June is Almost Here! Father's Day and Graduation Gift Ideas

May 31, 2022

Believe it or not, June is upon us, and many of us find ourselves in the market for a graduation or Father’s Day gift. Whether you’re looking for a gift for someone else or responding to requests for “gift ideas”, our shop carries many different options for the analog-minded, from pens and notebooks to reading accessories. As we all settle in following the long weekend, I thought it might be helpful to point out a few of our favorites.

Traveler’s Company Brass Pens and Pencils. A highly functional piece of stationery with a dash of history and Americana thrown in, the Traveler’s Company brass pens and pencils are inspired by the vintage “bullet pencils” of the early-to-mid 20th Century. The classic Brass Ballpoint is one of my favorite travel tools, and can frequently be found clipped to the front of whatever book I’m reading on the beach in the summer. Pair with a leather Traveler’s Notebook for an excellent gift set.
CW+T Pen-Types A through C. Love the idea of the Traveler’s Company Brass Pens, but want to up the game a bit with something that will stand out and probably last forever? Consider one of these three releases from CW+T. Pen Type A combines a stainless steel ruler and straightedge with a pneumatic-fit pen that accepts Pilot’s Hi-Tec-C refill. Pen Type-B offers the same pneumatic fit technology in a more portable form and additional finishes, while Pen Type-C is a fabulous bookmark-style pen that you can take anywhere with you!
Write Notepads Classic Hardcover Notebook. For the journaler, commonplace booker, or someone who would enjoy a fine hardbound notebook with excellent paper, consider this hardcover book from Write Notepads, featuring their fountain pen friendly lined or dot grid paper. Of course, the rest of the Write Notepads lineup features many other highly giftable, classically styled stationery options.
Lochby Tool Roll. While I use it as a pen case, the versatile Lochby Tool Roll is capable of much more. Stash anything from bike repair tools to wrenches to, yes, fountain pens or mechanical pencils and still have room for odds and ends in its various pockets and pouches. The durable waxed-canvas construction makes for a true go-anywhere piece of EDC kit.
Fine Bookmarks and Reading Accessories. A classic graduation or Father’s Day gift for a reader is a sterling silver or brass bookmark, and I speak from personal experience because I have nearly a dozen myself, accumulated over the years, treasuring every one! We carry anything from sterling “Page Points” and “Page Markers” to a pack of smaller. .1mm-thin bookmarks perfect for sticking inside a card.

From left, CW+T Pen Type-C, The Traveler’s Company Brass Ballpoint, and the Traveler’s Company Brass Fountain Pen in the “Factory Green” finish.

The Write Notepads Classic Hardcover Notebook with the CW+T Pen-Type C clipped in.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands we stock, including those featured here. The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by shop purchases and pledges through the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Exploring Custom Nibs: Predator Hybrid by Mark Bacas

May 28, 2022

Late last year I embarked on what I expect to be a year-long experiment of comparing custom nibs available from the different nib grinders currently working, focusing on those grinds from each that can be considered a specialty or “signature”. Mark Bacas is one of the most experienced nib grinders out there, and whether you’re looking for a simple tuning or a more complex grind like the “Predator Hybrid” I’m discussing today, Mark will work with you to ensure the nib is ground to your personal preferences, and that you’re happy with the result.

So What the Heck is a “Predator Hybrid” Nib?

I can only assume that the “Predator” name draws its inspiration from the shape - pictured at the top - which resembles a bird’s beak. The “Predator Hybrid” nib is ground to an ultra-fine point on the normal side, with the reverse a wider, slightly brush-like medium. To compare, a “Predator Extreme” nib has the same ultra-fine point on the normal side, with the reverse ground to a full architect. You can read Mark’s own descriptions on these and other nib grinds he offers directly on his site. I would say that on this “Hybrid” version, the reverse is slightly softer than a full architect, while still offering a bit of the line variation you would expect from that grind.

Mark Bacas Predator Hybrid Nib Writing Sample — A writing sample showing the “normal” (i.e., nib down) width, compared against the reverse (i.e., nib upside down) width.

So in practice, how do I use this nib? If you’ve read my past pen reviews, you’ll know that I value pens I can use for annotation during my reading and research. This particular nib falls squarely into that category. The ultra-fine point accommodates my tiny handwriting and allows me to make even the smallest margin notes, while the reverse side is perfect for underlining, highlighting, and even standard writing. Frankly, I’ve never had a reversible nib write well to the point where I could use the reverse side for much more than a line or two. This one is smooth enough for standard writing.

TWSBI Diamond 580 Interchangeable Nibs — The TWSBI Diamond 580 Fountain Pen is one of many that features interchangeable nib units, so you can have multiple custom nibs ground to switch among your various TWSBI Pens.

Why I Love Interchangeable Nib Units for Custom Nib Work

For this grind, I chose to have Mark modify a TWSBI 580 medium nib unit, so that I can swap the nib between my various TWSBI Diamond 580 pens. Lately, wherever possible I’ve been having nib grinders modify interchangeable nib units from JoWo, Bock, and TWSBI so that their work isn’t tied to any particular pen. It’s quite helpful to be able to move the nibs around at times - some grinds are more suitable to different pens, depending on weight, balance, etc., and these threaded nib housings make swapping nibs a cinch.

Cost of Nib Modification - Cheaper Than Buying a New Pen

The grind featured here cost $50, and since I did not pay a rush fee, it took several weeks for Mark to turn around. (Mark is fast - some nib grinders take months, or even up to a year.) In response to posts like these, I often get the question: “Why pay extra money to ‘fix’ a pen that should write perfectly out of the box?” Here I think we need to break down the question a bit: Are you paying to fix a manufacturer’s flaw with the nib, in which case I absolutely agree with you that the cost of any repair should be born by the company that made the pen, or are you looking to personalize the pen for how you write? It should be fairly obvious that if you write extremely small, a standard stainless steel extra-fine nib may not be narrow enough for you, and you should consider a needlepoint or a nib like the Predator.

Mark Bacas Predator Hybrid Comparison — The “normal” point of the Predator nibs writes a ***very*** fine line, even finer than a needlepoint nib like the one ground by Kirk Speer (Pen Realm) for Esterbrook.

Even with standard nib widths, it’s impossible for a manufacturer to anticipate things like the amount of pressure you use and how you hold the pen. I have pens in my collection that, out of the box, wrote within “the range of reasonableness” and wouldn’t be considered defective, but still didn’t work for me until I had them tuned. I would estimate that 80-85% of the pens in my collection have been modified or tuned from “factory standard,” either by a nib grinder or yours truly. At the end of the day, if you love the look of a pen, and it’s not writing perfectly, consider paying a little extra to make it yours. If you keep it for years, you’ll get more enjoyment from the writing experience than the $20-50 modification fee, and in many cases it’s cheaper than buying a new pen.

Fountain Pen Maintenance: How I Clean My Fountain Pens

May 25, 2022

Every once in a while I like to take things back to basics and talk a bit about how to care for, maintain, and store fountain pens. While not as “high-maintenance” and messy as some would have you believe, fountain pens definitely require more attention than your typical ballpoint or rollerball in order to maintain an enjoyable writing experience. So what brought this particular topic to mind today? Well, I finally have a sink in my dedicated work area, so I can actually flush out some pens that I’ve been waiting to clean since the Baltimore Pen Show back in March.

For 90% of cleaning jobs, you need little more than a glass of water, a towel, and (maybe) a bulb syringe.

My cleaning process is pretty simple, and I follow three steps:

Start (and Finish) With Water. Most of the time, since I use fairly unexciting inks without permanence, shimmer, sparkles, extreme iron gall content, etc., I can make do with a glass of water. I can flush the pen by running plain water through the filling mechanism 5 or 6 times, and that’s typically more than sufficient to clean the pen to a point where you won’t have old ink drying up in the feed and clogging the pen, nor will you see traces of the previous ink when you go to refill it. To dry the pen out I will usually (GENTLY) place the pen nib down in a glass with a folded paper towel or tissue at the bottom for padding, which will wick out any remaining inky water. Note: Some people will probably flip out when they hear that I place the flushed pens nib-down to dry. I’ve never damaged a pen this way but as with everything here, proceed at your own risk and do what you are comfortable with.
Proceed to Water + Dish Detergent for Stubborn Messes. If I have a fountain pen where the ink has dried out, or a pen that was inked with a super-saturated color or shimmer ink, I will add a drop of dish detergent (i.e., Dawn) to a large glass of water and repeat step one. 9/10 times, this fixes any problem I have cleaning stubborn pens. In my experience, “pen flush” or dedicated cleaning fluids are almost always unnecessary, though they can sometimes speed up the cleaning process. Buy them from a pen store (preferably a pen manufacturer) and don’t try to make your own with ammonia, diluted Windex, etc. Certainly don’t use them with expensive pens or rare materials like celluloid or other vintage plastics because you never truly know what’s in them or how the material will react.
- Buy a Bulb Syringe. For either of these first two steps, you might want to pick up a bulb syringe. For cartridge-converter pens, it’s easier to flush water through the section using the bulb syringe than it is the converter, which doesn’t move much water at all. Just be sure to grip the section firmly because a bulb syringe can form a seal and cause the section to go shooting across the room if you’re not careful.

Buy an Ultrasonic Cleaner. IF you think you need one. That’s a big “IF” for me, because I hardly ever break mine out, and when I do it’s for pens like the Parker 51, Lamy 2000, or other hooded-nibs where flushing the pen is inadequate because it doesn’t necessarily get water to all parts of the feed. Vacumatic fountain pens are also easier to clean with an Ultrasonic, since the filling mechanism doesn’t push water through the feed with much force.

Cleaning a Cartridge-Converter pen with a bulb syringe — Cartridge-Converter section with a bulb syringe attached. It takes no time at all to clean a nib/section using the bulb syringe to flush water through the feed.

For tough jobs, a $40 ultrasonic jewelry cleaner (purchased at Bed, Bath & Beyond or Amazon on sale) is all the “heavy equipment” you’ll need. I typically use plain water, though you can add a drop of dish detergent if you like. Just be sure to flush the pen clean afterwards. (And if you’re considering remodeling, a grey or black sink is a nice upgrade to your “pen room” to hide the ink stains!)

Drying Cleaned Fountain Pens — Drying cleaned fountain pens nibs-down, which allows any remaining inky water to leach out. Just be sure to rest the nibs on a folded paper towel. As you can see, I don’t baby my pens.

Final Thoughts and Further Reading

To summarize my philosophy on cleaning fountain pens: Clean relatively frequently and go slowly, only adding substances other than water to the cleaning process if absolutely necessary. I think you’ll find that for most inks and most pens, it’s not. For some additional information and further reading on techniques for cleaning specific types of filling systems, check out this previous post.

I will likely do a further post on this topic at a later date, but favorite high-ink-capacity pens that are easy to clean include the TWSBI 580 piston filler, and the Opus 88 Japanese-style eyedroppers. I was able to flush all of these demonstrator pens perfectly clean in less than a minute since the sections separate and allow you to access the interior. Run them under the sink and/or flush them with a syringe.

This post does not contain third-party affiliate links. The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop, and memberships via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Reintroducing the "Workhorse Pens" Series, and Back-End Updates

May 21, 2022

I’ve been doing a lot of “back-end maintenance” here lately, both personal and professional. The blog is now eight years old, with a lot of content that needs to be organized and some that needs to be pruned in order to keep the sight easily navigable and running smoothly. In addition to working on new content projects such as the Fountain Pen Review Archive, I’ve also been pulling together categories of topical articles such as the “Workhorse Pen” series, which is a series that I’ve written for several years looking at those pens that I regularly use for my own everyday writing, and have certain characteristics that make me want to recommend them to others for that same purpose. All of those reviews are now organized in their own section, including the most recent entry involving metal pens as workhorse pens. If you’re new to the site, this series of articles provides an excellent introduction to what The Gentleman Stationer is all about: helping people find great stationery and writing tools that they can incorporate into their everyday life.

Speaking of Updates…

If you’ve been following me on Instagram and in the shop, you’ll know that we’ve been undertaking a build-out and renovation to our home office area, which is where the shop and site are both based. While it’s ultimately going to give me more room to work and make it much easier to stay on top of things, it has been disruptive, and I’m going to have to step away for a couple of days while they finish up some work that involves us leaving the house. It’s only a few days, so shop shipping shouldn’t be affected and orders will still ship within a 2-3 business day window. Many thanks for your patience and understanding!

Don’t Forget to Enter the Current Giveaway!

In celebration of eight years and 10,000 followers, we’re giving away a T.G.S. x. Sunderland Rollerball Pen, a Schon DSGN Pocket Six, and a grab bag of T.G.S. Swag! Check out this post to enter and for the full details. The giveaway closes on Sunday, May 22 at 11:59pm U.S. Central Time.

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

Take Advantage of the T.G.S. Archive and Other Online Resources!

April 27, 2022

I’m on the home stretch here, and I should have access to my stationery stash and review samples once again by early next week when office renovation work is mostly completed. In the meantime, I thought I would take this brief respite to discuss some of the resources I’ve been building out here over the past year. Since The Gentleman Stationer recently turned eight (8) years old (!!!???!!!), in addition to figuring out how to make the site sustainable over the long-term, and to set T.G.S. up for future growth, a core focus of mine has been organizing nearly a decade’s worth of content in a way that’s accessible to readers both new and old. This has turned into a much larger project than anticipated, so expect more developments to come.

The T.G.S. Fountain Pen Review Archive

I enjoy using Squarespace as a platform, but it’s search and archiving functions leave something to be desired. I’ve long wanted to offer a means by which readers could search past reviews, sorted by brand. As it turns out, I discovered that the only real way to do this was by manually combing back through past reviews and building it myself. This expanded index currently only includes fountain pens, but a non-fountain pen version (and hopefully, an ink index) is in the works!

Note: For those of you who want an easy way to search reviews of a specific pen beyond The Gentleman Stationer, check out Pennaquod, a Pen Blog search engine run by our friend Ian Hedley. For example, if you’re looking to compare reviews on, say, the Lamy 2000, Pennaquod will draw on dozens of different pen websites to get you the information you need.

Guide to Fountain Pen Friendly Paper

While a guide like this can never truly be comprehensive, since definitions of what is “fountain pen friendly” vary from person to person, paper formulations change, and new papers constantly enter the market. That said, I’ve tried to maintain this as a “living” post with a vibrant comments section, so in addition to the papers I have listed in the post itself, be sure to review the comments for additional suggestions. (A word of warning - they are just that, comments and suggestions. I’ve not used nearly all of the different types of paper mentioned in the comments.)

“Workhorse Pens” Reviews

Separately from the Fountain Pen Review Archive, I’ve consolidated my “Workhorse Pens” reviews and recommendations onto a single page. “Workhorse Pen” is the name I give to those pens that make the best everyday writers, and nearly all of these have remained in my personal collection and in rotation. Similarly, the “Resources” navigation bar

T.G.S. Patreon for Meetups and More

For a bit more in-person interaction, consider joining the T.G.S. Patreon Program. In addition to “behind-the-scenes” content and early access to exclusive and limited edition products in the shop, Patrons can participate in a monthly meetup (via Zoom) where we discuss topics of interest to the community, the latest releases, and pretty much anything of interest to enthusiasts. There’s also a lot of free exchange of advice and recommendations. Meetups typically take place on the third Saturday of every month, at around 8pm Central Time. We’d love to have you join us!

This post does not contain third-party affiliate links. The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop, as well as the T.G.S. Patreon Program.