The Write Stuff: Is yours sharper than the sword?

I didn’t know about that. I googled it, and yes it is funny :grin:

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Nice collection! And you have the famous Noodler’s Baystate Blue!! :star_struck: I recognised the bottle before zooming in or reading the text. :grin: I just love that shade of blue, which is so unique and nothing else is quite similar, but it is notorious for staining if people have any accidents with it (carpets, pockets, pens, etc). That’s the reason I ended up not buying it. But it is a beautiful blue!

I also like the manufacturer’s philosophy of not creating waste, and he fills the big bottles to the brim, so one bottle of Noodler’s might last years, or a lifetime, if one uses many other inks.

Oh this brings back memories. I used to watch so many fountain pen and ink videos on YouTube! I loved watching Brian Goulet’s videos, especially the videos Brian and Drew made together (a pen podcast series), those guys were so funny! I used to watch other fountain pen enthusiasts’ channels, like Figboot on Pens, Pens and Tea, sbrebrown, Inky Rocks (this was a woman living in Japan, and I loved her videos about Japanese stationary stores, pens and inks. Often after watching her videos I wished I lived in Japan.)

Many people love the Pilot Metropolitan pens. They are great, and they come in so many different colours.

I know people who buy disposable Pilot fountain pens and fill the whole body of the pen with ink, so it lasts longer. It seems to work, but it could be potentially messy if it leaks.

Your Mark Three mechanical pencil looks awesome! I really like the design.

Which pen is the one between the Lamy Studio and the Mark Three? Looks very nice!

Glad to see another friend of Lamy Studio pens! They look great, don’t they? I like the design.

A pen I never bought but I wish I had was a Pilot Vanishing Point, which has a retractable nib (like a mechanical pencil). They are pricy, and they don’t carry much ink, and I think it dries faster because it isn’t as sealed as pens with caps. It is a nice concept, though!

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I have a colleague who is into making pens. This is one that he made for me from a cocobolo blank. It’s a roller ball and writes excellently, but when posted it’s just a bit too heavy. I end up just using the pen without the cap when I write with this.

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This is my first foray into the fountain pen world. Just got it last week! (The pen behind it is a Uniball Zento). It’s actually forcing me to hold my pen the “correct” way (tripod grip) because now I kind of hold my pen in a fist grip. I’m enjoying how it writes so far. I’m not sure how far down the rabbit hole I’ll go, but it’s been a nice experience so far.

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Yay Kakuno!

I love the little smile on the nib.

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Yes! Mine is a winky face lol

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Decided to treat myself to a little friend to go with the Kakuno. I wanted something a little different so I went with a Sailor Shikiori (“Woven Seasons”). Specfically, this one, a Tsukiyo no Minamo (“Moonlit Waters”) in the color Yonaga (“Long Autumn Night”). Sailor definitely goes all-in on themes :rofl:

It has a Sailor Fine nib so should be a very different writing experience.

Should arrive this weekend.

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A pen in my hands isn’t much different than a soldering iron - you’re going to end up with gobs of ink everywhere and have to redo the job - but I’m glad there’s a thread where I can admire all of the pretty gear without feeling the need to price everything.

My one and only:


Sailor Compass in yellow, came with the matching converter but I damaged it when cleaning the pen once, so I got a blue one instead and I feel it still kinda works :sweat_smile: Currently inked with Waterman Tender Purple, which if you trust the reviews should be an amazing ink, but it just doesn’t do it for me (or my pen or both) and I think I might end up passing it on.
@howard That Shikiori is a really nice choice, I love that they come in a billion colour schemes although almost impossible to get one here locally…I came from a Kakuno and a Preppy and I must say I much prefer the Sailor nib feedback experience.

Hot take/unpopular opinion: I don’t enjoy Lamys, I think their “ergonomic” grip isn’t that ergo after all (for me anyway) and frankly, I’ve had terrible QC experiences with all three European fountain pens I’ve tried and none with the Japanese ones, to the point where anyone close to me that asks for a recommendation, I always point to the “beginner” Japanese pens

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This will actually be my first Sailor, looking forward to it a lot.

I have a ton of products from the other three big names here (Pilot, Platinum and Pentel) - mostly pencils and ballpoints, and I love them all. They all make great stuff. I do love my little Kakuno, I just bought a CON-70 for it too, because unlike the Cocoon/Metro, the 70 fits in it.

I was leaning hard towards wither a Pilot Cocoon/Metropolitan or a Platinum Procyon, but in the end the Sailor just kept catching my eye. We’ll see if I like the Sailor nib experience.

Oh don’t get me wrong here - I write like a drunk doctor in a hurry. I just like to take notes.

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I loved my Kakuno and I got a CON-70 for it too, but I passed it on to a good friend. In a way, I’m trying to minimize “stuff”, because I do get choice paralysis. So if I wanna take notes, I just take out the Sailor and I don’t have to think about which pen to use :sweat_smile:

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I am thinking of getting a clip for it - if a Kakuno had a clip it would be the perfect on-the-go pen for work and stuff. I love the little thing.

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Totally. There seem to be a bunch of “no name” ones on Amazon for the Kakuno for like 15-20$

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I have a Montblanc Bohème Retractable fountain pen. It was bought for me by my ex-wife and is probably 20 / 25 years old. I never use it as I found it a pain in the (beep), especially if flying. It just rolls around in my desk draw. I have no idea whether it has any value - the case was stolen when my then house was broken in to, again 20’ish years ago.

Next to is my writing instrument of choice, a cheap, disposable propelling pencil. I use these all the time. At work, I habitually take notes in meetings and prefer to use a pencil. At some point, note taking will be fully replaced by CoPilot - we generally have it on for teams meetings - but for the time being, I still take my notes, always in A5 hard backed, non-spiral bound notebooks. They have proved invaluable in the past, especially when dealing with personnel / HR / disciplinary type issues. Dated contemporaneous notes…

The writing instruments are on my PC keyboard, the ubiquitous interface to the world. I do like dictating to Word. Even if it is not always 100%, it’s cool. Talking at PowerPoint or Excel doesn’t work as well though :joy:

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They don’t make them any more, so likely several hundred dollars minimum.

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Yeah, I much prefer writing notes down - something about the pen on the paper, makes the information go in. I don’t think it’s the same typing it into a computer, though I appreciate it’s useful for work and for searching stuff later. I also like retractable pencils - blunt pencils make me itch mentally, probably because I’ve mislaid most of my pencil sharpeners!

I almost always have my A5 bullet journal with me, and it’s great for noting down things for my regular one-to-one with my somewhat exasperating boss (he didn’t even log in last time, pah!).

As for pens, I do like the LAMYs but they do seem to get through ink quickly. I’ve also got a TWSBI (a bit like this one), several nice Parkers and quite a few cheap ones that are sentimental because I used them at school. Currently I’m using a Schaeffer because I’m trying to use up all my cartridges, because I’ve got several lovely inks to play with after the last cartridge is gone. Shockingly, my partner, who is pretty much the same age as me, only ever used biros at school! :distorted_face:

My most coveted pen as a teenager was one of those cheap, thick 10 colour biros… but they dried out very quickly, and the Papermate Inkjoy ones are rather nice if you want a range of colours.

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NPD!

This really is a pretty pen. Of course, I had to get its namesake ink (Sailor Shikiori Yonaga) too. And a bottle of the trusty standby, Pilot Blue-Black (which IMO is a fantastic ink).

I’ll take it for a spin a bit later. For now, I have another new thing to play with.

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yeah it’s a keeper. Ink is really nice too.

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Dude congrats, enjoy!

Sailor Yonaga looks like an awesome blue, I’ve been thinking of getting a bottle for some time now. Just last night though I got some Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Budo, so no other inks for a while I guess :smiling_face_with_tear:

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Oof Dah! My profession will require pencil nowadays when not designing on computer…

…but back in the day when drafting on mylar and sepia (remember those!) and using Leroy (for you ancient drafters) we used the specific pen weight for compositions…

…otherwise, long live HB, H and 2H to 4H (but not much more than that… :wink: )

I have not used these in decades:

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