Sunday Reading for January 29, 2023

1. Monoc Monoc: Schon DSGN Monoc Nib Review (via Pen Addict - Kimberly). I just received my Monoc this week and couldn’t be happier with the experience. Kimberly does a great job of discussing the concept behind this nib and what to expect if you order one. I’m looking forward to seeing more of what Ian has in store for us!

2. An Avalanche of Mini Nib Grinds (via mnmlscholar). I’ve also ventured into the world of smaller, precise nib grinds, and it’s interesting to see which different grinds others have come up with.

3. Particulars: Blackwing Natural Pencil (via A Fleeting Ripple). The Blackwing Natural finish pencil is probably my favorite of their standard lineup, between the natural barrel and the extra-firm core with exceptional point retention.

4. It’s 2023, What Are We Using (via The Poor Penman). Lots of oldies as well as new goodies in this 2023 loadout from Paul. It’s great to see the Plotter Mini 5 getting more love, and I likewise don’t know what’s going on with Soumkine/Sumkin. The brand put out a blast e-mail over the summer and announced they were closing, but now they seem to be back… or maybe they’re liquidating old stock?

5. Kokuyo Campus High Grade (CYO-BO) Notebook Review (via Fountain Pen Love). I’ve wanted to try the Campus notebooks for some time, but haven’t properly understood Kokuyo’s paper quality system. I’m going to check out one of these.

6. Nine-Bespoke Pens Rosetta (via Dapprman). That material is gorgeous! Things you only discover in person at a pen show….

7. Currently Inked: Things Are Getting Out of Hand (via Writing at Large). I understand, believe me.

8. Hefty, Hefty, Hefty: The Rite in the Rain Mechanical Clicker Pencil (via From the Pen Cup). Mary and I apparently share a love for mechanical pencils with these big chunky 1.3mm leads. I’ve not seen this Rite in the Rain pencil before, and the leads come in 2B?

9. Meet Your Maker: Adolphus Smith, Darailpenz (via Pen Addict - Caroline). I had the pleasure of chatting at the Darailpenz table at last year’s Chicago Pen Show, and they have some stunning offerings, especially the stone pens.

10. Kamio Japan Paco-Tray Pen Case - Peanuts in Navy (via Well-Appointed Desk). Super cool idea to have a pen case that unfolds into a tray!

In Case You Missed It….

So this week I went entirely off-script from my “content plan” that I spent hours developing at the beginning of January, in favor of talking about nibs. Namely, I grew curious about people’s nib preferences in terms of fine, medium, broad, etc.; and then I received my Jinhao X159 in the mail with their new No. 8 nib and I had to write about that and all bets were off. Hope you enjoy!

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This week’s “Thursday Drops” post highlighted some quirky stationery favorites!

This Week in the T.G.S. Curated Shop - New Products and Restocks Are Rolling In!

It’s market season, meaning it’s that time of the year when retailers are bringing in new product lines and placing orders for all of the new releases that have been announced. Here’s what’s in so far:

• Yesterday we received a fresh shipment from WMS & Co, makers of shop favorites like our undated calendar desk pads. We also have the 175+ sheet notepads in additional colors, along with a new line of to-do list pads in the same paper as the undated calendars.

• More Clairefontaine and Rhodia products - including the Rhodia Composition Books! - will be arriving tomorrow to ship, and are currently listed and available for purchase.

• All colors of Anderillium inks are back in stock, including the 8-bottle sample sets in both the Avian and Cephalopod series.

• UPDATE: Monday marks the arrival of a bunch of new releases from Nahvalur, including their “Year of the Rabbit” limited edition featuring their new 14k nib! We have these in extremely limited quantities. We’ve also restocked on the Original Plus Vacuum-filler in all colors, and have added new versions of the Nautilus and the Nahvalur “Explorer” Inks!

Stay tuned as we have lots of great items on the way!

Anderillium Ink

Mr. Boddington

Lochby

Rhodia

Consider Supporting Us Via T.G.S. Patreon!

This year, I’m trying to be more visible and intentional with T.G.S. Patreon and how the support/membership program will expand in 2023 to include not only access to meetups and early gently used sales, but more exclusive content, including the potential return of Digital Divide. Patreon support starts as low as $3 per month, and if you pay annually there is a further discount. In addition to purchases from The Curated Shop, Patreon allows us to continue to grow the site without relying on advertisements and affiliate marketing. If you’re interested in meetups and exclusive content, or simply supporting the site, we greatly appreciate your support!

"Serious Nibbage": Do No. 8 Nibs Live Up to the Hype?

Every year, there are a couple of products that see their popularity soar unexpectedly, despite the fact that the’ve been around for a while. In 2022 - and continuing into 2023 - one of those product categories is the No. 8 fountain pen nib. For those unfamiliar with fountain pen nib sizing schemes, the size of the nib itself (as opposed to the tipping) is denoted by number. Different regions (or even brands) will use their own numbering so there is little overall consistency, but for purposes of this article, the generally accepted “standard” nib size is a No. 6 (i.e., your typical JoWo or Bock nib), with the larger No. 8 rapidly growing in both popularity and availability.

If what you’re looking for is a bouncy, wet writer, a Bock No. 8 titanium nib, like the one on the Kingsize Bulkfiller, will serve you well. You also don’t need to pay Conid prices to get one. They are available separately from many different sources and can be fitted to pens like the Schon Ultem, provided you have the appropriate section. More on that below.

Why Do People Like No. 8 Nibs So Much?

A No. 8 nib just looks different. Part of the appeal is the uniqueness factor. The experience of writing with a nibbed pen adds much of the charm to using a fountain pen in general, and the larger No. 8 nib is especially eye-catching. The first time you see a pen like the Montblanc 149 or the Pelikan M1000, what you notice is that giant gold nib. Other companies, like Conid, offer gold but increasingly the standard No. 8 nib for small-batch and custom makers seems to be the less expensive No. 8 Bock titanium nib, with a matte finish that pops in its own way.

A smoother writing experience. Many people who first recommended No. 8 nibs to me commented on how much smoother they feel, and to a certain extent they’re correct. I suspect that the “smoother” feel comes from the larger feed, which if tuned properly will deliver more ink, which in turn makes the nib write “wetter,” and a wet nib typically feels smoother than a dry one because it masks any rough spots on the tipping or tine misalignment. If you like wet nibs with a bouncier feel, you will probably enjoy Bock No. 8 titanium nibs, which deliver a lot of ink and provide some line variation.

More stability and control. Personally, I appreciate No. 8 nibs for the same reason that larger pens are growing on me: a greater degree of stability and control over my writing. The larger nib feels more precise in your hand, especially with a finer nib like the one on the Jinhao X159 discussed below.

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The pen on the left costs $1100. The pen on the right costs $12.50. As you can see, you don’t need to break the bank for the No. 8 writing experience.

Less Expensive No. 8 Nib Options Are Becoming More Widely Available

Currently, I have four No. 8 nibs in my collection: A Montblanc 149 with a broad nib (that writes more like a stub); a Montegrappa Extra 1930 with a medium nib; a Conid Kingsize Bulkfiller with a medium titanium nib (review forthcoming); and a Jinhao X159 that just arrived the other day. Of these four, the one that surprised me the most was the Jinhao. I love it when I discover extremely inexpensive pens that are fabulous writers, and while this stiff nail of a steel nib won’t give you the same wet writing experience or bouncy feel as the others discussed, for $12 I’m not sure you’re going to care. Because these larger Jinhao nib units are threaded and unscrew from the pen, I’ve heard that penmakers are starting to experiment with Jinhao-compatible sections, which will allow you to use these nibs in custom pens. Another less expensive option are the Magna Carta stainless steel nibs, which I’ve heard are compatible with the No. 8 sections made for the Schon DSGN Ultem pens. (UPDATE: See comments below, as people have had mixed success with Magna Carta. What I’ve heard is that the recent batch works with the Ultem pens, but YMMV.)

The Jinhao X159 writes a smooth, dark line. The writing experience offered by this pen punches FAR above its price point. The body of the pen does feel pretty inexpensive - even cheap (which it is), but the nib is superb.

Stay tuned for more No. 8 nib-specific content, specifically how these options all compare to one another. I’m planning on picking up some No. 8 sections for my Schon pens during this year’s pen show adventures, and I’m also looking forward to trying out the JoWo No. 8 nib, featured on the Edison Collier Grande.

Enjoy reading The Gentleman Stationer? We are supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon program. This post does not include paid advertising or third-party affiliate links.

Thursday Drops: Quirky Stationery Products That Are Surprisingly Practical

When you’re shopping to stock a store, you definitely don’t want to focus solely on what other people are carrying. You want to look for the fun and unusual items that are difficult to find elsewhere. By far, the most enjoyment I’ve had in running my little shop over the past few years comes from watching these types of finds catch on and the brands take off. Here are ten of my favorites! You can view these and more in the T.G.S. Curated Shop, and don’t forget to take advantage of the items on the Gently Used page, which can be combined with shop purchases to save on shipping.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

1. Opus 88 Minty Fountain Pen. You need to reward pen companies when they step outside the box a bit, and I feel like Opus did this with the Minty, particularly the color selections and the decorative banding on the cap and barrel finials. The Minty remains one of my favorite Opus releases from the past couple of years.

2. Mazzuoli Nobile Italia Ballpoint Pen/Mechanical Pencil. This historical airship-inspired writing instrument features two different options: a Parker-style ballpoint pen refill (three different colors of Schmidt Easyflow 9000 refills are included) or a Schmidt .7mm mechanical pencil insert. The shape is perfectly ergonomic, and comes in four attractive finishes.

3. Highide Attaché Marbled Fountain Pen. Pocketable fountain pens that post to a full-size writing instrument have become the rage lately, and Japanese stationery company Hightide has released their own contribution. This well-priced cartridge/converter pen features a nice fine nib and comes in several attractive colors.

4. Kokuyo Mark+ Dual-tone Highlighter. Ever since these arrived, I’ve been carrying a full set of each color in my bag. I’m a serial highlighter, and the ability to emphasize important material by using a darker tone of ink is incredibly useful.

5. Crayons de la Maison Caran d’Ache, Edition No. 10. The tenth release of Swiss stationer Caran d’Ache’s signature pencil set features four of my favorite finishes: blue, green, and two different natural wood tones.

6. TWSBI Swipe Fountain Pen in Salmon. The TWSBI Swipe is unique in and of itself, but what makes this particular pen fun is the color. A true pinkish-orange (well, “Salmon”), it sort of evokes the tone of the Opus 88 Minty.

7. Midori MD A4 Notebooks and Covers. A5 notebooks are everywhere, but A4? They’re a bit harder to come by, especially in bound formats. Not only does the Midori MD notebook come in a blank A4 format, but there are undyed leather and Japanese paper cover options available as well.

8. Lochby Venture Pouch. Tired of carrying both a stationery pouch AND a traditional zippered, slotted pen case? Lochby’s Venture Pouch combines both into one convenient format.

9. Midori MD Multi-Year Diaries. While the 5-Year Diary has been popular for a long time, did you know that Midori also makes a whopping 10-year version? If 5 or 10 years is too intimidating, what about the 3-Year Diary?

10. Midori MD A5 Natural Undyed Leather Sleeve. Most people are familiar with Midori’s natural undyed leather journal covers, but they also make leather pouches and sleeves designed to hold not just an A5 notebooks, but pens and other stationery items.

What's the Most Popular Nib Size? By a Wide Margin, It's Fine or Medium.

Sorry broad-nib lovers, but the numbers don’t lie.* You may have noticed that I’ve been doing some surveys lately, both via Patreon and via Instagram, and it’s for several reasons. First of all, I’m always curious about people’s preferences and what they use for their everyday writing. Second, I’ve noticed that as many as 65% of the pens I sell are fines and mediums. If that holds as true, my buying strategy of stocking up on equal numbers of all nib sizes probably isn’t the best idea, especially as I bring in more pen lines and invest in more expensive inventory. So I posed the question: If you’re purchasing a pen to use unmodified, in one of the “default” nib sizes of extra-fine, fine, medium, broad, or stub, what size do you prefer?

Here are the results (which as of the time of writing are still preliminary on Instagram, but overall consistent with data I’ve seen elsewhere so I have no problems going ahead and posting my conclusions):

• On T.G.S. Patreon, 75% of respondents chose fine or medium. The other 25% chose broad, stub, or wider (if available). Surprisingly, nobody chose extra-fine.

• On Instagram, as of the time of writing, 63% chose fine or medium. 16% chose broad or wider, and 21% chose extra-fine. The Instagram results are probably more reflective of the community at large, as it’s a bigger sample size.

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More mediums and more fines. Based on a survey of my own collection and what nibs I currently have in most of my pens, I seem to be pretty “average” in terms of what I use on an everyday basis.

As I noted above, anyone with rudimentary training in statistics could find multiple ways to criticize this poll, and it’s neither intended to be scientific nor taken completely seriously. When I posed the question, I also framed it around “stock” nibs that are generally universal across brands, as there’s a lot of variation between different companies’ in-house nibs. But let me say this: the results of this poll are 100% consistent with what I see going out the door in my shop, so at a minimum the responses are a pretty accurate reflection of the nib preferences of The Gentleman Stationer readership. One of the fun parts of being a retailer is having a bit of insight into what people actually buy, as opposed to what gets the attention on blogs, social media, and podcasts. If you follow pen-related social media at all, you might be forgiven for thinking that most true fountain pen enthusiasts write only with broad nibs or stubs - nibs that lay as much ink as possible on the page - or microscopically small needlepoints. While many people certainly enjoy having a few unusual nibs in their collection, those of us who are forced to go out into the word and write on what passes for “office paper” these days recognize that’s not a sustainable approach to modern life.

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For me, it’s medium nibs all around, and I have never had any issues having a medium nib ground into a cursive italic or stub (like the Franklin-Christoph medium S.I.G. nib on the left).

Personally, I default to purchasing pens with medium nibs. A medium is broad enough to show off ink without soaking a page of copy paper, and usually still has enough tipping to support a nib grind. That said, I have so many medium nibs in my collection - including handfuls of loose JoWo and Bock nib units - that I’ve recently taken to purchasing broad or double-broad nibs solely for the purpose of accumulating a ready stock of nibs for modification. Nahvalur nibs in particular have a LOT of tipping, so if you’re purchasing a pen with the specific intention of getting a specialty nib grind, keep that in mind. In San Francisco, I had C.Y. of Tokyo Station Pens modify my Double-Broad Nahvalur Nautilus into a Naginata-style grind, with an excellent result.

I’m still interested in hearing directly from readers: What factors do you consider when selecting a nib? Why do you prefer one nib size over another? Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail!

Disclaimer: The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. This post does not contain paid advertisements or third-party affiliate links.

Spotlight on Midori MD Notebook Journals: A Wealth of Versatile Formats

So far this year, posts on journaling have received a lot of traffic (and comments!), and journals are flying out the door in the shop. It’s encouraging and gratifying to see so many people enjoying analog journaling, and even if I haven’t been able to respond directly to all of your comments, I’ve enjoyed reading them, especially the comments discussing all of your journaling styles, methods, and prompts.

I can see myself using the Grid-Block Notebook Journal as a Planner: you will have eight “boxes” on two pages facing one another, so you can use a box per day plus a section for notes or a bullet list?

While we carry a lot of notebooks appropriate for journaling (and pretty much any notebook can be made to work as a journal), the Midori MD system is the most popular. In addition to the standard MD “notebooks” in lined, grid, and blank formats, Midori also sells A5 notebooks that they bill as “Notebook Journals,” which come in different layouts that many find helpful for creative journaling. Of course, the dot-grid version is a favorite (and probably our overall top-selling Midori MD Notebook), but the A5 “Frame” version is also popular with those who draw, paint, or paste in photographs and other mementos. The newly arrived A5 “Grid Block” notebook is the most interesting to me, as it divides each page of grid ruled paper into four quadrants. The Midori MD Notebook Journals are the same size as the standard A5 MD Notebook, so they are compatible with Midori MD Covers and other accessories.

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Traveler’s Company Brass Index Clips and other Traveler’s Company/Midori Accessories enable you to organize your journals and notebooks.

Of course, for those who journal regularly and want a true day-to-a-page notebook in a single volume that will stand alone by year, the Midori MD Codex will remain the gold standard. We have Codex journals in both Dot Grid and Blank formats, along with the clear plastic covers. (Note that the Codex journals do NOT fit the standard MD Paper or Leather covers, which are intended for the slimmer MD Notebooks and Notebook Journals.) You can check out our full range of Midori paper offerings here, in addition to matching pens and pencils.

The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold, including Midori and Traveler’s Company.