Sunday Reading for November 20, 2022

1. Traveling with Ink: Porto, Portugal (via Fountain Pen Blog). I’ll be adding this article to my collection of pen stores to visit on future travels.

2. New Orleans Adventures (via Sarah Read). Scriptura is one spot I haven’t hit in New Orleans, maybe for a future trip?

3. Shibui North Kitsune (via Dapprman). I love seeing interesting new designs from independent pen makers, and the engraving on this one makes it unique.

4. Good Made Better Made Portable (via Penquisition). Somehow I missed the release of the Penwell “Traveller Clip”!

5. Phoenix Pen Stands (via KraftyCats). Good pen stands are infinitely useful if you work at a desk, especially for clipless pens that can roll. These are some interesting designs.

6. Life Noble Book Hardcover Notebook (via Blake’s Broadcast). Life has apparently released a hardcover version of their Noble Note series. I’ve not seen these before and need to check them out.

7. Risky Business: Montblanc 146 LeGrand (via A Fleeting Ripple). I had a similar odyssey trying to get my first ever 146 to write properly. You can indeed find these pens with great nibs (and a lot of “gently used” character) on the secondary market quite easily, at good prices.

8. Indie Packaging Influence (via Rachel’s Reflections). Does packaging influence my own purchasing decisions? I think I agree with Rachel’s conclusions here.

9. Dubito: Kaweco Green Lilliput (via A Fleeting Ripple). The Lilliput is one of those pens that I need to try for a second time, especially now that it’s available in this excellent green color.

10. Midori MD Paper Products Colored Pencils (via Well-Appointed Desk). Tina reviews the Midori MD Colored Pencil Set. (Which we promptly sold out of! More on the way!)

In Case You Missed It….

Since I served as Hubmaster for the 2022 Nashville Pelikan Hub, most of my pen-related efforts this week went towards getting that event off the ground, and it was a rousing success! Yesterday I published what I envision as the first of two 2022 T.G.S. Holiday Gift Guides: this one focusing on products from our shop, and the next focusing on products from independent makers whom you may want to explore, including several new ones that I discovered this year.

This Week in the Curated Shop…

The big news this week is the arrival of a new Field Notes shipment, including all of the most recent limited editions, as well as a restock of the “Front Page” reporter-style notebook and the “Heavy Duty” top-bound pocket notebook. We also ran a post focusing on building your perfect office workspace, and many of the items highlighted in that post are similarly highlighted in the gift guide.

Write Notepads

Field Notes

Lochby

Opus 88

Consider T.G.S. Patreon - New “Gently Used” Items in the Patreon Shop!

For those who want to support T.G.S. without necessarily adding to their accumulation via shop purchases, the Patreon Program offers two options for tiers of support: $3 and $5 (with a discounted annual option) and plan on making monthly meetups, pen show events, and periodic exclusive content the primary benefits. Of course, Patreon members will continue to get first access to periodic sample sales, with right of first refusal on gently used pens. For Fountain Pen Day I added a handful of pens, as well as the last of my pocket notebook stash, to the Patreon store, which backers will want to check. (Reminder that those items which made it through Patreon become available to the general readership!) Many thanks to all of you who already decided to back via Patreon. Your support means the world to me!

The 2022 T.G.S. Holiday Gift Guide is Live!

As part of my recovery from last night’s Pelikan Hubs festivities, I updated the annual T.G.S. Holiday Gift Guide this morning! Each year’s gift guide is slightly different from the last, featuring an annually updated selection of stationery-themed gift ideas. As you’ll discover in the guide itself, I generally don’t give fountain pens as gifts, since fountain pen lovers are hard to buy for, so the guide tends to focus heavily on accessories and other items with a wide appeal to those who appreciate analog-living in general. Enjoy!

P.S. - for those who missed out on the Pelikan Hubs, I have some of the “Pelikan Passion” magazines and the T.G.S. party favors left over. I’ll plan to add them to orders over $50 until they’re gone (with the price threshold set due to the higher cost of shipping the magazines). They are nice magazines and I don’t want to just throw them out, plus the T.G.S. goodie bag will get you a store coupon and a button + sticker.

Thursday Drops: Building Your "Perfect" Office Workspace

I say “perfect” because it’s almost always a work in progress, right? The main item I wanted to highlight this week is the Kickstarter release from our friends at Good Made Better, who launched the “Writewell” portable writing desk, which I just backed before posting this. I have a prototype Writewell here in my home office for review, and will definitely be posting a thorough review before the Kickstarter closes.

Given that the Writewell launch will likely prompt many to revisit their home office setups, I thought it might be fun to highlight some of my own favorites that we’ve recently restocked in advance of the Holiday shopping season.

1. Writewell Portable Writing Desk by Good Made Better (via Kickstarter). I’m frankly stunned by what Dan has put together here, and that’s based only on the prototype. I have a sizable collection of standing desks, writing boxes, and lap desks, and this one is both beautiful and practical.

2. T.G.S. Exclusive Penwell. While we’re on the subject of Good Made Better’s products, have you checked out our own collaboration with them on their original product, the Penwell pen holder? The first run sold out fairly quickly, so this year we did a second batch for the holiday season.

3. Hightide Sandglasses. I’ve always loved hourglasses, but only since smartphones took over our lives have I realized how useful they can really be. Available in 30, 15, 5, and 3-minute increments. To read more on how I use these beautiful analog timers in my own life, check out this post here.

4. Hightide Folding Metal Book Stands. One of my favorite aspects of the Writewell desk is the ability to add on a book holder. These inexpensive folding metal book stands from Hightide allow you to take the same functionality on the go, as they fold up flat and easily fit into most bags.

5. Hightide Marbled Melamine Pen Trays. I have various desk valets, pen trays, and catch-alls in pretty much every room of my house. We recently added new shapes and colors, which complement the other Hightide products.

6. Reading Accessories. We carry a multitude of reading accessories - namely bookmarks and page points - and they’ve been some of the most popular items in our three years running the shop.

7. WMS+Co Planner Desk Pads. These undated planner desk pads come in both keyboard and full-size, allowing you to flexibly plan your week without committing to a dated calendar. Use them as you need them, for whatever tasks you may need to manage.

8. Platinum Desk Fountain Pen. Would you like a true dedicated desk pen with an excellent inexpensive extra-fine nib? Platinum brought back a version of their popular desk pen in the U.S. market this year. Base is sold separately.

9. Caran d’Ache Swiss Wood Gift Set. Personally, I think everyone should have a set of high-quality, long-lasting pencils in their stationery kit. This gift set from Caran d’Ache includes three Swiss Wood pencils, a sharpener + eraser. While Swiss Wood pencils are pricey, I’ve found that they last for years due to superior point retention.

10. Mitsubishi Hi-Uni 22 Pencil Set. Or perhaps you’d like a full set of extremely high-end Japanese pencils, in all of the various hardnesses available, for both writing and drawing?

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The T.G.S. “Aged Red” exclusive Penwell.

It's Pelikan Hubs Week! What They Are and How to Participate

Though Pen Show Season is for the most part over, there are still plenty of opportunities to gather with your friends and fellow pen enthusiasts, whether that’s a meeting of your local pen club, online pen forums, or attending this Friday’s Pelikan Hub! The Pelikan Hubs are a series of events held in cities around the world and sponsored by German pen manufacturer Pelikan to raise their brand awareness. In years past, Pelikan has provided each attendee with handful of free gifts, including a magazine, pad of paper, and - quite generously - a bottle of the latest special edition Edelstein ink. This year, Pelikan has opted not to ship the ink, due to rising shipping costs, but many of the “Hubmasters” (hosts) are organizing gift bags, giveaways and more. If you’re interested in learning whether there is a Hub in your area, Though signup has long passed, many of the Hubs still have space (including ours here in Nashville), and you can join the Facebook group to see if there is a hub in your area. Be sure to reach out to the Hubmaster before showing up on Friday, as some locations have limited capacity due to the location.

Interested in Participating in the Nashville-Area Hub? Contact Me

If you missed the sign-up and are still interested in attending the Nashville-area Pelikan Hub, please e-mail me at Joe (at) gentlemanstationer.com, or send me a message via the site. I think we will have adequate space for a few more people, and would love to have you attend even if you can only stop by for a few minutes.

I hope to see you there!

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

New In the Shop: Field Notes Return!

Just in time for the holidays, we’ve restocked on pocket notebooks from Field Notes, both in the 2022 Limited Editions as well as favorite standard editions such as the spiral bound “Front Page” and “Heavy Duty” editions. The “Front Page” is the standard release version of the “Byline” limited edition, which made its way into the standard lineup because so many people enjoyed using a classic reporter-style notebook. The “Heavy Duty” edition isn’t necessarily reporter-style - it’s more the size of a standard three-staple notebook - but the thick chipboard cover allows for easy writing on the go.

The favorite “Front Page” and “Heavy Duty” editions are back!

You can check out our full selection of Field Notes pocket notebooks here, which now includes the full lineup of recent collaborations and limited editions such as the “Underland” edition (which might be my favorite cover); the Great Lakes six pack, the debossed “Signs of Spring”, and the planner-focused “Ignition”.

Finally, I wanted to give a special shout to the Hatch Show Print collaboration, which I of course had to stock given that Hatch Show Print is a classic Nashville business. Each pack of Field Notes contains different letterpress covers by the team at Hatch - a nice complement to “United States of Letterpress”!

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of Field Notes and all other brands sold.