Sale Page Is Live!

It’s that time of year again, when I go through the piles of stuff in my office and find pens, cases, notebooks, etc. that I can't possibly use in a lifetime and need to pass on. I’ve set up a temporary store page to make payment easier. Once everything’s gone, the store goes away until next year (or whenever I need to hold a fire sale)! Prices are firm and I’ve tried to price things to move.

Link to the Sale Page is here, but I’ve also placed a button on the sidebar. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions, but please don’t ask me to sell items outside the structure I’ve set up. I’ve tried to simplify to limit the number of necessary e-mails, PayPal invoices, etc.

Thanks again, and happy shopping!

Sunday Reading for December 16, 2018

1. Caran D’Ache Event (via Write To Me Often). It’s great to see companies and their distributors engaging more with the community. Caran d’Ache apparently is going on the road to promote their Leman fountain pens.

2. My Reading Journal, or How I Taught Myself to Enjoy Reading Again (via Writing at Large). I’ve discovered several new blogs and website’s from Brad’s weekly Pen Addict members’ newsletter, and this is one of them. I also challenged myself to read more books this year (starting slowly), and this article sums up all the benefits and challenges. There’s a follow-up post here.

3. Friday Five (via UK Fountain Pens). I’ve gradually begun reducing the number of pens I have inked at any given time, and since I’ve cut down on the number of new pens coming in, I’m headed in the right direction.

4. My Ink Collection: 1091 Bottles and 47 Litres of Ink (2019) (via Macchiato Man). Yagan shows off his ink collection and … wow. Just wow. That’s a LOT of ink. I think my head would explode just trying to choose a color! (It pretty much already does with my own ink hoard.)

5. Parker Jotter Fountain Pen (via Comfortable Shoes Studio). Les reviews the Parker Jotter fountain pen, which I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before, at least not in the wild.

6. 3 Oysters Ink (via Mountain of Ink). Kelli reviews a Korean brand that I’m starting to see more of online, 3 Oysters. The colors look great, but I already have. So. Much. Ink. It’s going to take a lot for me to add to the stock this year. Kelli will likely be doing extended reviews of the 3 Oysters colors this week, so if you like the look of these swabs, be sure to follow her blog.

7. Syahi Imperator Fountain Pen (via Pencilcase Blog). Dries reviews the Syahi Imperator fountain pen, and does a very thorough (and fair) analysis of this new entrant on the market. The drying out issue with the nib concerns me, because I experienced something similar with my tester, and had attributed it to the fact that I had a “semi-flex” nib with a longer nib slit, exposing the ink and feed to more air.

8. Taroko Enigma & Breeze Notebooks (via Wonder Pens). I’ve heard great things about Taroko Design products, and am glad to see that retailers are starting to pick them up!

9. All-Black Pen and Leather Goods by Ateleia Craft + Design (via Clicky Post). Mike has some great photos of a new “All-Black” line from Ateleia, plus a promo code!

10. Esterbrook Estie (via FPQuest). Ray has a review of his latest acquisition, the Esterbrook Estie. Ray apparently experienced a few hiccups with is MV Adapter and certain vintage Esterbrook nibs, so if you’re looking to purchase an Estie for this reason, check out this post.

11. 2018 Planner Review (via The Finer Point). Jenny posted an annual review of the planners she used in 2018 and the role each one plays.

12. Pelikan, Pelican, Pélican: The How and Why Behind the “C” (via Pelikan’s Perch). Great commentary on the history of Pelikan branding from Josh.

Please Visit and Support My Sponsors and Affiliates!

Please take a moment to visit these fine folks who help keep this blog going! It's next to impossible to keep up a steady stream of fresh review content without some form of sponsorship or affiliate relationship. I'm grateful to everyone who's helped me out along the way.   

1. Vanness Pens. Vanness Pens carries rare and hard-to-find inks from all over the world, including Colorverse, Callifolio, Akkerman, and the full line of DeAtramentis. You can check out my recap of a visit to Vanness here.

2. Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet has a wide variety of available pens and offers unbeatable value on pens, inks, pen cases, etc.

3. Anderson Pens. In addition to having one of the largest offerings of bottled ink in the world, Anderson Pens is an authorized retailer of a wide range of brands, including Sailor, Aurora and Faber-Castell. Check out the sponsor profile I published here, and don't miss out on their new special edition bright red Diplomat Aero.

4. Appelboom. Please check out Appelboom's extensive selection and excellent pricing on a wide range of brands, including Montblanc pens such as this Classique 145 I reviewed.

5. Goldspot Pens. Goldspot regularly offers excellent promotions and specials! Check out their "Weekly Dip" section for details.

6. Paul's Paper & Pens. Paul features a well-curated selection of fountain pens, multi pens, notebooks, and more, including some very uncommon Pilot Vanishing Points and Decimos that we don't see here in the States.

7. Pokka Pens. Pokka Pens makes high quality, portable ballpoints that make for a great EDC option, including a new pressurized “All-Weather” pen developed in partnership with Fisher and Rite-in-the-Rain. Check out my review here, and don't forget to use the code GENTSTA to get 10% off your purchase!

8. Ensso. Ensso makes what might be my favorite machined pen to date, the PIUMA fountain pen. You can check out my review here, and use the code “FALL18” for 30% off your order!

9. TGS Amazon Page. I run across many more items (pens, pencils, books, accessories, etc.) in my online "travels." I can't feature them all on TGS, but Amazon has an option where I can set up an affiliate page to host product recommendations and earn fees on referrals. Amazon does not sponsor or endorse this blog in any way.

In Case You Missed It….

This week on the blog I reviewed the Pelikan M120, a reissue of a vintage pen from the 1950s and 1960s. I also reviewed a somewhat unique product, the Trigg Life Mapper, which is different sort of journal than what I’ve used or reviewed in the past. Also, don’t miss this week’s Deals & Drops, which focuses on some Stationery Stocking Stuffer ideas, in addition to what’s already in the 2018 Holiday Gift Guide.

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates.

Journal Review: Trigg Life Mapper

I’m going to go ahead and call this a “journal review” to dispel any illusion about what I feel is a common misconception about this product: that it’s a “daily planner” intended to be carried around as a calendar replacement. No, the Trigg “Life Mapper” is what the company describes as a “productivity and mindfulness diary that transforms your goals into success,” by bringing “planning, habits, and mindfulness to a full journal format.” In other words, it’s a journal designed to guide your periodic (yearly, monthly, weekly, daily) reflection on your personal and professional goals, not to track your schedule. The Life Mapper has generally been favorably received, winning awards including “Best Diary” at the 2018 UK Calendar awards (which may have contributed towards some misconceptions about the product), and “Best New Product” at the 2017 London Stationery Show.

Sure, there’s an annual calendar at the front, but as you can see it’s for big-picture stuff only (unless you write really small).

So Who Is The Targeted Audience for the Trigg and How Does This Thing Work?

The Life Mapper has been around for a few years, and was originally a Kickstarter project designed, and since tweaked, with input from the internet productivity community. If you follow productivity blogs and podcasts (which I’ll admit to dabbling in), you will recognize many of the goal-setting and “life mapping” concepts from books like Getting Things Done, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, The One Thing, and others. (By the way, another excellent online resource organized around of many of these same ideas is Shawn Blanc’s “The Focus Course,” especially if you’re looking for a more open-ended tool than the fairly rigid, condensed Life Mapper.)

The front section of the Life Mapper has a section to set annual, big-picture goals in each of four broad categories: self, work, passion, and relationships.

The Life Mapper uses the following process, summarized at a very high level:

• Annual Forecast. At the beginning of each year, you do an “annual forecast” or planning session and set “big picture” goals for what you want to accomplish.

• Goal-Setting and Progress-Tracking. Using the Life Mapper, you put these goals into four categories, which Trigg labels “Self,” “Work,” “Passion,” and “Relationships.” You set annual and weekly sub-goals, using the weekly and daily planning pages to make progress towards the “big picture.”

• Regular Reviews. Periodically take stock of your progress. The Life Mapper includes sections for six-month and year-end self-assessments, though you can do this as often as you want.

The daily layout in the Trigg Life Mapper, which includes an inspirational quote or productivity tip, a space to organize tasks and goals in order of urgency, a section for “appointments,” and a blank space for open-ended writing/reflection/notes.

I’ve obviously not had time to work my way through the “process” set out in the 2019 Life Mapper, but I’ve used similar productivity techniques in the past and found that they do tend to work for me. The year that this blog really took off was actually the year that I was pretty strict in terms of setting goals and benchmarks for my writing and regularly tracking my progress. If you juggle multiple side hustles, or work in a job where you have to track multiple projects and/or develop new business and manage relationships with multiple long-term clients, you might find the techniques reflected here helpful. Even if you don’t adhere to the somewhat rigid structure set out in the Trigg, any sort of process that forces you to distill and refocus on those tasks and goals that are truly important (as opposed to a lot of the busywork that fills our days) can be quite useful, and even powerful.

In the middle and at the end of each year, the Trigg Life Mapper contains a section where you can assess your progress in the various categories.

So enough about productivity. How does the Trigg Life Mapper work as a stationery product? For starters, the 90 gsm paper is great. I tested a few fountain pens in the blank pages at the back, including one very wet stub nib, and while the paper is absorbent there was no bleed-through or feathering. The binding also appears durable, and I can see this sturdy book easily lasting a year, even if you lug it around with you day-to-day.

A few additional observations, both pros and cons:

• Each daily page features a productivity tip or motivational quote, something I really enjoyed from my time with the Hobonichi Planner.

• While I like the embossed design on the front, I do wish there were additional color schemes other than the turquoise/yellow.

• While you can interpret the four categories however you want, based on your own personal goals and objective, I would have liked a couple of open categories to add a bit more flexibility, though this is likely impractical given that it would add bulk to an already thick journal.

• The “Appointments” section on the daily page seems a bit incongruous. The Life Mapper clearly isn’t a calendar, and if an appointment is important enough to write down here, I would think that it would fall within the urgent/non-urgent task boxes. The extra space could have been used for more open “journaling” space (though of course you can just ignore the “appointments” section and do this anyway).

The Trigg Life Mapper is one thick notebook: check it out compared against a Baron Fig Confidant in leather cover!

Takeaways and Where to Buy

I’m the target audience for the Trigg Life Mapper, so I like the product. I may even use it this year, since it dovetails with the type of planning and goal-setting I do already. That said, it’s not for everyone, and if you’re considering making a purchase you should be aware that it’s a very structured product, unlike something like the Hobonichi Techo.

You can purchase the 2019 Trigg Life Mapper directly from Trigg. They have an Etsy Store as well, and The Gentleman Stationer is an Etsy affiliate, so if you’d like to help support the blog one easy way to do it is to purchase via my affiliate links, with no added cost to you. Either way, the price looks to be around $40 US shipped. I would get your order in soon to ensure delivery by January 1, especially if you are outside the UK, where Trigg is located.

Disclaimer: Trigg provided me with the journal featured here for review purposes, free of charge. This post contains affiliate links.

Deals & Drops: Stationery Stocking Stuffers

I’ve already touched on this idea in the 2018 Holiday Gift Guide, but I keep seeing items everywhere that would make great stocking-stuffer gift ideas for the stationery lover (or those people you’re looking to get into stationery). Most of the items featured here are relatively inexpensive, so they might also make good options for Secret Santa parties, etc. Happy shopping, and be sure to get those Christmas orders in soon!

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates. Please see our Privacy and Cookie Policies for additional information.

1. Penwell and Solo Pen Stands (via Good Made Better). I can’t get over the Penwell - it’s the one accessory that I use on a daily basis, both at home and at work.

2. Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Books and Col-o-Dex Rotary Cards (via Vanness Pens). An absolutely awesome gift idea for the ink-obsessed. If you know someone with a large ink collection, you can’t go wrong here.

3. Journal Guides and Stickers from Leigh Reyes (via Vanness Pens). If you haven’t seen these, Leigh’s Journal Guides and Stickers would make great gifts for journalers!

4. Pineider Snorkel Filler (via Pen Chalet). Count me as a fan! I’ve had good luck with Pineider’s new tool for filling converters without having to dip the nib of the pen, perfect for bottles with narrow openings or small amounts of ink remaining, or for pens made from materials that stain.

5. Pineider Pen Filler Inkwell (via Pen Chalet). I just received one of these for review this week, and much like Visconti’s Traveling Ink Pot, it’s a handy little gadget for the fountain pen aficionado who spends time on the road and doesn’t want to carry full bottles of ink.

6. Lamy 2000 Ballpoint or Four-Color Ballpoint Multi Pen (via Amazon). My top recommended pen gifts, especially for professionals. I’ve never had anyone come back dissatisfied with this as a gift recommendation.

7. Retro 51 Tornado London Skyline Limited Edition (via Goldspot). Another one of the few pens that I recommend as suitable for a gift to “everyman/everywoman”. It’s hard to go wrong with a Retro 51 rollerball, especially if you can pair a specific edition to the recipient’s interest or, as here, hometown.

8. Pretty Much Anything from Duncan Shotton Design (via Duncan Shotton/Etsy). One of my favorite Etsy stores for quirky stationery items like push pins, sticky notes, rainbow pencils, etc., especially if you appreciate travel and space themes.

9. Skillcraft Ballpoint Fine Tip Refill (via Amazon). I finally broke down and ordered a box of these, after hearing stories of how people became obsessed with these ballpoints after using them for years in the military/other government service. It’s hard to find a fine-tip ballpoint, and these are pretty good!

10. Kikkerland Retro Pens (via Amazon). Miss your classic-style Bic Clic? Check these out. I also reviewed them last week. Now apparently there’s even a “mini” version.

11. Metallic Kikkerland Retro Pens (via Amazon). Same great vintage design, but with a higher-end look and feel of a metallic plastic.

12. Blackwing Volumes Pencil Subscription (via Blackwing). Know a pencil lover? Send them a box of Blackwings quarterly!

13. Ink Subscription Services. For fountain pen junkies, consider an ink subscription service or ink sampler! Appelboom’s “Inxperiment” and the “Ink Flight” from the folks behind Ink Journal are two options I’m aware of.

14. Field Notes Subscription (via Field Notes). Want to get a gift for a notebook junkie (or turn someone into a notebook junkie)? Keep them stocked up year round!

15. Calligraphy Books and Handwriting Guides (via Anderson Pens). A subtle (or, maybe not-so-subtle) way to tell your family or co-workers to improve their handwriting.

16. Gift Cards! Last but not least, don’t forget that most pen stores, including blog sponsors Vanness Pens, Goldspot, Anderson Pens, and Appelboom, offer gift cards. This year, when family members asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I definitely went with the gift card option.

Pen Review: Pelikan M120

Pelikan reintroduced its “iconic” M120 fountain pen a couple of years ago, in a green and black color scheme reminiscent of the original M120 school pens that the company manufactured in the 1950s and 1960s. The original pens are still fairly common finds at pen shows, so when Pelikan re-released the M120 I immediately recognized the design. At the time, I took a pass. Only when Pelikan released the “Iconic Blue” special edition, and I had the opportunity to write with one of the excellent EF nibs during my visit with the Big Apple Pen Club last month, did the M120 recapture my attention.

The Pelikan M120 isn’t a flashy pen - it’s designed to be a workhorse. The body features a classic cigar or torpedo shape, unlike Pelikan’s typical flat-ended pens like the M2XX series or the higher-end Souveran pens in the M4XX-M1XXX series. The M120 does sport the same classic “bill” clip as Pelikan’s other pens, along with - in my favorite touch - a tinted ink window that matches the overall color scheme of the pen: blue for the “Iconic Blue” M120; green for the green-black version. Posted or capped, the pen is just a touch longer than the M205 and the M400. Unposted, all three pens are the same size.

You get some extra scrolling/decor on the M120 gold-plated stainless nib. Check out the blue-tinted ink window.

The M120 comes equipped with a gold-plated stainless steel nib, an excellent writer that I might prefer to Pelikan’s gold nibs, at least in the finer tip sizes. I ordered both pens with EF nibs, and was pleasantly surprised with (1) how well both of them wrote out of the box with no modification and (2) how Pelikan’s stainless EF wrote what I consider to be a “true Western EF” line. Don’t go expecting Sailor or Pilot extra-fine, but it’s not like Pelikan’s gold EF nib, which writes like what I’d consider a medium.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the M120 (as well as the M200 and M400 series): The ability to swap in vintage nibs like this OM (oblique medium) that I picked up at the DC Pen Show a few years back.

Pelikan has taken some flack for the price point of the M120. Currently, the standard M120 in green and black is priced at $265 MSRP with a street price of around $212, reflecting exactly a 20% discount from the MSRP. Storewide coupon codes can get that price below the $200 mark, but it’s still an expensive purchase and certainly at the higher end of the spectrum for a pen with a steel nib. Curiously, the special edition “Iconic Blue” version of the M120 has an MSRP of $235, with a street price of around $188. To me, that $30 makes a big difference in affordability (or the perception of affordability), as many people hesitate to go above the $200 price point (or even the $165 price point) for a pen with a steel nib.

Takeaways and Where to Buy

I love the M120, and while I’m a fan of Pelikan Pens in general, I think I appreciate this pen even more as a well-executed, faithful reproduction of a classic. At the end of the day, the price doesn’t even bother me all that much. While I’d like to see this pen consistently priced in the $150-165 range, I can’t say that the M120 isn’t worth the current asking price. It’s a Pelikan - the piston filling mechanism is reliable and the nibs are excellent. Moreover, if you’re a collector of vintage Pelikan pens or have a pen from the M400 series in your collection, those nibs are interchangeable with the modern M120, so this is a great way to use vintage nibs (like the oblique medium featured here) in a modern pen body that may better withstand daily use.

I acquired both of the Pelikan M120 pens pictured in this review from site sponsor Pen Chalet. Both the Iconic Blue and Green-Black models are still in stock, and have been for a while, though the Iconic Blue is classified as a “special edition,” which typically indicates that Pelikan sells the pen for about a year or so before retiring it. What remains to be seen is whether the M120 becomes a standard model in the Pelikan lineup, with new special editions coming out each year like the M200, or maybe somewhat less frequently like the M101N.

Disclaimer: I acquired both pens featured in this review from Pen Chalet using store credit earned through their affiliate program. This post contains affiliate links.

A comparison shot of (from left) the Pelikan M120 Green-Black; the M120 Iconic Blue; the M205 Olivine; and the M400 Brown Tortoise.