Thursday Drops: Five Favorite Releases for 2023 to Date

While I’m not on vacation this month as in years past, I’ve traditionally taken some time in June to do a quick mid-year recap, including favorite shop arrivals to date. So far, 2023 has been something of a banner year in terms of shop expansion, having added multiple brands and significantly expanding our offerings of products such as fountain pens, inks, quirky ballpoints, and notebook systems. Here are five of my personal favorites:

1. Anterique Ballpoints. These vintage-style ballpoint click pens pair vintage style with a modern, low-viscosity “Mach Ball” .5mm refill. We recently completed the lineup by adding 20+ colors, including demonstrators. Read more here.

2. Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith Ed. 4 849 Ballpoint Pens. Over the years, the Caran d’Ache collaborations with designer Paul Smith have been among my favorite special releases. This year’s bicolor ballpoint pens are no exception, with the blues and the greens being my favorite.

3. Laconic Style Notebooks and Bookmarks. Combining two of my favorite things - notebook systems and reading accessories - the Laconic Style series offers a highly customizable notetaking experience. (Notetaking bookmarks? I’m not sure there’s a product that speaks to me more.) Read more on these here.

4. Laban Greek Mythology Fountain Pen Inks. In addition to having a great overall theme that appeals to a mythology geek like myself, I love the colors.

5. Lamy Cursive Calligraphy Nib. This nib has replaced the standard Lamy steel Lamy nib on most of my personal Safari and Studio fountain pens. We are able to offer this nib for sale as well as a selection of Lamy Safari and AL-Star pens, and we can install the nib on the pen of your choice if you message us at the time of purchase. For more details on this nib and how it writes, check out this post.

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New Arrivals: Large Format Notebooks (Composition Books and A4)

While most of my work-related daily notetaking occurs in smaller, more portable A5 and B6 slim notebooks, for longer writing and drafting (and sometimes for visual projects) I prefer to work with a larger canvas. In these cases, I go to the A4 size or a composition book. I’ve shown off pictures of my Midori MD Cotton F3 (the big size) notebook, which fits the Midori A4 paper cover. Lately, this has served as my “ink journal,” but I’m also thinking of adding a couple of the Midori A4 MD Light in lined or grid to use in a couple of ongoing work projects.

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The Midori MD A4-sized cover, shown next to the 5 Years Diary for scale.

Midori MD Cotton F3 and MD Light A4 Notebooks are currently available in the shop, along with other sizes of the MD Light and Midori MD Notebooks. For those who favor a traditional “Composition Book” size, we carry the wonderfully fountain pen friendly Rhodia Composition Books, as well as a range of fun designs from Mr. Boddington’s Studio. For those who prefer A4 spiral or staple-bound notebooks, check out our offerings from Maruman Mnemosyne and Clairefontaine.

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New Arrivals: Platinum Curidas Matte Retractable Nib Fountain Pens

While Platinum’s Curidas fountain pen has been around for several years now, Platinum hadn’t really done much with the line beyond the original set of demonstrator colors - until now. Yesterday saw the arrival of three new matte finishes in the Curidas (Matte Blue, Matte Black, and Matte Red), all of which are sold packaged as part of a set complete with a converter, ink cartridge, and bottle of Platinum Aurora Blue Mix-Free Ink. You have everything you need to get started writing!

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The Matte Curidas fountain pen sets are currently available in the shop, in fine and medium stainless steel nib options. Please visit our shop to check out these and other recently arrived pen, paper, and ink offerings!

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Thursday Drops: Retractable Pens, T.G.S. Penwell Last Call, Traveler's Spiral Ring Notebooks and More!

Earlier this week we announced the arrival of the Endless Creator Retractable Fountain Pen, a new original design from notebook-maker Endless that seeks to offer a retractable nib option for fountain pens at an accessible price point. In addition to the Endless Creator, additional colors of Anterique Pens, and Anterique mechanical pencils, we now have more Traveler’s Company Spiral Ring Notebooks, as well as new versions of both the Life Noble Note A5 Sidebound Notebooks and Stenographer’s Pads. Happy Shopping!

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1. Endless Creator Retractable Fountain Pen. The Endless Creator Fountain Pen hit stores this week. I’ve been playing around with one and will have a fuller review at some point, but I’ve enjoyed the faceted body and interesting design. No issues with the pen on my end.

2. T.G.S. x Penwell “Aged Red” Collaboration. As I mentioned in last weekend’s Giveaway announcement, I’ll be pulling a handful of the T.G.S.-exclusive Penwells out of stock to use in connection with an exclusive fountain pen promotion in the coming weeks. I don’t know whether/when we’ll do another run of these, so last call!

3. Traveler’s Company Spiral Ring Notebooks. We received a shipment of the Traveler’s Company Spirals, featuring both the classic Midori MD Paper and the Midori Watercolor paper. These notebooks with Kraft paper covers make great journals and/or sketchbooks, especially now that we have the watercolor versions.

4. Anterique Classic Click Ballpoints. We now have the Anterique vintage-style ballpoint pens in 26 different colors. These pens include a .5mm low-viscosity refill similar to a Jetstream or Acroball, and leave a very fine line that dries quickly and doesn’t smear. You can even mix and match the different colors to create the pen(s) of your choice.

5. Anterique Brass Ballpoints. Anterique makes a brass-barrel version of the classic click pen, in four different colors (though the plastic parts are interchangeable with the upper section from the standard click pens).

6. Anterique Classic Click Mechanical Pencils. The .5mm mechanical pencils share the same vintage “click pen” look, and feature a retractable tip and “cushion spring” mechanism to prevent lead breakage.

7. Anterique “Mach Ball” Refills. These were on backorder for some time, but we now have a healthy stock of these Anterique .5mm “Mach Ball” refills. Feel free to stock up with your Anterique Pens!

8. Caran d’Ache + Paul Smith 849 Ballpoints. We have more of the Caran d’Ache and Paul Smith limited edition ballpoints currently in stock, though certain colors (Racing Green) go extremely fast.

9. Life Noble Note A5 Blank Notebooks. We received the plain unruled versions of the Life Noble Note A5 sidebound notebooks, so we can now offer all formats of this paper.

10. Life Stenographer’s Notebook (Graph Paper). The top-bound Life Stenographer’s pad features 50 sheets/100 pages of quality life paper in either classic steno or grid ruling.

New Arrivals: Anterique Ballpoints + Mechanical Pencils in 26 Colors, plus the Endless Creator Fountain Pen!

I don’t think I quite prepared myself for bringing in the ENTIRE LINE of the Anterique ballpoint pens and mechanical pencils. These top-sellers are now listed in a whopping 26 different colors for the ballpoint pens, along with the .5mm mechanical pencils, which come in eight different colors at the moment with probably more on the way. A few things to know about the Anterique Ballpoints specifically:

• The barrel tops and bottoms are all interchangeable. While we also carry a selection of bicolor pens released in partnership with Mark’s Tokyo (which feature the Mark’style “Days” motif), you can combine different colors of the standard Anterique ballpoints to create your own unique style.

• In addition to the standard vintage click-pen, we also carry the brass barrel “upgrade”, sold in four different colors. Note that you can customize your brass pen by swapping in the upper piece from one of the 26 standard colors. (Pens are all sold separately - any modifications are your own project!)

• I’ve had some success swapping the excellent Anterique .5mm Mach Ball refill into vintage Bic Clic Pens. For a short discussion on how to do this, and how certain editions of the Bic Clic might require some hacks and modifications, check out this post.

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The Anterique Mechanical Pencils maintain the same vintage style design with what they describe as a "cushion slide mechanism" that prevents the core from breaking when strong writing pressure is applied. With heavy pressure, a spring releases the lead upwards, preventing breakage.

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The Endless Creator Retractable Fountain Pen Has Arrived!

While it’s been a topic of conversation since its announcement at the beginning of the year, the Endless Creator Retractable Fountain Pen has finally landed at retailers. This retractable (i.e., capless) fountain pen features a push-button mechanism similar to the Pilot Capless/Vanishing Point and the Platinum Curidas, but with an original faceted design that’s distinct from anything else on the market. So far, I’ve been impressed with the tester I’ve been using, and it’s a fun product for the $50 price point. These are currently in stock and available with fine nibs only.

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