Friday Drops: New Platinum Preppy Wa Edo-Monogatami, Colorverse Colorvent Top 3, and More Viarco!

This week’s Drops post is a bit late, and it’s because I had to spend yesterday listing a bunch of new inventory as it arrived. New arrivals include the latest Platinum Preppy Wa “Modern Maki-e” series, dubbed “Edo-Monogatami” and themed around various aspects of life during Japan’s Edo period. (You may recall that the Taccia Ukiyo-e fountain pen inks reflect Edo period art, so consider whether these pens and inks might be a good match!)

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After a somewhat lengthy wait, we also have the much-anticipated Colorverse “Top 3” inks from the 2024 Colorvent Calendar, and the three colors chosen were Christmas Star, Pulsar Pulse, and Milky Way. You can purchase a set containing three 15ml bottles (one of each color) plus four complementary washi tapes, or you can purchase a standard 65ml bottle of individual colors. Finally, we have the new Lamy AL-Star pens and pencils highlighted in Tuesday’s post, as well as a full Viarco pencil restock.

Another reason why it’s been a bit quiet here recently - in addition to Pen Show travel - is that we are expanding our store! Next week we will be taking over a larger showroom to create dedicated viewing and shopping space (though we will still have our current location as our warehouse, office, and event space, and it will likely be some time before the new space is open.) Come see us this week on Thursday and Friday from 1-6pm, as well as Saturday from 10am-6pm, so you can see all of these and more in-person!

1. Platinum Preppy Wa “Modern Maki-e” Edo-Monogatami Special Editions. All of the most recent Platinum “Modern Maki-e” releases are now available, themed around life in Japan’s Edo period.

2. Colorverse Colorvent “Top 3” Ink Sets and Bottles. We knew it was coming, but Colorverse has finally released the Top 3 inks from the Colorvent Calendar, available either in a set of three 15ml ink bottles with matching washi tape, or as individual 65ml bottles.

3. Lamy AL-Star Dark Dusk and Mint Special Editions. The latest Lamy AL-Star pens and pencils have landed, in two new green and blue colorways.

4. Laurett’s Ebonite Ballpoint Pens and Mechanical Pencils. I picked up several of these Laurett’s machined ebonite ballpoints and mechanical pencils at the D.C. Pen Show after visiting the Laurett’s table. The combination of precision knurling and ebonite is unlike anything I’ve seen before.

5. Archer & Olive Traveler-sized Notebooks. These A5 Slim hardcover notebooks have proven popular so we are likely going to bring in additional sizes, as well as more of the Traveler’s-size notebooks.

6. Viarco Pencil Restock! We spent most of yesterday afternoon listing a half-dozen different varieties of Viarco pencils and accessories, including all of the standard office pencils in HB and B hardnesses as well as the vintage series. Oh, and…

7. Viarco Pencil Caps. Pencil caps are back! These simple metal spring-style pencil caps protect your long-point-sharpened wood pencils in transit. Available in the boxes of 8 or larger packs of 20.

8. Blackwing Volume 140 Pencils. We have some remaining stock of the latest Blackwing Volumes release, inspired by stainless steel cookware and the Maillard Reaction. These are very nice looking pencils, and there are also high-quality recipe cards to pair with the release.

9. Faber-Castell Perfect Pencil. The Perfect Pencil is back! We have the more reasonably priced version, which you won’t be afraid to carry and use as intended, as an everyday sharpener and pencil extender.

10. Faber-Castell Grip Trio Sharpener in New Colors. The Grip Trio pencil sharpener allows you to sharpen standard, jumbo, and colored pencils, and now comes in three new colors.

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And yes, we’ve added to our selection of Bicolor annotation pencils!

Pen Show Resources: What To Do At A Pen Show, and How Do You Prepare? (Plus a Further Roterfaden Update)

We’re entering a busy stretch for pen shows, even though the 2025 D.C. Pen Show is in the books! Later this month we have the San Francisco Pen Show (August 29-31), and after that Orlando, Commonwealth (Boston), and Dallas in September. (Check out the full calendar here.) Many of you have shared that you are planning on attending your first show and have asked for some “pen show prep” posts. I’ve done a bunch of these over the years, and need to pull them together onto one page, but they tend to need very little updating as the show experience has remained surprisingly consistent.

To start, I generally link back to a series of “Pen Show Primer” articles I’ve written including Volume 1: Why Visit a Pen Show; Volume 2: Getting Ready for a Pen Show; and Volume 3: Tips for Surviving the Pen Show. While these particular articles have some age on them, I stand by pretty much all of the advice. (You’ll also note that “get a good pen show bag” has remained consistently high on the list of tips for a positive pen show experience, along with “take breaks” if you can.) For those looking for information on nib grinds, earlier this year I did a YouTube video walking through a nib grind I had done by Matthew Chen at this year’s Arkansas Pen Show.

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Be sure to build plenty of “browsing time” into you pen show schedule.

A Quick Update on Upcoming Shows and Roterfaden Restocks

I will be teaming up with Vanness Pens once again at the upcoming San Francisco Pen Show, helping at the table and with various seminars and discussion panels. There won’t be a “T.G.S. Table,” but I may have some exclusive items available at the show through Vanness, including any remaining Roterfaden Taschenbegleiters from shipments scheduled to arrive in the next two weeks. The initial shipment should arrive next week, and it will contain a restock of A6, B6, B5, A5, and A4 sizes. I do have another order of the A5 Slim TGS_25 special editions on the way, which I expect to have in hand before San Francisco provided there are no delays. Many people have e-mailed asking whether they can reserve, prepay, or receive an e-mail notifying them when they are available. Unfortunately, due to the volume of messages, I am no longer able to respond individually, and I cannot promise pre-sale or prepayment opportunities because I do not know how much lead time we will have and I generally am uncomfortable taking money until I know international shipments have cleared customs. I will be posting updates in the Patreon (members will have some stock set aside for first refusal), here on the blog a few days prior to the launch, and via the T.G.S. mailing list. I will try to give everyone as much advanced notice as possible, but due to the small-batch nature of the product, it’s possible that there won’t be enough to meet demand, and if that’s the case I will try for a third shipment.

Come see us in person, either at a show or at our spot in Nashville! We will be open this week from 1-6pm Thursday and Friday and from 10am-6pm Saturday.

New Lamy Safari and AL-Star Pens: Introducing Dark Dusk and Mint!

This year has been a good one for Lamy Safari and AL-Star special releases, especially fans of the midnight blue “Dark Dusk” color that keeps making appearances across multiple color lines. In addition to the “Dark Dusk” and “Sunset” Safaris, Lamy has now released the “Dark Dusk” and “Mint” AL-Stars in fountain pen, rollerball, ballpoint, and mechanical pencil formats!

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The Mint looks good, but Dark Dusk is my favorite. Shown here as a mechanical pencil.

In addition to new AL-Star Formats, the Dark Dusk and Pink color schemes from this year’s Safari releases have now made their way into Lamy’s “econ” ballpoint line, with two new additions now available. Like the Safari and AL-Star, the Lamy econ ballpoint pens take Lamy’s M16-style ballpoint refill, as well as the Uni Jetstream M17 refill. The econ is a relatively recent entry into Lamy’s lineup, and is a great choice for those who prefer a pen with a round section.

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New Lamy econ Special Editions

Come see these and more in person! We will be open this week in our Nashville location, from 1-6pm Thursday and Friday and from 10am-6pm Saturday.

Sunday Reading for August 10, 2025

1. What’s Inside This Mystery Stationery Box? (via dwrdnet). Derek unpacks our second curated stationery box, available quarterly via our Patreon (though this time we had a couple left over so at least one non-Patreon member got to grab one). If there’s enough demand we will expand and open it up a bit in the future.

2. 2025 Washington D.C. Fountain Pen Supershow (via Olive Octopus). Lisa has a very comprehensive D.C. recap, and she brought back a lot of fun stuff. I missed the NFP Designs table so it was interesting to see some of their newer designs up close.

3. 2025 D.C. Pen Show (via Rachel’s Reflections). That’s quite the D.C. Pen Show haul!

4. BUNGUBOX: Their Fountain Pens (via Inky.Rocks). I missed getting to see the Bungubox table at the D.C. show but look forward to visiting them in San Francisco.

5. Vintage Journal Ethics (via Notebook Stories). This isn’t something I’ve ever thought much about, and I also had no idea that people were selling other people’s old journals online? I like the idea in the comments about adopting pseudonyms for yourself/others in your journals and personal writing.

6. Chopping Block (via Line Variation). Sometimes you have to thin the accumulation. What process do you use to think through what to keep and what to let go?

7. Visit to Hands (Suntec Outlet) in Singapore (via Inkredible Colours). The fact that this isn’t even a true stationery store, and still has a selection like this, is incredible.

8. Dominant Industry Takasago Ink Swatch Paper Review (via Pen Addict - Kimberly). There’s a plethora of ink swatch cards and paper tools on the market these days, from brands like Col-o-Ring, Dominant Industries, and Iroful.

9. Ink Review: Wearingeul Wafarer (via Well-Appointed Desk). I’m not usually a shimmer ink fan, but the subtle Wayfarer is one that finds its way into my rotation semi-regularly.

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In Case You Missed It…

I spent most of this week recovering/getting caught up from the D.C. Pen Show, which I recapped on Wednesday. Yesterday I published a post on a topic that I’ve been thinking on for some time, and which has been the subject of several reader requests: my current favorite pencils. Note that my “favorites” posts are different than my “recommendations”, the latter of which focus much more on pens and pencils that might appeal to a broader audience as opposed to my specific needs. Check those out here.

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Iroful has come out with a set of 100 Ink Cards, perfect for sampling and swatching inks.

This Week in the T.G.S. Curated Shop: New LAMY AL-Stars!

The big news from this week is that the 2025 Lamy AL-Star releases (“Dark Dusk” and “Mint”) arrived over the weekend. Personally, my favorite is the Dark Dusk, as it’s a gorgeous deep purple blue worthy of its namesake. We also added knurled ebonite ballpoints from Laurett’s, a Japanese company that specializes in precision machining. Matching mechanical pencils are also available. On the paper side, we have Traveler’s-sized hardcover notebooks from Archer & Olive, as well as Iroful Planner-punched paper in Bible, Mini, and Mini 5 sizes.

Store hours for this coming week will be as normal! We will be open in-store Thursdays and Fridays from 1-6pm, and Saturday from 10am-6pm. We hope to see you in Nashville.

Laurett's

Lamy

Iroful

Kutsuwa Sharpeners

Consider Further Supporting T.G.S.!

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My Favorite Pencils: 2025 Edition

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve published any sort of “Favorite Pencils” list - lately many of you have been reminding me of this fact - so it’s time to revisit what is probably my second-most-used category of writing instruments. For purposes of this list, I’m going to mix woodcase and mechanical pencils to actually reflect what I’ve been using on a daily basis.

Note that this list is not intended to be a “Best Pencils” recommendation list, though I think all of these are very good. If you’re looking to get into quality writing pencils for the first time, check out our “Best Pens” Guide (which has a “Pencils” section). Today’s post is more of a discussion of what I personally have been enjoying, which is not necessarily what I would recommend to someone else.

1. Lamy CP1 “Twin Pen.” I’ve only recently discovered this 2-stage “multi pen” that combines a .5mm mechanical pencil with one D1 ballpoint. It’s an interesting format, and one that I’ve been using more around the shop. It lets you switch quickly between a pen and pencil, and since there’s only one pen option, there’s no paralysis-of-choice with respect to which ink color you’re going to use.

2. Camel Pencils. While the integrated eraser is cool, the two main reasons I love Camel pencils for everyday writing are (1) the relatively dark, not overly-smooth graphite and (2) the rounded hex barrel and smooth clear lacquer, which makes this pencil incredibly comfortable to hold. I also still have a personal stash of an old C.W. Pencil Enterprise 2B exclusive, which features a round barrel.

3. Blackwing Matte (i.e., “The Original,” MMX, "Black”). The original “new” Blackwing remains my favorite, even over the Blackwing 602. While the closest graphite equivalent is a 4B grade, the Blackwing Matte is remarkably non-smeary for a pencil this dark and I use it for writing in addition to sketching. Blackwing has also recently released red and green-barrel versions, and the soft core has been incorporated periodically into the Volumes series.

4. Pilot S20 .5mm Mechanical Pencil. I’ve raved about the S20 ballpoint, but I’ve only recently been able to get my hands on the mechanical pencil version. Both have the same “inverted hourglass” silhouette, which molds to my hand. The S20 Ballpoint and S20 Mechanical Pencil are rapidly becoming almost as critical to my everyday carry rotation as the Lamy 2000 fountain pen and Multi Pen.

5. Uni Kuru Toga KS or Alpha Gel Switch. I’ve tried the more expensive versions of Uni’s flagship mechanical pencil, like the Kuru Toga Dive, but I keep going back to the basic (and inexpensive) Kuru Toga KS and Alpha Gel models because I don’t have to worry about misplacing them around the house and the shop, or when I travel. While not a necessity, the Kuru Toga’s lead-rotation mechanism ensures that the point wears evenly, which not only keeps the lead sharp but reduces breakage. As I’ll discuss further below, I’ve been experimenting with softer mechanical pencil leads up to 4B, so this has come in handy.

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Why the move towards mechanical pencils? A lot of it has to do with convenience. As I’m moving around the shop, checking inventory, working on purchase orders/accounting, etc., it’s easier to work in pencil, and sometimes I don’t want to stop to manually sharpen a woodcase pencil. Though I tend to prefer darker graphite, I’ve brought in some mechanical pencil leads in softer grades. Currently, I probably wouldn’t recommend anything beyond 2B to customers for everyday writing, but if you are adventurous, I’ve personally been able to use 4B!

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Writing samples on the wonderfully toothy Appointed paper (great for graphite). Wood pencils sharpened with a NJK long point sharpener.

The last time I did a list like this was in January 2021, four-and-a-half years ago. Since today’s list looks completely different, it might be reasonable to ask whether I no longer enjoy the pencils on earlier versions. That’s not the case at all - I actually still use many of those pencils - but my life has changed quite a bit, and so have my needs, thus the greater emphasis on mechanical pencils. This is a great time to be a pencil fan, and I believe that overall selection and quality has increased in recent years, making it much more difficult to pick favorites.

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