Fall Refresh: My Pre-Fountain Pen Day Currently Inked Lineup

With Fountain Pen Day rapidly approaching and several of my currently inked pens running dry (or just feeling a bit stale), I figured it was time for a refresh! I plan to do a fair bit of writing during the late fall/winter, since this is the time of year that (1) I tend to need more down time due to all of the holiday season craziness; and (2) I have a lot more projects that I’m currently working on, many of which will be announced in the coming weeks and months. The general theme of this set is “good comfortable writers” that I can use for extended sessions without having to take a break. I really like this current set of pens and inks, even if I inadvertently ended up with multiple burgundies and dark reds. (I guess that’s not really too much of a surprise given my preferences.)

1. Lamy 2000 Black Makrolon (Matthew Chen Kodachi). It’s been far too long since I’ve had a Lamy 2000 inked up, and since I’ve had customers in-store asking to try the pen I figured I would break out not one but two. (I dropped a hint in last week’s post on long-form writing.) This particular pen was ground by Matthew into a medium Kodachi nib several years back, and it’s a reliable writer with just a touch of line variation to keep things interesting. The ink I chose is Sailor x Tinterías Cilantro, one of my favorite mid-toned greens.

2. Lamy 2000 Black Makrolon (Fine Nib). I’ve always enjoyed the standard Lamy 2000 fine and extra-fine nibs because the tipping has a subtle architect shape to it that fits my handwriting style. For this one I used some of my last remaining bottle of Montblanc Alfred Hitchcock Limited Edition Ink. No I won’t sell it.

3. Pilot Custom 74 in Lavender Fog (Soft Medium Nib). Pilot’s most recent U.S. exclusive release comes with some of my favorite nibs: the “Soft” series. No, these aren’t flex nibs - they just add a subtle softness to your handwriting with a bit of additional spring. Pilot’s Fine-Medium nib is a great width for my handwriting, and I now own two. The ink in this one is Pilot Iroshizuku Syun-Gyo. (Note: I know these pens are sold out pretty much everywhere now but I understand that’s a temporary supply constraint and more will be coming.)

4. TWSBI ECO in Carrara + Onyx (Medium). I’ve been saying that I would pick up one of the Serpentine ECO fountain pens, but the Carrara + Onyx version drew me in first. I paired this one with a favorite classic red ink: vintage Montblanc Bordeaux, of which I have a lifetime supply.

5. Diplomat Viper Fountain Pen in Blue (F/M Nib). Diplomat’s hooded-nib fountain pen has been inked nonstop, and this one is filled with yet another burgundy ink, but one which I can’t identify as I forgot to write it down when I last inked the pen. (I think it might be Teranishi Classy Burgundy). The thing I love best about the Diplomat is the single available nib size: a fine-medium. You might be noticing a trend here.

6. Red Dragon Pen Co. Custom Eyedropper (Franklin-Christoph Medium S.I.G.). This year I’ve been trying to keep at least one pen inked from my relatively extensive collection of custom/bespoke pens, and this eyedropper from Red Dragon Pen Co. is a favorite that pairs dark blue cellulose acetate with a transparent smoke cap and a sculpted black section. The ink is Akkerman No. 7 Koninginne Nach-blauw (“Queen’s Night Blue”).

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From left: Red Dragon Pen Co. Eyedropper; Diplomat Viper in Blue; TWSBI Carrara + Onxy; Pilot Custom 74 Lavender Fog; and 2 Lamy 2000s.

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If you come by the shop I always have my currently inked pens on me (in addition to the regular shop testers) so that you can ask questions and try them out. We’re open this week normal hours (1-6pm Thursday and Friday, and from 10am-6pm Saturday.

New Arrivals: The Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter TGS_25 Is Back, with a New Color!

Late last week we received a fresh shipment of our exclusive Roterfaden collaboration, the TGS25 A5 Slim format! This release has been hugely successful, so in addition to the original dark green leather with dark grey suede interior combination, we’ve added a grey leather with light green interior version. Both options come with your choice of a light green or light grey elastic.

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The TGS25 is A5 Slim size, meaning that it is designed to fit refills that are the same height as your classic A5 notebook but slightly narrower. Refills that will fit this notebook include Travelers’ Notebook Refills, Lochby Voyager Tomoe River Refills, Yamamoto Ro-Biki, plus any A5 notebook you might want to cut down to a narrower size. (Stàlogy is a favorite of many people for this type of modification.) Roterfaden TGS25 covers are available to ship immediately!

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We’ve been playing around with some sticker designs (some we’ll keep, some we won’t), but all the TGS_25 shipments will include our latest!

Kaweco Sport Fountain Pens Are Back in Stock!

Also, as a bit of an added update, Kaweco Sport and AL-Sport Fountain Pens are now back in stock. We finally received a restock from the distributor, and have the foldable mini converters as well.

Come see these and more in our shop this weekend! We are open Thursday and Friday from 1-6pm, and Saturday from 10-6pm. Be sure to check the main page for up-to-date hours, and note that our shop area is now in Suite 107 on the front of the building.

Sunday Reading for October 26, 2025

1. Inked Up for the 2025 Pelikan Hub (via Pen Addict - Kimberly). Kimberly completes her annual inking of the birds for this past Friday’s Pelikan Hub!

2. Pelikan Hub 2025 in Bremen (via Bleistift). I was also curious how the first Hub would go, given the merger and corporate upheaval at the company.

3. Pelikan Hubs 2025 and On Being a Female Collector (via Writing at Large). Not all experiences were necessarily positive, and efforts need to be made to ensure everyone’s experience is as welcoming as possible.

4. Three Months Without Wanting to Buy a Pen (via a Gathering of Curiosities). I feel this. These sorts of periodic breaks seem necessary in any sort of acquisition-driven hobby.

5. Fill ‘em Up! (via From the Pen Cup). Mary writes about an interesting idea for a journaling technique that I’ve never heard of.

6. My Ensso Bolt V2 Fountain Pen Finally Arrived! (via dwrdnet). I finally got my hands on one of these at Friday night’s Pelikan Hub and came away impressed with the mechanism and how smooth the nib wrote. I’m looking forward to a long-term review!

7. “Risou No Heya” Stationery Store in Taipei (via Inky.Rocks). What a cool visit to a stationery store specializing entirely in washi, stamps, and stickers.

8. A Pen Made from Skateboards? Black Robin Pens Skatepen (via Figboot on Pens). This sort of creativity in both materials and design is what I love about the small maker community.

9. Most Satisfying Capping Ever? Laurett’s Stealthread (via Figboot on Pens). One of the coolest capping mechanisms I’ve seen, with superbly detailed machining.

10. Uni-Ball Zento Gel Pen (.38mm): Comparing the Standard and Flow Models (via Well-Appointed Desk). The Zento continues its crazy rise in popularity. We had to restock again long before I thought we would. The Flow is probably my favorite, as I don’t get the secondary market craze on the Signature.

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In Case You Missed It…

After finishing the move to the new shop space and taking a breather after last weekend’s event, I finally got around to reviewing one of the last “standard” pens I’ve never really used or reviewed, the Pilot Prera. I also wrote a piece on my favorite pens for long writing sessions, which is a topic I’ve been thinking about this week in response to both customer questions and my own efforts to restart a languishing journaling habit.

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The interior of the new Roterfaden TGS_25 Cover!

This Week in the T.G.S. Curated Shop: Roterfaden TGS_25 Covers Return in a new colorway

Wow, we had a ton of new stuff hit the shop this week! The big news is that our Roterfaden exclusive, the TGS_25 in an A5-slim size, is back in stock. We now offer this cover in both dark green and light grey leather exteriors, with dark grey and light green suede interiors, respectively. We also now carry one of my favorite journals, the Bindewerk Flex Linen A5, soft and hardcover Tomoe River notebooks in 52gsm and 68gsm paper weights, and a major Kaweco restock with nearly all of our Sports and AL-Sports restocked, in addition to some new releases and colors! Be sure to check out each week’s Thursday Drops post for details on recent new arrivals and releases.

Our brick-and-mortar shop will be open this week normal hours, from 1-6pm Thursday and Friday, and from 10am-6pm Saturday. Please note that our shop/showroom is in a new space on the front of the building in Suite 107.

Kaweco

Tomoe River

Carl Pencil Sharpeners

New Anterique!

How You Can Further Support T.G.S.

If you enjoy our content (whether here on the main website, Instagram, YouTube Channel or elsewhere), and would like early/extra access to shop releases and special promotions, consider supporting us via Patreon. The T.G.S. Patreon includes early access and discounts on exclusive shop releases, a monthly updates newsletter, and of course our monthly meetups. Patreon supporters also have access to the first two episodes of a new podcast experiment I’ve been working on with Lisa Vanness of Vanness Pens. More on this later, but for the time being the initial episodes are Patreon-exclusive.

My Favorite Fountain Pens for Longer Writing Sessions

I frequently get this question, and it’s one that I feel is important because it touches on one of the key reasons that so many of us get into fountain pens in the first place: They offer a much more comfortable writing experience over longer sessions, whether that means an extended journaling session, drafting a novel, or pulling together a longer professional document like a report or a legal brief. Personally, I think better when I’m working by hand offline, and over the years I’ve explored pretty much all the analog writing techniques out there. A fountain pen and a good writing pad remains my favorite.

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Both of these grips are extremely comfortable for me to use.

What Factors Are Important for Comfortable Long-Form Writing?

If I’m preparing for a longer working session, I’ll consider three main factors when choosing a fountain pen: comfort, ink capacity, and the nib. In terms of comfort, I’m mainly talking about grip and balance. I have to be able to hold the pen easily for a long period of time, which means a comfortably grippy section and a pen barrel that doesn’t feel too weighted towards the front or the back of my hand. In terms of ink capacity, the pen doesn’t necessarily need to hold a ton of ink, but if I’m going away on a writing retreat or work trip I often will choose a piston filler just so I don’t have to worry about refilling (though a Pilot cartridge will last me a VERY long time). Finally, I’ll typically opt for a smooth medium nib, which gives me the least fussy writing experience and lets me “get lost” in whatever project I’m working on.

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The Lamy 2000 (top) next to the Pilot Custom 74.

My Top Three Fountain Pens for Long Writing Sessions in My Personal Collection

• Lamy 2000. Long-time readers of the blog won’t be surprised by my top choice. I tell anyone who will listen that if I had to get rid of all my fountain pens and keep just one, I would probably keep a Lamy 2000 (though depending on the rules I might try to keep multiple Lamy 2000s in different nib sizes). For whatever reason, this pen fits my hand perfectly. I love the lightweight Makrolon (brushed fiberglass composite) construction, which when posted has near perfect balance. And Lamy’s 14k medium nibs are among the best out there, in my opinion.

• Pilot Custom 74. A close second to the Lamy 2000, Pilot’s Custom 74 is my cartridge-converter fountain pen of choice. I actually use refilled Pilot cartridges more often than Pilot converters, given how much ink they hold. The Custom 74 is another one of those pens that seems to mold itself to my grip, to where I can write with this pen for hours with very little hand fatigue.

• Leonardo Momento Zero. The Momento Zero has a similar shape to the Lamy 2000, perhaps slightly larger, and if you prefer an even larger pen you can always opt for the Momento Zero Grande. Personally, the standard size fits my hand better than the Grande. Leonardo mainly uses JoWo nibs, which are reliable, if unspectacular, writers. As I mentioned above, sometimes when you want to get lost in a project, choosing a somewhat boring nib over a temperamental needlepoint or an exotic grind lets you focus more on the project itself than the tool you’re using.

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What About Budget-Friendly Choices?

The three pens I’ve chosen above are big purchases, and those looking to experiment with fountain pens for the first time probably don’t want to splurge on a $200+ gold-nib fountain pen that they don’t necessarily know if they’ll like. Two pens that I’ve used in the past for travel writing (in places I didn’t necessarily want to take an expensive pen) are the ubiquitous TWSBI ECO and the even more inexpensive Pilot Kakuno (complete with smiley-face nib). Despite garnering reputations as “beginner” fountain pens, these are excellent low-cost writing instruments. I consider both well-balanced with reliable nibs.

Conclusions and Further Reading

There’s no real one-size-fits all analysis here. I can offer my recommendations, as I frequently do at shows and in the shop, but choosing a fountain pen that you can write with for long periods of time takes a lot of research and personal experimentation to determine what meets your needs and preferences. One resource you may find helpful is the “Workhorse Pens” series of articles that I’ve written over the years. Do you have a favorite pen for longer writing sessions? Tell us about it in the comments below!

I try to periodically answer questions from readers and customers that frequently appear in my inbox, social media DMs, and customer questions. You’re always welcome to stop by our store and talk to me in person, and I maintain a FAQ (Ask TGS) section on the site. If you enjoy our content, we are supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Thursday Drops: Roterfaden TGS_25, Inkvent Calendars, New Lochby, and a huge Zento and Anterique Restock!

While I took a couple days earlier this week to recover from last weekend’s festivities, we’re right back at it today with all sorts of new arrivals, including plenty of items that just cleared customs! Our pre-holiday shipment of Roterfaden TGS_25 Taschenbegleiters arrived today, with both the Dark Green and new Light Grey versions available for purchase immediately. This will likely be our last shipment for 2025, but I ordered a lot and I expect them to last.

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The Lochby Quattro v2 is longer and capable of holding larger pens more comfortably.

Diamine Inkvent Calendars have also arrived and are going fast. While I’ve yet to open one, I hear that this year’s calendar will feature permanent inks as well as sheen, shimmer, and standard versions. Finally, we have the 2026 Traveler’s Notebook Diaries and Special Accessories, new Lochby Cases and Notebook Covers, and additional Uni Zento gel pens and Anterique Pens.

We are open in-store this weekend, 1-6pm on Thursday and Friday and 10am-6pm on Saturday, but please keep in mind that the main shop has moved from Suite 113 to Suite 107. Come see these and many other products in person!

1. Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter TGS_25. Our A5 Slim Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter has cleared customs, with a fresh shipment arriving today! I have made both the dark green version and new light grey version available for purchase. This will almost certainly be our last shipment of these before the holidays.

2. Diamine Inkvent Calendars. The Colorverse Advent Calendars sold out just in time for Diamine to arrive! We still have a handful of Inkvent Calendars remaining, and I don’t expect these to last through the weekend.

3. Bindewerk Flex Linen Cover A5 Journals. Those who enjoy textured paper should love these Bindewerk books, which feature a laid texture with light ruling on ink friendly Italian paper. Many different colors are available!

4. Traveler’s Company 2026 Dated Refills. We have both Standard and Passport sizes available, and these will also fit the A5 Slim TGS_25 Taschenbegleiter or the Lochby Voyager Journal Cover.

5. Lochby Mini Venture Pouch. Lochby has released the classic Venture Pouch in a smaller size, for more compact modular carry! These feature the same inverted design, with a pouch on top and a zippered pen case on the bottom. Watch a demonstration of how they work here.

6. Lochby Quattro v2 Pen Case. The original Quattro pen case has been a best seller for us ever since it launched, and the Quattro v.2 adds a touch of length and wider slots to hold up to 8 pens, if they’re slimmer and/or you don’t mind your pens touching.

7. Lochby Field Folio, Now in A6! Lochby has expanded the Field Folio range to include not just B5 and A5 but also A6. If you’re looking for a zippered cover for an A6 notebook (including a Hobonichi Techo), please give this one some consideration.

8. Pilot Prera Fountain Pens. Pilot recently released the Prera in a range of new vintage-inspired colors. You can read my own assessment of this excellent midrange fountain pen in yesterday’s post.

9. Uni Zento Flow and Zento Standard Gel Pens. The popular Uni Zento is back in stock, in both the metal barrel Zento Flow and the standard Zentos, in .38mm and .5mm tip sizes. More details here.

10. New Anterique Bicolor Ballpoints, including TGS Colors! I really stocked up on new Anterique colors in this latest order, after you all cleaned us out. Let’s just say I bought a lot of the Maroon and Black Colorway, for obvious reasons.

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Just a few of the new colors that arrived this week! We now have 20+ color combinations to choose from in the BiColor Pen section.