Special Announcement: I'm a guest on this week's episode of The Pen Addict Podcast, Episode 161, titled "No Micarta for You!" I'm flattered that Brad and Myke asked me to join them, and I had a great time on my first podcast ever. Stay tuned, as the winner of last week's giveaway will be posted tomorrow.
InCoWriMo 2015 Starts Today!
What is InCoWriMo, exactly? International Correspondence Writing Month! Every February, pen, pencil and stationery enthusiasts from around the world pledge to write one letter a day during the month of February. This year is my first year participating. To learn more and sign up, visit the InCoWriMo website. There is also a list of nearly 300 people, last I checked, who can't wait to receive your letters.
I mentioned I'm participating. If you'd like to write to me during InCoWriMo (or anytime, for that matter), The Gentleman Stationer now has a P.O. Box. Please send any letters to:
Joe @ The Gentleman Stationer, P.O. Box 681294, Franklin, Tennessee 37068-1294.
Pens, Ink, coffee, and bourbon will also be accepted. I can't promise swift responses, since my schedule has been insane of late, but I will do my best!
P.S. I've also updated my "about" page, so please check it out.
Image by Scott Cresswell via Flickr.
On New Year's Resolutions and Year-end Reviews
I don't think I ever actually completed a New Year's Resolution until last year. For a while I stopped making them altogether, using the cop-out excuses that they were yet one more thing I was doing simply because everybody else was doing them; that I was generally content with my current priorities, and that, in fact, I didn't need to change anything.
Last year, I took a different approach. Inspired by Chris Guillebeau's personal year-end review process, I spent some time focusing on two or three things that I really would like to be doing, instead of just muddling along in jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none mode. One of the projects I recommitted to was this blog. Those (very) few and (very) loyal readers who have followed me from the beginning will recall that I started this blog as "Vintage Writing" two years ago, launched it for two or three posts, and let it peter out when my schedule became overwhelmed with other projects and commitments.
I rechristened the blog "The Gentleman Stationer" and committed to posting regularly, and while I've still been struggling with what's the right balance for me in terms of posting frequency, I managed to post something at least once a week.
Even though I've maintained an online presence, with a small but loyal readership that I enjoy talking with every week, I sometimes feel that I've not done enough to differentiate this blog from all the other great pen/pencil/stationery blogs out there. Towards the end of this year, I began experimenting with new kinds of content, such as this post on mechanical keyboards which got a lot of interest, and also this post that I guest wrote for On Fountain Pens discussing my experiences living abroad. For this year's resolution, I'm committing to featuring similar content and experimenting a bit.
Stationery Resolutions
But fear not! At its core, this blog is, and will remain, a pen and pencil blog, with the product reviews and commentary that I love to write. I have three stationery resolutions as well. They are, in order of importance:
- Use more notebooks. I'm drowning. I have a huge backlog of both Field Notes and standard-sized notebooks. I'm not going to say that I have more notebooks than I can ever use, because that's not true, but I do need to recommit to journaling, writing fiction, and using up some of that paper.
- Use more ink. I need to write down my ink supply. I've dabbled more with pencils this year--a trend that I think will continue--but I want to get back to using my fountain pens on a daily basis, especially for journalling and more introspective, long-hand writing.
- Whittle down my pen collection. This one generates very mixed feelings on my part. Readers may have notices that I've sold a lot of pens on the blog this year. That will continue. I have way too many pens, most of which I don't use at all. I have about a dozen that I absolutely love, and I want those to become the core of my collection. There are some vintage pens that are true collectors pieces which don't get used that often, and I plan on retaining those regardless of use, but it's time to let some other modern pieces go to new homes. I don't mind having a lot of money tied up in this hobby, because it's meaningful to me, but if I'm not getting anything out of certain pieces I can put those funds to better use.
I get the feeling that 2015 is going to be a great year for the analog writing community (not the "pen" community, as that's underinclusive). I'll warn you in advance that you may see some formatting changes on the blog as I experiment with some different things. If you see something that just doesn't work, please let me know! I'm learning as I go, and I'm open to suggestions. As always, thank you for reading!
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!