Year-End Round Up, Part I: Top 5 New Pens from 2017

I'm officially on "break" until sometime after Christmas. That doesn't mean that I won't post, but I definitely won't be sticking to a regular schedule, and there will not be any fresh review content until after the first of the year. In the meantime, enjoy a series of recap posts, discussing some curated content from 2017, and catch up on some things you might have missed. 

Every year around this time, I look back through posts I've written to try to pick out a few things that really grabbed hold and kept my attention past the initial "new shiny" phase. With pens, that's hard. So much stuff comes across my desk for review purposes that in order for something to stay in my rotation, it has to be either really unique or just that good.  Here are five things that stuck with me in 2017, in no particular order. 

1. Multifunction ("Multi") Pens. I've carried a multi pen on a daily basis throughout 2017. Being able to color-code notes in a meeting without switching pens is, for me, invaluable, and I also like having the option to include a mechanical pencil or highlighter in one of the refill slots. For the record, my two favorite multi pens are the Lamy 2000 4-Color Ballpoint and the Sailor Imperial Black Multi Pen. 
2. Montblanc 146 and 144. While my updated review of the 146 is still in progress, I had the opportunity to review (and then purchase) the UNICEF Classique Doue 144, the smaller, cartridge-converter Montblanc fountain pen, courtesy of site-sponsor Appelboom. (Many thanks to Appelboom for sponsoring me this year, and giving me the opportunity to borrow and review many pens that I otherwise could not afford to purchase solely for review purposes.) I also picked up two more versions of the 146 throughout the year, and at least one of these pens has a slot in my daily carry at all times. 
3. Visconti Van Gogh "Vincent's Chair" Fountain Pen. This somewhat understated little Visconti really surprised me. Though it's no longer in my possession since it was a loaner from Goldspot, I'm going to pick up a Van Gogh fairly soon. I much prefer Visconti's stainless steel nibs over the Palladium "Dreamtouch" used in the Homo Sapiens, which I find a touch too wet and "mushy" for my taste.
4. Inventery Mechanical Pen. I'm generally not a liquid ink rollerball aficionado, but the matte black version of Inventery's single-facet mechanical pen has been sitting next to my keyboard ever since it arrived. A touch heavy for longer-form writing, I find it perfect for short notes while I'm on the computer. It uses the standard Schmidt P8126 refill found in most machined rollerball pens, providing a reliably smooth writing experience. 
5. Morning Glory Mach 3 Liquid Ink Rollerball. Another "rollerball" makes the list (surprising, right?) but this one features an ultra-fine .38mm tip and comes in a wide array of colors. It's sort of the Pilot V5 meets the Hi-Tec-C, and is also a fairly economical choice for a standard office writer. 

That's all for now! Happy holidays, and as always, thanks for reading! 

Dark Green Ink Shootout: What's the Winner?

I entered the fountain pen hobby shortly after Montblanc announced that it was discontinuing its now legendary "British Racing Green” ink. Though I never had the opportunity to try a sample of this stuff, I love Montblanc ink and pictures I’ve seen of the British Racing Green leave me fairly certain that it’s an ink that I would have been a staple in my rotation. Long story short, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past several years chasing the “perfect” dark green / racing green ink for my collection that approximates the look of the old Montblanc. 

I never really fell down the rabbit hole of chasing actual bottles of discontinued or limited edition inks. If I came across one at a pen show or in a store at a reasonable price, I’d pick it up for sure, but I’ve never felt comfortable spending the $100-plus price that these old inks can command. Plus, given the rapid expansion of the market for fountain pen ink over the past several years, chasing discontinued colors has become completely unnecessary, since it’s highly unlikely there won’t be at a close match to your “grail ink” out there on the market.

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I'll go ahead and throw the spoiler out there: My favorite of all these inks is Sailor Jentle Epinard, and I also LOVE Robert Oster Signature Melon Tea, even though it's more of an olive/khaki brown. The sample doesn't really show it, but Epinard has some nice reddish sheen in a wet nib. 

Based on my years of "research", here are a few current favorites, grouped by similarities in color:

• Darkest Greens / Green Black: Sailor Bung Box Dandyism and Robert Oster Grun Schwartz. Both of these inks are pretty close, with Dandyism being ever-so-slightly darker and the Grun Schwartz having a touch more grey in the mix. Another somewhat similar color is Sailor Jentle Miruai, though this ink definitely has hints of blue and ends up being more of a dark seaweed green.

• Green-Brown: Sailor Epinard and Robert Oster Melon Tea. While still a very dark green ink, Epinard has a touch of yellow/brown and even shows some red sheen. Melon Tea can dry very dark in a wet nib, and certainly has some green to it, but it definitely leans towards the brown end of the spectrum. (Note that my bottle of Epinard is the old formulation, from before Sailor temporarily discontinued the ink. I’ve heard the new formulation is slightly different, but have not tried it out myself.)

• Brighter Greens: Private Reserve Avacado and Sailor Jentle Waka-Uguisu. I expected the Avacado (yes, that’s how Private Reserve spells it) to be a bit darker. It's brighter and has more yellow to it than I expected. Waka-Uguisu is a nice tea green, and included here mainly for comparison purposes.   

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These are all more or less a tie for second place. Of these three, I prefer the Dandyism when I'm considering the ink alone, but once you take price into account it's hard to justify given how close the Robert Oster Grun Schwartz is. 

I’m not in a position to say which of these is the closest to the old Montblanc ink. I’ve never had the opportunity to try the Montblanc British Racing Green and photograph it in person. Also, online ink swatch photos can be inaccurate (mine included, depending on the calibration of your monitor, lighting, the camera taking the photos, etc.), and people's perception of color is highly subjective. Pictures I’ve seen range from so-dark-it’s-almost-black to a lighter greenish brown. If I had to guess, however, I would say that Sailor Dandyism or Epinard would be the two closest matches.  

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I was surprised at the brightness/yellow hue to the Avacado. Granted, when you write with it, it lays down a darker line, but in the swab it really is more of a saturated dark green than a true green-black. 

Takeaways and Where to Buy

All of the inks on this list are generally well-behaved without any bleedthrough, feathering, or excessive dry times. This includes the Private Reserve Avacado, which was a pleasant surprise, though it is the slowest to dry of all the inks featured here. Sailor and Robert Oster inks do dry extremely fast, in my experience, so that’s not to say there’s any major issue with the Private Reserve.

Pricing on these inks is a bit all over the place. Private Reserve ink costs $11 for 66ml, making it a bargain.  Standard Sailor Jentle Inks (here, Miruai and Waka-Uguisu) cost $18, with the Epinard priced at $25, both for 50ml of ink.  Robert Oster costs $17, for a 50ml bottle, and Bung Box is the most expensive, coming in at a whopping $43 for 50ml. 

I purchased or received all of these inks from Pen Chalet, Anderson Pens, or Vanness Pens. Since my policy is to link to the retailer who provided me with the product, the links correspond accordingly.

Disclaimer: This post contains links to paid sponsors and affiliates. To the best of my recollection, I paid for all of these inks with my own funds (receiving a slight discount), with the exception of the sample of Avacado, which I received free of charge from Anderson Pens for review purposes.

Stationery From Duncan Shotton Design Studios

After a week that was, well, a touch frustrating and stressful, and now that we're heading into the final stretch before the holidays, I thought it might be fun to take a look at some recently arrived stationery products that are just that - fun! You may recall Tokyo-based, British Duncan Shotton from the "Rainbow Pencils" Kickstarter that launched and successfully funded several years back. Not only are the Rainbow Pencils still going strong five years later, but they're now joined by some other great travel/ufo/paranormal-themed stationery, which of course I ordered immediately. 

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These sticky page markers are an excellent alternative to boring 3M plastic flags. (Fellow office drones, you know what I'm talking about here.) 

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The Rainbow Pencils are made from layers of colored recycled paper, so as you sharpen them you get the "Rainbow effect." (See below). 

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A pretty poor showing of what the Rainbow Pencil can do, but the only sharpener I had within reach was cheap (and, apparently, very dull). These rainbow pencils have dark, soft graphite that's a pleasure to write with. 

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Planet Push Pins (and the Moon Push Pin - not to scale) in action, with the stamps that carried my order from Tokyo! 

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Godzilla Stickers anyone? I received these as freebies with my order! 

Takeaways and Where to Buy

I'm 100% on board with what Duncan Shotton is doing here, and I'll be looking to pick up some more of his stationery (and perhaps some other products) after I replenish the budget for 2018. If any of this interests you, you can order in one of two places. I purchased via the Duncan Shotton Etsy store, which has all of the products featured in this post. There's a somewhat larger web store on his main site, with additional items that don't appear on Etsy (like these Nessie-themed push pins).   

Disclaimer: Though I purchased all of the products featured in this post with my own funds, for my own use, I am an Etsy affiliate. All of the links in this post are affiliate links, and I am compensated a small amount for any sales made through these links. 

The Bic Cristal Is (Arguably) The Greatest Pen Ever Made.

Clickbait headline? Especially coming from a dedicated fountain pen user, who at one point would regularly lament how the ballpoint and the gel pen contributed to the downfall of polite civilization by driving the fountain pen to the brink of extinction? But from a sheer numbers and longevity perspective, you can easily make the case. Bic has sold over 100 billion of these pens since they were first launched in 1950. The pen sits in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. And it’s become the gold standard for how a basic ballpoint pen should look and write.

Though Europe gets the awesome orange barrels, in the States we’re “stuck” with what to me is the "classic" Bic Cristal, featuring a clear plastic hexagonal barrel and a plastic cap that matches the ink color. The design hasn’t changed much in the nearly 70 years this pen has been in existence, and the history of the Bic Cristal makes for fascinating reading.

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For awesome write-anywhere portability (like in the car), I don't think you can beat the Cristal, especially if you tend to lose a lot of pens outside the house. 

People tend to hate cheap ballpoint pens for one of two reasons: they require too much pressure to write, and/or the ink won’t leave a solid line. The oil-based ink in really cheap ballpoints can also blob and smear all over the page (or in your pocket), making a serious mess. Of all the pure ballpoints out there on the market, however, I consider Bic Cristal and the Schmidt Easyflow 9000 to be the best options, because you don’t usually see any of these issues. (As with any mass-produced product at a lower price point, there are exceptions.)

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Two current Bic Cristal models: on the left the .8mm Xtra Precision, which sports a needle tip, and on the right, the most common Bic Cristal available, the 1.0mm "medium". 

Though it certainly doesn’t write the same dark line as a gel or hybrid-gel pen, the Bic Cristal performs pretty well for a ballpoint. Bic’s shade of blue ink is much more vibrant than what you’ll find in a Papermate Write Bros., or the various store-brand generics. The 1.0mm “medium” tip can even show some line variation, depending on the pressure you use. For this reason, many artists use Bic pens to draw insanely detailed portraits. While I find gel pens pretty much unusable in tip sizes above .7mm, I have no trouble writing relatively small with the 1.0mm Bic Cristal, since oil-based ink doesn't feather and bleed.

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Though ballpoint ink is never going to be as dark as gel, liquid rollerball, or most other types of ink, Bic's formulation is among the best. It also dries near-instantaneously on non-coated paper, including cheap office-supply stock. 

Takeaways and Where to Buy

In a world where pen companies and big box stores are starting to charge $15 for a dozen mediocre gel pens, there’s something to be said for taking the opposite approach by picking up a pack of Bic Cristals. Sure, you'll probably lose the pen, give it away, or the plastic barrel may crack long before you use up the ink, but like the most basic woodcase pencils, sometimes you just want to get some work done with a reliable tool that presents the least amount of distraction. Moreover, with the concept of handwriting generally under attack, we should be doing all we can to preserve it by promoting the entire range of writing tools available. The Bic Cristal offers a low-cost, zero-barrier-to-entry option. Anyone can jump online or run down to the corner store, and get started handwriting.  

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As I mentioned, the 1.0mm medium point will probably give you the smoothest writing experience, and is generally my recommended starting point. For editing and annotation (or if you just write really small), the “Xtra Precision” needle-tip pens are fantastic. If you write large, there's even an "Xtra Bold" 1.6mm version, though I've not tried them. 

Finally, if the Bic Cristal interests you from a design or historical perspective, both Philip Hensher's The Missing Ink and James Ward's The Perfection of the Paper Clip discuss the history and development of the Bic ballpoint pen in some detail (as well as diving deep into other aspects of stationery minutiae). I highly recommend both books. 

Disclaimer: I purchased the pens featured in this review with my own funds, for my own use.

New Pen Alert: Lamy Studio in Racing Green

I hardly ever "re-review" pens, and I won't really do that here, but I did want to take the opportunity to talk about Lamy's absolutely gorgeous new special edition Studio, in Racing Green. 

Everything that I wrote about in my previous review of the Lamy Studio remains true: It's a sleek, modern, nicely balanced pen with a metal section that offsets the weight of the cap when the pen is posted. The pen caps and posts securely, using a clutch mechanism that has an audible "click" or "snick" (choose your adjective). Lamy has chosen not to sell the Racing Green Studio with the 14K nib, opting instead to travel at a lower price point using the same stainless nib featured on the Safari, AL-Star, and Studio. 

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The sub-$80 Lamy Studio features the same stainless steel nib as on the Safari, AL-Star, LX, etc. For another $90, you can separately purchase one of Lamy's 14kt nibs, which are outstanding, but the price is pretty steep. 

I previously reviewed another special edition Studio (the Ruby/Royal Red), which I regrettably sold off a couple years back. (Regrettable because I can't find another one.) Lamy seems to make fewer special edition Studio pens than they do special edition Safaris or AL-Stars. You can typically still find the latter in stock at retailers up to a year later, but the Studios tend to sell out relatively quickly. I imagine this is due to the higher price point and the lower profile of the Studio translating into lower demand; Lamy likely has an easier time selling the less-expensive Safaris and AL-Stars than the $70-plus Studio. Thus, it's also more difficult to find special edition Lamy Studios on the secondary market. 

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I touched up this photo a bit to try to bring out some of the iridescence.  It's not noticeable at first, but when the light hits this pen in a certain way....

The Racing Green studio is an incredibly attractive pen, coated in an almost iridescent dark green matte finish. It remains to be seen how the matte finish on this pen will hold up over time. My red Studio looked pretty beat after a while, with the powdered coating wearing off underneath the clip and around the edges of the cap, which ultimately frustrated me and led me to sell the pen despite the excellent nib. I will say that the coating on the Racing Green feels thicker, and I haven't seen any dings or scratches yet despite carrying this pen in a bag for a week. 

Takeaways and Where to Buy

I stand by my previous review of the Lamy Studio as a great option in the sparsely populated "great pens under $100 category" that TWSBI typically dominates. The Studio is also widely available and relatively easy to find, and with a coupon code you can get some colors for as low as $65. To me, that's a no-brainer (provided you can live with the metal section).

As I mentioned, the "Racing Green" Lamy Studio pictured here is a special edition, meaning that they will be made for a short time. Currently available from Pen Chalet at $79 retail (less with a coupon code), these may not last long, given how quickly past special edition Studios have sold out. Pen Chalet currently only has medium nibs in stock, but fines are still available on special order.