EDC Update: Week of June 2, 2014

It's been a while since I updated the EDC feature of the blog, and I've written through all of the pens I had previously inked up, so for today's post I thought I would explain the refresh a bit.  Here's my current daily carry:

This week's EDC, clockwise from the top: (1) Pilot Razor II Ultra Fine; (2) Pilot G2 LImited with black .7mm refill; (3) Zebra F-701 ballpoint with black .7mm refill; (4) Pilot V-Razor Extra Fine; (5) TiPen with Blue Black .4mm Hi-Tec-C Refill; (6) PIlot Hi-Tec-C .4mm in red; (7) Doan Paper Utility Notebook; (8) Waterman Hemisphere with fine nib, filled with Waterman blue black; (9) Pilot Custom 74 Violet Demonstrator with Masuyama extra fine, filled with Pilot Blue-Black; (10) Sailor Pro Gear Imperial Black Edition with fine nib, filled with Sailor Kiwa Guro Nano Black. 

There's some stability in what I've been using recently:  the Pilot Razor II and the Pilot V-Razor are still seeing heavy use.  I'm glad I rediscovered these pens, as they're incredibly handy daily users and the archival black ink works fairly well on all papers I use on a daily basis.  I've also kept the Pilot Custom 74 with the Masuyama Extra Fine in the rotation.  It continues to be loaded with Pilot Blue Black, although I'm thinking of switching this up after my current cartridge runs dry.  I finished my classic Field Notes and moved on to my final Doane Utility Journal, and my Nock Co. cases are still getting heavy use.  (Sassafras pictured) 

Two new additions of note: 

First, last week I received my Sailor Pro Gear Imperial Black Edition back from Mike Masuyama, who was repairing the bent nib.  The drawback to Sailor's super smooth, super fine 21K nibs is that they bend very easily, even with a minor slip or drop (i.e., an inch onto a pad of paper).  As expected, a super-reasonable $30 later the pen is as good as new, and I loaded it up with Sailor's Kiwa Guro Nano Black, which I had not used for a time.  Over the two days that I've used this ink, it's performed flawlessly on a variety of papers, including Doane without the slightest hint of feathering and bleedthrough.  Doane typically handles fountain pen ink pretty well, but this was like writing with a Sakura Pigma Micron.  Now that I think of it, the two pigmented inks are probably pretty similar.  

Second, I inked up another of my favorite pens, a Waterman Hemisphere with a fine nib that was a gift from one of my mentors when I made partner at my firm.  Sentimental value notwithstanding, the pen is an excellent writer, and reminds me to ink up my Watermans more often.  I personally think that they have some of the best gold plated and stainless nibs on the market, in terms of consistency and value.  The Waterman blue black ink is a classic, and works perfectly in this pen.

Enjoy the weekend everybody, and you can probably guess from this post what's in store for the near future!

Ink Review: Montblanc Irish Green

I've worked my way through approximately three quarters of the dozen or so pens I had inked up when I started this blog a month ago.  If you're like me (and I assume most of you reading this are), you'll understand my reluctance to ever flush out a pen when it's still full of ink, even if I've long since grown tired of the color.  It's a completely irrational hesitation, I recognize, because it often amounts to about .2ml of ink from a nearly full 50ml bottle that will take me years to finish, but I digress.....  What I meant to say was that writing all these ink reviews was my way of cleaning out these pens (so I can try new inks, of course).  Now that I'm almost finished, I've got loads of new non-ink review material coming your way. 

I think that Montblanc has some of the nicest ink bottles on the market, up there with Pilot-Namiki Iroshizuku and the Akkermans.  I need to get my hands on some of the vintage Montblanc "shoe" bottles, which have a more rounded shape. 

But in the meantime, I present to you Montblanc's Irish Green.  The name is self-explanatory--it's a very bright, "Happy St. Patrick's Day"-type green ink that I would label a "Kelly Green."  No comparison to the Diamine by that name is intended--I've never tried it.  I use this ink for multiple purposes:  annotations, personal/work notes, and even some limited correspondence, although I write very few letters these days.  (Next year I'm going to participate in InkoWriMo, I swear.)  Irish Green is great for pretty much any use.  It's a Montblanc ink, which means that it works well on a wide range of papers without feathering, bleeding, or ghosting (all must-have characteristics for me) and the dry time is almost immediate.  It washes out of a pen very easily.  I've been using this on a clear plastic TWSBI 580 demonstrator, and have had no problems with staining.  Shading is average, but if you use a broader nib than the TWSBI EF that I used to write this review, you will see more.    

This scan nails it on color replication.  Paper is an Exacompta index card.

N.B. : I was recently shocked to learn that writing people letters in green ink has "negative" connotations (if you consider being labeled a nutter "negative.").  See Here.  Those in Great Britain might want to be more careful than those in the U.S.     

Pen Review: Kaweco AL Sport

The modern Kaweco Sport pen is a workhorse:  it's pocket-sized, durably built, and (generally) affordable enough that you aren't overly worried to stuff it in your pocket and take it on the road with you for work, travel, or just knocking around town.  The popularity of the Sport is such that Kaweco has developed several lines, the "classic" plastic sport pen, the AL Sport, and the AC Sport Carbon Fiber edition.  This review focuses on the AL Sport, in black, which retails for around $75, per my last market check. 

I love the engraving on this pen.  The font is classy looking, and it doesn't feel like it will wear off easily.

Build Quality

The Kaweco AL Sport is a very well-built fountain pen for the price.  The body of the pen is made from machined aluminum.  It is sturdy enough, but the pen will develop a patina and scratches and dings with long-term use, especially if you use this pen as a true EDC "pocket pen" and carry it around in your pocket with keys, coins, etc.  Most people don't mind this, as they feel that it adds to the aesthetic value of the pen.  In fact, Kaweco recently released a "stonewashed" version of the AL Sport, which seems to be a "pre-aged" version of the regular AL Sport with the aluminum coating worn off.  I have not seen this pen offered by U.S. retailers.  The Kaweco Sport line takes international-sized cartridges, and works best as a cartridge pen, in my opinion.  There is a squeeze converter option, but I have had mixed success in getting an adequate ink supply into the converter to last me through a full day, so I either use the cartridges with Kaweco's excellent ink or refill empty cartridges with a syringe.

A size comparison of the Kaweco AL Sport with my Kaweco Lilliput.  Both are pocket pens, but the AL Sport is a more full-size writer when opened and posted.

SIze

The pen closes to true pocket size, but once opened and posted it is a full-size writer.  I actually prefer the AL Sport as a daily carry over the Lilliput, for this reason.  The Lilliput is great, and a neat little pen, but it's so small as to border on "novelty" territory.  The AL Sport is still small enough to fit comfortably into your pants or jeans pocket.  You can purchase a clip, but I've found that the Kaweco clips tend to be too tight to use on my shirt pocket without risking a tear.  Plus, I don't like spoiling the streamlined look of the unadorned pen itself.

Kaweco AL Sport extended and in the hand. 

The Nib

Kaweco's nibs are well-made, functional stainless steel nibs made by Bock.  My extra-fine nib may not be the world's smoothest writer, but it doesn't skip and actually leaves a true extra-fine line, which is rare with German-made nibs.  Nibs in the Sport line are interchangeable, so you can purchase replacements.  The nibs come in sizes EF through BB.  

The Verdict

I love this pen.  I purchased it from jetpens.com about a year ago, and its been in my rotation ever since.  I'm eyeing the carbon-fiber version (in red), but have not been able to make myself take the plunge.  For an excellent review of that version of the Sport, check out Bob's review at My Pen Needs Ink.    

N.B.:  I've attached a handwritten version of this review in the gallery below.  The ink used is J. Herbin's Vert Empire, which does not scan very well and comes out more grey than the grey-green.  I've also included a photograph that's a more accurate reflection of the ink's true color. 

Pen Review: Pilot G2 Limited

I've been on a Pilot pen kick recently.  Somewhere, somehow, I ended up with a "20% off your total purchase at Staples" coupon, so I drove to the mall a couple miles from my house intending to pick up another pack of Razor Points.  Staples didn't have these, but I walked away with some new daily writers that I've been using regularly, including this Pilot G2 Limited. 

The G2 Limited is intended to be the barrel "upgrade" for those who want something a step up from Pilot's stock G2 plastic pen. Sort of like the Pentel Energel "Alloy" model is to the run-of-the-mill Energel. Those are cool too. Staples was sold out.

Pilot advertises the G2 as the "#1 Selling Gel Pen," which may be self-promotion, but also may actually be true, since these pens are everywhere.  Pilot has issued multiple renditions of the pen, including the "G2 Mini," the "G2 Pro," the "G2 Professional," and even a charity line that includes a breast-cancer fundraising edition.  The model that caught my eye, however, was the silver G2 Limited, which I managed to score for about $8.50, after my discount.

Don't get me wrong, this is an $8 pen.  It's made of plastic.  There's some play in the joints where the parts fits together, but not enough to make it rattle, which is the point at which it would get annoying to me.  The knock is pretty solid and retracts/unretracts the point without sticking or rattling.  The pen comes with the .7mm G2 refill in black.  I typically prefer the .5mm refill in blue (or even the "Ultra Fine" .38mm in either the G2 or Juice line), but I need a black pen at the moment and I've actually come to enjoy the .7mm.  It's incredibly smooth, leaves a very dark line, and in a week of use, I have not seen any of the "blobbing" that people complain about with the .7mm point. 

A comparison with some other common gel pens in .38mm, .4mm, and .5mm. I typically opt for a narrower line than the standard .7mm, but this line is clean enough that it's more than usable for me. Check out how dark that black ink is.

People may disagree with me on this, but the smoothness and darkness of Pilot's ink formulations continues to win me over every time.  I prefer the G2 over the Uniball Signo 207 or the Zebra Sarasa, the Hi-Tec-C over the Signo DX, and the Pilot Precise over just about any other liquid ink rollerball on the market (although this last category's not really a hard one to win).  On the fountain pen side, my Vanishing Point and Custom 74 are regularly inked with Iroshizuku or the Pilot/Namiki Blue-Black Cartridges.  I think I made it through high school using the old Pilot Explorers.  I have not managed to scavenge some Acroballs yet, but will do so in my next Jetpens order.

In this same run to Staples, I picked up a Dr. Grip Gel and a Dr. Grip Full Black, after hearing rumors that the line was being discontinued.  The Dr. Grip Gel takes a G2 refill, so it may not warrant a separate review, but the Full Black has a hybrid ballpoint ink that I'm really liking at the moment and am using regularly.  There will be some more Pilot reviews soon. 

Pencil Week: Musgrave Pencils

One of the last remaining pencil companies that manufactures in the United States is the Musgrave Pencil Company, which resides just twenty-five miles or so down the road from me in Shelbyville, Tennessee, the “Pencil City.”  Musgrave advertises itself as having been “Manufacturing Since 1916,” which also seems to be when they developed their website, www.pencils.net, often described as “adorably outdated.”  (UPDATE 9/13/18: Musgrave reached out and recently informed me that they have launched a new website! This one looks sharp!)

I purchased my Musgraves from Pencils, Etc., an Amazon seller located in the Shelbyville area that I assume to be Musgrave or someone affiliated with them.  I’ve never seen either of these pencils for sale anywhere else.  Pencils, Etc. sells their goods for $16 / 3 dozen, which is a respectable price, and comparable to General’s Semi-Hex pencils purchased directly from the manufacturer.  I bought two lots:  Musgrave’s “909 Ceres #2”, and some plain, unmarked black round #2 pencils.  The pencils came packaged in plastic bags, in typical “bulk lot” fashion.  I eagerly tore them open and sharpened up a few.  They sharpened well, for non-cedar pencils (probably basswood), and both are well worth the money I spent on them.  They both have the same pink eraser that works well, and that I would compare to a Pink Pearl.

Top: The Musgrave Ceres 909, their standard #2 pencil, proudly marked as made in "Pencil City," USA.

Bottom: Basic Black #2 pencil.

Nothing fancy about this packaging, but it gets the job done.

The 909 Ceres:

The 909 Ceres appears to be Musgrave’s basic yellow #2 pencil, and if that’s what you’re looking for it’s an excellent option.  The core is quality, and sharpens to a nice point.  I would compare this pencil to the new, Musgrave-manufactured Palomino Golden Bears.  The pencils have the same sharp ridges as the new Golden Bears, and are not rounded for comfort as are most modern hexagonal pencils.  Some people don’t mind this, but I’ve found that it makes it difficult for me to write with these pencils for long periods of time. 

Point retention on the Ceres is excellent.  The lead is dark, but as I’ll note below, I prefer the softer, even darker lead of the unmarked rounded pencil.

909 Ceres writing sample on Clairefontaine Seyes-ruled paper.

The “Basic Black” Rounded Pencil

For lack of a better term, I’ll dub these pencils the “Basic Black” model.  When I purchased these a month or so ago, Pencils, Etc. offered these in multiple colors (and you can probably find an even broader selection if you reached out to Musgrave directly).  I’m a sucker for round pencils, and always have been.  I find them far more comfortable than their hexagonal brethren, even if you have to worry about them rolling off the desk.  What really kills it for me, though, is the core.  It’s labeled as a #2 pencil, but it’s ever-so slightly softer and darker than the Ceres, while maintaining most of the point-retention properties. 

As you can see here, the core of the Basic Black Musgrave pencil (bottom) is just a hair darker than the 909 Ceres, and it's also smoother.

Basic Black Musgrave writing sample.

The comfort combined with the dark core makes this pencil a nearly perfect daily writer for me.  In the first picture, you can see the difference between the Ceres (shown up top), and the Basic Black.  Sorry Ceres, but I’ve found myself reaching for the Basic Black whenever I need to do more writing than jotting a few quick notes.  I’m glad I have three dozen!  Once Musgrave gets their store up and running, I’ll consider buying more and maintaining a stash of these.