Sunday Reading for July 23, 2023

1. Journaling Series: Journaling Through Fear (via Writing at Large). The second installment of this excellent series on journaling techniques!

2. Hypothetical! Top 5 (via Weirdoforest Pens). I always love reading people’s Top 5 lists. This one takes an interesting approach in that it discusses top pens for five different use cases.

3. #21PenQuestions (via Left Hook Pens). I still love reading these!

4. Introducing the Touchstone (via Penquisition). I can’t wait to see these in person at the D.C. Pen Show. Congratulations to Evan on the pen release!

5. Curating an Ink Collection (via Well-Appointed Desk). I’ve de-stashed many of my inks over the past few years, but I really need a better way of organizing and curating for quick reference.

6. Eye Candy: Troublemaker Foxglove (via A Fleeting Ripple). I’m glad I’m not the only one who consistently finds multi-shading/multi-chromatic inks on the drier side, across most brands.

7. Lamy Safari: Re-Trying It (via Stationery Pizza). Sometimes you can “discover” a new pen by trying it again after some time, even years!

8. Esterbrook Paradise JR Key Lime, 1.1mm Stub (via KraftyCats). Chloe reviews Esterbrook’s more compact “JR” model from the summer-themed “Paradise” line.

9. Tibaldi N60 Fountain Pen Review (via Blake’s Broadcast). The ebonite feed has become Tibaldi’s market niche, even with their stainless steel nibs.

10. Tailored Pen Co. Wildflowers (via Rachel’s Reflections). I’m hearing more about Tailored Pen Co. recently, and these blanks incorporating dried flowers into the acrylic are also becoming quite popular.

11. A New Start Screams for a Starter Currently Inked (via mnmlscholar). Congratulations on the new start!

12. Meet Your Maker: Eric Sands, Atelier Lusso (via Pen Addict - Caroline). I’m looking forward to seeing Atelier Lusso pens in person at the upcoming San Francisco Pen Show, where I notice they are signed up to have a table!

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In Case You Missed It….

This week on the blog, I did a “bag dump” post! I’ve not talked about my everyday work carry in some time. Since I was on the road for a long weekend visiting NYC, I also published a post about visiting pen stores, and what I focus on when shopping in person.

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Finally, don’t miss this week’s giveaway post over on Instagram! We’re giving away a bottle of our “Summer Sangria” fountain pen ink that’s typically only sold packaged with our current Hinze Fountain Pen Collaboration (see additional details below)!

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We’re down to the last handful of T.G.S. x Hinze Pens collaboration fountain pens, all of which are now available with the nano-ceramic plated Crimson nibs.

This Week in the T.G.S. Curated Shop

We’re busy preparing for the upcoming Washington, D.C. and San Francisco Pen Shows - in addition to the, gulp, Holiday Shopping Season which is going to be here sooner than anyone would like - and accordingly have constant new arrivals and restocks on the way. This week saw the arrival of Midori A5 Soft Color Pads (the lightweight writing pad equivalent of the Soft Color A5 Notebooks), as well as a full restock of Lochby Quattro pen cases and Field Journal notebooks!

Letter Writing

Hinze Pens

Stalogy

Laban Inks

Other Ways to Support T.G.S. and Gently Used Update!

Everything that didn’t sell to Patreon members, including some older limited edition Baron Fig items and notebooks, is now available for general purchase on the “Gently Used” page! If you’re interested in early access and a right of first refusal for the periodic sales, consider T.G.S. Patreon, which features not only access to meetups and the early gently used sales, but more exclusive content. Patreon support starts as low as $3 per month, and if you pay annually there is a further discount. In addition to purchases from The Curated Shop, Patreon allows us to continue to grow the site without relying on advertisements and affiliate marketing. If you’re interested in meetups and exclusive content, or simply supporting the site, we greatly appreciate your support!

2023 Travelogue: What I Consider When Visiting Pen Stores and Shopping at Smaller Retailers in General

As you may have seen from my Instagram feed, I took a short trip to New York City to visit family for the long weekend, and as usual ended up with a bit of free time. I have a solid list of 3-5 stationery stores in NYC that I regularly try to visit when I’m in town, including Yoseka Stationery, Kinokuniya, Goods for the Study, and sometimes Fountain Pen Hospital. As someone with fairly easy access to pretty much any stationery products I want to see, I often get asked what I look for when shopping in person.

1. Exclusive Items. These days, so many things are easy to find online that when I’m traveling, I spend most of my time on the lookout for store-exclusive items, including product collaborations. As I’m well-aware, lots of work goes into developing these products - they can require large minimum quantity orders and a huge leap of faith - and I often go out of my way to pick one up if it’s something that even remotely interests me. Consider it my way to do what I can to support other retailers in the community. For example, when I visited Yoseka Stationery back in January, I made sure to pick up one of their exclusive Yoseka Green Stalogy 365 Days notebooks.

2. Products I Want to Learn More About. Sometimes I need to see a product in person to understand it better before I decide to purchase. Case in point: this trip I picked up one of the Uniball Kuru Toga Dive mechanical pencils at Kinokuniya. I’ve been following the hype/controversy surrounding this fairly pricey capped mechanical pencil - which not only includes the Kuru Toga rotating lead mechanism but also an auto-feed that advances the lead automatically - and was hesitant to purchase one “for science” with the online prices ticking up past $100 on the secondary market. (For those who have not been following this “drama”, the pencils first launched in the U.S. at around $60, and apparently were promptly snapped up by scalpers, which then prompted a general price hike by Uniball.) The design of the pencil intrigued me enough in person to pick one up at a price point in between the launch price and secondary, and I’ll be posting a review at some point in the future.

3. Stuff That May Not Be Exclusive, But Not Typically Sold Online. While you can find almost anything online these days, many store exclusives and brand collaborations are more difficult to locate at reasonable prices, and some stores simply don’t list all of their less common stock online. Kinokuniya in NYC often has interesting multi pens (including variations of the Uniball Jetstream) and other versions/colors of the Kuru-Toga mechanical pencils. I’m sure some of the items pictured here have been around for a while, but they’re new to me, and I don’t spend a ton of time in online forums or on Reddit so if I hadn’t visited Kinokuniya in person I might not have discovered them.

I have another day of exploration ahead of me! If you have a favorite NYC-area stationery store that’s not mentioned here, leave a comment and let me know!

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

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Thursday Drops: Summer Sangria Ink Giveaway, Hinze Crimson Nibs and More!

I’m simultaneously excited and somewhat sad to make this announcement: We are down to fewer than 10 remaining Hinze collaboration pens, and while I originally thought I would be able to bring some with me to the D.C. Pen Show the first week of August, that may not be the case. (I would really be surprised if they lasted until San Francisco at the end of August.) All that’s to say: If you’ve had your eyes on one of these, especially with the red nib, you don’t want to wait. To be clear, this isn’t a limited edition, and I’ll probably do more pens or something similar eventually, but I have other projects on my radar that will get attention first.

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Crimson nib options are now available in all sizes!

To celebrate this milestone, we’re giving away one bottle of the “Summer Sangria” fountain pen ink that comes with every Hinze Pen! I ended up with an extra so I’m allowed to give it away. All you have to do is like this Instagram post and on Sunday after 11:59pm CT I will use a random number generator and draw a winner. Enjoy!

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

1. T.G.S. x Hinze Collaboration Fountain Pen. Now available with the nano-plated nibs in crimson! We received a shipment of these gorgeous nibs yesterday, and have enough so that the fewer than 10 pens remaining can ship with either a black or crimson nib. (Note that if you want to take advantage of the pen + ink + Penwell bundle, by default that ships with the black nib, but send me a message and I will substitute the red at your request.)

2. TWSBI ECO “Heat” Fountain Pen. I don’t think there could be a more seasonal release, whether you judge by either color or name. Alternatively, if anything with “heat” in the name is too much for you these days, we also have the cooler Cerulean Blue ECO, ECO-T Mint Blue, the “Ice Blue” Swipe, and more!

3. Midori MD Dip Pen. Midori has expanded their lineup of pens this year to include not only their MD Fountain Pen and 70th Anniversary Fountain Pen and Ink, but this dip pen that includes the same fountain pen nib.

4. TWSBI 580 AL Rose and ALR “Punch Pink”. We’re down to our last few of these two colors that will likely be discontinued in the near future. (They may already have been discontinued - this is the last remaining stock.)

5. Stalogy Notebooks. The Stalogy 1/2-Year and 365-Day Notebooks have enough paper to cover their respective time periods - you can use them as daily notebooks, undated planners, or ignore the “daily” feature entirely and enjoy the lightweight paper and grid or dot ruling.

6. Undated Calendar Stickers from Stalogy and Midori. Looking to add planner or calendar functionality to a standard notebook or undated planner? These stickers create an instant calendar page, and the Stalogy stickers can be moved!

7. Laban Greek Mythology Fountain Pen Inks. We are fully restocked on the Laban Inks, including favorites such as Athena Grey, Artemis Navy Blue, and my favorite Aphrodite Pink!

8. Composition Books. I personally love the classic composition book formats, and we have a range to offer! Mr. Boddington’s Studio makes what most would consider to be a “classic” composition book, while the Rhodia Composition Books contain excellent fountain pen friendly Rhodia paper.

9. Midori XS Mini Stationery Kit. I’ve been keeping one of these mini-sized accessory kits tucked into my briefcase. They include a stapler,

10. WMS & Co. Self-Inking Stamp. Honestly, my single-most-used desk accessory that isn’t pen and paper has lately been my self-inking stamp from WMS & Co. If you receive an order from us, it creates the “letterhead” portion of the note tucked into each order! The price includes both the nickel-plated stamp and a voucher for your custom imprint.

2023 Bag Dump: What Do I Carry to Work?

Bag dump posts are insanely popular, whether on the internet or social media. I think mainly it’s because people (1) are generally nosy, and love to glean insights into other people’s lives via the things they carry with them; and (2) at least in the stationery community, would like some reassurance that they are not the only insane person who carries 12 fountain pens, three pads of A4 paper, a traveling inkwell, and 300 Post-it notes everywhere they go.

The main reason I’ve not done many true “bag dumps” in the past is because they can be difficult to photograph, and also because I have to be careful to protect the confidentiality of a lot of the papers, etc. that I carry with me for work. This is less of an issue recently since I’ve successfully taken a more paperless approach to certain work materials and try not to retain nearly as much in hard copy. More on that later! Meanwhile, here’s today’s bag dump:

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Bag: Filson Original Twill Briefcase.

My go-to work carry remains my standard Filson briefcase in Otter Green. I love this bag not just because of its durability - it’s going on at least six years old - I find the interior well-organized and just big enough to fit all of my “daily needs” gear without becoming unwieldy. If I’m traveling for work or there’s a day when I need to carry larger physical files or other larger, heavier items like a bigger computer, I also have a Filson Zippered Tote.

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My fountain pen carry from yesterday, from left: Pilot Custom 74 in Blue Stone, Sailor 1911 Large Black Luster, and my personal T.G.S. x Hinze Elementar.

Pens and Pencils: Versatility Is Key

For my workday, it won’t surprise you that I use many different pens, pencils, and highlighters. Currently, I’m carrying either a Rickshaw Bagworks three-pen sleeve or six-pen roll (both my own customized designs), or one of my Nock Co. Sinclair pen cases. As I’ve mentioned, I keep a lot of different fountain pens inked up, so if I want to switch out what I’m using on a daily basis I’ll typically just grab a different pen case that has new pens in it and rotate between them throughout the day. This week I’ve been carrying my Rickshaw Bagworks 3-pen sleeve with a Pilot Custom 74 in Blue Stone, a Sailor 1911 Large in Black Luster, and my personal T.G.S. x Hinze Pen Elementar (complete with the now-available Crimson nib).

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Subtle matching.

Permanent residents in my work bag include a fistful of Pilot gel pens (currently Frixions, which I’ve enjoyed using, especially in the .4mm tip size), a Penco “Prime Timber” leadholder in Navy Blue, two Anterique click ballpoints, a Caran d’Ache “Black Code” ballpoint, a Caran d’Ache striped Paul Smith collaboration (no longer available, sorry!), and a pack of Kokuyo “Beetle-tip” Highlighters, which are a specialized Japanese highlighter that allows you to highlight in different line widths.

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Notebooks and Paper: Paring it Back

One major difference you’ll notice is that I’ve pared back the number of notebooks I carry with me to work. Not only did I find that I wasn’t using them during the workday, but I felt less enjoyment mixing work and play by bringing my personal journals, etc. to the office, which isn’t really a “happy place” for me. I have a dedicated “work planner,” which is my William Hannah A5 in Agave/Mustard. While I plan to do a fuller write-up of this particular notebook system in the future, I generally love ring and disc-based planners/notebooks, and this one is mostly compatible with the Levenger Circa and Filofax refillable systems I use to archive work papers.

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My Cortex Brand “Sidekick” covered notepad has been traveling to and from home with me, and it typically sits under my keyboard and serves as a repository for fleeting ideas and action items that I need to archive elsewhere. Once the page fills up, I’ll transfer these notes to another notebook/planner or digital app. I also carry one A4 pad (currently a Midori MD Grid) and one A5 pad (currently one of the Color Pads in blue), and I tend to burn through these pretty quickly so there is a lot of turnover.

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I’ve really been leaning hard into the blue stationery lately, especially blue paper. From left, two Patreon thank-you notes on the way courtesy of G. Lalo Vergé de France, and the recently arrived Midori Soft Color Pad.

What I won’t get into here in any detail is tech/electronic products that I carry. It’s beyond the focus of the blog, though I may talk about it over on the Patreon in the future. That said, the computer sleeve (for my 2020 MacBook Air) is a Rickshaw Bagworks Horizontal Sleeve. My tablet of choice these days is a Remarkable 2 with the Typefolio (which I’m enjoying so far).

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It looks like my last detailed bag dump post was from 2021, and while certain pieces of stationery I carry have been rotated out (probably not permanently), it’s comforting to see general overall consistency, which I take as an indication that I’m sticking to stuff that I use and not chasing trends. I’m on the road for a long weekend starting tomorrow, so Saturday’s post may look at my travel carry!

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from 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 Arrivals: More Midori! MD Soft Color A5 Writing Pads

More new arrivals from Midori! This week we receive a shipment of A5 Soft Color writing pads featuring 60 sheets of dot grid paper in the same colors as the popular Soft Color A5 soft cover notebooks. As you know, I really enjoy mixing things up by using fountain pen friendly paper in colors other than white, especially blues and greys. If this is something that interests you, we also offer G. Lalo laid writing paper and are actively working to bring in more!

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The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of all brands sold, including Midori. Please visit the T.G.S. Curated Shop for the full range of fountain pen friendly paper and notebooks.