Happy Holidays 2022: The Indie Gift Guide

As we enter not only the 2022 holiday shopping season but the final month of the year, I’ve been pulling together my plans for both the annual gift guides and the 2022 year-end recaps. Today’s post, on the Saturday after “Black Friday”, is going to be a bit of both. I’ve been encouraged by a much greater focus this Thanksgiving on supporting small and independent businesses, both inside and outside the pen community, and honestly, that’s how it should be, because independent makers and retailers are what make this hobby great. When you’re considering how to spend your hard-earned dollars on gifts for yourself or others, consider setting aside a portion for smaller retailers and makers who can offer truly exclusive products and a more personalized shopping experience.

The format for this “guide” might strike some as unusual. I’m not going to simply list all of the different independent makers out there - there are too many to do that in any coherent fashion - but rather will spend today’s post discussing my own acquisitions from the past year, the makers from whom I’ve personally purchased, and why I enjoy their pens and the reasons you might enjoy them too.

View fullsize

Two Schon DSGN Faceted Pocket Six Fountain Pens!

Schon DSGN

Ranked purely in terms of number of pens acquired this year, Schon DSGN tops the list, as I picked up two of the Full-Size fountain pens and a hammered copper Pocket Six with added patina, to join the three pens from the Engineered Plastics collection that I purchased towards the end of 2021. Known not just for original, ergonomic designs but dedication to quality, Schon DSGN pens are among my favorite everyday writers.

View fullsize

My two most recent Kanilea Acquisitions: a Lewa Lani and a Kai Huli.

Kanilea Pen Company

The second-most represented independent maker in my personal collection is Kanilea Pen Company. For more than six years now, Kanilea has been producing pens themed around places and locations in Hawaii. You can read more about the background of this brand in my prior reviews, but I love their clean design and ergonomics (particularly the “Classic Flush” shape), in addition to the unique materials chosen to match a specific image. I recently acquired the Lewa Lani fountain pen, as well as a pen show-exclusive “Kai Huli” in a coral and yellow-veined material, pictured below.

View fullsize

Three “Navigator” Models from Penzbydesign.

Stacy Robinson (Penzbydesign)

A long-time penmaker, Stacy Robinson brought ebonite and Conway Stewart acrylic versions of his “Navigator” fountain pen to this year’s Atlanta Pen Show. I ended up purchasing three: one in striated beige ebonite and two in relatively uncommon Conway Stewart acrylics that I had been looking to add to my collection for years. The workmanship on these pens is excellent, and the size nearly perfect for my hand, as with the Schon DSGN Engineered Plastics and Full-Size fountain pens. While Penszbydesign has a storefront, it may be easier to inquire via e-mail or social media, since some photos were posted recently of new Navigator pens similar to the ones I purchased, and they don’t currently appear on the website.

View fullsize

Two Kasama Una fountain pens.

Kasama Pens

Currently sold only directly via Instagram and social media, Kasama is based in the Philippines and, to my knowledge, makes two models of pens: the larger “Una” and the more streamlined “Tala”. I’ve acquired two Una fountain pens, one in Ultem and another in a combination of Peek and anodized titanium. While not inexpensive, Kasama fountain pens are unique - there’s nothing quite like them on the market, in terms of design or material combinations.

View fullsize

My Hinze Pen in “Five O’Clock Somewhere” Acrylic

Hinze Pens

Hinze Pens made perhaps my favorite - and most unpredictable - acquisition of the year, my “Five O’Clock Somewhere” pen in this wild acrylic from Starry Night Resins. Like the Kanilea Classic Flush, this is a well-balanced pen with a comfortable section, and what makes Hinze Pens particularly unique is their anodized nibs, available in a range of colors.

View fullsize

Newton Pens

View fullsize

Ryan Krusac Studios

View fullsize

Pens by Pasquale in Primary Manipulation

Other Makers to Consider

As I mentioned above, I can’t list everyone (nor can I buy from everyone, because, well, $$$), but I do want to mentions several makers who do excellent work, some of which are on my “short list” of pens to acquire in 2023, for review or otherwise. Also, while some of the makers listed here do custom/bespoke work, many also have inventory currently available for purchase, which you can purchase, and which they will likely be wanting to sell, heading into the holiday season.

• Newton Pens (Shawn Newton). A fixture on the pen show circuit and the creator of some truly unique designs (such as the Prospector shown here), Shawn Newton usually has a healthy stock of pens ready to go.

• Pens by Pasquale (Nicholas Pasquale). A relative newcomer to the bespoke pen scene, Nic is local to me and I acquired a pen in dark “Primary Manipulation” at this year’s Nashville-area Pelikan Hub. I love supporting new makers! Check out his Instagram (linked here).

• Edison Pens (Brian Gray). Like Shawn Newton, Brian Gray is a longtime penmaker whose production-line Edison designs are now widely available at many major pen retailers. I have my eye on the new Collier Grande featuring a No. 8 nib.

• Ryan Krusac Pens. One of the few penmakers whose work with wood truly appeals to me, Ryan Krusac combines wood with other materials such a stone and antler. His scrimshaw work is incredibly detailed.

• Mayfair Pens. Pens with a “Lord of the Rings” theme? Count me in. Lately I’ve been more interested in penmakers who are exploring different shapes and contours, and I had the opportunity to handle these at the 2022 D.C. Pen Show.

Please Consider Supporting T.G.S. This Holiday Season

We’re also a small business, and entirely supported by purchases from our shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. Last week, we launched our own 2022 Holiday Gift Guide, focused on products from our own shop, which makes an effort to focus on and carry products that might necessarily be overlooked by larger stores. We appreciate your support, as it allows us to remain independent and advertiser/affiliate free! Through Monday at 11:59pm, take 10% off all TGS Shop orders with the coupon code “GIVETHANKS”!

Thanksgiving Thursday Drops and Cyber Week Promotions

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! We’re eminently grateful for all of you, our readers and customers. Take 10% off most items store-wide through Monday at 11:59pm, US Central Time using the coupon code “GIVETHANKS” at checkout. As always, domestic U.S. orders over $75 ship free. (Yes, the code should still work in the “Gently Used” section, though technically it’s not part of the main shop!)

This year’s finish on the Crayons de la Maison Caran d’Ache includes two natural-finish pencils.

A bunch of new items hit the site this week that you won’t want to miss, primarily the launch of the Caran d’Ache “Colour Treasure” collection and a general Caran d’Ache restock, ranging from 849 fountain pens to bicolor pencils to the newly released set of Crayons de la Maison Caran d’Ache. The promotion extends across categories, not just writing instruments, so be sure to check out our selection of Curated Notebooks and Paper, Desk and Reading Accessories, and Washi Tape and Pins. If you’re getting a head start on gifting prior to December, you may find our 2022 Gift Guide helpful, and we’ll have additional content through the weekend.

1. Caran d’Ache 849 Ballpoint “Colour Treasure” limited edition. This year’s holiday edition from Caran d’Ache comes in two different variants, a warm tone featuring shades of red, yellow, orange, and pink, and a cooler tone focusing on blues and green. The design is intended to evoke Caran d’Ache’s iconic colored pencil sets.

2. Caran d’Ache “Crayons de la Maison Caran d’Ache, Edition No. 10. This year’s release is scented with “Patchouli’s Wood,” the latest collaboration between Caran d’Ache and Swiss Parfumier Mizensir. This year’s set includes some gorgeous pencils - always an eagerly anticipated release!

3. T.G.S. Exclusive Penwell in “Aged Red”. Looking for a gorgeous gift for the fountain pen enthusiast in your life? Check out this T.G.S.-exclusive edition of the Penwell, in a special “Aged Red” finish designed to evoke the look of urushi lacquer.

4. Opus 88 Fountain Pens. There’s never been a better time to test out an Opus 88 fountain pen, what with a holiday discount and all. We have both the “Minty” and “Jazz” Japanese-style eyedroppers in stock, as well as a selection of fountain pen inks to fill them with.

5. Nahvalur Nautilus Ebonite Fountain Pens. I plan to write more on ebonite as a material in the near future, but what spurred me to explore this category was the Nahvalur (formerly Narwhal) Nautilus fountain pen, which we currently stock in the “Stylophora Berry” finish, along with the Nahvalur “Original Plus” vacuum filler.

6. Hightide Attaché Marbled Fountain Pen. This small, lightweight pocket fountain pen features a clip and a smooth fine nib. I’ve been enjoying using this for portable planner carry, and shockingly have been loving the basic black version.

7. Caran d’Ache 849 Fountain Pen. Certain of the primary colors have been out of stock for a while, but we recently received a new shipment just in time for the holidays.

8. Caran d’Ache 2022 Limited Edition 849 in Dark Violet and Pastel Yellow. Don’t pick up just one, get both, since the colors complement each other nicely. The “Dark Violet” finish features yellow writing, and vice versa.

9. Caran d’Ache “Claim Your Style” Edition No. 4. I don’t necessarily know why, exactly, but this year’s Claim Your Style colors feel fall-ish, and since we’re just now getting “Fall” weather here in Tennessee, these feel especially timely.

10. M+R Brass Pencil Sharpeners. We have the Pollux back in stock, as well as most of the other M+R Brass sharpeners, including the brass bullets with and without the keychain holes.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

Mini-Collections: Fancy Pencils are a (Relatively) Inexpensive Guilty Pleasure

We’re inching towards the close of 2022, and soon I will have to take stock of my progress on a major personal goal from this year: thinning out my stationery accumulation. And I’m not talking about adopting a “one-in, one-out” stance, where I have to get rid of something to buy something new. I started this year with the intention of significantly reducing the footprint my collection/accumulation occupies in my home. As I worked my way back through “the stash,” it wasn’t so much the fountain pens that shocked me, but rather the paper and the pencils.

View fullsize

Why So Many Pencils?

For starters, they’re easy to accumulate. I got back into pencils shortly before the Blackwing relaunch back in the early 2010s, when I picked up a dozen blue Palomino HB pencils based off the recommendation of Johnny over at Pencil Revolution (which is, by the way, no longer a blog but now a publisher and bookbinding company - check them out). To be fair, I do use a lot of pencils - just not at the pace at which I purchased them, especially before prices started to rise. I had a Blackwing Volumes and/or a Baron Fig subscription for a couple of years, and between the quarterly subscription deliveries and regular visits to C.W. Pencil Enterprise, it started to add up. Remodeling my office this past summer forced me to pull everything out of storage, get it into the open, and see how bad the problem was.

I have a “healthy” stash of jumbo pencils, but honestly probably not as many as I could use. Good ones are rare and hard to find.

So What Pencils Do I Actually Use?

• Highlighter and Annotation Pencils. By far the type of pencil I use the most is the highlighter pencil (or “drylighter” or “dryliner”), either as a stand-alone pencil or as a double-ended highlighter/graphite combo. I also use a lot of the red/black double-ended annotation pencils and go through these at a fairly good clip while I’m working or reading. I prefer highlighter pencils over the liquid-ink version because they smear less, don’t bleed through thin paper, and you don’t have to wait for them to dry.

• Capped Pencils with No Erasers. I’ll discuss this a bit more below, but I’ve come to appreciate the lighter weight and balance of “capped” pencils without erasers, and I especially love the aesthetics of a finished pencil cap. Of course, I still use pencils with integrated erasers, but at the end of the day I think I enjoy the classic round ferrule over the Blackwing.

• Jumbo Pencils. They’re not just for kids. Like an oversized fountain pen, a quality jumbo pencil offers increased comfort and control over your writing. If you find a good one, there’s nothing quite like a smooth jumbo graphite core.

• Natural Wood Pencils. Probably the most “elemental” writing experience you can get, a natural wood pencil (finished or unfinished) puts little more in your hand than wood, graphite, and sometimes a little varnish. When I want to get back to basics and write with something that’s not distracting, I’ll pick up one of these.

Do you know what I don’t find myself writing with frequently? Blackwings. This is not a knock on the quality - they’re very good pencils, but so many of the special editions I have include the “Pearl” that’s too waxy for my taste. The Blackwings I prefer are either the original extra dark or the extra-firm. Plus I’ve come to feel that the larger ferrule throws the balance off on the pencil, but again it’s all personal preference. For that reason I’ve sold off the bulk of my stash over the course of the past year.

View fullsize

Highlighter pencils are just as legible, in my experience, as their liquid-ink counterparts.

Why I Probably Won’t Stop Buying Pencils

Even though I have more pencils than I personally could ever use in a lifetime, I probably won’t stop buying them. Why? Well, for at least the next few years I have an elementary school-aged child, who churns through them at the pace of two or three a week (either from use or loss). If I need to thin the herd, I’ll simply give them to her, or alternatively donate a bunch of pencils to local school-supply drives. The second reason I won’t stop buying woodcase pencils is that they tend to be a relatively inexpensive luxury, that doesn’t take up space forever. Even the most expensive pencils, such as Blackwings, Caran d’Ache Swiss Woods, or the Crayons de la Maison Caran d’Ache, cost $3 to $10, and due to the quality of the wood and graphite they will give you a lot of mileage for your money. When you use them up, they’re gone, and they don’t leave behind waste to go to the landfill. Therefore, if I see a well-done pencil that’s either of high quality or seems super unique or creative, I’m probably going to buy it without thinking much of it if the package costs $50 or less. (Of course, I’m talking new pencils. Some people pay crazy per-pencil prices for vintage stock, and that’s an entirely different calculation.)

View fullsize

Back before prices started rising, I was not immune to stocking up on some relatively rare vintage pencils.

Pencils Should Not Be Thought of as a Cheap Commodity

Sustainably sourced wood, quality graphite, consistently good construction and an attractive finish (often in small-batch production) cost money, which is why today the price of good pencils is inching upwards, and due to the added impact of inflation and supply chain constraints, in some cases skyrocketing. That said, I don’t necessarily understand why the some people will pay $30-50 for a single bottle of fountain pen ink yet balk noisily at paying similar prices for a pack of good pencils. Both are luxury items, both are consumables, yet the pencils are more apt to be derided as an “overpriced” “cash grab” than the ink, despite the fact that the manufacturer’s profit margin on the 30-50ml bottle of liquid is almost certainly higher. Today’s consumers have been trained to think of pencils as an inexpensive commodity item that shouldn’t cost more than $0.25 per pencil, which is a key reason why so many of the school pencils readily available in stores are so cheap - and offer such a terrible writing experience.

Two favorite jumbo pencils that sadly aren’t made anymore: the Caran d’Ache “Black Wood” and the “Klein Blue” Maxi. While Caran d’Ache has released a jumbo pencil set in their current “Colour Treasure” limited edition series, they’ve sold out and I’m scrambling to get more.

Takeaways and Where to Start

As for me, I plan to keep buying and selling quality pencils. If I stopped purchasing today, I would have more than enough good pencils to last me for the rest of my life, but we all know that’s not going to happen ;) For those of you looking to experience a good pencil for the first time, you can absolutely do so with out spending a lot of money. We stock a range of woodcase pencils, mechanical pencils, and lead holders in the T.G.S. Curated Shop, ranging from classic yellow Tombow office pencils that cost around $1.50, to higher-end Caran d’Ache Swiss Woods and house specialty pencils geared towards enthusiasts and collectors.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases through the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. This post does not contain paid third-party affiliate links.

New in the Shop: Caran d'Ache Colour Treasure Collection

Just in time for the holiday rush, we received our initial allotment of Caran d’Ache’s new 849 Ballpoint and Maxi HB Pencil Set from the limited edition “Colour Treasure” Collection. Designed as an homage to the rainbow of Caran d’Ache’s classic colored pencils, the Colour Treasure ballpoint is available in two gradients: “warm” (yellow, red, and orange) and “cool” (blue, green). The Maxi Pencil set features five of Caran d’Ache’s coveted “jumbo” size pencils that are always extremely popular, and typically sell very quickly. Finally, we have this year’s “Crayons de la Maison Caran d’Ache” (Edition No. 10), an ultra-luxury set of scented woodcase pencils produced in collaboration with Swiss Parfumier Mizensir. This year’s scent is “Patchouli’s Woods,” featuring a combination of patchouli, cedar, and burnt caramel. Check out these and more in our “New Arrivals” section, as well as those products highlighted in the 2022 Holiday Gift Guide.

View fullsize

View fullsize

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all products sold, including the full range of Caran d’Ache offerings.

Sunday Reading for November 20, 2022

1. Traveling with Ink: Porto, Portugal (via Fountain Pen Blog). I’ll be adding this article to my collection of pen stores to visit on future travels.

2. New Orleans Adventures (via Sarah Read). Scriptura is one spot I haven’t hit in New Orleans, maybe for a future trip?

3. Shibui North Kitsune (via Dapprman). I love seeing interesting new designs from independent pen makers, and the engraving on this one makes it unique.

4. Good Made Better Made Portable (via Penquisition). Somehow I missed the release of the Penwell “Traveller Clip”!

5. Phoenix Pen Stands (via KraftyCats). Good pen stands are infinitely useful if you work at a desk, especially for clipless pens that can roll. These are some interesting designs.

6. Life Noble Book Hardcover Notebook (via Blake’s Broadcast). Life has apparently released a hardcover version of their Noble Note series. I’ve not seen these before and need to check them out.

7. Risky Business: Montblanc 146 LeGrand (via A Fleeting Ripple). I had a similar odyssey trying to get my first ever 146 to write properly. You can indeed find these pens with great nibs (and a lot of “gently used” character) on the secondary market quite easily, at good prices.

8. Indie Packaging Influence (via Rachel’s Reflections). Does packaging influence my own purchasing decisions? I think I agree with Rachel’s conclusions here.

9. Dubito: Kaweco Green Lilliput (via A Fleeting Ripple). The Lilliput is one of those pens that I need to try for a second time, especially now that it’s available in this excellent green color.

10. Midori MD Paper Products Colored Pencils (via Well-Appointed Desk). Tina reviews the Midori MD Colored Pencil Set. (Which we promptly sold out of! More on the way!)

In Case You Missed It….

Since I served as Hubmaster for the 2022 Nashville Pelikan Hub, most of my pen-related efforts this week went towards getting that event off the ground, and it was a rousing success! Yesterday I published what I envision as the first of two 2022 T.G.S. Holiday Gift Guides: this one focusing on products from our shop, and the next focusing on products from independent makers whom you may want to explore, including several new ones that I discovered this year.

This Week in the Curated Shop…

The big news this week is the arrival of a new Field Notes shipment, including all of the most recent limited editions, as well as a restock of the “Front Page” reporter-style notebook and the “Heavy Duty” top-bound pocket notebook. We also ran a post focusing on building your perfect office workspace, and many of the items highlighted in that post are similarly highlighted in the gift guide.

Write Notepads

Field Notes

Lochby

Opus 88

Consider T.G.S. Patreon - New “Gently Used” Items in the Patreon Shop!

For those who want to support T.G.S. without necessarily adding to their accumulation via shop purchases, the Patreon Program offers two options for tiers of support: $3 and $5 (with a discounted annual option) and plan on making monthly meetups, pen show events, and periodic exclusive content the primary benefits. Of course, Patreon members will continue to get first access to periodic sample sales, with right of first refusal on gently used pens. For Fountain Pen Day I added a handful of pens, as well as the last of my pocket notebook stash, to the Patreon store, which backers will want to check. (Reminder that those items which made it through Patreon become available to the general readership!) Many thanks to all of you who already decided to back via Patreon. Your support means the world to me!