It is a sign of how much I love pens that I am just as happy seeing someone else get a pen in the mail. That’s a fantastic nib. It’s a double-broad stub. I can understand why my friend had to have it.
Month: January 2009
There’s something about ink that’s not quite this or that color. Greenish-grayish is delish. That’s Noodler’s Zhivago; it is not straightforward black, or dark gray, or dark green. It is blackish-greenish-grayish, and delightful because of it. I must say I was underwhelmed by it at first. I used it in a plain fine-nibbed pen, and …
What can I say? I doodle. My brain cannot handle meetings without doodling. As I have at least five meetings a day, I have doodle opportunities the poor one-meeting-a-day person can never hope to have. I doodled this one over several meetings, using a Nakaya with an EF nib, a Stipula Ventidue with a 1.1 …
Surely no other pen in my care has been this mishandled. The Duke Beijing Opera came in a heavy box. I don’t know where the box is anymore; it must have warped the space-time continuum around it and sunk into a parallel universe. The pen itself is almost as heavy as the box. It is …
It’s the psychedelic floral lining of a shoe, a guitar silkscreened on the wrong side of a shirt, a skull embroidered on the inside of a collar. It is the amusing detail only we know, and which makes people wonder if we’re in love, are having an affair, or have just won a Paypal dispute. …
I have two Parkettes, a red and a green. They aren’t red and green versions of each other; they have subtle differences in the details. The red one’s clip is more elaborate, and it sports a 14k nib instead of the steel of the green. Both have fluted bodies, three trim rings and bands on …
I bought this pen from Jonathan Donahaye on eBay, during my vintage Conway Stewart phase. I took it out today, toying with the idea of selling it, and decided to rinse and ink it. As usual, I convinced myself to keep the pen. Jonathan’s Book of Numbers is THE vintage Conway Stewart resource, and here …
Other people’s pens have made guest appearances on the blog. None has made me smile as much as this one.
I slapped my forehead. Of course, why didn’t I think of that? Four Nakayas now nestle in the five-pen case. (The araishu, which I use least often, stays in its kimono.) The Oldwin has to remain in the largest slot, and even then has room to wiggle. The Nakaya pen kimono is one of the …
I sold my first Waterman Carene Deluxe. It was dependable, it wrote even if I’d left it inked and unused for weeks, it was deep blue and sterling silver, it was… well, it was the kind of guy you married, I suppose, as guys like that usually come with medium nibs. I dislike medium nibs. …