Formal “Pen Show Season” is mostly over, with the big shows (California, D.C., and San Francisco) in the books. It’s been a busy year, to say the least. T.G.S. has attended the California Pen Show, the Arkansas Pen Show, the D.C. Pen Show, the San Francisco Pen Show, and the Dallas Pen Show. I also took separate trips to the San Francisco Stationery Fest, plus a trip to Japan in May. We capped off October with our On The Paper Trail Live Event in Nashville! Since running a store - as well as our own recent event -has been time consuming to say the least, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to recap my favorite finds from my 2026 travels.
seY Pen Tsugaru-Nuri (left) next to my Bonecrusher7 Studio custom.
I plan to write more on Urushi pens in the future. I only have a small handful, but they are among my favorites.
The pace of my personal acquisitions has definitely slowed over the years. As I’ve narrowed the focus of my collecting, I sometimes even walk away from a show without a single purchase (even if those instances are few and far between :)). This year's acquisitions were fairly restrained, but they included some good ones. My 2026 Top Five to Date are:
seY Pen Tsugaru-Nuri Fountain Pen. seY pen is a Japanese company that works with a collective of independent artisans to manufacture traditional Japanese urushi and maki-e fountain pens. I’ve admired their work for years, and after having had the opportunity to meet them at this year’s Dallas Pen Show I picked up this Tsugaru-Nuri fountain pen in a sky blue lacquer with different beige and brown shades blended in. Matthew Chen added an Architect nib when he came to Nashville.
Nagasawa Pilot Decimo Kobe Gradation - Sengari Water Blue. I’ve picked up the annual Kobe Gradation Decimo for the past two years, with this year’s release inspired by the waters from Kobe’s Sengari Reservoir. The Japanese market gets multiple Pilot Decimo special releases every year - seemingly every independent pen store has its own release - but these Kobe Gradation models are my favorite. Of course I always opt for the FM (Fine Medium) nib wherever it’s available.
Pilot Custom 845 Urushi in Prussian Blue. Pilot added to it’s Custom Urushi and Custom 845 Urushi lineup with this gorgeous dark blue lacquer finish, which they call “Prussian Blue”. The pen itself I acquired from my own shop (a hazard of the trade), but at the recent Nashville event I asked Matthew to turn the broad nib into a Kodachi. Yes, I have recently used this pen with shimmer ink. It works perfectly fine!
Bonecrusher7 Studios Custom. I try to add a pen or two a year from an independent maker who I’ve never tried before. This year’s addition was a gorgeous translucent brown “Mocha Latté” swirled acrylic from Bonecrusher7 Studio, to which Matthew Chen added a medium stub (approximately a .6mm width). I love how well-balanced this pen is. Even though it can’t be posted, it fits comfortably in my hand and excels for longer writing sessions.
Opus88 Koloro in Blue with Beige Ebonite Trim. This particular pen was provided to me as a demo by Opus88 when we decided to bring the line back into the shop, and it made its way into my general pen case. (Oops.) I’ve owned a few Koloros over the years, and I had forgotten how nicely the ebonite models work as a travel pen. (More on that below.)
My Nagasawa Sengari Bay Decimo, left, next to the Pilot Custom 845 Urushi in Prussian Blue.
I love how beige ebonite shows the grain on the material.
Guess what? The year’s not over. I’m headed to Japan again in less than two weeks for another adventure, and I’m in the process of putting together my travel kit. My Custom 845 in Prussian Blue, Ebonite Koloro, and Sengari Decimo are definitely coming with me. I may limit myself to three fountain pens on this trip, as I did last time, knowing that I will acquire at least one….
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