Desk Accessories: What's on My Desk, at Work and at Home?

I’ve written a lot about desk accessories this week, and I mentioned in an earlier post that as a shopkeeper, the desk and reading accessories section is probably my own favorite area of the shop since so much of myself goes into the curation. In talking to customers, I’ve found that a lot of people focus on the pens, pencils, and paper side of things but don’t put as much thought into other aspects of analog work. Today I want to talk about three categories of desk accessories that I personally recommend, and which can immediately upgrade your workflow.

• A Book or Pad Holder. In today’s world, even if you take notes by hand, on paper, you will, in all likelihood, eventually need to either type those notes up and/or incorporate them into a longer form piece of writing. The single most used piece of office equipment (other than my pens and my computer) is the Hightide folding metal bookstand. I keep one in my home office and one at each of my work desks, and use them to hold notebooks, notepads, tablets, or anything else I want to be able to look at while I transcribe notes or review source material. Anecdotally, I’ve heard they are also very useful for those who transcribe books as part of their journaling practice. I’m not sure there are a ton of options on the market here, and in any event I’ve settled on the Hightide version because (1) they’re relatively inexpensive, making it easy for me to have duplicates pretty much everywhere I work; and (2) they fold flat, so they slip into a briefcase and I can take them with me when I travel.

• Scissors. Don’t underestimate the utility of a quality pair of scissors. I used cheap scissors for years, but until I spent just a little bit more money on a pair of Allex desk scissors at C.W. Pencil Enterprise (R.I.P.), I didn’t realize what I was missing. Quality scissors tend to be sharper, more precise, and don’t gum up when you have to cut through things like glue and tape, especially if you buy scissors with fluorine-coated blades.

• Page Markers. I’m a heavy annotator, meaning that I mark up documents and books as I read, and I nearly always end up tagging passages for later review. My own personal favorite is the Book Dart, but people also love Levenger Page Nibs and even Washi Tape, where you can mark a passage by folding a tiny piece over the edge of the page. If there’s one category of office supplies where I probably should try to economize but can’t, it’s on page markers, because I go through tins of these things and can’t stop. Pro tip: use them to divide your notebooks into multiple sections.

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Why Do You Focus on This Stuff and Where Can I See It in Person?

I enjoy helping people assemble a workspace that’s both functional and enjoyable for them to use, which is why I like maintaining a physical shop location in addition to having an online presence because this type of product can be hard to visualize without seeing it in person. I can talk about this stuff for hours, and even though T.G.S. would probably make more money focusing on more expensive luxury goods, desk accessories provide a LOT of value to users because they tend to be “buy-it-once” items. (My Allex Scissors are now six or seven years old and work as well as they did when I bought them, and my Hightide Bookstands are the same ones I purchased for myself back in 2020.) If you can’t come see us in person in Nashville, I’ll be taking T.G.S. to the Arkansas Pen Show at the end of March 21-23, where I’ll have desk accessories as well as all the pens, pencils, and paper you can handle.

Thank you for reading! The Gentleman Stationer is supported by the T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program. If you’d like to visit our in-person location, you can view directions and up-to-date hours here.

Practical Points: Freezing Ink and Cleaning Fineliners

We’ve had a huge blast of cold here in Tennessee. We only occasionally get “real” winter weather, but when it arrives it tends to cause trouble. So, it comes as no surprise that more than a few people have asked me for my recommendations about ordering ink in the winter. Namely, should you do it?

How much Should You Worry About Ink Freezing?

I’ve read many different takes on this question. There are people online who will tell you that they pause ordering ink entirely from December through April. Others (myself included) don’t pay much attention to the issue, as it will take a pretty significant, prolonged exposure to cold in order for most inks to freeze. But if that happens, there is a chance that a plastic cap, or the glass bottle itself in some cases, will crack as the frozen ink expands and make a huge mess as the frozen ink thaws.

The right answer here depends on your personal risk tolerance and the weather where you live. If the temperature in your area is well below freezing for multiple days (or weeks or months) at a time, I probably wouldn’t risk it. Your ink will likely sit in a postal service storage unit or non-climate-controlled truck prior to delivery, and this is where stuff tends to freeze. If you are worried about a specific ink selling out, or find yourself needing to place an ink order despite the weather, most retailers (us included) will hold ink upon request. Please call or e-mail to request such a hold - we simply can’t monitor the weather at every destination we ship to and the waypoints in-between, and if you order ink, we will ship it ASAP absent instructions to the contrary. The one exception is the weather here. If it’s below freezing and forecasted to remain that way for more than a day or two, we may hold ink orders until it warms up because we don’t want packages to sit in the cold at our shipping service waiting for collection. If this hold extends beyond our normal shipping time, we will reach out and let you know.

I’ve ordered a lot of ink over the years, and have had exactly one ink bottle freeze in transit. That’s a pretty good track record, so freezing ink isn’t something I tend to worry about too much. That said, if you live in a perpetually cold area (the Northeastern US, Canada, the Rocky Mountains), or the area you live in is experiencing a deep freeze, it may be wise to hold off until it warms up.

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The internal wick shown here was filled with black fountain pen ink for almost a year, and still rinsed clean. I reloaded with Dominant Industry Romania Red.

Can You Clean the Tom’s Studio Lumos and Wren Fineliner Refills/wicks?

This is an easier question to answer: Yes, you can! I’m often asked how hard it is to change colors with the Tom’s Studio Lumos and Wren refillable fineliners, or whether you have to replace the cotton wick. Yesterday I swapped out the black ink that I had loaded into my Lumos and rinsed it completely clean. (See the photo above.) How did I do this? Simply submerge it in a sink full of water and squeeze it until it’s white again. Any non-permanent, water-based fountain pen ink should rinse out easily from both the cotton reservoir and the replaceable tips, though in this case the year-old fineliner tip I had been using was starting to wear down so I replaced it. If you want to rinse the tip, I’ve found that it works best if you hold it under the faucet and then dab the tip into a paper towel until all residual ink leaches out.

I hope you all have found these periodic “Q&A” sessions helpful. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback and have tried to keep doing them regularly. If there are questions you’d like me to answer, feel free to reach out via the Contact page or drop a comment.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program. If you’re in the Nashville area, you can now come pick my brain in person! You can view directions and up-to-date hours for our brick-and-mortar shop here.

More Thoughts on (Relatively) Inexpensive Stationery

Building on Wednesday’s post and accompanying YouTube video about why many of us love inexpensive pens, I’ve been thinking more broadly about the role that the less expensive stationery products play in my everyday rotation. While I firmly believe that all stationery - even the very nice pricey stuff - needs to get used at some point, because that’s what it’s made for - even I balk at using more expensive paper for things as routine as grocery lists, meeting notes that won’t be retained, draft markups, and other “junk paper” that I never intend to keep. Similarly, when I’m forced to write on cheap recycled copy paper at work, I don’t necessarily want to use my nicer inks in a context where they’ll just feather and bleed, and where I won’t get much enjoyment from the writing experience. So although I do tend to use the more “upscale” stuff for most of my personal journaling and longhand professional writing, here are five categories of relatively inexpensive stationery that I tend to keep on hand for the more mundane tasks:

1. Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Levenger, and Maruman Mnemosyne Paper. These paper brands handle most ink types relatively well, and the paper is fairly priced so that I don’t feel self-conscious about using it as scrap paper. Sure, I do sometimes still get comments from co-workers such as “You spent $8 on a legal pad?!?”, but honestly, if you care about a baseline level of quality in the tools you use, you learn to tolerate the attitude. (Sometimes I like to gently remind people that the legal pad I’m using still costs less than the coffee/beer they’re consuming during the course of our conversation, and will last 30x as long.)

2. .5mm Mechanical Pencils. For everyday office work, I’ve been relying more and more on mechanical pencils because I can use them for pretty much anything, without thinking about how they’ll perform on the paper. As you saw in Wednesday’s video, I’m a fan of the Pentel Sharp Kerry since it has a cap and slips easily into my pocket. The Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch is an underrated writer, which also comes in a .3mm for those who write very small.

3. Platinum Plaisir Fountain Pen with EF Desk Pen Nib. This particular pen requires a bit of a hack, but if you take the EF steel nib from the Platinum Desk Pen and swap it into a Platinum Plaisir fountain pen, you get an excellent everyday writer that works quite well on less expensive paper, especially when you pair it with Platinum Carbon Black or Blue-Black cartridges (both great “cheap paper” inks).

4. Standard Blue, Black, or Blue-Black Ink. Speaking of ink, I always have one or two workhorse fountain pens inked up with very basic water-based “pen company” inks that I know will behave moderately well no matter how they are used. All of the Waterman Inks, basic Pilot Blue, Black, and Blue-Black, and the Platinum cartridges linked above are all rock-solid options.

5. Low-Viscosity Ballpoint Multi Pen. Alongside my mechanical pencils, a versatile three or four-color multi pen is always in my rotation. While not the most inexpensive, the Lamy 2000 4-color is my main workhorse, supplemented by various Jetstream Multi Pens and the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto gel pen. The ballpoints come in handy for when I need to sign documents in permanent ink (not an infrequent occurrence), and the Coleto Multi Pen when I need a pop of color.

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My Platinum Plaisir Frankenpen (Top) and a green Pentel Sharp Kerry I’ve had for years.

As someone who makes a chunk of their living writing about and selling stationery, people often expect that I use the most expensive stuff available, and that’s far from the truth. Most of what I use day-to-day falls well under the $30 price point (and sometimes sub-$20). It’s one reason I’m not overly pessimistic about the future of our hobby in the face of inflation and rising costs. Even if we end up having to scale down, there’s plenty of great options to be had for not a lot of money!

Thank you for reading! The Gentleman Stationer is supported by the T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program. If you’d like to visit our in-person location, you can view directions and up-to-date hours here.

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Updated Fountain Pen Review Archive and a February Flash Sale (Online Only!)

Sometimes you have to take a day to do some housekeeping! I spent most of yesterday and this morning updating the Gentleman Stationer Fountain Pen Review Archive, which if you haven’t yet visited, is an organized archive of all the fountain pen reviews on the blog dating back to 2014. (There is also an Ink Review Archive, organized by color, though it’s still a work in progress and the most recent ink reviews may not yet appear.) Even though a large amount of effort and most resources went into opening the shop over the past six months, we remain committed to offering as much information as possible to users and enthusiasts. In addition to the review archive, we offer a general resources page as well as guides on our recommended “Best Pens” at certain price points and a reference on fountain pen friendly paper. Speaking of paper….

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Pencil products are restocked, including the beloved Viarco pencil caps! Read on for details on this weekend’s flash sale and pencil promotion.

February Flash Paper Sale, Travel Schedule and Trade Shows This Weekend

We just received a TON of paper, and will have more on the way shortly because it’s trade show season. How about a flash sale to kick off the month of February? Through tomorrow (Sunday, 2/3) at 11:59pm US Central Time, use the coupon code “FLASH10” to take 10% off most online paper purchases (excluding Roterfaden and Blackwing). Also, any purchases that include a pencil product will include a special gift that will make you laugh. I promise. And I’m not giving you any details on what it is. Let’s just say it was one of my many “mistake buys”. :) While supplies last, but I think I will have enough for anyone who wants one. [NOTE: Apologies but we ran out of these very quickly. For those who wondered, it was a gag “Dummy” pencil that looks real but when you go to sharpen it, there is no graphite. If you placed a pencil order but got a sticker instead of a pencil, and still want one, please e-mail us and I will place you on a list to get one if I receive another box.]

Through this weekend, keep an eye on the Instagram, because I’ll be posting pictures from New York City as we visit the NY Now and Shoppe Object Stationery Trade Shows in New York. The brick-and-mortar shop will be closing early today at 2pm because I will be on my way to the airport. It’s a short trip so online orders will continue to ship in the usual timeframe.

Everyday Notetaking and Creating an "Idea File": On Perforated Field Notes and Index Cards

One thing I’ve struggled with in my notetaking system over the years is organizing and managing information for longer-term use. Sure, if my notes are immediately incorporated into a larger piece of work, like a blog post or a legal brief, this isn’t much of an issue because I typically won’t keep the raw notes and will just discard them when I’m done with the project. But what about those stray thoughts and ideas that I write down not necessarily for immediate, or even intermediate-term, use? An idea for a post or product or book that I might not get around to writing for a year or more? I’m sure that I have dozens of such ideas and stray thoughts buried in old journals and notebooks, but they’re not easily accessible, much less organized by topic or in any other useful way. Lately I’ve been preoccupied with creating a filing system for this type of information with minimal structure that doesn’t take too much time to maintain.

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Some pocket notebooks from years past. Some are VERY old.

As I hinted at in my post earlier this year discussing my planner setup for 2025, I’m renewing my focus on finding and using the right tool for the job, rather than trying to make everything fit within the confines of a single system, like I tried last year with Hobonichi. So what’s the solution here? I spent some time over the holidays sorting through my personal “archive” of old notebooks, and honestly when I felt the most “organized” (relatively speaking) was when I consistently carried a 3x5 pocket notebook to collect the random stuff. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but when I finished each notebook, I was in the habit of quickly flipping through and extracting the important ideas from the shopping lists and other miscellany, and either transcribing it somewhere else, tearing out the page and photographing or scanning it, or simply writing up a quick index at the back to highlight the best bits and then filing the entire notebook away.

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These are good perforations. They’re sturdy enough to hold together in the notebook, while still allowing you to remove pages cleanly. (The paper is what I would call “decently” fountain pen friendly, and very good for Field Notes.) I’m also considering testing some of the Maruman Mnemosyne A7 and B7 pads, which also have perforated pages and will have more fountain pen friendly paper.

I started considering a return to pocket notebooks when I saw that the latest Field Notes special edition (“Vintage”) featured perforated pages that are about the same size as a 3x5 index card when detached. I’ve also been using more index cards in general, and have begun carrying them around in my bag because I like being able to sketch out thoughts and ideas while visually rearranging the cards. I’ve had mixed luck with index cards, in terms of finding ones that can handle all the various types of pens and pencils that I use, but recently I’ve been very impressed with two brands: Levenger (a classic) and a new brand called Notsu, which makes very ink friendly dot grid index cards as well as some foldable “To Do” format cards.

The Notsu “Centre Rise” is a product I’m testing out. It’s a combination card case and stand that fits together magnetically and ships with dividers you can use for a mini filing system. I’ve been carrying this one around in my briefcase, and made a small-ish test order for the shop. You will likely see a separate post on the system itself.

A few weeks back I went on Amazon and purchased a 3x5 index card file box with dividers, which I’ve since been using to collect and organize not just index cards but torn out pages from Field Notes, old sticky notes and small slips of paper, Plotter cards and Mini 5 sheets and more. I’m still working on how broadly/specifically to organize topics and ideas, but I’m liking how the project is taking shape.

Isn’t This a Use Case for Digital Software?

Maybe for some people, but I’ve tried using tools like Evernote, Devonthink, and Tinderbox over the years, and for me, each of them adds another layer of complexity and digital work (mainly tagging files with hashtags) in order to make the system usable. It also requires you to regularly go back through your notebooks and journals and physically transcribe or type information. I end up spending more time tinkering with the software than actually writing. While some might find my system archaic (though probably not readers of this blog), I vastly prefer a simple physical filing system, though it does require a periodic review to keep it relevant and useful.

One thing I like about this Notsu card case - separate and apart from the “stand” functionality - is that it closes up into a fairly compact, sturdy box that slips easily into your bag for taking notecards on the go. (It fits any 3x5 cards, not just the Notsu brand.)

I’m also becoming more interested in index cards and how people use them. Do we have any other index card fans out there? I’ve read many articles on how professional writers - and particularly writers of nonfiction - use index cards to organize research and ideas, though these systems can get pretty elaborate and span multiple boxes of cards. Personally, I’d love to keep just the single card file for storage, and regularly prune it back by discarding those ideas that don’t turn into anything that I’d ever use. Stay tuned!

Thank you for reading! The Gentleman Stationer is supported by the T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program. If you’d like to visit our in-person location, you can view directions and up-to-date hours here.