Sunday Reading for June 7, 2026

June 7, 2026

My Top 5 Stationery Favorites for 2026 (So Far) (via Well-Appointed Desk). Ana walks us through her top finds for the year to date.
My Solution to the “I’m Dead, What Happens to My Journals?” Question (via From the Pen Cup). Another perspective that’s different from the usual “Burn them” response.
Halfway Through the Year with a Sterling Ink Common Planner (via Dime Novel Raven). I personally am using the Wonderland222 this year, but the Sterling Ink Common Planner is another that I see heavily recommended.
Every Pencil in the New Blackwing LOTR Set (via dwrdnet). This was a wild idea. So far I have still resisted.
Live from the Triangle Pen Show 2026 (via Inkdependence). The Triangle Pen Show (North Carolina) took place last weekend, and Mike always does his show walkthrough and livestream.
Top 10 Fountain Pen Makers You Should Know (via Figboot on Pens). There are many new makers who have entered the pen world over the past few years it can be difficult to keep up, and videos/posts like this one are helpful keeping track if you’re interested in exploring custom pens.
Sixth Anniversary (via Inkredible Colours). Congratulations on a six-year bloggiversary! Always a huge accomplishment!

Itoya Helvetica Ballpoints Clip Close-Ups — Patreon members know what I’m talking about here…

In Case You Missed It….

I’ve been back from Japan for a week or so now and have had a chance to start going through all of the stationery I brought back! This week I posted an entry in my “Japan Trip Journal” series discussing the inks I found, and I also did a YouTube video on the Top 5 Cool Things I Brought Back from Japan with me! Yesterday I posted a pen review of one of the pens I ended up taking with me on that trip, the Pilot Custom Heritage 92, which is the sole piston filler in Pilot’s lineup and a highly underrated workhorse pen.

Pilot Clip Close Up Custom 845 Urushi Fountain Pen

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

We had several new arrivals land in the shop this week, including restocks of most TWSBI fountain pens, Diamine Ink, additional nib sizes of the Pilot Custom 845 Urushi and Pilot Custom 912, and additional TRAVELER’S Notebooks. New Anterique pens (the click-cap GP1) arrived, as well as additional colors of their standard click-pens. We’ve also added the last few Summer Clearance Mystery Boxes to the clearance section of the shop, and once these are gone we’re done until the fall. Be sure to check each week’s Thursday drops post for a full list of all new arrivals and restocks.

Our Nashville shop will be open this week normal hours, from 1-6pm Thursday and Friday, and from 10am-5pm on Saturday! Please come by and see us in person.

Pilot Pens

TWSBI

Diamine

Anterique

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Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Transparent Demonstrator on Pen Stand — For those looking for the clearest of clear demonstrators.

Workhorse Pens: Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Fountain Pen

June 6, 2026

Pilot’s Custom Heritage 92 piston filler stands as both a source of joy and one of my greatest regrets. Joy because I appreciate that this excellent everyday writer continues to be accessible to the North American market, even if it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. Regret because I didn’t snap up all three colors (orange, blue, and smoke) when they were still available many years ago. And, of course, extra regret that I sold off my transparent orange version with the fine-medium nib. Regardless, nib choices aside, earlier this year I picked up a Custom Heritage 92 demonstrator with a medium nib and realized it was long past time that this pen went into the “Workhorse Pens” review bucket.

Pilot Custom Heritage 92 on Pen Stand, Overview Shot — Pilot doesn’t have many piston fillers in its lineup. In fact, the Custom Heritage 92 may be it. Mine is shown here freshly filled with dark green ink.

Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Cap Band — A simple cap band, with barely visible branding.

This particular Custom Heritage 92 went with me to Japan and back, so I had a lot of uninterrupted writing time with the pen. One benefit of a longer trip where you only take a few pens with you is that you get to spend more dedicated time with each one, and you quickly figure out your likes and dislikes. For the Custom Heritage 92, it’s pretty much all positives:

Size and Balance. I find the Custom Heritage 92 similar to the Pilot Custom 74 and Lamy 2000 in terms of weight and balance - all three pens align perfectly with my own personal preferences. While the Custom Heritage 92 can be used posted or unposted, to me the pen feels best posted, and for a “Workhorse Pen” I consider posting important because I don’t want to have to keep track of the cap when I’m focused on writing or running between meetings.
Nib. The Custom Heritage 92 features the same 14k Pilot No. 5 nib as the Custom 74 - one of my favorite nibs of all time. Pilot medium nibs in general operate as my personal default, so whenever the fine-medium (FM) or soft fine-medium (SFM) is unavailable, I’ll opt for this one. I consider this nib to be a moderately wet writer, which allows for a smooth writing experience (and the ability to showcase ink) while still performing well on decent paper.
Filling Mechanism. It’s a shame Pilot doesn’t make more piston fillers, because this piston is exceptional. It’s not only super smooth, which makes filling and cleaning the pen pleasant and easy, but it’s also lightweight, allowing you to post the cap without making the pen back-heavy. While the ink capacity isn’t huge, it’s adequate for a pen of this size.
Aesthetics. Pilot makes some of my favorite clear demonstrators. The Custom Heritage 92 is perfectly polished, and I struggled to find any flaw in the finish. While I tend to lean towards darker inks, and therefore don’t take as much advantage of the clarity as I should, those heavily into brightly colored or shimmer inks will love how this pen looks when it’s inked. (Yes, I’ve used shimmer inks in my Pilot pens and have found that the nibs and feed handle these inks just fine. Just be sure and clean your pens thoroughly when changing colors!)

Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Compared to Pilot Custom 74 and Pilot Custom 823 — The Pilot Custom Heritage 92 (left) compared to the Pilot Custom 74 (center) and the Pilot Custom 823 (right).

Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Sword Clip Comparison — The design of the Custom Heritage 92 does differ from the Custom 74 and other pens in the Custom series (like the Custom 823) in some ways. For example, it features a sword-style clip instead of the rounded ball-style found on the 74 and 823, plus it has flat ends.

Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Fountain Pen Posted In-Hand — The Pilot Custom Heritage 92 Fountain Pen, to me, feels best in-hand when posted.

You can read further on our “Workhorse Pens” series, and the various fountain pens I have reviewed which fall into this category, but as a TLDR version I would re-emphasize that the Custom Heritage 92, the Custom 74, and the Lamy 2000 sit at the top of my own personal arsenal. All three are reliable, comfortable, and portable, with aesthetics that are interesting yet still subtle enough so that they’re inconspicuous in a work meeting. Their classic designs have remained essentially unchanged since their introduction, and while some might consider that fact boring, I prefer to put it as “getting it right the first time.”

PIlot Custom Heritage 92 Compared against Pilot Custom 74 and Lamy 2000 fountain pens — Three of my favorite everyday workhorses: In addition to the Custom Heritage, the Custom 74 and Lamy 2000 are fountain pens with a similar feel and balance. All three post exceptionally well.

Pilot No. 5 Fountain Pen Nib on a Custom Heritage 92

Takeaways and Where to Buy

Whether you’re looking for a crystal clear demonstrator to showcase your ink collection, a reliable workhorse for everyday writing, or both, you can’t go wrong with Pilot’s Custom Heritage 92. Personally, I wish that Pilot would do more with this model, and last year’s release of the Custom 74 as the most recent North American exclusive gives me some hope that this model will appear on the special/limited release schedule at some point. At $264 (current price as of the time of publication), it’s also currently one of the few remaining sub-$300 gold-nib fountain pens that still punches well above its price point, and I never hesitate to recommend Pilot pens to anyone looking for good value. I’ve recently written an overview of the entire Pilot “Custom” series, which walks through the sizing, nibs, and filling systems of the various models.

Vintage Style Pilot Ball Clip on Custom 74 and Custom 823 fountain pens — You can’t have it all: I probably prefer the vintage-style Pilot clip on the Custom 74 and Custom 823.

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of Pilot fountain pens, including the Custom Heritage 92. We currently have this pen stocked in all nib sizes, and I usually have my personal pen inked up if you would like to try it in person or compare it to the rest of the Pilot lineup, should you come visit us in store or at a pen show.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported by online purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Diamine Inkvent Marley Swatch Showing Multi-Shading Properties

Thursday Drops: New Ink Arrivals from Diamine and Waterman, Plus More TRAVELER'S and MD Paper!

June 4, 2026

We’re busy getting the store stocked for the summer season here in Nashville, and for online! We recently received a restock of Diamine Ink, including coveted colors like Writer’s Blood, Oxblood, Red Dragon, and more, in addition to several bottles of past Inkvent series (with the Black Series being my favorite). We continue to have limited stock of TRAVELER’S Notebooks, with distributor availability remaining low, so if you’ve been looking for a Standard size don’t sleep on these as the timing of any restock is always unclear.

Finally, we are steadily building out our stock of Pilot pens, including not just the recently arrived Custom 845 Urushi in Prussian Blue, but also additional nib sizes in the Custom 912 line, and more stock of favorites like the Custom Heritage 92, Capless Decimo and the Custom 74.

Come see these and more in-store during normal hours this week, from 1-6pm Thursday and Friday, and from 10am-5pm on Saturday.

Diamine Inks, including Writer’s Blood, Oxblood, and Red Dragon. Yes, we restocked on all of our favorite red inks, including these three that are perennial top sellers.
Diamine Inkvent Series Bottled Inks. Each year Diamine releases the colors from the previous year’s Inkvent calendar in 50ml bottles. We currently have a small selection of a handful of colors, including some of our favorite Inkvent shimmer inks and multi-shaders!
Waterman Bottled Ink. The Violet (now “Tender Purple”) was a favorite inks for a long time, and we’re glad to now offer it. We will be adding additional colors as they come in stock.
TRAVELER’S Notebook Standard Size. We have a small number of Standard TRAVELER’S Notebooks in Brown. Unfortunately these continue to be in short supply and we will list these covers as we have them.
Craft Design Technology Leather Cases and Sleeves. When we last restocked on Craft Design Technology products, we added a wide selection of leather goods that include pen cases, pen sleeves, and portfolios. I took several of these to Japan with me and they travel well.
Pilot Custom 845 Urushi Fountain Pen in Prussian Blue. Additional nib sizes are now available! Pilot’s latest Custom 845 release features a deep Prussian Blue lacquer in a more compact format than the larger Custom Urushi. This pen also has a wonderful 18k gold nib.
Lamy Safari Neon Pink and Neon Yellow Special Edition Pens and Pencils. The latest Safari release is here! This year’s release features two bright colors in all pen formats and the .5mm pencil. The Neon Yellow with black trim is the current favorite.
Pentel Tradio and Pulaman Plastic Tip Fountain Pens. One of the big hits of the latest TGS Curated Box, the Pentel Tradio is a fineliner designed to feel like a fountain pen. The Pulaman is a disposable/non-refillable version of the same. We also stock the CDT Dark Green signature Tradio.
Life “Airmail” Onionskin Writing Pads. While the envelopes continue to be in short supply, we have received a restock of the coveted Life Airmail writing pads. Life’s Onionskin paper is some of the lightest, thinnest fountain pen friendly paper out there.
Kobeha Graphilo Notebooks. One thing we noticed in Japan is the enduring popularity of the Square notebook format. Graphilo makes some of the most ink friendly paper available, and the notebooks are available in A5 and A5 Square sizes.

Waterman Ink Bottles in Two Colors — So happy to finally be able to add these after a bit of a wait!

Japan Trip Journal: Ink Shopping in Tokyo

June 3, 2026

If you’re into ink, there’s no better place to visit than Japan. Most independent stationery stores have their own house inks, if not their own entire lines, and it can quickly get overwhelming due to the sheer number of shops. The trick is to recognize that you can’t possibly collect them all (though some people inevitably try) and to enjoy exploring the different offerings without necessarily feeling pressured to buy all of them!

Maruzen Athena Inks with Swatch cards displayed — Four Maruzen inks, in basic colors of Blue, Blue-Black, Sepia, and Grey.

Store Inks I Picked Up On My Travels: Maruzen, Bungukan Kobayashi, Sessai, and Ancora

I spent a lot of time in Tokyo perusing the ink section of Maruzen, a large Japanese bookstore with an excellent selection of stationery. In addition to Maruzen’s own “Athena” line of inks, the Tokyo Station location carried a handful of inks made for Bungukan Kobayashi in Shizuoka, as well as the “Sessai” series made for Bungukan Tokizawa in Niigata. All three series are made by Sailor, who appears to make many store-exclusive fountain pen inks in Japan, though Tono & Lims is also gaining a larger footprint. (Some of these Tono & Lims inks are being released globally as well.)

Sailor Bungukan Kobayashi Shizuoka Ink Swatches — Two inks from the Bungukan Kobayashi collection: Suruga Bay Night and Shizuoka Green Tea.

Sessai Inks from Bungukan Tokizaway — Two Sessai Inks. The one on the right is a subtle shimmer ink similar to the discontinued Iroshizuku Ina Ho.

Sailor Ancora Rainy Day Ink Bottle and Swatch

The most unique ink I acquired was the “Rainy Day” ink from Ancora, Sailor’s flagship store. As you might guess from the name, Ancora only sells this ink in-store on rainy days, so we were lucky to be in Tokyo during the rainy season! In addition to the ink, Ancora also carries a Rainy Day fountain pen and matching converter.

Perceived Differences Between the U.S. and Japanese Ink Markets

While admittedly I have a limited perspective, not having explored beyond the major Tokyo stationery stores, I made a few observations:

The Japanese ink market focuses less on things like shimmer inks, super-sheeners, and other “special properties” that U.S. users tend to obsess over. While this is changing, and shimmer ink is gaining more of a foothold, Japanese versions tend to be more subtle and feature finer particles than you find in many U.S. and European brands. I also saw several instances where these inks were being marketed towards glass and dip pens, as opposed to fountain pens.
Colors in general tend to be more subtle and understated. Take the Maruzen Athena series, for example. The core colors are blue, blue-black, sepia, and grey. The Ancora Rainy Day ink is a shading blue with grey undertones (generally a popular color that you often see in Japanese ink lines). This is fine with me, as I appreciate inks that I can use everyday for office work, etc.
Many ink lines seem to have 5-10 colors, with new colors introduced gradually or rotated in and out as they are available. I don’t think I visited a shop where all of the colors were available at one time. Maruzen had about five of the Athena inks available for purchase, with others showing as out of stock. I guess I’ll have to come back to pick up the rest later.

Sailor Ancora Rainy Day Ink Paired with Pilot Custom 845 Urushi Fountain Pen — A special ink needs a special pen, and vice-versa. I opted out of the Ancora Rainy Day Sailor - it appears to be a Pro Gear Slim with a steel nib - because it’s too small for my hand. But I did decide to pick up one of these Pilot Custom 845 Urushi pens, with a broad nib that shows off the shading.

Ancora Rainy Day Ink Writing Sample on Iroful Paper — Depending on the light and paper used, the Rainy Day ink can appear as a shading mid-blue (MD Cotton swatches at top), or a true blue grey (which is what it looks like here on Iroful paper).

Ink shopping in Tokyo was a fun adventure and I’ll definitely be returning in the (hopefully near) future! Most of the inks I purchased are store-exclusive, meaning that they are only sold in-store and not online, so to get your hands on these you will either need to visit the shop yourself or have someone in Japan go in person to purchase the inks and ship them to you. Most stores attempt to avoid resellers, with Ancora limiting customers to three bottles per person. Even on a relatively busy rainy day, everyone there got to leave with a bottle of ink.

Maruzen Athena Ink Bottle shown next to the Maruzen Box — The Maruzen Athena ink bottle might be one of my all-time favorites. I love the classic pharmacy-style design.

New Arrivals: New Pilot Releases, Additional 912 Nib Sizes, and Restocks on Favorites!

June 2, 2026

Our selection of Pilot pens continues to grow, from the new Custom 845 Prussian Blue to the Pilot Kakuno, which has become one of our top sellers in-store. We recently received a large restock of fountain pens, highlights of which include new nib options for the Custom 912 as well as the Kakuno Madoromi, Explorer, and more. We also have more Iroshizuku ink in all bottle sizes and cartridges, including many of the more popular colors that have been sold out. Keep checking back as new pens and inks arrive on a near-weekly basis!

Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pens Uncapped and on table — The Pilot Metropolitan/MR offers a medium italic (calligraphy) nib that many enjoy because it’s an easy way to add line definition to your writing.

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of Pilot fountain pens and ink. You can come see these and more in-person this week in our Nashville Shop, when we are open 1-6pm Thursday and Friday, and from 10-5pm on Saturday.