Thursday Drops: Everything You Need to Build Your Perfect Desk Setup

Since I’ve been on leave, I’ve spent much of the past week working on my house - including my office space and desk. It’s shocking how easily our workspaces can become cluttered by default, as we accumulate tools, gear, and other items unless we consciously bring some degree of intentionality to our personal space. For today’s Thursday Drops post, I’ve included five desk accessories that live on my own writing desk, and which (not coincidentally) have served as foundational items for the Curated Shop. As we are well on our way into back-to-work and back-to-school season, and on the cusp of the holidays, these all make excellent gifts for either yourself or others!

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The 2023 Inkvent Calendars are here, and they’re limited!

Finally, I’ve included some recent arrivals in the shop, including the 2023 Diamine Inkvent Calendars that we are stocking for the first time ever! For details on how you can get some of the new T.G.S. stickers and other promotional items included with your order, visit our post from earlier this week.

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

1. Hightide Co. Sandglasses. I know that I harp on the value of an analog timer, but it’s something I feel strongly about. I’ve moved my phone charger off my desk and across the room, and have mostly replaced any “alarm clock” needs with something visual like a 30-minute Sandglass. Read more on these and how you can incorporate them here.

2. High-quality Sharp Scissors. After my pens, scissors are probably my most frequently used desk accessory. From opening packages and breaking down boxes to cutting tape and snippets of paper to paste in my journals, a good pair of sharp, precision scissors is essential.

3. Pen Trays. Whether you want to invest in something simple like the Melamine trays we stock in the shop, or something special and handcrafted from a company like Toyooka Craft or a Penwell Pen Holder, having a dedicated space to park your writing instruments not only makes the workspace look cleaner, but it also helps prevent pens from getting lost.

4. Folding Book Stands. As someone who handwrites notes and then incorporates them into typed work product, a folding stand that can hold a notebook, notepad, or even an electronic tablet is extremely helpful. One of these is always on my workspace, and another in my bag to travel with me on the go.

5. Landscape Writing Pads or Notebooks. I always keep a landscape-style writing pad close at hand, typically under my keyboard, so that I can jot down notes and thoughts while at my computer.

6. 2023 Diamine Inkvent Calendar. This popular take on the traditional Advent Calendar features 24 12ml bottles of unique ink colors, plus a 25th 30ml bottle to open on the 25th day! I’m going to be “playing along” this year for the first time, and very much looking forward to the experience.

7. 2024 Traveler’s Notebook Diary Refills. The 2024 refills are here, so if you’re looking for a calendar for either your Standard or Passport-sized Traveler’s Notebook, we have you covered. We also have limited stock of the 2023 limited edition accessories, including folders and pencil boards.

8. Olive Traveler’s Notebook Restock. This year’s new addition to the lineup is the popular Olive cover, previously a limited edition. We have additional notebooks in stock in both sizes.

9. Clairefontaine French-Ruled Clothbound Notebooks. These long-time favorites are back in stock, in both A5 and A4. To answer the burning question - YES, French-ruled looseleaf sheets are on order, though I do not have an ETA.

10. T.G.S. Coasters, Stickers, and Pins. Our latest run of TGS “Swag” is in stock and available, including a new acrylic pin and a multi-pack of TGS goods. I hope you enjoy!

The Best Paper for Everyday Writing, Part VI: Legal Pads

While I had originally envisioned “The Best Paper for Everyday Writing” as a five-part series, based on reader questions, I thought it made sense to expand it to include a stand-alone article on “Legal Pads”. I’ve placed the term in quotation marks because it’s regularly used to describe several very different types of stationery, ranging from the traditional 8.5” by 14” U.S. “legal-sized” pad of paper to any writing pad that is glue-bound on top and features detachable perforated sheets. I use the broader definition, since in my experience as an attorney fewer and fewer people are using actual legal-sized paper each year, and most of the legal pads I see in everyday practice now feature either letter (8.5” x 11”) or A4 (8.3” x 11.7”) sizing.

The main question I get from readers is very straightforward: What is the best fountain pen friendly legal pad available today? The answer, however, is NOT so obvious, because people prioritize different things. For example, many office workers will churn through a lot of legal pads (think three or four per week), so they look for the least expensive option with acceptable fountain pen performance. I don’t go through as many pads as I used to, so I no longer take this approach myself. Therefore, I’m not up to date on which Amazon or eBay brand of inexpensive legal pad is currently using decent paper - batch performance tends to change from year to year or even month to month. I tend to stick with slightly more expensive paper that delivers consistent performance with fountain pens, rollerballs, and fineliners, and that is how I’ll approach this post.

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In my mind, a classic “legal pad” has to allow you to easily fold sheets over the top, and feature a backing board sturdy enough to permit notetaking while standing up. In order to write on both sides of the page, you will have to tear the page out (hence, perforations).

My Favorite Fountain Pen Friendly Legal Pads

1. Clairefontaine “Pupitre” Writing Tablets. My long-time favorite for a legal-style writing pad remains the classic Clairefontaine “Pupitre” series. Available in A4 and A5 sizes, this durable writing pad is both glue and staple-bound across the top, and features a wrap-around cover in addition to a thick chipboard back for maximum durability and ease of use while standing. The combination of paper quality and high-end construction has kept this pad at the top of my list for many years, and I can’t recall a time when I didn’t have at least three of these in my office desk.

2. Rhodia A4 Dot Pads. The reliable Rhodia Pad can be found pretty much anywhere these days, including in big-box art supply and craft stores, so they get extra points for availability when you may not have a brick-and-mortar pen store nearby and need quality paper quickly. Also, when I’m looking for dot grid paper, which can easily be turned sideways to use in a “landscape” orientation, Rhodia is my go-to. Of course, Rhodia pads are available in other rulings and a wide range of sizes. I place them at No. 2 on this list, essentially tied with Maruman Mnemosyne, for the same reasons discussed below.

3. Maruman Mnemosyne A4 Pads. Basically, Maruman Mnemosyne pads tie with Rhodia after Clairefontaine in my book, with Clairefontaine given the edge due to the slightly sturdier build. Rhodia edges out Mnemosyne based on availability. That said, Mnemosyne paper is excellent quality, and if you enjoy having a dedicated space for a header at the top of the page, their layout makes it very easy to organize your notes. Maruman also makes a range of portfolios/padholders across a range of price points, including both PVC and vegan leather options.

4. Write Notepads Memo Pads. Featuring excellent paper and versatile layouts that include a “Meeting” format, these memo pads are sold in packs of two and therefore also offer good value. While the Write Memo Pads have a backing board, they don’t have a cover like the first three pads on this list, so they’re not quite as durable for portable use, but I’ve absolutely used them in a portfolio. Note that these are letter-sized (8.5” x 11”) and not A4.

5. Plotter A4 Pads. DesignPhil’s proprietary paper is exceptionally fountain pen friendly, but the A4 writing pad itself is (1) tailored toward users of the Plotter system, and (2) suffers from durability issues that will keep most people from using this as an everyday legal pad. You can use the Plotter A4 pads in either traditional “portrait” or “landscape” mode (i.e., horizontally or vertically), and the paper comes hole-punched for an A5 Plotter binder along the top edge. Because A5 is exactly half the size of A4, you can simply fold the sheet in half (or do a tri-fold) to carry with you in your binder. As a fairly heavy Plotter user, I’ve been experimenting with one of these pads in my A4 Roterfaden, and the primary drawback is that the pad doesn’t have a sturdy backing board or binding and falls apart fairly easily. This product appears to be designed primarily with desk use in mind, where you tear the sheets out one by one as you use them.

Honorable Mention: Midori MD and MD Cotton Writing Pads

Intended more as a desk pad than a traditional legal pad, the Midori MD and MD Cotton pads are glue bound on two sides (crosswise and lengthwise), which ensures the paper lies flat and prevents “curling” of pages as you get to the end of a pad. I include these as honorable mention because, while you can’t use them easily in a portfolio or padholder without breaking the binding, they are excellent pads of paper and can absolutely be used to take legal pad-style notes as necessary.

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Thick backing boards on the Clairefontaine Pupitre (top), the Write Notepads Memo Pad (middle), and Maruman Mnemosyne (bottom).

Further Reading

To catch up on the rest of the “Best Paper for Everyday Writing” series, check out our “Best Paper” Resource Page. I may need to do yet another post in the series in response to several reader requests for recommendations on pads for letter writing and written correspondence, which is an entirely different category (though again there may be some overlap). Stay tuned!

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 third-party advertising or affiliate links.

Curated Shop Updates: Christmas in October, and the BEST (or, My Favorite) Legal Pads

Several giant boxes welcomed me back from vacation, despite my best efforts to slowly ramp things back up! This week’s big announcement is the arrival of the 2023 Diamine Inkvent Calendar, which is in-stock and available to ship immediately. A big goal of mine going forward is to have more fun with pens and ink, so I’m planning to play along with Inkvent this year. Starting in December, I’ll be doing some sort of daily reveal of that day’s “Inkvent” color. (For those of you unfamiliar with Diamine’s now-annual tradition, the Inkvent Calendar is their take on the traditional Advent Calendar, only instead of chocolate, etc., the “window” for each day contains one of 24 12ml bottles of ink, plus a larger 30ml bottle on the 25th day.)

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Clairefontaine Writing Pads, Huge Multi-Subject Notebooks, and More

I know what you’re all going to say - I just can’t get away from this lawyer thing, can I? But as you’ll read about in tomorrow’s blog post, one of the most common questions I get asked is for a recommendation on a decent legal-style writing pad. A personal favorite, in terms of both performance and cost-effectiveness, are the Clairefontaine “Pupitre” tablets, which come in both A5 and A4 sizes. (In addition to classic glue-bound pads, we also carry a top-bound spiral version of the Pupitre.) Finally, we now carry the BIG version of the Clairefontaine multi-subject notebook, featuring four different sections of colored Clairefontaine Paper - a whopping 112 sheets/224 pages.

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New T.G.S. Stickers and Pins Are Available, and Details on Our October Promotion!

Three large pen shows in two months cleaned me out of T.G.S. Promotional items, including the stickers and buttons I normally carry. A major restock trickled in over the past five days, and we now have “Swag Packs” on offer once again, which include one coaster, a large 3” sticker, a smaller 2” holographic sticker, a button, and an acrylic pin featuring the T.G.S. Logo. (The acrylic TGS pins are available individually.) Patreon Members should check the program feed this week, as I’ll be posting some additional information - certain long-term supporters will be receiving Swag Packs automatically!

Also, starting today, certain orders placed this month will receive some of these new stickers and pins automatically as follows - no coupon code required:

• Orders over $150 will receive a complimentary Acrylic Pin AND either a holographic sticker or one of the large 3” stickers, depending on availability.

• Orders that qualify for free shipping ($75+) will receive one of the holographic stickers or one of the large 3” stickers.

• All other orders will receive a free TGS button or 2” sticker!

Many thanks for all your support!

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases through the TGS Curated Shop, and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of all brands sold.

Sunday Reading for October 15, 2023

1. Method and Mayhem: The YosekaLab Planner (via A Gathering of Curiosities). A deep dive into a few of the different options available in the YosekaLab “experimental” planner. I love the idea behind this product.

2. Hooray for Workhorse Fountain Pens (via Cheryl Lindo Jones). There are many different interpretations of the term “workhorse pen”, and you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get a pen that you can carry with you everywhere and use every day.

3. Spicing Up Old M and B Nibs (via mnmlscholar). Given that I have so many “standard” JoWo and Bock nibs, whenever I order a pen featuring one of these interchangeable nib units I typically order a Medium or a Broad for this same purpose - to maintain a healthy stock of nibs for grinding.

4. Bullet Journaling: Dot Pads (via Stationery Pizza). There are top-ring-bound Rhodia Dot Pads? I need to find these.

5. Pros and Cons of the Ultrasonic Cleaner (via Goodwriterspens Blog). I don’t use my ultrasonic cleaner as much as I used to, but I do find it quite helpful for certain pens where the section and feed have lots of nooks and crannies where ink can get stuck, or for pens that aren’t easy to disassemble.

6. The London Autumn Pen Show, 2023: My Haul (via Fountain Pen Blog). A Parker 61 capillary filler? Maybe a new goal for the upcoming Ohio Pen Show?

7. 2023 Autumn London Pen Show (via Rachel’s Reflections). The London Pen Show seems like an outstanding, well-run event. The idea of a one-day show intrigues me.

8. October London Pen Show Selling Experience (via Dapprman). Taking a table at a pen show to sell part of your own collection is an excellent way to (mostly) pay for the cost of attending, and you also get the benefit of meeting all the people who come by to visit your table!

9. Yamamoto Paper’s Fountain Pen Friendly Paper Collection, Volume 7 Review (via Pen Addict - Kimberly). These Yamamoto Paper samplers are an excellent way to experience rarer Japanese papers before splurging on a large-quantity purchase.

10. Pen Review: Pilot FriXion Ball3 Slim 3-Color Multi-Pen (via Well-Appointed Desk). Don’t sleep on the Frixion! (Sorry Pilot, the “FriXion”.) As Ana points out, it can be extremely convenient to be able to erase gel ink, especially in a professional context.

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Sometimes it’s ok to just dock the boat for a week.

In Case You Missed It…

I was on vacation this week! I actually managed to take some real time off, so new posts were kept to a minimum, though I did finish and post this longer discussion of what pens and notebooks I took with me on my travels and why I decided to leave these specific pens inked up. I also recapped this year’s pen travels and talk a bit more about remaining pen shows in 2023.

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This Week in the T.G.S. Curated Shop - More Clairefontaine!

The big news from this week was the arrival of Clairefontaine clothbound notebooks. I purchased a HUGE amount of these, since they have been a popular seller and inexplicably became a bit difficult to source this year. Our selection of this workhorse paper, as well as other papers and planners like Laconic, will continue to expand, so stay tuned! We’re also working on a larger Roterfaden restock, though we have at least one in each size available to ship immediately. Once again, we truly appreciate all of you who placed orders while we were away, since it’s scary to walk away from your shop even for a week without the (admittedly irrational) fear that the business will disappear overnight without constant attention. Your orders have started to ship and my goal is to get them all out the door by tomorrow.

Diamine Inkvent Calendar

Clairefontaine

Traveler's Refills 2023

Laconic Tokyo

Patreon Update - Support T.G.S. via Sample Sales, Early Access, and Meetups with Special Guests!

If you’re interested in further supporting T.G.S., consider joining the T.G.S. Patreon, which features not only access to meetups and the early gently used sales, but more exclusive content. 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 pledge!

Back from Vacation! Recapping The Year In Pen Show Travel, Upcoming Shows, Etc.

Since we are back in town today, any orders placed over the past week should start shipping out this afternoon, and you will see labels and tracking numbers being generated over the weekend. Remember - all orders placed in the shop through 11:59pm Sunday (10/15) will receive some of the new/restocked T.G.S. Swag that I recently ordered! Many thanks for continuing to support us while we were out on this much-needed break!

To recap 2023 a bit: I attended a lot of pen shows! If you’ve missed reading about my year in pen-related travels the first time around, I’ve linked to most of my show recaps below.

• NY NOW and Shoppe Object (Trade Show, not a Pen Show, but it was still fun!).

• 2023 Baltimore Pen Show

• 2023 Arkansas Pen Show

• 2023 Atlanta Pen Show

• 2023 Washington, D.C. Fountain Pen Supershow

• 2023 San Francisco Pen Show

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Maybe I’m looking forward to hunting more vintage in Ohio?

I don’t currently plan on doing any additional shows as a vendor this year, though as I mentioned I may attend the Ohio Pen Show during the first weekend of November. Other shows taking place during October include the Colorado Pen Show (this weekend!) and the Detroit Pen Show next weekend (October 20-22, 2023). The Scriptus show also takes place in Toronto on October 29. You still have several opportunities to get a pen show in before things shut down in November and December. Stay tuned as I will continue to be off from the day job through the first week of November, and have a bunch of fun content planned!