Leigh Reyes. My Life As a Verb.

The little Wahl that could.

It was a struggle, but I managed to reduce the number of pens in my bag to five. I brought home a soft pen roll from Paris in June last year, and I haven’t used it till now because, come on, how could I possibly take just five pens to work? Still, my right shoulder is approaching forty, along with the rest of my body parts, and it boasts a permanent bruise near the collarbone from my pen-weighted bag.

Today’s five pens are the Oldwin (of course), the Omas Arco, two Nakayas, and the little Wahl 3. When I bought it on a whim, I didn’t know it would become one of my most frequently used pens. It seems impractical, at first glance. The green-gold metal, engraved with wavy linear lace, is flashy compared to the Japanese pens I usually carry. It barely peeks over its slot in the pen case.

Wahl 3

I wouldn’t mind buying another Wahl 3, if only to have a backup for a nib as flexible as this. Not all Wahls of this era had flexible nibs, so it would be a careful purchase - impulsiveness is rewarding, but only half the time.

Flexible nibs - writing samples (lyrics from Ada by The National)

From top to bottom: Omas Milord Arco with Mottishaw nib, Pilot Justus with nib at softest setting, Edward Todd, Wahl 3. For sheer thick-thin contrast, the Wahl wins.

January 5th, 2009 | Tags: Edward Todd, Omas, Pilot Justus, Wahl | Category: Fountain Pen | Comments (3)

Danitrio Frog maki-e.

I like frogs. Even real ones.
Frogs on pens, though, don’t fuss when you twist them.

Danitrio Frog maki-e

I decided to write about the pen, but wrote something else instead, but I eventually managed to turn it around and lead it back to the pen, which I am grateful for, because not too many things in life do that. (My apologies to the Googlebots - this is text you won’t be able to index.)

Danitrio Frog maki-e, writing sample

January 5th, 2009 | Tags: Danitrio, frog | Category: Danitrio | Comments (2)

Sailor 1911 Demonstrator, music nib.

One of the Japanese big three, Sailor’s reputation rests solidly on its nibs. It’s no slouch in the design department either. The Susutake and Arita series take reimagine traditional Japanese elements into pens - bamboo taken from century-old chimneys, enamelled porcelain.

(On a side note - and I am always going off into side notes - I have always wondered why Filipino souvenir shops seem to be stuck on wooden clogs with heels carved with nipa huts and purses made from various frog body parts and pigskin leather embossed with the word “Philippines” and the occasional jeepney.)

Demonstrators, like today’s detailers and trade manuals, were for salespeople to - what else - demonstrate the fountain pen being pitched to retailers. They had clear or cutaway bodies to show off the pen’s inner workings. This was important back when unique selling propositions (ooh, marketing jargon) for pens moved from how they wrote to how they filled. Today, demonstrators appeal to buyers who are a) geeky, b) exhibitionist, and c) drawn to transparent shiny objects. File me under all three, because I bought a Sailor 1911 demonstrator from Pengallery.

Sailor 1911 Demonstrator

Unlike the clear Pilot demonstrator which has black ends, the Sailor uses the same transparent resin all the way through. There is no complicated filling system to explain; it fills by cartridge or converter. Demonstrators tell all. Here, you can see that ink has found its way into the inner section. If I’m not mistaken the nib is friction-fit, so this shouldn’t be hard to clean. It reminds me of those see-through plastic totes that became popular a few years back; I couldn’t understand why women would want to show off their tissue packets and lipstick-stained cosmetic bags. However, it seems quite all right in a pen. Sailor cartridges and converters are proprietary. I wish they used the same system as Platinum - it would have been a treat to use Platinum’s goldfish converter in this pen, and its gold trim would match.

Sailor's music nib

This is my first stock music nib from Sailor. The 1911M I had, which I eventually sold, had a music nib reground into a semi-zoom (different angle, different line width). Unlike Pilot or Platinum music nibs, which have two slits, Sailor’s has one. This makes it more of a stub, in my opinion. It certainly writes like one.

Sailor 1911 Demonstrator, music nib writing sample (ink: Pilot Iroshizuku ajisai)

I extend the last flourish of a letter, not just because it looks good, but to gauge how well the ink flows through the nib. This is more critical for wide-writing (italic, stub, music, anything over a broad really) and flexible nibs. Sailor has tuned this music nib well, and I am more than happy to show it off to people, which is more than I can say for the contents of my bag.

January 4th, 2009 | Tags: 1911, demonstrator, music nib, Sailor | Category: Fountain Pen, Sailor | Comments (4)

Good morning, 2009.

First sunrise, 2009

Moleskine Weekly Diary

January 1st, 2009 | Tags: 2009, sunrise | Category: moleskine | Comments (6)

Top Ten Pens, 2008.

I first had two lists: top ten modern pens and top ten vintage pens. That I had acquired enough pens in 2008 to make two lists plus have others that didn’t make it to either list gave me pause.

I decided to stick to one list. That was harder than I’d expected. What about the Well Koi and the Sterling eyedropper, my flex-nibbed surprises? Or the Visconti Mazzi Dragon with the stub nib? None of those is in the list, because - well, as much as I treasure them, they do have minute issues. The Visconti is a hard starter (but flows very well once it does start), the Well Koi has a crack at the bottom of the barrel (a definite minus for an eyedropper) and the Sterling’s nib has hardly any iridium left, and so must be used sparingly.

Top Ten Pens, 2008

What did make it to the list:

1) Danitrio Silver Wave - an aesthetic delight to use, and once I adjusted the flow, the flexible extra-fine nib can now handle the pressure I inflict upon it in the name of line variation.
2) Nakaya longer Piccolo in the ishi-me kan-shitsu finish - a direct order from Nakaya, placed during my visit to the Platinum table at the Hong Kong Stationery Fair in January 2008. Its nib is an elastic extra-fine.
3) Nakaya Piccolo in kuro-tamenuri - with a stock flexible fine nib, this seminal Nakaya pen sees regular use.
4) Sailor Hannya Sutra - wards off evil spirits and signs checks at the same time.
5) Sailor 1911 Demonstrator - I just wanted one. This has a music nib which, like all Sailor nibs I’ve encountered, lives up to Sailor’s reputation as the smoothest nibs on the market today.
6) Pilot Custom 742 - not the most original in looks, but definitely the most flexible modern factory nib I’ve used.
7) Oldwin, classic ebonite marbrée - bought in Mora Stylos in Paris, my largest pen and one of my most used.
Waterman 7 in red ripple with Pink flexible nib - it’s vintage Waterman, it’s a 7, it has a wonderful, expressive nib, and I am a sucker for red ripple.
9) Frankensnork! - the only Sheaffer that’s ever made it to any top ten list of mine, this Snorkel is here because it is made from five different Snorkels, is fitted with a rare flexible stub nib, and most of all because it’s from a dear friend.
10) Wahl Pen 3 - A small beauty, not in any way difficult to find, but this one is a most elegant writer.

Top Ten Pens, 2008 - the written list

January 1st, 2009 | Tags: Danitrio, Frankensnork, Nakaya, Oldwin, Pilot, Sailor, sheaffer, snorkel, Wahl, Waterman | Category: Fountain Pen | Comments (8)

The Tibaldi Iride makes old friends.

Once you’re a certain age, you can let yourself go. I have always wanted to be the crazy old lady in the loud batik caftan who frightens the neighborhood kids away with a walking stick and pronouncements of doom. But not yet. My mom scolds me for wearing shorts that hit above the knee. “You’re going out in that?” I always tell her, “Yes, because I won’t when I’m seventy.” Or maybe I would.

Old houses let themselves go very well. They become downright picturesque.

Frosted Glass

After my grandaunts died, their clothes stayed in plastic bags, waiting for the living to decide which were mementos and which were rags. I found a dress, crisp with starch and pressed by decades, with an embroidered monogram on the pocket. I have vintage pens with other people’s monograms. There is, undeniably, a thrill in being the first to own a pen manufactured at the turn of the century. Being new old stock, or NOS, can add to a pen’s value. But there is also joy in being the unintended heir of Mary Marjorie Watson, she of the blue plastic pen with the Weidlich no. 2 nib, or Dr. George Collins, who signed his prescriptions with a striated Sheaffer Balance and a medium-to-broad flourish.

Tibaldi Iride

The browns of the Tibaldi Iride and of my grandaunt’s dress seem to like one another. The body is translucent, so I can see the ink level when I hold the pen up to the light. (This also makes for some pretty cool macro shots.)

Tibaldi Iride, on its side

The dress was mended, with microscopic meticulousness, at least twice that I could see. I am not the most careful of people, and snag my clothes on every protruding door knob there is. I cannot help but be amazed by those stitches, how they held (and hold) wear and tear and time at bay. It is the same amazement I feel at holding a pen that still works after a hundred years. Perhaps a century from now someone will hold a pen of mine and feel the same way. “It’s all banged up, but my God, it writes.”

Tibaldi Iride, fine nib, Pelikan Brilliant Brown on Miquelrius notebook paper

December 31st, 2008 | Tags: Iride, Tibaldi | Category: Fountain Pen | Comments (3)

My other Omas - the Bologna Autunno.

I only have two. I reviewed my Omas Milord Arco when it arrived. I thought I’d lost it, just two weeks ago, when it wasn’t in my bag or in any of my usual storage places. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t eat breakfast. The Mottishaw-modified pen turned out to be in my toiletries box. (No, I did not try to use it to fill in my eyebrows with thick and thin strokes.)

Like the Milord, this Bologna is made of celluloid. It’s cylindrical, chunkier than the Milord, and slightly heavier because of the metal section. Autunno describes the celluloid well: small patches of warm iridescence against a background the shade of damp, rich earth.

Omas Bologna Autunno

Even as I consider pruning my collection, the Omas Bologna Autunno stands a good chance of remaining. My long-term relationships are with flexible-nibbed vintage pens and Japanese art transformed into pens, but there is room for a fling or two with good-looking Italians.

Omas Bologna Autunno, nib

It is a piston filler with a fine nib. The nib is smooth and springy, typical of modern Omas.

Omas Bologna Autunno, writing sample

(Yes, that is ink in the threads. I am ink-in-the-threads girl.) There is nothing memorable about the line it lays down. It writes finely, tending towards medium. A touch more pressure releases more ink onto the paper, but not enough to provide line variation. What makes this pen a potential keeper is the total writing experience: the balance of softness and spring in the nib, the forward heft of the metal section, the alacrity with which it starts writing even after I’ve not used it in a week. And of course, the way it catches the light as I turn it in my hand, hoping to find an idea floating in celluloid.

December 27th, 2008 | Tags: Autunno, Bologna, Omas | Category: Fountain Pen, Omas | Comments (3)

Year-end Lists, because one must.

Top 15 Albums, 2008. The soundtrack to an unbelievable year.
1. TV On the Radio, Dear Science
2. Bajofondo, Mar Dulce
3. Elbow, The Seldom Seen Kid
4. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
5. The Week That Was, The Week That Was
6. Shugo Tokumaru, Exit
7. Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
8. Shearwater, Rook
9. Okkervil River, The Stand Ins
10. David Byrne and Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
11. Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
12. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
These albums weren’t released this year, but were on heavy rotation:
13. The National, Boxer
14. The National, Alligator
15. Beirut, The Flying Club Cup

Top 7 products I can’t live without (sometimes I remember there’s a girl attached to the fountain pen case, you know):
1. Giga Body Balm
2. Smashbox O-plump (it won over O-gloss)
3. Carmex click stick SPF 30
4. Novuskin Facial VCO
5. Olay Regenerist Serum
6. Neutrogena Body Mist Sunblock
7. Neutrogena Dry-Touch Sunblock