Ink Review: How About A Super Sheener? A Look at Birmingham Pen Company "Angelfish"

November 10, 2021

I’ve spent a fair bit of time this year exploring the range of “super-shading” inks that have seemingly taken over the ink market, particularly the shading series from Pennonia, some of the lighter colors from Ferris Wheel Press such as the outstanding Madame Mulberry and Dusk In Bloom, and the “Cat” series from Ink Institute. (The Pennonia inks are currently the only ones I’ve reviewed, but I have posts in the works on the others as well.) Shading inks use a desaturated formulation to create varying tones in your writing and lend your lettering a vintage look.

Sheening Ink on Tomoe River Paper — Birmingham Angelfish features a red sheen over a royal blue ink, shown here on Tomoe River paper.

On the flip side, “sheening” inks typically increase the dye saturation for a different effect. Not only does your writing take on a solid, more even tone, but you will see an overlay of red, green, or purple sheen once the ink dries. I’ve always been drawn to the vibrant dark-blue “sheener” inks, such as Organics Studio Nitrogen, Private Reserve D.C. Supershow Blue, and Diamine Majestic Blue, but have tended to experience slow dry times, poor flow, and a lot of smearing even weeks after the ink has dried. It wasn’t until I tried the ink pictured here, “Angelfish” from the Birmingham Pen Company, that I found a blue sheener I’ve been able to use every day.

Pen and Ink Matching: Birmingham Angelfish paired with a Ryan Krusac x Lucky Star Pens L14 (no longer available).

The Birmingham Pen Company is a small pen and ink manufacturer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a focus on small-batch fountain pens and hand-mixed and bottled ink. While I’ve not yet tried one of their pens, a few months ago I purchased several bottles of their inks, including a few from each of their different formulations. For those unfamiliar with the company, Birmingham makes their inks in a variety of formulas, ranging from the quick-drying “Swift” formula to the all-purpose “Crisp". The ink pictured here is from the “Rich” category, “built with a unique vehicle and dye combination to produce vibrant colors and intermittent sheen.”

Birmingham Ink Angelfish Sheen — Sheen from another angle.

I’ve been using Birmingham Angelfish for several months, and I’ve not experienced any smearing, bleeding, feathering, or slow dry times. It’s been a true pleasure to find a super-sheening royal blue ink that produces an effect I love without any of the undesirable side effects. I’m looking forward to experimenting with the other Birmingham colors, including the muted, earthy shades for which the company has become known.

Sheen can be much less visible on more absorbent paper (such as the Write Notepads paper pictured here), but Angelfish still gives you a bit of red!

To my knowledge, Birmingham inks are only sold directly via the Birmingham Pen Company website and not through other retail channels. Birmingham inks are quite reasonably priced, especially for a boutique brand, and are available in three different bottle sizes: 30ml ($13), 60ml ($16), and 120ml ($19). In addition to Angelfish, Birmingham makes three other “Rich” formula inks that are intended to sheen nicely. Be sure to check them out.

This post does not contain affiliate links, and I purchased the inks featured in this post with my own funds, for my own use. The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from The T.G.S. Curated Shop and the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Shop Update: A Restock on Old Favorites and a Continuing Clearance Sale on New and Used Products

November 9, 2021

Several old favorites are back in stock this week, just in time for the opening of the Holiday Shopping Season (though I refuse to publish my gift guide until after the second week of November, on a matter of principle). Currently we are fully restocked on Write Notepads Reporter Notebooks, letter-sized Memo Pads, Landscape Notebooks, and the Classic Hardcover Notebook, which is now available in dot grid paper!

I am also in the process of clearing out some old stock on products that I need to move in order to make room for new stuff arriving soon, and some of these I don’t plan to restock going forward. You can view the price reductions here. I’ve also further reduced prices on certain items listed in the “Gently Used” sale, including some very nice pens. Happy Shopping, and many thanks for all your support during the past several days of Fountain Pen Day craziness!

The Write Notepads Classic Hardcover Notebook makes an excellent gift, and it’s now available in both lined and extremely versatile dot grid paper.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands carried, including Write Notepads. By shopping with us directly, you are supporting original content, pen reviews, pen show events, etc. from The Gentleman Stationer. If you would like to support us even further, please consider checking out the T.G.S. Patreon Program, which offers access to online meetups, exclusive discounts and pre-orders, and more!

Fountain Pen Day Weekend Giveaway! And Don't Miss the Ongoing Sale!

November 6, 2021

I always like to make Fountain Pen Day a weekend thing, and that’s why today T.G.S. is hosting a giveaway! We have some great prizes as a thank you to all the loyal readers out there, and to let you know how much we appreciate your support. To participate in the giveaway, simply use the Gleam widget below, which also sets forth the full terms and conditions. The TLDR version is that once the giveaway closes Monday night, I will pick three winners, one for each prize. I will reach out to you sometime next week to let you know you won and to give you your shipping information. The prizes for this year’s Fountain Pen Day Giveaway are:

T.G.S. x. Sunderland Machine Works Special Edition mk1 Rollerball. Yep, I set aside one pen as a special Fountain Pen Day giveaway prize. The T.G.S. x Sunderland mk1 is my first pen collaboration with a manufacturer, and it’s a staple in the T.G.S. Curated Shop. For additional information on specifications, etc., check out the shop listing.
Fountain Pen Day Leather Notebook Cover. Win a piece of original Fountain Pen Day Swag, purchased at the D.C. Pen Show many, many years ago. I don’t use pocket notebooks all that much, so I figured I should pay this one forward! Fits three standard Field Notes Sized pocket notebooks, using Traveler’s Notebook-style cords.
Scrikss Fountain Pen in Indigo. Galen Leather was kind enough to send me this Scrikss piston-fill fountain Pen, which features a pale blue finish with gold trim and a nice medium nib. Scrikss is a Turkish fountain pen manufacturer that is relatively hard to find here in the U.S.

Also, don’t forget that we are running a promotional sale in the T.G.S. Curated Shop through the weekend, so until 11:59pm Sunday night (November 7), you can grab 10% off all Curated Shop orders using the coupon code “FPD10”! (Excluding TWSBI and Sunderland.) For as long as supplies last, all orders will ship with a piece of Fountain Pen Day SWAG!

Happy Fountain Pen Day: Can You Believe It's been 10 Years!?!

November 4, 2021

It’s the first Friday of November, and you know what that means: Happy Fountain Pen Day! To celebrate, I have a weekend of fun planned. First of all, through the weekend, take 10% off all T.G.S. Curated Shop Orders with the coupon code “FPD10” at checkout. I’ve also reduced prices on a select group of products throughout the store, which you can check out here. All orders placed this weekend will receive free Fountain Pen Day and T.G.S. SWAG, while supplies last!

For Saturday, I have a giveaway lined up with a bunch of prizes that you don’t want to miss, and for Patreon members, access to a special sale with a new batch of gently used products priced to move!

Be sure to visit the Fountain Pen Day website to join in the fun, and for a list of all the special events and sales taking place this weekend around the stationery world, both in-store and online.

The Fountain Pen Day discount is good on all Curated Shop Products, with the exception of TWSBI and Sunderland Machine Works, per my agreements with those brands. All domestic U.S. orders over $75 ship free. By shopping with us directly, you are supporting original content, pen reviews, pen show events, etc. from The Gentleman Stationer. If you would like to support us even further, please consider checking out the T.G.S. Patreon Program, which offers access to online meetups, exclusive discounts and pre-orders, and more!

What's Inside My Bag? Daily Carry Breakdown 2021

November 3, 2021

I’ve not done a full “Bag Dump” post in a few years, mainly because what I carry day-to-day doesn’t change all that much and it would be a rather boring exercise to repeat it over and over again. But as I was sorting through my bag yesterday, I realized how much I’m enjoying my current setup. Here it goes:

My briefcase has taken a lot of abuse over the years. And still looks basically new.

The Bag Itself

I’m not a bag person. Far from it. I essentially have two: a Filson Original Twill Briefcase in Otter Green that’s about 8 years old, and a five-year-old North Face Surge backpack that some of you may have seen me carrying at pen shows. Both of these bags do what I need them to do: They have three separate compartments/dividers for separating notebooks, files, and a laptop, while also providing plenty of pockets and loops for pens and other tools. The Filson gets carried daily; the North Face is for travel since it has more padding for a computer. I don’t see myself making any changes to this setup until something falls apart.

Planners and Journals

Lately I’ve been carrying two Traveler’s-style notebooks. My Standard Traveler’s Notebook in blue contains a trimmed down Stálogy Half-Year Notebook, an undated monthly calendar (for work), a sticky notes insert, and a zippered pouch. Lately, I’ve also been carrying a Traveler’s-sized Roterfaden from Baum-kuchen (“BK_19”) with four different inserts: a day-to-a-page diary refill, a standard blank MD notebook, a dot grid notebook, and a Letter Pad featuring MD Cotton Paper (in the back slot). This particular notebook serves as my personal journal, and it has absolutely no structure whatsoever. I simply write whatever I feel like writing.

A4 (black) and Letter (green) Filofax Refillable notebooks shown with my Traveler’s Notebook (left) and Roterfaden (right).

Work Notebooks

I go through a LOT of notebooks and pads of paper at my day job, used for a combination of notetaking, brainstorming, and writing. (I do the first draft of pretty much everything by hand - at a bare minimum I’ll hand-write a very detailed outline.) Many of you have written in asking me to do a more detailed post on my specific notetaking and workflow “systems”, and I’m considering it, but honestly nothing is very exciting and doesn’t go much beyond writing everything down and keeping a minimal index of each notebook in the event I need to go back and find things later. If something is important and absolutely needs to be remembered, it gets incorporated into an outline, database, or final work product that is easier for other people to read and navigate.

The wire binding on the Filofax refillable notebook. No more rings that fall out randomly!

Lately I’ve been relying heavily upon Filofax refillable notebooks in both Letter and A4 sizes. The Filofax paper is pretty good for most pens, but if you buy the hole punch you can use whatever paper you want, and also print out documents and articles to stick in these notebooks. I find these bindings more reliable than ring-bound systems, and the pages turn easier. I typically don’t carry pads of paper around with me, since I’ll have a few sheets in these notebooks, but if I do it’s usually a Rhodia Pad or a Write Notepads Dot-Grid Writing Pad.

Pens

My pen selection sees the most change, as I’ll typically rotate 2-3 new pens in every couple of days depending on what type of work I’m doing and whether I have something new in for review. These pens always travel in my Nock Co. wax canvas Sinclair or another 2-3 pen roll or sleeve. Lately, I’ve been carrying my Schon DSGN Ultem Pens nearly exclusively, since the nibs I have in those pens are perfect for the type of work I’ve been doing lately.

For general all-purpose writing, I carry a handful of ballpoints and rollerballs, including at least one Caran d’Ache 849 (my go-to “click pen”); my Montblanc Starwalker and Montblanc Le Petit Prince Classique rollerball; my Sunderland mk1 (of course), my Baron Fig Brass Squire, and a Traveler’s Company Brass Ballpoint (typically kept clipped to my notebook).

Computer

I don’t always carry a laptop, but I nearly always have an iPad on me (iPad Pro 12.9” with the Magic Keyboard and Pencil 2, to be specific). I mainly use my iPad for document management and annotation where writing on a paper copy would be unwieldy, since many of the documents I deal with can run into the hundreds of pages. As fellow attorneys know, the ability to leave “the binders” at the office is a huge advantage!

Noise Cancelling Headphones

I’ve had a pair of Bose Quietcomfort QC35 headphones for the past few years, and they get the job done. They’re more than serviceable on the sound side, and the noise cancellation (the main reason I use them) is superb. At some point I will likely substitute a set of noise cancelling earbuds so I won’t have to carry the larger headphones every day, and can reserve them for airplane travel.

And that’s it! You may find a couple of other small items tucked in my bag here and there, such as chargers, cables, and these days, spare masks, but all of this stuff discussed above forms the backbone of my day. As I mentioned, I may work up some additional posts regarding workflows, note-taking, and everyday use/carry topics, if this is something that would interest readers. Let me know!

This post does not contain paid third-party affiliate links. The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by reader contributions and purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop. By shopping with us directly, you are supporting original content, pen reviews, pen show events, etc. from The Gentleman Stationer. If you would like to support us even further, please consider checking out the T.G.S. Patreon Program, which offers access to online meetups, exclusive discounts and pre-orders, and more!