Sunday Reading for November 16, 2025

1. Fountain Pen Day, 5 Years Later (via Olive Octopus Ink). A great post recapping how Lisa got into the hobby. Many thanks to Lisa for helping out with Fountain Pen Day, especially the Fountain Pens 101 guide that we have available in-store!

2. Discussing Making My First Two Pens and My Learning Process So Far (via dwrdnet). It’s been fun watching Derek work through the initial stages of learning to make pens.

3. The Pleasure of Writing Marketplace (via Figboot on Pens). I often get asked where the best place is to sell higher-end pens secondhand. This is one solution that's relatively recent.

4. Recap of TIPS 2025 (via Inkredible Colours). I am going to Tokyo next year. I am going to Tokyo next year….

5. Drewnem Pisane Orion (via Rachel’s Reflections). I’ve seen a couple people who brought one of these pens back from this year’s D.C. Pen Show and the workmanship is gorgeous.

6. Mayfair Pens Noldor Review (via The Poor Penman). I’ve enjoyed seeing Ben’s Mayfair Pens evolve over the years, as they are truly unique designs and he works with unique material combinations.

7. Writech Clictek Retractable Fountain Pen (via Dapprman). I’ve been seeing these Writech retractable pens quite a bit in the U.S. as well, and have heard good things about their performance.

8. Helen’s Creations NJ A5 Japanese Fabric Notebook Cover Review (via Pen Addict). These are beautiful fabric notebook covers!

9. What’s In My Bag: Illustrated Journal Travel Kit Edition (via Well-Appointed Desk). I love a good gear post, as always! This is an interesting kit to me because it’s a different type of journaling than what I would normally do!

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In Case You Missed It…

This week I finally answered the #12PenPersonQuestions, in two parts! You can read Part I (Questions 1-6) here, and Part II (Questions 7-12) here. This was a fun exercise and many thanks to Lisa for putting it together!

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This Week in the T.G.S. Curated Shop…. Canopus Note Paper!

This week saw the arrival of a relatively large shipment of Yamamoto’s Canopus Note A5 Notebooks, which contain Yamamoto’s most recent paper formulation designed to showcase ink in a manner similar to Cosmo Air Light, but with less “spreading” of the ink. We’ve really made an effort to restock on our less common papers recently, and now have more Tomoe River, Yamamoto Specialty Papers, “Paper Tasting” sampler packs, and the Yamamoto Bullet Jotters and refill pads. We also have a lot of newly arrived Japanese gel and multi pens, so do check out this week’s Thursday Drops for full details!

Our shop will be open this week normal hours, from 1-6pm on Thursday and Friday and from 10am-6pm on Saturday. Come by and see us in person and try out some of these pens, inks, and paper for yourself!

New Stickers!

Tomoe River

Kaweco

Pilot

How You Can Further Support T.G.S.

If you enjoy our content (whether here on the main website, Instagram, YouTube Channel or elsewhere), and would like early/extra access to shop releases and special promotions, consider supporting us via Patreon. The T.G.S. Patreon includes early access and discounts on exclusive shop releases, a monthly updates newsletter, and of course our monthly meetups. Patreon supporters also have access to the first two episodes of a new podcast experiment I’ve been working on with Lisa Vanness of Vanness Pens. More on this later, but for the time being the initial episodes are Patreon-exclusive.

12 Pen Person Questions, Part II

Many thanks to everyone who read and commented on Part I of my responses to the 12 Pen Person Questions! For those who are unfamiliar with this exercise, it was developed by my friend Lisa over at Olive Octopus Ink as a set of journaling prompts for those who might be looking to delve deeper into why they engage with this hobby. I’ve been working on my responses for the past few months with the idea that I would do a multi-post series. Here goes Part II!

Question 7: What is something you are proud of doing, achieving, or overcoming?

In recent years, I’ve struggled with a fear of “putting myself out there” on the internet in a way that’s more personally identifiable. I’m an intensely private person in many ways, and for years I kept T.G.S. fairly anonymous because I enjoyed traveling to stationery stores and pen shows and browsing without anyone recognizing me, making for a quiet weekend that I often needed to recover from a stressful day job. Of course, as T.G.S. has grown, that’s become far more difficult to do, and there’s an inevitable realization that there is so much of myself in this business - on both the content and retail sides - that it would actually hold the business back for me NOT to be out front and center. I realize from my own experience as a customer that people tend to identify more with brands that have a recognizable face behind them, and to that end I’ve been proud of my effort to overcome my shyness, appear in more “people pictures” at pen shows, use my full name, and even start a new project where it won’t be possible to hide at all. (iykyk, Patreon members.) Stay tuned, as everyone will be seeing much more of me in 2026, whether you like it or not!

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Question 8: You're going on a writing retreat anywhere in the world—where would you go, what would you write, and what would you write with?

I actually used to take at least one writing retreat every year, where I would spend some time not only writing but using the time to regroup and plan all of my various projects across the coming year. Given how busy everything has become, it’s not something I’ve had the opportunity to do since I opened the physical shop in Nashville. That said, if I restarted the practice, I would go to the same Atlantic-coast beach I’ve visited for most of my life, which has wide expanses of sand and plenty of time to walk and think. (I would also go when it’s relatively cold because … no people.) Most of the “writing time” involves walking and/or pacing while thinking through ideas, so I would definitely bring some sort of small pocket notebook to jot down notes, as well as a spiral notebook with perforated pages to use for drafting out ideas longhand. When I’m in “working mode,” I usually opt for low-distraction, straightforward writing tools like wood pencils or a workhorse fountain pen like the Lamy 2000 or the Pilot Custom 74, and maybe even a TWSBI ECO if I’m traveling to a place where I’ll be working in public spaces like a coffee shop and don’t want to worry about losing the pen.

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Question 9: What's a current or favorite creative outlet?

While part of me wishes that I were more creative with stationery and analog tools, the reality is that I spend so much time writing and immersed in the stationery world, I need a non-stationery outlet for creativity. I play music (guitar), and have had a standing weekly lesson with the same instructor since I was 12 years old, more than 30 years ago. That said, I do score music/tablature with a dark pencil, so if the answer must have a stationery angle to it, there is that.

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Question 10: What's something that causes you benign envy—the kind of admiration and desire that leads to inspiration or motivation?

Probably someone’s ability to conceptualize a product, design it, and bring it into existence, either by making it directly or finding someone to manufacture. I have many different ideas for unique stationery, and seeing so many friends and colleagues launch their own exclusive products they’ve created from scratch inspires me to make some of these ideas a reality. We’ve already done several different collaborations on existing products with existing brands, including Good Made Better, Sunderland Machine Works, Roterfaden, Newton Pens, and Hinze Pens, which has been a great first step, but I would love to release something truly original.

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I currently have two Lamy 2000 Fountain Pens inked up. Both in original Makrolon.

Question 11: What's a comfort item, material, or color?

My Lamy 2000 fountain pen. It was my first highly coveted stationery item, and remains my favorite. There’s something about the feel of the Makrolon finish in hand that brings comfort and reminds me of the excitement I felt when I first became deeply engaged in this hobby, because it was one of the first really nice fountain pens that I saved up and purchased early on in my career. Whenever I feel out-of-sorts, and need to journal or just write out my thoughts in a coherent manner, picking up the Lamy 2000 puts me in the right mindset.

Question 12: What would be a dream collaboration, project, or partnership?

A dark burgundy Lamy 2000 with black plated trim. I mean, what else? We’ll see how closely Lamy reads this blog.

If you enjoy our content, please consider supporting us through the T.G.S. Curated Shop or by visiting our Patreon, which features extra content and more hangout opportunities. And, of course, you can also come visit us in person at our Nashville Shop!

Thursday Drops: Canopus Paper, Gel Pens, Low-Viscosity Ballpoints, and Post-Fountain Pen Day Recovery!

Except for a handful of backorder items, all of the Fountain Pen Day orders have been shipped! Many thanks to everyone who supported us last weekend, either in-person or online, and it made for one of our most successful events ever! This week we’re busy restocking and getting ready for the holidays, and the week after Fountain Pen Day is the perfect time to, well, take a brief break from fountain pens. :) We have restocked on favorite gel pens, including the Uni Zento Flow and Uni Zento standard, as well as the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pens. We also have a fresh shipment of goods from Yamamoto Paper in Japan, including their new “Canopus Note” A5 Notebooks, as well as more Bible-size Bullet Jotters and Bullet Jotter Refills.

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We’re restocking on most of our papers in advance of the holiday season.

We are open in-store normal hours this week, from 1-6pm Thursday and Friday and 10am-6pm on Saturday. Please come by and see these and more in-person!

1. Yamamoto Paper Canopus Note A5 Notebooks. Canopus is Yamamoto’s latest paper experiment, specially formulated for a soft writing feel and excellent color reproduction for brighter inks with shade and shimmer. Hopefully availability remains consistent as this paper has been quite popular.

2. Uni Zento Flow and Zento Standard Gel Pens. The Uni Zento is the latest Japanese gel pen craze, featuring an ultra-smooth, low-friction writing experience that makes for a great daily driver. The Zento Flow features an upgraded metal barrel for increased durability, while the standard comes in a range of colors. (All pens have black ink.)

3. Uni Jetstream Prime Lite-Touch Special Editions. We’ve received a new shipment of Jetstream Prime Lite-Touch pens in special edition colors. Note that these are standard .5mm retractable ballpoints and not multi pens.

4. Uni Jetstream Prime Lite-Touch 4+1 Multi Pens. But we do have new 4+1 Multi Pens in new special edition colors, this time with a gloss finish! As is typical for Japanese market Jetstream limited editions, these are in nice muted pastel shades.

5. Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 1000 Multi-Pens. The higher-end 4 slot Coleto barrels are back in stock! Available in matte black, matte brown, silver, blue, and red. Refills are sold separately (link below), allowing you to build your perfect multi pen using Pilot’s cult favorite needle-tip gel refill.

6. Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Refills. We have Hi-Tec-C Coleto refills available in tip sizes ranging from .38mm to .5mm, as well as mechanical pencil options.

7. Yamamoto Paper Bullet Jotters (Bible-Size). These compact notepad holders were a big hit at the D.C. Pen Show in August, and the paper inserts will work with most Bible-size 6-ring binders if you punch-holes in the paper. Each Jotter holds two pads of paper, and ships with one each of Slight White and Soliste.

8. Yamamoto Paper Bullet Pads. We now have additional Bullet Jotter refills with Sanzen Tomoe River, Slight White, and Meringue Paper available.

9. Pilot G-Tec-C4 Gel Pens. The needle-tip Pilot Hi-Tec-C was the first Japanese gel pen that captured my imagination all the way back in 2014 when I started this blog, and the “G-Tec-C4” is the .4mm U.S. market version. We have a limited quantity in black and blue. (It’s the standard stick-pen version of the Hi-Tec-C Coleto multi pen.)

10. Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter TGS_25 A5-Slim. We continue to have stock of our special edition Roterfaden cover in the A5-Slim size, which will fit any refills and accessories with A5 Slim dimensions (8.3” x 4.3”). Don’t miss our new color, since this now comes in light grey as well as the dark green.

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We’ve greatly expanded our selection of high-end specialty notebooks from Japan, including these hardcover Tomoe River notebooks as well as softcover in both 52gsm and 68gsm.

12 Pen Person Questions, Part I

My friend Lisa over at Olive Octopus Ink came up with this exercise, which I love because the responses give readers and other community members insight into what we do and why we do it. They’re also great journaling prompts if you’re looking to delve deeper into why you engage with this hobby, and I’ve been working on these for the past few months with the idea that I would do a multi-post series. Here goes Part I!

Question 1: If you consider the different ways you can engage with pens and stationery—as a user, a collector, a hobbyist, a creator, a maker, a vendor—which roles fit best and what percentage of 100% would you assign to each? Are you happy with the balance?

I have engaged with pens and stationery in pretty much every way possible during the course of my 10+ years in this hobby, and as you might imagine my engagement has changed over time. Right now, I am probably 60% Vendor, 20% Creator, 15% hobbyist, and 5% Collector. I’m not sure that “user” works as a stand-alone category for me because it overlaps with all of the others - at the moment, I have a dual career, and both jobs involve engaging with stationery and analog tools extensively but in different ways. Not a day passes where I’m not writing something out longhand, so I’m pretty much a user all-day everyday.

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This year’s San Francisco Pen Show panels brought together vendors and enthusiasts from around the world.

Question 2: What is something you want to understand better or develop more informed opinions about?

The role of stationery and analog tools in different cultures and/or different parts of the world. I’m constantly fascinated at how much certain places value the actual use of stationery - making it an integral part of everyday life - compared to the collector and accumulator focus you often see in the U.S. At this year’s San Francisco Pen Show, I enjoyed hearing from other stationery vendors about different paper preferences around the world, and how in other markets there is more of a focus on how the paper feels to use as opposed to technical performance and specifications. For me stationery has always been more of a lifestyle choice than a “hobby”, so I guess I’m naturally drawn to places and people who share this worldview and I want to learn more about them.

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We’ve come a long way in two years.

Question 3: In the pen community, what's something someone has said or done that stuck with you?

“For some reason you really look like you’re at peace.”

Someone made this comment to me after-hours at the 2023 D.C. Pen Show, about a week after I had decided to reduce my role at my day job to focus on growing T.G.S., developing the retail side of the business, and preparing to open the Nashville store. Though I hadn’t told anyone yet, and wouldn’t until late October, I’d made the decision in late July. This wasn’t a popular decision in many of my circles, both personal and professional. Some people couldn’t understand why I would trade a certain level of security and comfort for the risk inherent in any business venture - particularly one focused on a sector that was supposed to be “declining”. But I was miserable. I was working too much on projects that didn’t interest me, that sucked up all of my time, and which - in my opinion - didn’t really accomplish much or benefit anyone in the grand scheme of things. Ironically, I’d come to this place because I had actually tried to scale back T.G.S. to focus on what was supposed to be the more lucrative career. I couldn’t do it. After I’d made the decision, I immediately knew it was the right call even though there was - and still is - zero assurance that this will all work out long-term. (There never is.) But whenever things get hard and scary I think back to this comment to keep myself centered. Two years in, I’m not sure I’ve ever felt a greater sense of purpose and community than I have in this gig. And yes, that brings a certain degree of peace with the decision even if a lot of people close to me think I’m crazy.

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Question 4: There are now 25 hours in a day, a bonus hour is available to use however you like as long as pens or stationery are involved—how do you spend your hour?

Daily creative work. If there’s anything lacking in my engagement with stationery, it’s the lack of a real opportunity to do non-T.G.S. creative writing. I’ve written half a novel, countless short stories, and ideas for more, and back in the day I used to be a halfway decent artist and even won a couple of awards. Then life happened…. The entire hour would go to finishing up the still-incomplete projects that I love and developing or relearning the other creative skills I’ve been neglecting.

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Question 5: In the pen community yearbook, what would your superlative be? (i.e. "Best ______", "Most _______" "Most likely to _______")

“Most likely to fly to another city specifically to purchase books/pens/paper in person because he dislikes buying anything over the internet.” I have done this more times than I can count, because even though I run a business that sells online and recognize that online shopping can be the most practical and cost effective option for many different reasons, I still feel that being able to see pens and paper in person and try them is an invaluable part of the experience. And who doesn’t get a rush from spending hours browsing through a stationery store or bookshop (or even three days wandering through a large pen show)? Whenever I’ve had the time and means, I’ve tried to take the opportunity to travel specifically to support those who sell the things I love, and take the time to appreciate all the things in person even if I don’t end up buying them. The irony is that even though travel costs money, shopping in person and avoiding internet impulse purchases has probably saved me more. (BTW, I greatly appreciate those of you who have traveled specifically to visit our shop in Nashville!)

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Question 6: How do you feel about your handwriting?

Frustrated. Through college I had fairly good handwriting, even though I received bad grades in penmanship in elementary school because I didn’t hold my pencil the “correct” way. However, 20+ years of taking notes as an attorney has turned my handwriting into scrawling mix of cursive and italic-style script, though lately I’ve been trying to practice and develop a more consistent style. Part of the issue is that I need to slow down and break the lawyer habit of writing fast to transcribe everything.

Stay tuned for Part II later this week!

If you enjoy our content, please consider supporting us through the T.G.S. Curated Shop or by visiting our Patreon, which features extra content and more hangout opportunities. And, of course, you can also come visit us in person at our Nashville Shop!

New Arrivals: Uni Zento Restock, Pilot G-Tech-C, and More Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto Multi Pens!

The Uni Zento has been one of the more in-demand gel pens on the market, so much that we sold through an entire shipment in a matter of weeks a couple of months ago. We currently have more, including most colors of the Zento Flow, which features the upgraded metal barrel, as well as the standard Zento in multiple colors. The capped Zento Signature remains elusive, but I’m trying…. Read more about the Zento and what makes it unique in this recent post. I also talked a bit about it in this YouTube video.

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Fans of the Pilot Hi-Tec-C are also in luck, as we have more of the higher-end Coleto 1000 multi pen barrels, all of the Hi-Tec-C Coleto refills (including the mechanical pencil inserts), and now the G-Tec-C4 .4mm gel pen (which is the U.S. market equivalent of the .4mm Japanese Pilot Hi-Tec-C.) These are all in stock and available for purchase both in the online shop and in-person in our Nashville location.

We will be open this week in our Nashville store normal hours, 1-6pm Thursday and Friday and 10am-6pm on Saturday. Be sure to come see us as we will be getting ready to jumpstart the holiday shopping season soon!