New Arrivals: Introducing the Benu Haute Collection

Benu fountain pens have traditionally been a little too, well, nontraditional for me. While I’ve long admired the artistry, I’ve never found a specific shape that matches my aesthetic. The recently released “Haute” collection might change that, since it pairs Benu’s unique materials with a more traditional, yet still unique, squared barrel design. Each pen features a No. 6 Schmidt nib and uses a standard international cartridge/converter filling system.

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We currently have a handful of the Benu Haute fountain pens in stock and available for purchase both in-store and online. Look for additional colors and nib sizes in the future, with possible new additions from Benu in the future!

Please note that while orders are shipping within our normal 2-3 business day time frame, UPS and USPS may still have a bit of a backlog due to the severity of the winter storm in our area and resulting damage. We appreciate your patience as the Nashville area continues to recover this week. We currently plan to be open normal hours this week, Thursday and Friday from 1pm-6pm, and Saturday from 10am-6pm. Since we are trying to get caught up after having to close for much of last week, no appointments are possible outside public hours.

We're Officially Open! Plus New Rickshaw Cases Have Arrived!

For those of you following along (or living through this weather yourself), the snow and ice are finally starting to melt in Nashville and we were able to reopen today. While we avoided significant damage, others in our building weren’t so lucky, as a water main froze and burst, flooding two suites and a downstairs storage area. Because management had to cut water to the building (power was out anyway until Wednesday evening), we were unable to open until this morning. Many thanks to all of you who continued to support us online and today in-store, as we very much appreciate your business. It’s not easy for any small business to lose effectively two weekends of revenue but hopefully we are through the worst of this now!

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Things should get back to “normal” this week - we had sporadic power and internet access at home, and at one point even our cell service cut out, so there’s not been much new on the content front. In the meantime, we managed to publish Episode 2 of On the Paper Trail, visit Pilot Pens in Jacksonville on a quick 24-hour turnaround, and as of today, launch the second round of T.G.S. x Rickshaw Bags cases, featuring Nick Dominguez’s unique “cloud” patterns that were hand-drawn using multi-shading fountain pen inks. We’ve added both standard and deluxe 6-pen Coozy Rolls, and also have more Fillmore pen cases which open flat and hold six pens (three on either side) plus a notebook. There has been a lot of interest in these cases so we will likely continue to carry them for the foreseeable future and hopefully I will have them at the California Pen Show at the end of February.

January was a blur! Stay tuned for more announcements on pen shows and more. In-store hours should return next weekend to our normal 1pm-6pm Thursdays and Fridays, and 10am-6pm Saturdays.

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Regardless of how this picture looked, temperatures in Jacksonville ranged from 38 to 45 degrees. Which was still better thabn the 17 at home.

Thursday Drops: Shop Reopening Update, Order Status, and New Arrivals from Diplomat, TWSBI, Kakimori and More!

InCoWriMo (International Written Correspondence Month) is almost upon us, and we’re actively adding products to our Written Correspondence Section of the shop. We’ve recently received new letter sets from Kakimori, as well as looseleaf papers from Kakimori, Yamamoto (Canopus!), Graphilo, and Nakabayashi, so we have you covered for all your letter writing needs. We’ve also added a bunch of Pilot Pens recently, including many of their specialty nibs. (If you’ve listened to the most recent episode of On the Paper Trail, you’ll hear why, and you can probably guess from the picture above.) Finally, we stocked up on TWSBI Pens in medium and broad nibs in advance of last weekend’s nib grinding event with Matthew Chen, which unfortunately got compressed to a single day due to the weather but at least we’re restocked!

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Colorful Kakimori Envelopes, just in time for InCoWriMO!

Many of you have asked about how our shop fared during the recent snow and ice storm, and I’m happy to report that despite losing heat, power, and water, all of our inventory and both spaces emerged unscathed. That said, our building remains a work in progress, and it is not possible for us to open before Saturday. We greatly appreciate everyone who has shown support by placing online orders, and we plan to be caught up on shipping shortly. Please do not come by attempting to pick up orders before Saturday, as there are crews on site performing cleanup and repairs to other parts of the complex.

1. Kakimori Letter Writing Sets. Looking for letter sets? These B5 letter sets feature a simple Kakimori motif on the header, and come in two different papers, Shinkyushi and Conqueror Laid. These sheets will fold three times to fit the Kakimori envelopes.

2. Kakimori Envelopes. These envelopes come in five colors and will fit the Kakimori letter sheets or similarly sized papers.

3. Yamamoto Canopus Paper. We have a fresh shipment of Yamamoto Canopus paper in A5 notebooks, A4 looseleaf sheets, and Bullet Jotter pads.

4. Pilot Custom 912 Fountain Pens. After the Custom 74, the Pilot Custom 912 has become a favorite from Pilot’s standard lineup, mainly due to the specialty nibs such as the PO (Posting) and WA (Waverly).

5. CDT x Pilot Frixion 3 Multi Pen. If there was one takeaway from our recent trip to visit Pilot, it’s the growing popularity of the Frixion line of pens. These erasable gel pens are surprisingly good, and we’re glad to have stocked the Craft Design Technology special edition that CDT produced with Pilot.

6. Diplomat Viper Fountain Pens. The popular Diplomat Viper fountain pens and rollerballs are back in stock in all colors! This modern take on the classic hooded nib fountain pen is hard to keep in stock, especially the green.

7. Diamine Ink Restock. We recently received a huge restock of Diamine Ink from the standard and 150th Anniversary line. We even have the new “Lady Grey” in both sizes.

8. Toyo Steel Boxes. We have Toyo Steel boxes available, in new colors that include orange and glacier blue. Boxes with similar footprints are stackable.

9. TWSBI Serpentine Fountain Pens. TWSBI has been very low on the Serpentine fountain pens, and it’s unclear when they will be making more available for purchase.

10. Braun Desk Clocks. We have a fresh shipment of Braun alarm clocks which make great travel alarms as well as wonderful desk accessories. Available in multiple colors and sizes.

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Yamamoto Canopus Paper is one of this year’s biggest hits!

New Arrivals: Yamamoto Canopus Paper Restock in All Sizes, Plus a Weather Update

On Friday morning before last week’s event started, we received a restock of Yamamoto Canopus Paper, including the A5 Canopus Note Notebooks, A4 sheets (which are new to us!), and Yamamoto Bullet Journal Bible-sized pads. For those unfamiliar, Canopus paper was specially developed by Yamamoto to showcase fountain pen ink colors, so it’s extremely fountain pen friendly. In addition to Canopus, we carry a curated selection from the Yamamoto Paper lineup, including additional specialty papers in A4 sheets and smaller format “Paper Tasting” samplers.

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While we remain operational and orders are shipping, certain orders may be delayed as we are without power and the warehouse is extremely cold (though it remains above freezing). While we are shipping orders as fast as possible, we greatly appreciate the patience and grace many of you have shown. Our goal is to get caught up by the end of the week.

Please keep an eye on the website for in-store hours as we of course cannot open the Nashville location until power is restored. Right now my hope is that we will be in a position to open on Friday, but there will be no firm call until tomorrow evening. Thanks for your patience, and stay safe out there!

Saturday's Event with Vanness Pens, Pilot, and Matthew Chen: Saturday Cancelled

A huge thank-you to everyone who came out Friday for our in-store event with Vanness Pens, Pilot, and Matthew Chen! Despite having to scramble and reorganize things a bit due to the shifting weather forecasts, we had a full house all day Friday, and it was fun to watch everyone try out Matthew’s tester pens and nib grinds. (Apparently the Kodachi remains an extremely popular choice!) Please note that while the online shop remains open, our in-person shop in Nashville is CLOSED today due to the weather. Please do not come by as I am on-site now and the access road is getting covered with snow. Stay home!

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We are not like the grocery stores across the South - our shelves are not bare and we remain open online! :)

We will plan on doing more of these events, as it was fun hosting not only allowing people to peruse Lisa Vanness’s ink samples and Matthew Chen’s nibs, but Bill Pearcy of Pilot USA was on site with a full set of Pilot nibs in both the Custom 743 and Custom 912 sizes. We now carry a selection of the most popular Pilot specialty nibs, including the FA (Falcon semi-flex), PO (Posting), WA (Waverly) and SF (Soft-fine) and we will be expanding our selection in the future.

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Pilot’s Waverly nib features slightly upturned tines that write smoothly from multiple angles. I hadn’t spent a lot of time writing with this one until recently, and it may become a new go-to recommendation for those with challenging writing angles.