened up with good points.

Although I knew that the one-step is intended for use with graphite pencils only, I also knew that any sharpener I carry is likely to be used with a colored pencil eventually, either intentionally or inadvertently. (Better to find out how it performs at the comfort of my desk than when I’m standing on the sidewalk trying to finish a sketch.) First I tried a Caran d’Ache Supracolor water-soluble colored pencil, and it sharpened like a champ! I don’t need or want it to have a concave point that can be used as a weapon, so I stopped a bit short, but I think it looks better than some of the graphite pencil points.

Finally, I spotted a Staedtler Mars Lumograph 8B that needed to be freshened, so I gave that a sharpen, too. Not bad at all. The one-step can take thick cores as well as average cores.

Final Impressions

I’m satisfied with all the points I got. After scribbling with all my test pencils, I’m not sure I fully appreciate the benefits of concavity. However, none of the tippy-tips immediately snapped off as often happens with freshly sharpened pencils under my heavy hand, so that’s probably one benefit. I think I’m going to stick with my policy of putting new, unsharpened pencils into an electric or hand-crank desk model instead of the Blackwing. For whatever reason, all the refreshed points came out better than the new Blackwing I tried.

Finally, is it worth the $20 price compared to a $5 plastic KUM (or all the many other inexpensive, plastic handhelds I own)? It looks better on my desk and feels better in my hand. It will likely last longer. I can’t honestly say it sharpens better.

(I purchased this sharpener with my own money.)

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

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.

In Ink Review

Ink Review: Sailor Colorado

Jessica ColesJune 18, 2020June 19, 20202 Comments

By Jessica Coles

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to write for the blog. Amazing Ana (as I shall now call her) has been running things on the blog all alone for quite a while and has been amazing! So let me try to catch up with all the things that have piled up in the last couple of months.

The pen show circuit has not faired well this year, due to factors outside of anyone’s control. But that was not the plan. Especially for the North American portion of Sailor. This group had a great idea in store. The idea was to have a special ink for various states plus an ink for the 2020 pen show season.

Unfortunately for both Sailor of North America and for the rest of the pen show world, only the first few pen shows were able to happen in 2020 and only one of those was attended by Sailor. At the Baltimore Pen Show, I grabbed a bottle of the Pen Show 2020 ink, the Sailor California ink, and the Sailor Colorado ink. Here I will be showing off Colorado, but California and Pen Show 202o will be reviewed soon!

Sailor Colorado. Purple. There is no way this could be more perfect for an ink fanatic who lives in Colorado who adores purple ink.

Although it is a bit difficult to see in the photo above, Colorado is blessed with a green sheen. Not an overpowering sheen, but just enough to be seen even in writing.

Each bottle of Sailor Colorado includes a card with a short description of the inspiration behind the ink – in this case, Colorado’s state flower, the columbine. However, it could well have been inspired by our purple mountains majesty. Or by the favorite color of someone who lives there… Maybe! You never know!

Above, the green sheen is a bit more evident and is a good sample of how Colorado looks in ordinary writing. This is not a super sheening ink, but one that shows a bit of sheen in writing – enough to make non-fountain pen users take a second look.

Akkerman #13 Simplisties Violet is lighter than Colorado, but very close to the same color. I found Colorado to be a bit on the dry side for a Sailor ink, but still easy to clean out of a pen. Dry time was average at about 15 seconds. I was happy to note that there was no smearing as I find with many sheening inks. One fountain pen friendly paper there was no bleeding or feathering either.

I highly recommend Sailor Colorado, although I may be biased by the name and the color (not to mention the sheen and lack of smearing). The price per mL is on the high end ($1 per mL), but for those who love purple inks or those who love Sailor inks, Sailor Colorado is a winner.

Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10)
Ink: Sailor Colorado (20mL, $20)

DISCLAIMER: All of the items in this review were purchased by me. Except for the Col-o-ring which was provided to me by a wonderful person who pays me to write blogs by keeping me supplied with Col-o-rings. Please see the About page for more details.

In Link Love

Link Love: Creative Self

AnaJune 17, 2020June 17, 20203 Comments

Today, I am spending the day watching the Adobe 99U Conference: The Creative Self. Usually, the conference is held in NYC but because of this year’s pandemic, the conference was held online and Adobe opened it up for free to anyone who wanted to participate. There is so much uncertainty in the creative field (there’s a post below suggesting a loss of 20% of all creative jobs in the UK) as tis true in so many other fields. Many of the topics deal with staying creative and fighting burnout which can apply to anyone whether you work in design or another field. We are all creative thinkers so check it out.

Strangely, there are two disappointing pens in the pen review section. We, as pen reviewers, tend to like most pens but we also know that it’s important to let readers know when pens are not good. Both of these pens are not one-off cases. I’ve seen other reviews of these products that suggest that these were not isolated incidents. I hope that both manufacturers are seeing this and planning to redesign and retool these products.

We will continue to post about both Black Lives Matter and the pandemic as it crosses our path and seems relevant and important. I want to see more BIPOC in the creative and pen community and getting more recognition for their contributions. The pandemic continues to effect our economy globally as well as our health and our communities (both digitally and in the real world) so I’ll include links where it seems appropriate.

Giveaway Winners: Nibgrinder & Skylab/Desk Packages

AnaJune 16, 2020June 16, 20205 Comments

Thanks to everyone who entered our tenth giveaway in honor of our tenth anniversary! This has been such fun! Would you believe the Random Number Generator picked three people who all wanted different prizes? Thanks, RNG!

Keep reading! Keep commenting! We’ll keep hosting giveaways… just maybe not 10 in 10 days because I needed a freakin’ spreadsheet and I hate Exel. If we make it to 20 years, we’ll reconsider it.

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Notebooks & Paper:

Art & Creativity:

Other Interesting Things:

Black Lives Matter:

Coronavirus/COVID-19: