Thursday Drops: The Return of the Hightide/Penco Pocket Pens, Bookstands, Hourglasses, and More!

When I announced this summer that I was taking a pause to refocus the shop, the most requested line to bring back was the Hightide line of desk accessories, including the Folding Metal Bookstands and Hourglasses, as well as the Penco line of “Perfection” Bullet and Drafting Pocket Pens in all finishes, ranging from simple acrylic to chrome, brass, and matte black.

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The Penco Drafting Writer ballpoint is a pocket drafting pen that ships with what I believe is an Ohto needle-tip refill.

We have also received full restocks of Lochby (which means the Quattro four-pen case is back in stock!) as well as what might be the last shipment of Soumkine hardcover Agendas in the Charcoal cover.

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

1. Penco “Perfection” Light Bullet/Pocket Pens. I have been carrying one of these inexpensive pocket pens clipped to my Plotter Mini-5 notebook for the better part of a week. Lightweight and versatile, they accept D1 refills and ship with something that feels like a hybrid gel/ballpoint refill (possibly a Jetstream). They come in multiple colors and the blue-grey/light blue is a stunner.

2. Penco “Perfection” Brass Bullet Pens. Perfect for those who like the format of the Fisher Space Pen “Bullet” but want something more substantial. These also take the same D1 refill as the Perfection “Light” bullet pens, and come in three different finishes of chrome, brass, and matte black.

3. Penco Drafting Pencil. Who wants a pocket-sized drafting pencil in .5mm lead size? (Raises hand.)

4. Penco Drafting Ballpoint Pen. While sold separately from the pencil, this similarly styled drafting pen ships with a needle-tip D1 refill (and is of course also compatible with other universal D1-sized refills).

5. Hightide Hourglasses/Sandglasses. The first “cult hit” that we stocked in the Curated Shop, these beautiful hourglasses (yes, they’re actually made from glass) come in 30, 15, 5, and 3-minute intervals. I use them for anything from pomodoro-style work intervals, to timing breaks, to meditation. Honestly, they’re relaxing simply to watch on your desk.

6. Hightide Folding Metal Bookstands. While conceived as a bookstand that allows you to hold a book upright while reading, cooking, etc., they fold up for easy transport and can pull double duty holding a notepad while you transcribe notes, or even a tablet. Nearly all colors are restocked.

7. Lochby Quattro Pen Cases. The Quattro sold out extremely quickly following an appearance at the 2022 D.C. Pen Show. It’s now back in stock, along with all of the other Lochby cases and refills.

8. Soumkine “Oh My 307’ Agendas. These undated hardcover planners (which are an open system, so they can also be used as a notebook) feature fountain-pen friendly paper in a “tall/narrow” hardcover format. Soumkine is reworking their product line, and I don’t believe this particular notebook will be brought back, at least for now, so I’m trying to get these while I can.

9. Caran d’Ache “Claim Your Style” Edition 4 Ballpoint Pens. This year’s Caran d’Ache CYS pens are available for purchase, and all of the colors are good. I don’t think I can pick a favorite. (Some of the Edition 3 remain and are on sale.)

10. Caran d’Ache 2022 Limited Edition 849 Ballpoint Pens. In addition to the Claim Your Style pens, Caran d’Ache has released two other special finishes, one in “Dark Violet” and another in “Pastel Yellow.” Both are in stock and like all Caran d’Ache pens, ship with the excellent “Goliath” ballpoint refill.

The Penco Perfection Light Bullet Pen comes in a range of different colorful options.

Thursday Drops: Pre-San Francisco Restock on Midori and Traveler's (Plus TWSBI Glow Green)

Pen show long weekends are always popular shopping weekends (regardless of whether you’re attending the show!) so I took the opportunity to restock on favorites in our core lines, including TWSBI, Midori MD, and Traveler’s Company. Most nib sizes in the Diamond 580 line are now in stock, in all finishes, and we have fresh stock of all Midori MD leather covers, as well as Midori MD Cotton Paper! Finally, there are a handful of TWSBI ECO Glow Green preorders still available, with at least one pen in all nib sizes.

Happy shopping! Please note that any orders placed today (8/25) through the weekend will begin shipping Monday, upon my return from the San Francisco Pen Show.

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

1. TWSBI ECO “Glow Green” Preorders Are Live. My shipment of Glow Green ECOs - yes, they glow in the dark this time! - is due to arrive late tonight or early tomorrow, and orders will start shipping Monday. These have sold fast, though I do have at least one remaining in each nib size.

2. TWSBI Diamond 580 “Iris” Restock. In addition to the “Glow Green” ECO, we have a full stock of the Diamond 580 and Vac700R pens available in the Iris finish, along with additional stock of many popular nib sizes in other finishes.

3. Midori MD Cotton Writing Pads. Midori MD Cotton writing paper is among my favorite, since it’s incredibly ink friendly and relatively quick-drying due to its absorbency. The MD Cotton Paper has been a longtime shop favorite, so we really stocked up this time.

4. Midori MD Cotton Notebooks. Similar to the MD Cotton Writing Pads, we have a hard time keeping these notebooks in stock. All sizes currently available.

5. Midori MD Writing Pads (Graph and Blank). In addition to the MD Cotton, we have standard Midori MD Paper in both graph ruling and blank format.

6. Midori MD Leather Notebook Covers. There has been a strong demand to bring back the Midori MD undyed leather goatskin covers, which are not only durable and made to last for many years, but will develop their own patina as they age. We have these in sizes ranging from A6 all the way up to A4. These are intended to hold one MD Notebook in their respective size, or two MD light notebooks.

7. Midori MD A7 Sticky Memo Pads. These useful paper pads combine larger memo pads with sticky notes in several different formats of fountain pen friendly paper. We now have the full line in stock, including dot grid.

8. Traveler’s Notebook 2022 Limited Edition Sets. We currently have a few of the “Traveler’s Airline” sets available, which contain a special standard-size blue cover plus airline-themed accessories that you aren’t able to get outside of the limited set. When these are gone, that’s it for 2022. (We also have one Traveler’s Records set and one Traveler’s Train in passport size.)

9. Traveler’s Notebook Standard Size Starter Kits. Not interested in the limited sets? As of yesterday, we are fully restocked on standard colors and most accessories.

10. Clairefontaine Looseleaf French-Ruled Paper. As I was reorganizing the other day, I realized that I still have a handful of the “double booklets” of Clairefontaine French-ruled paper!

Thursday Drops: Gently Used and Pencil/Paper Inventory Reduction!

As you can tell from all the announcements I’ve been posting recently, I’ve been doing a lot of “summer cleaning” and pruning not only the site and shop but shop samples, review samples, and other gently used products that have accumulated over the years. There’s some great stuff in there, including some that’s uncommon! Check out the “Gently Used” Stationery Sale page, and remember that orders from T.G.S. Gently used can be combined with general shop orders to save on shipping.

Update on Inventory Reduction

As I mentioned yesterday, we will be running specials through the D.C. Pen Show early next month in an effort to reduce our general inventory further and allow us to focus on other projects with the T.G.S. website and Patreon Program. For this week, all Paper and Pencils are 10% off, no coupon code required. The discount will be automatically applied at checkout! To the extent something is on clearance pricing, the discount will be in addition to the sale price.

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Lochby Tool Roll in Charcoal, anyone?

Lochby Restock - New Colors and Designs

Yesterday’s post highlighted the recently arrived Lochby Venture Pouch, but we also received a restock of Brown, Charcoal, and Navy options for the Lochby Field Journal and Lochby Tool Roll. Finally, there is a TON of Lochby paper in stock, and now would be a good time to stock up on 68 Tomoe River!

If you’d like to support T.G.S., consider visiting our Patreon Program! Going forward I plan to focus on growing that group as a primary means of supporting the site. We do meetups and more!

Reunion Season Throwback: Things I Wish I Had In School

So in addition to it being graduation season, it’s reunion season, and I’m currently in attendance at my 20th. (High School or College, I refuse to say.) But being here brought back a lot of memories, and since my own school experience abroad is a big reason why I got into this hobby and have remained engaged in the community over the years, I’ve spent some time thinking about the products that I would have found the most useful when I was a student. Sure, some of these almost certainly existed somewhere in the world at that time, but they weren’t easily accessible to me.

1. Extra-fine Fountain Pen Nibs for Annotation. Sure, I used fountain pens starting early on in college, but for whatever reason, all I could find were medium nibs, and that’s what I used exclusively until about ten years ago. Interchangeable nib fountain pens such as the TWSBI Diamond 580 would have been extremely useful tools, paired with a nib like the Mark Bacas Predator Hybrid or one of the Japanese extra-fine needlepoints I’ve reviewed in recent weeks.

2. “Slim” Style Notebooks. I’ve always been a note-taker and list-maker, but seemingly found myself limited to legal pads, larger letter-size or A4 notebooks, and DayTimers (remember those?) when what I really love are sizes like A5 Slim (“Traveler’s Style”) and B6 Slim (like the Nanami Paper Cafe Note and the Midori MD equivalent). If something like the Traveler’s Notebook system had been around, I certainly would have used it.

3. Quality Sticky Notes. I used to buy sticky notes by the case, but hated the fact that they all bled through with literally any pen except ballpoints.

4. Book Darts. I still have some books from high school and college, flagged with the aforementioned multicolored sticky notes and plastic document flags. Aged brass or bronze Book Darts probably would have looked a lot nicer.

5. Highlighter Pencils. Now this is a product that was almost certainly around, I just didn’t know anything about it and for whatever reason highlighter pencils never made it onto my radar until I started my legal practice and found one lying around the law library at my first job. The fact that you can use them over ink without causing the ink to bleed is infinitely useful.

6. Quality Woodcase Pencils for Writing. I’ve always been a pencil enthusiast as well as a pen lover, but towards the end of my school days the quality of U.S. pencils dipped tremendously as manufacturers outsourced and cut corners on materials. Pencils such as the Tombow 2558 and the Caran d’Ache School pencil remind me of what was available during my elementary school days, but had largely disappeared by college.

7. Quality Pencil Sharpeners, Especially Long-Points. If only I had known that I could have avoided years of feeding perfectly good pencils into the crappy electric sharpeners…

Later today I plan to make a run by the school bookstore, and while I’m not overly hopeful at what I’ll find, I’ll probably still add to my ever-growing stockpile, if only for the sake of nostalgia!

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

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Thursday Drops: Platinum Carbon Desk Pens in Black and Red!

When I ordered these Platinum Carbon Desk Pens a couple of months ago, I knew I was going to stock them but didn’t bother to read closely enough to realize that they came in both black and red/burgundy, my two favorite colors. Here’s to happy coincidences! These excellent modern versions of a classic vintage desk accessory are now available for purchase in the shop, and the best part is that the stand-alone pen costs only $13. You can pair it with a base/stand for only an additional $20, giving you a fully functional desk pen set for just $33!

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The Platinum Carbon Desk Pen, shown here in black in the stand (both pieces sold separately).

We are gradually building out our selection of fountain pens on offer, with a goal of focusing on those pens that are not only fun to use but offer solid value as everyday writers. To that end, we believe that the Platinum Carbon Desk Pen fits nicely into that category, and look forward to adding additional Platinum Pens in the future.

1. Platinum Carbon Desk Pen. Featuring an extra-fine gold-tone stainless steel nib and Platinum’s Slip-and-Seal cap technology, I was absolutely blown away by how well this pen wrote straight out of the box. Available in both black and red, and ships with one cartridge or Platinum ink in black or red to match the pen.

2. Platinum Carbon Desk Pen Base. Looking to recreate that vintage desk-scape? Start with a full desk-pen set. Available in black only (but it still looks outstanding paired with the red desk pen).

3. Midori MD Notebook Light Series. This week we also added the Midori MD “Light” Notebooks to our lineup, which feature the same excellent MD paper sold in packs of three slim format, 24 sheet/48 page notebooks. There is also a 70th Anniversary Limited Edition Set that was released this year, which includes seven different A5 notebooks featuring different color grid ruling and matching threaded bindings.

4. Midori 70th Anniversary 5-Year Diary. The recycled green leather binding on the limited five-year diary is gorgeous. I’m breaking out my own journal that I unfortunately let lapse, now that I have a place to work once again.

5. Midori MD Fountain Pen. This sleeper of an entry-level fountain pen deserves more attention, and it’s all because of the nib, which is slightly downturned to accommodate those who might write with a heavier hand. Even if you don’t, it’s super smooth. Read more here.

6. Traveler’s Company Brass Fountain Pen. Long one of my favorite pocket pens, my “Factory Green” fountain pen stays in regular rotation, along with my classic brass ballpoint.

7. TWSBI Swipe Fountain Pens. This past year TWSBI released a cartridge-converter fountain pen for the first time, and the result has frankly been spectacular. Purchase of any TWSBI Swipe Fountain Pen includes a cartridge and TWO different converters, so right away you’re ready to use either cartridges or bottled ink. We currently have all colors in stock, including the new Salmon and Pear.

8. TWSBI ECO Jade Fountain Pen. The rumor is that TWSBI’s ECO Jade release won’t be available for much longer. We still have a couple in stock.

9. TWSBI Vac700R Iris Fountain Pen. In addition to ensuring that we span the range of price points in our fountain pen offerings, we also wanted to span the range of filling systems, including a high-capacity vacuum-model. It helps that the “Iris” finish on the Vac700R is quite nice to look at. Check out the full write-up of this pen here.

10. TWSBI 580ALR Fountain Pens. TWSBI’s flagship 580 piston filler has been around in some form or fashion for 10 years now, but the best thing they’ve done - in my opinion - is release the pen with anodized aluminum trim and the textured metal sections. What’s you're favorite color? For me it’s a toss-up between the Navy and the Prussian Blue.