The Empire did nothing wrong*

My last Sailor Pro Gear, the Shumibun, looked like Luke’s lightsaber in shimmering silver and blue. This pen, the Pro Gear Imperial Black, looks like Darth Vader’s suit. It’s black all the way down. I think it looks killer. Unlike Darth Vader, the Pro Gear is short. In fact, it's tiny. Every time I buy …

Quick review: Franklin-Christoph Model 20 in vintage green with Masuyama Needlepoint

This is not my first Franklin-Christoph and I doubt it will be my last. My favourite model for sheer comfort is the 02, but I thought I'd give the Model 20 a try and I'm glad I did. The 20 is a simple acrylic pen that takes a #6 JoWo nib. Its standout feature is …

Meet Mr Modal Average

I have 20 pens in my collection at the moment, after stripping out my for-sale and my toys. I thought it would be a quick little diversion to see what if anything they had in common. I counted up how they fared on ten different attributes, from trim colour to nib width to price paid, …

Four Ts and a 2×2

You know I love a good model. Models help you understand the world (as much through their failings and exceptions as through their accuracy, often). They help you make sense of chaos by looking at situations from a rigid and clearly defined position. Just this week I was doodling 2x2 matrices around nib properties for …

A new sale

These posts are always difficult to write. Time to move some cherished pens to new homes in order to raise some needed funds. Getting the headlines posted. If you want photos and writing samples and aren’t satisfied with the pics on this blog and my Instagram feed, please ask. Given Covid joys international shipping is …

Pilot takes the Vanishing Point to the next level

I have a thing for retractable fountain pens, like the Montblanc 1912 and the Lamy Dialog 3 (and yes, the new Curidas). But the king of them all in the market is the Pilot Vanishing Point. I have tried a few Vanishing Points (or 'Capless') over the years. The current 'normal' Vanishing Point first. Then …

My Top 3 pens

It's been going on a while, but Joost from Appelboom's 'top 3 fountain pen' video series has just landed on my radar. The premise is simple: ask pen-celebrities like Figboot, Azizah, SBRE Brown, Scrively and Brad Dowdy to record videos talking for about 15 minutes about their top three pens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HphQ-Tqi508 I wasn't invited to …

State of the collection: May 2020

It's been six months since my last proper SotC post, although I did incremental posts in December and April where I tracked a lot of ins and outs. I'm really pleased where things stand with my collection (or should that be 'library'?), although I can no longer say with any conviction that the changes I'm …

Finding a word other than ‘collection’

I’ve always said that I’m a user of pens, not a collector. For me, the stereotypical collector has lots and lots of pens, often variants of the same model, for example all the colour variants of the Lamy Safari. They get obsessive about the details, hunting down rare examples and researching the companies behind the …

10 pen experiences to try before you die

One of the things I enjoy most about this hobby is just how varied it is. There's so much to try, and every new pen or nib or ink you experience helps you get closer to understanding your individual likes and dislikes. A voyage of discovery, if you will. There are a million things to …