Is a Sailor Special Nib worth it? Hands on with the Naginata Cross Concord

Sailor's so-called Special Nibs -- ranging from the subtle Naginata-Togi to the absurd King Eagle -- have a storied history. They were unavailable for a few years, and relaunched just a couple of years ago with much higher prices and a new pen body format. Only recently has it been possible to buy one online; …

Happy endings and a win for Italian spirit

Eight days ago I posted about my ordeal with three less-than-perfect nibs, and how the retailers and brands were working with me to fix the problems. I wanted to check in and tell you how it went... And to share some positive nib news too. Let's start with Nettuno. I can't rate Nino the CEO …

Carry in style with the Galen Medic Bag

Long-time readers of this blog may remember my reports on the Galen Leather Writing Box: its unique concept, its problems with warping, and its redesigned replacement. I’m pleased to say that over the past year, the Writing Box has held up perfectly and it still sees daily use as a lapdesk for journalling and for …

How to buy a fountain pen without screwing up

This is not a guide to choosing a fountain pen. There are plenty of those out there, several of them on this site. No: this is a guide to actually buying a fountain pen, from the moment you've decided on which pen you think you want, to the moment you happily lay it in your …

Karas Ink V2 Pony Express: the weight of progress

I had a short phase of liking brass and copper pens. Then I decided that the metallic smell was too annoying and stopped using them. So why is there a bronze pen here on my desk? You could call it impatience, or curiosity. Let me explain. Over a year ago I got myself a Karas …

Failure is the best test

There's an old truism in business that you only really earn your customers' loyalty when things go wrong. Customers (generally) accept that mistakes happen; if you step up and solve the problem, they can actually be happier with their overall experience than if no problem had happened in the first place. This week I really …

State of the collection: June 2020

Pens! Fresh off my last post about small but perfectly formed collections, here's the latest on mine. It's grown, just a little bit. What's in since the last SotC: Pilot Capless LS. I listed this for sale soon after it arrived, because while it's by far my favourite Vanishing Point, I didn't fall in love …

Admiring small, but perfectly formed, collections: 10 pen addicts to follow on Instagram

Some folks have huge or ever-changing pen collections. It’s easy to be impressed by racks of Oldwins... https://www.instagram.com/p/CBMtUC-jjow/ ...endless lines of incredible Montblanc LEs... https://www.instagram.com/p/B_p7WoNjyrX/ or even perfect palettes of Sailor Pro Gears... https://www.instagram.com/p/B-el7XTj4jk/ But I find myself drawn to those with small but diverse and perfectly formed collections — whether it’s five, ten or …