A selection of Pelikan Hubs Swag sent over from Hanover, including some ink testing cards and a metal plaque that were given away to a lucky winner!

Thanks to Everyone Who Made It To Pelikan Hubs Nashville 2018!

September 22, 2018

Yesterday, at 6:30 p.m. in various locations around the world, Pelikan enthusiasts around the world met for the fifth year in a row to share their love for fountain pens, and the Pelikan brand in particular. The Nashville hub met at the excellent Stout’s Burgers & Beers in Brentwood, where we had the back room reserved and were joined by Lisa Vanness from Vanness Pens, who drove over from Little Rock for the event! Follow the hashtags #pelikanhubs and #pelikanhubs2018 on social media (including my Instagram @gentlemanstationer) for additional pics from the Nashville hub and other events around the world.

All Pelikan Hubs attendees receive a bottle of the Pelikan Edelstein “Ink of the Year,” which this year is Olivine, a very nice dark green that I’m looking forward to using.

Don’t forget, as part of a special Pelikan Hubs weekend “bonus,” Vanness Pens is staying in the Nashville area for a meet-and-greet on Saturday from 1-4 p.m. at the Homewood Suites, 5107 Peter Taylor Park Drive, Brentwood, TN 37027. There’s a huge common area in the hotel and Vanness will have plenty of pens, inks, and paper to test, so if you’re in the Nashville area please stop by!

Finally, steps have been taken to formalize a Nashville-area pen club using Meetup.com. Sign up here to receive notifications of upcoming gatherings and events.

Great Pen Stores: Visit to New Orleans and Papier Plume (2018 Update).

March 17, 2018

Whenever I'm in New Orleans, I make time to walk down Royal Street in the French Quarter and visit Papier Plume, one of my favorite pen shops. On this trip, the store was quite busy, though everyone was kind enough to take some time to talk and make me feel welcome! They even sent me home with some samples of upcoming inks (which I had to promise not to reveal until I get the all-clear later this spring). Stay tuned!

One thing I love about Papier Plume, in addition to their excellent house-made inks, is that they stock many European pen brands that are difficult to find anywhere else in the United States, including Cleo Skribent, Faivet, and Faggionato. More on the Faggionato pens to come, since I picked up this gorgeous Petrarque fountain pen in Translucent Blue Tortoise Cellulose Acetate.

Faggionato fountain pens from France. The four pens on the right are made from cellulose acetate, a celluloid variant. I purchased the Translucent Blue Tortoise pen on the right.

Many thanks to Renso and everyone in the store for their hospitality, and I look forward to seeing the Papier Plume team at pen shows this year. If you're at the Arkansas Pen Show this weekend, visit their table, and l hear that they'll be attending the Atlanta and Chicago pen shows as well!

You can check out my haul from last year's visit to Papier Plume here.

Disclaimer: Any pens featured in this post were purchased with my own funds, for my own use.

Just a portion of the Vanness Ink Selection!

Great Pen Stores: My Visit to Vanness Pens

January 3, 2018

The greater Nashville, Tennessee area has a lot to recommend it, but one thing it doesn’t have is a great pen store. Sure, there are a couple places that carry a limited selection of fountain pens and a few bottled inks, but if you want a richer, pen show-like experience, and to be able to speak with someone who is highly knowledgeable about the various brands (or just fountain pens in general), you’re looking at a bit of a drive.

But not too far. The two largest brick-and-mortar stores close to me are Artlite Pens in Atlanta and Vanness Pens in Little Rock, Arkansas. (Both are within a 5-6 hr drive, which if you live in the South counts as “relatively close.” We’re used to driving down here.)

This display is ALL De Atramentis inks, though it's not even the full line!

Family-owned since 1938, Vanness is getting ready to celebrate its 80th anniversary this year. Vanness has become known in the online pen community primarily for their absolutely massive ink selection, which they maintain is the largest in-store selection anywhere. They’ve been at the forefront of importing “house brand” inks from other pens shops around the world: Vanness was the first U.S. retailer to stock the full range of Akkerman (the Netherlands), Bungubox (Japan), Kobe (Japan), Kyoto TAG (Japan), KWZ, and Pen BBS. I can easily say that I’ve never seen that much ink in one place, even at a pen show, since vendors don’t bring their entire stock on the road.

Pineider Pens (by Dante Delvecchio, formerly of Visconti) were a pleasant surprise. I'm looking forward to testing one of these out at some point.

What I wasn’t prepared for was Vanness's large pen selection. Brands include Lamy, Pilot, Platinum, Conway Stewart, Faber-Castell, Kaweco, Pineider, and more. Mike, Lisa, and their staff are highly knowledgeable about older and vintage pens as well, and may even have some new old stock in the back. Just ask if there's something particular you are looking for.

Faber-Castell Loom in Shiny Gunmetal. This pen comes in a wide range of colors. Vanness also carries paper from brands including Life and Rollbahn.

Don’t get me wrong, online retail is great. It allows those of us without a local pen shop to have access to all of these great products that we know and love, but for things like pens, inks, and stationery, all of which have a strong tactile/visual component, there’s no true substitute for a great brick-and-mortar pen store. Being able to “try before you buy” has a lot of value, and it’s a much more relaxed experience than the sometimes rushed, pressured atmosphere at a crowded pen show. Vanness even has a long table in the middle of the store for testing pens and inks, or just socializing.

In short, I’m coming back to Little Rock to visit Vanness again, probably for the Arkansas Pen Show in March unless my work schedule interferes. While Arkansas is a smaller show with fewer vendors than a larger event like the L.A. Pen Show or the D.C. Fountain Pen “Supershow”, you shouldn’t miss an opportunity to visit the Vanness store and take advantage of their selection and expertise.

A bit beyond the scope of this blog, but Vanness also carries a wide range of shaving supplies, including double-edged safety razors and blades.

So what did I pick up on my trip? A few things. I’ve previously posted pictures of my Conway Stewart Series 100 in Honey Noire, but I also took home a Faber-Castell Loom in Gunmetal (a pen that I’ve heard a lot about but never reviewed), a new old stock Sheaffer Legacy II, a Kaweco Perkeo, and a Platinum Preppy. Lisa also sent me back with some ink and paper samples, of course, so look for many more reviews to come on the blog in 2018.

Disclaimer: Vanness is a paid sponsor of this blog, though this post is not a paid advertisement and reflects my honest opinion about Vanness and my experience in the store. A huge thanks to Lisa and Mike for hosting me this past weekend!

Great Pen Stores: Papier Plume in New Orleans, Louisiana

April 1, 2017

As you may have seen on my Instagram, I've spent the past few days at a conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, and my regular posting schedule been a bit "off track" (as should be expected). But that doesn't mean that I didn't take at least some time to visit one of my favorite pen stores around, Papier Plume on Royal Street in the French Quarter. If you ever make it to New Orleans, this carefully curated stationery store is a must-visit. Papier Plume has their own house brand of ink, and they also carry some smaller brands of fountain pens and stationery goods that aren't easily found elsewhere.

I passed on the black and yellow dip pen last time I was in the store.  Not so much this time. — I passed on the black and yellow dip pen last time I was in the store. Not so much this time.

On this trip, I picked up a pair of Cleo-Skribent fountain pens, a Murano glass-nib dip pen, a couple bottles of Papier Plume ink (Midnight Blue and the limited edition Streetcar Green), and a leather portfolio by Orna 916, which I plan on using to replace my current worn out U.S. Senate Portfolio that was a farewell gift from an internship long ago.

So far I've been impressed by the steel nibs on these pens from Cleo-Skribent, a smaller German brand that you don't see much in the States.

I'll definitely be writing more about all of these things in the future, so stay tuned!

Let's just say I had a productive trip this past weekend.

Top Five Stationery Stores in New York City

May 20, 2015

In no particular order, here are my top five stationery stores in New York City, which you shouldn't miss the next time you visit.

CW Pencil Enterprise is located on Forsyth Street on the Lower East Side.

C.W. Pencil Enterprise. The newcomer to the New York stationery scene opened this spring, after previously operating online-only, and already has been written up in the New York Times and New York Magazine, among others. The shop is tiny, in a good way, meaning that it is carefully curated and every product featured in the store was personally chose by the owner, Caroline Weaver. I am primarily interested in writing with pencils, but there is much to interest the artist as well. The selection of Caran d'Ache (high-end Swiss pencils) is second-to-none, including my personal favorite, the Caran d'Ache Swiss Wood. The store also carries a wide variety of notebooks, sharpeners, and books about pencils. I could spend hours here (which unfortunately was impossible this past weekend).
Kinokuniya Bookstore. A Japanese book and stationery retailer located on the western edge of Bryant Park. While the majority of Kinokuniya is devoted to books and magazines (both English and Japanese), the store also has a phenomenal stationery department, including an entire wall of Japanese notebooks and paper, an aisle devoted to fine-tipped ballpoint, gel, fiber-tipped, and brush pens, mechanical and wooden pencils, erasers, and a few novelties. Even if I don't buy much, or simply browse for an hour, I visit every time I am in town, without fail. Since Art Brown Pen Shop closed down a couple years ago, Kinokuniya is also one of the few options for fountain pens in New York City.
McNally Jackson. A popular, if pricey, independent bookstore in SoHo which also has an office supply branch around the corner. If you can afford them, the office supply store carries some beautiful items. The bookstore has a "stationery nook" that stocks various high-end journals and pocket notebooks, including the limited edition Baron Fig Maker Edition, which I immediately grabbed. In the past, I've had decent luck finding rarer "colors" editions of Field Notes stocked here, but couldn't find the elusive "yellow" version of the Field Notes Two Rivers Edition.
Blick Art Materials. I always visit the Nolita and SoHo outposts of Blick when I'm in town. They carry a great selection of pencils, colored pencils, pastels, paints, and other art supplies. They also have a huge selection of sketchbooks and notebooks from Moleskine, Rhodia, Semicolon, etc. Prices are competitive, and they will order anything for you if they don't have it in stock. DaVinci Artist Supply is another great one, but I don't find myself there as often.
Fountain Pen Hospital. When I am in the City during the week, I try to make the trek down to the Financial District to visit FPH. The last dedicated fountain pen store in New York City, it has occupied the same space since 1946. The store is fairly large, carries both modern and vintage pens, and offers pen restoration and repair services. The selection of ink is also very good. Closed on the weekends, which is a bummer.

A shot of Kinokuniya's "Gel Pen Aisle".  Never seen anything like this in the states, have you? — A shot of Kinokuniya's "Gel Pen Aisle". Never seen anything like this in the states, have you?