2025 Year-End Review: Five Favorite Posts from 2025

Since I’ve launched the store, and have to deal with marketing and selling products every day, the most enjoyable writing for me hasn’t necessarily been product reviews but rather posts on what stationery I like to use and how I use it in my own life, because I still write a lot. For my five favorite posts of 2025, I’ve chosen more editorial-style writing discussing how analog fits into my own life and workflow and the products I personally enjoy and why.

Joe’s Personal Favorite Posts from 2025

1. Everyday Notetaking and Creating an “Idea File”: On Perforated Field Notes and Index Cards. This has been a great year for fountain pen friendly index cards, and rediscovering the utility of being able to jot down ideas and file them away without having to keep track of where things are in a notebook.

2. Comparing Low Viscosity Ballpoint Pens: Jetstream vs. Acroball vs. Anterique vs. Ohto. Low-viscosity ballpoints feature an ink that’s basically the best of both worlds: the permanence of ballpoint ink with most of the smoothness of gel. Many planner enthusiasts prefer low-viscosity ballpoints because they write a dark, fine line that comes in handy when filling out smaller sections of planners like the Hobonichi Techo and Jibun Techo.

3. Five Reasons I Prefer Undated Planners and Calendars. This year I went undated for most of my planning, but as you’ll see in some forthcoming content, I’m going with a hybrid approach for 2026 as I find a dated planner useful for certain business purposes.

4. Complementary Notebook Systems and Stationery: Yamamoto Bullet Jotters. These Yamamoto Bullet Jotters are an excellent counterpart to a Bible-sized 6-ring binder, especially if you prefer writing on a bound pad as opposed to in the 6-ring binder itself. I often mix and match notebook systems to take advantage of the best aspects of each and customize them to my specific needs.

5. 2025 San Francisco Pen Show Recap, Part II: Panel Takeaways. The 2025 San Francisco Pen show was one of the better stationery show experiences I’ve had, content-wise. The topics discussed during the various panels I attended inspired much of the content I’ll be working on for the next year, including our recently launched podcast/video project, which now has it’s own home so please follow along.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. You can also come visit us and see any products we sell directly at our physical stationery store in Nashville, Tennessee! Also, please visit our Holiday Gift Guide page if you would like guidance on stationery-related gifting, and we’re also happy to discuss in-person.

2025 Year-End Review: Most Popular T.G.S. Posts, Both New and Old

Each year during the month of December, I write a series of posts recapping various things from the prior year, one of which is the most popular content as determined by views received. This year I’ve broken the review into two categories: Content Published or Updated in 2025, and Overall, including older content that continues to receive a lot of traffic. The value of this exercise to me is to see what readers are enjoying, and in the case of the older stuff, to see what content needs to be revisited and updated!

Most Popular Posts, 2025 Content

1. Hierarchies of Fountain Pen Friendly Paper. It’s probably not a surprise that this “evergreen” post, which I refresh and update every year, gets the most views by far. As I test out and explore new papers, expect it to be updated further!

2. Joe’s Picks - Five Favorite Inks from Pilot’s Iroshizuku Lineup. I’ve been asked to do more posts like these with other ink lines, but it’s so hard to choose! Iroshizuku was easier because I’ve been using the ink for well over a decade.

3. My 2025 Techo Kaigi: A Mostly Fond Farewell to Hobonichi. While technically a 2024 post, it addressed my 2025 planner/notebook setup so it remained relevant throughout the year. Look for another post like this one soon, before January 1.

4. Is the Uni Zento Gel Pen Worth the Hype? The Zento took the pen world by storm this past year, especially with the capped “Signature” barrel essentially disappearing from standard retail and reappearing on the secondary market for astronomic prices. Personally I think the mid-level “Flow” version offers the best value, and I do enjoy how the Zento writes.

5. The Kaweco Perkeo, on Its Own Merits. This post surprised me a bit with how much traffic it received this year, but given price increases, economic pressures, and a flood of new enthusiasts entering the hobby, it probably shouldn’t come as a shock that lower-cost pens are drawing attention.

Most Popular Posts Overall (New and Old Content)

1. Top 5 Mechanical Pencils: For When You Really Want to Write Small. Wow, my most popular post for 2025 is a 7-year old mechanical pencil ranking that is hopelessly out of date. Herein lies the value of doing this annual year-in-review exercise! All of the recommendations in this post remain good ones, but I would have a bunch of recommendations and substitutions, and a few of the mentions are no longer available or have been updated to new models.

2. The Best Pen for When You Only Want One Pen. Another post from way back (2018) that I should probably revisit, this post looks at “one pen carry” (which for me is more of a thought experiment since I switch things up so often). Some of the pens featured here are no longer available, but the multi pen remains my top choice for this type of setup.

3. My Five Best Pencils for Everyday Writing, Five Years Later. This post remains accurate, though from a recommendations standpoint I need to revisit it because the market has changed and many pencil brands have revamped their lineups and discontinued certain models.

4. First Impressions: The TWSBI Swipe Is a Steal. Like my review of the Perkeo above and the Pilot Explorer below, I suspect interest is being driven by the combination of quality and price point, with people looking for a reliable everyday writer that won’t set you back more than $30.

5. The Pilot Explorer Is a Low-Cost Workhorse. Regardless of price point, Pilot pens always perform, and the Explorer remains my go-to recommendation for those looking for a no-nonsense writer that for now comes in a wide range of colors. A key selling point of both the Swipe and the Explorer is that they ship with a converter, so that you can use either cartridges or bottled ink right out of the box.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. You can also come visit us and see any products we sell directly at our physical stationery store in Nashville, Tennessee! Also, please visit our Holiday Gift Guide page if you would like guidance on stationery-related gifting, and we’re also happy to discuss in-person.

Introducing "On the Paper Trail," a New Podcast/Video Collaboration with Lisa Vanness of Vanness Pens!

I’ve been mentioning this in passing for a few months now, but since we’ve been trickling out some excerpts from this ongoing collaboration, it’s time to make a formal announcement! My friend Lisa Vanness of Vanness Pens and I are collaborating on a video series/podcast with the working title of “On the Paper Trail.” We both have a decade+ of experience in the stationery community and industry so we’re hopeful you’ll find what we have to say interesting and helpful. As we’ve been working through the technical side of things and getting used to recording, we’ve been releasing our “practice” episodes to the T.G.S. Patreon community, which has been a invaluable source of feedback and encouragement. Members can still access the full episodes via the Patreon feed. (There are four.) When the project officially launches it will have its own channel. Follow the T.G.S. and Vanness YouTube Channels for updates.

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Not a customer order, but representative of what we’ve been seeing.

Holiday Shipping PSA - If You Need Something by Mid-Month Get Your Orders In As Soon as Possible.

The content we’ve chosen to share so far relates to holiday shipping timelines, since that’s a topic of concern given questions we’ve both been receiving through our respective businesses. Now is the time of year that we start to see shipping delays, missed package scans, and lost items. While both T.G.S. and Vanness ship quickly (within 2 business days if not sooner), increased order volume not only impacts our fulfillment but results in a general slowdown across carriers. The TLDR version is: get your orders in soon, especially if you need something by Christmas or New Year’s. Once we hit December 15, it’s probably going to be better to shop in person for last-minute gifts, as we cannot guarantee any delivery times given general unreliability of carrier estimates.

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!

It's Small Business Saturday! Stop By to See New Arrivals from Lochby, Tom's Studio, and More!

Just a friendly reminder that we’re open today from 10am until 6pm, for what’s become known as “Small Business Saturday,” a day between Black Friday and “Cyber Monday” to support your local community-based shops! Our in-store specials are the same as our online “INKSGIVING” promotion, and we have plenty for you to peruse in person, including new two-pen “Duo” cases from Lochby, new colors of the Mini Venture Pouch, and more. We also have newly arrived ink from Tom’s Studio (a classic “Sepia” color), and a full restock of the Lumos and Wren lines.

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Though it started out as a commercial holiday, Small Business Saturday means a lot to many small boutique shops and businesses that depend on the holidays for a significant portion of their revenue. In my opinion, small shops are what add character to a community, whether that’s your town, city, or online hobbyist Discord server. While I try to encourage people to shop small throughout the year, don’t underestimate the importance of today in the midst of all the “Black Friday” craziness! Where you spend your dollars makes a real difference.

If you need advice on a holiday gift idea, please check out our 2025 Holiday Gift Guide, but it may be easier for you to come in and speak to us in person. I spent much of yesterday advising customers on gift ideas, and I’ll be there all day today. We hope to see you soon!

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!