2024 Year-End Review: My Five Most-Used Pens of 2024

Every December, I recap the previous year by discussing favorites, including favorite new product discoveries, most-used pens, favorite product reviews, and more. Last week, I talked about five favorite product discoveries from 2024: new and new-to-me products that I discovered over the past 12 months. Today’s recap offers my five most-used pens from this year. There are some old favorites on this list, which isn’t really surprising since it’s been such a busy year, and when I’m busy I tend to default to my “workhorses”, but there are also a couple of new entries.

1. Lamy 2000: Fountain Pens and Rollerball. The Lamy 2000 fountain pen continues to form the core of my everyday writing rotation. It’s long been my favorite pen, both because I enjoy the writing experience and because, as an understated design classic, it’s always pleasant to look at. This past year, I added the limited edition “Pine” version of the fountain pen, and I also began using the rollerball once I discovered the Ohto CR-305 .5mm refill - a low-bleed rollerball refill that’s causing me to reconsider rollerballs as an option once again.

2. Pilot Custom 823. These pens hold so much ink, and they’re so convenient for travel, that I rarely go any period of time without having one inked up. This year I’ve primarily used my Amber medium that has a Mark Bacas blade grind (sort of a Naginata/soft-architect).

3. Tom’s Studio Lumos Write. The Lumos Pro Duo is cool, with it’s double tip, but since I use my fineliners mostly to write, not draw, the single-tip Lumos Write model is my pen of choice. This model is a bit less expensive than the standard Lumos, and comes with a smaller set of firmer writing tips. I’ve been using either standard black ink or the Tom’s Studio “Midnight” fineliner ink in this pen, with good results.

4. Montblanc 146 UNICEF Edition. Sure, it’s basically a “boring” standard black Montblanc 146 with platinum trim, but this particular pen sports an excellent “Perspective” grind from Gena Salorino at Custom Nib Studio. It’s their version of the Naginata-style grind, and makes for an excellent everyday writer that I find more practical than an architect.

5. Tactile Turn “Vice” Short Side-Click. I don’t know why I like this particular pen so much - it’s probably the 1980s Florida connection - but regardless of the reason, it’s been a constant companion since I picked it up this summer. I still feel strongly that the “Short” version of the Tactile Turn Side-Click has the best balance for me personally. The fact that it accepts Parker-style refills makes the Side Click a versatile choice for those who need a durable EDC ballpoint.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program. If you’re interested in talking inks and seeing our swatches and growing selection, come see us in-person! We’re open this week Thursday-Sunday, and otherwise by appointment.

Closing Out 2023 and Starting 2024: Five Ways I'm Getting Ready for the New Year

It’s New Year’s weekend already! I had a great 2023 and look forward to 2024, but I still feel as though I have a lot to do before I can dive into next year with as clean a slate as possible. I typically don’t make really rigid plans or resolutions, but most years I do take some basic steps to start the New Year “clean”, such as straightening up my house and office, emptying out my various bags, flushing pens, and taking donations to charity drop-off. For those who are curious about what exactly I’m doing this weekend, here are five things I’m currently focused on.

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**Note that I’ve omitted most of the business-specific things such as starting to pull together tax documents, counting inventory, etc. because they probably aren’t of interest or relevant to other people. If I disappear for a few days around the New Year, it’s likely because I’m working on one of these.

1. Cleaning Out My Pens. By the time December 31 rolls around, my office is in thorough need of a cleaning (including at least three or four pens that I’ve forgotten I had inked). As a general matter, at the end of the year I flush all of the pens currently in rotation and pick five to re-ink (with new inks!) to start January 1. Even though I generally dislike flushing pens with ink still in them - especially if it’s a combination that I enjoy - I can be kind of superstitious and equate starting the new year with the previous year’s pens still inked to waking up on New Year’s Day with the Christmas tree still set up. (People have strong feelings on this, but for me it always comes down 12/31.)

2. Setting Up My Planners/Journals. More out of necessity than anything else, I’ll spend New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day setting up my planners and journals. I’ll write a bit more about this next week, after I truly finalize the setup: I’m currently planning on reintroducing the Hobonichi planners but perhaps using them in a different format than intended. I don’t keep a paper planner and manage my calendar digitally, but I do keep several running journals where I track how I spend my time.

3. Writing Out My Analogue System. Relatedly, I picked up a tip from a book or a podcast (I can’t remember exactly where) that recommended you write out exactly how you intend to use a specific “system”, laminate it, and either carry it with you and/or post it at your desk. It helps ensure you’ll stick to your “plan.” While some might find this rigid and restrictive, I like this idea (especially for the first several weeks of the year) because I’m trying to make some significant changes to how I’ve traditionally done things in the past, and I need to build some new writing and journaling habits.

4. Scripting a Month of Reviews/Content. I use the term “scripting” loosely, but the first few months of the year can be light on both pen shows and new releases, and combined with post-holiday exhaustion/chaos, the time can get away from you. I like to hit January 1 knowing what my first month will look like in terms of the reviews I plan to work on and pieces I want to begin drafting. Towards the beginning of February, I get a better sense of what the upcoming year is going to look like, including months where I’ll be traveling heavily, and then can start building out the full annual content plan.

5. Making My Pen Show Travel Arrangements. As I mentioned in my personal reflections on 2023, I want to rethink my travel strategy for 2024, including spreading out the travel a bit so it doesn’t feel as though I’m spending weeks on the road at a time. There are certain shows I would never miss - both D.C. and especially San Francisco - but what about all those shows in-between? And then there’s the issue of attending at least one international show. This all will take at least an afternoon to think through, both in terms of travel logistics and funding.

Looking for something to help you kick off the New Year? Be sure to check out our ongoing New Year’s shop promotion, where you can snag 10% off all notebook systems (including covers, refills, and related accessories) using the code “NEWYEAR24” at checkout. There’s also several products with clearance pricing throughout the shop! Check the link for details. Several of us will also be discussing our plans for 2024 on tonight’s Patreon Meetup! Patreon members should check the Patreon feed for details.

Intentions for 2024: Personal Reflections and Goals For the New Year

“Read more, write more, and drink more coffee.”

I’d say that I accomplished all three of my (simplified) intentions for 2023. I really nailed that third one. In all seriousness, you can distill my goals for the past year into a single sentence: Be more intentional in what I spend my time on, use my pens and paper to actually write and create, and keep in mind that everything I do here is with the goal of being helpful and fostering a sense of community around our shared interests. Because my intentions for 2024 haven’t changed much from 2022 and 2023, I get the feeling that I might be approaching a general “mission statement” for the site going forward.

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One of our most popular post is “Hierarchies of Fountain Pen Friendly Paper.” It - and other resources - could use a refresh.

Intention No. 1: Continue to Organize and Optimize the Back-Catalog of T.G.S. Content

T.G.S. will celebrate its 10th birthday in April, which means that there’s nearly 10 years worth of content available on the site. That’s a lot of writing, considering that I post at least four times a week (4 x 52 x 10 = 2080 posts). In recent years, I’ve made attempts to reduce the amount of obviously dated and/or irrelevant content, such as sale posts and new release announcements for products that no longer exist. However, even with periodic pruning, that still leaves a LOT of reviews, editorials pen show recaps, and how-to guides that can be difficult to navigate, especially for new users. Part of being intentional with my content is knowing when to take a step back from expanding and writing about “all the new stuff”, and when to devote time to making what already exists better. In 2024, for the 10th Anniversary, I’m planning some additional review archives (similar to the Fountain Pen Review Archive), as well as expanded and updated resource pages. Certain new content that I have on tap will look to fill the gaps in what currently exists.

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This year’s acquisitions reflect a mix of new and vintage pens - my personal acquisitions were just that - personal - and they are fewer in number than in recent years.

Intention No. 2: Minimize Personal Acquisitions

Much of the early Gentleman Stationer chronicled my own explorations and efforts to build a personal collection and develop my own base of knowledge about the stationery world. While there are always new products to explore and the learning never stops, after 10 years you definitely reach a point where each new addition to the collection seems less novel and less of an improvement over what you already own, and from a writing perspective, the focus shifts from learning yourself to sharing the knowledge you’ve already acquired with others. In 2023 I dramatically scaled back acquisitions for my personal collection to probably less than ten pens. I sold off or traded away many more, consolidated a large portion of my ink accumulation, and dramatically reduced my paper stash by … actually using it. I’m happier with less stuff, and it’s allowed me to focus funds on growing and improving TGS as a business rather than acquiring more that I don’t need personally.

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Eventually the travel will slow down, right?

Intention No. 3: Balance Pen Show Travel with Building a Presence in My Community

I traveled a LOT in 2023. I attended seven different pen shows, and to that you have to tack on at least five family excursions and multiple trips for my day job. Between all this travel and navigating a job change, I’m bone-tired. While my schedule unfortunately won’t slow down much this year, given my decision to focus more on T.G.S. from a business perspective, I do want to balance pen show travel with expanding my local presence in my community, including continuing to work towards opening a physical location that people can easily visit and browse goods in person. That might mean foregoing one or two U.S. pen shows in favor of holding local events in the Nashville-area. It certainly will mean working on additional content and opportunities for interaction with my online Patreon community. And of course (somewhat incongrously) I still want to make it to at least one international show….

Another year finished, on to the next!

At the end of each year, I publish a series of recaps that include Part I: Five Favorite Acquisitions of 2023; Part II: Five Favorite Products Reviewed in 2023; Part III: Best Sellers from the T.G.S. Curated Shop; and Part IV: Series and Editorials. Today’s post concludes that series with my thoughts looking forward to 2024!

Year-End Review, Part IV: Series and Editorials

As the years have gone on (The Gentleman Stationer will celebrate 10 years in April 2024), content has shifted somewhat from pure reviews to more of a 50/50 balance between specific product reviews and more “big picture” content that offers an overview of general product categories and how more specific products fit into the overall scheme of what’s available. To that end, TGS content in 2023 was heavily influenced by reader questions, as I aimed to be more responsive to what I perceived as the needs of the readership. Did this result in a more “scattered” range of content without a central theme? Possibly, but I also found unresolved loose-ends in some of the longer-running series, as well as gaps in coverage of certain product categories that needed to be filled.

TGS Responds! Your Questions Answered

Even if I can’t respond to all of the e-mails, direct messages, and snail mail correspondence, I do read every one, and I try to maintain a master list of questions that inspires future content. If the same question resurfaces frequently enough, I’ll answer it directly. Here are some of the questions I answered in 2023:

• #21PenQuestions from The Gentleman Stationer (My responses to this year’s internet trend)

• #5MorePenQuestions: What I Really Wanted to Answer (My own attempt to add a bit more depth to the analysis)

• Questions from the T.G.S. Mailbag (Frequently Asked Questions to which I wanted to respond directly)

• How to Get the Best Writing Experience with Shimmer Inks

• Fountain Pen Basics: 5 Best Practices for Fountain Pen Users

• Five Things You Can Do To Introduce New Users to Nice Pens

• Pen Problems: Do You Feel Compelled to Match Pens and Inks?

• My Personal Approach to Vintage Fountain Pens

• How Do You Curate Your Shop? (If you’re interested in my decision to open a companion shop, and the “philosophy” that guides my stocking decisions, I’d encourage you to read this post.)

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Updates to Established Series (i.e., Workhorse Pens, Fountain Pen Friendly Paper, etc.)

You can find links to the full range of series content in the “Resources” section, but here I’ll recap some new additions from 2023.

• The Gentleman Stationer’s Favorite Fountain Pen Inks Inaugural Edition (2023) (People have been asking me to do a “favorite inks” list for years, and this was fun so I’ll likely update it.)

• The Best Paper for Everyday Writing, Part VI: Legal Pads (I’m a lawyer. How did I go nearly ten years without ranking legal pads?)

• Workhorse Pens: Considerations and Pitfalls of High-Capacity Pocket Fountain Pens

• Pocket Fountain Pens, Part II: Further Reflections on Pocket Carry

• Personal Workflow: It’s More Than Novelty - Different Paper Rulings for Different Purposes

Updated Review Archive, Best Pens, and 2023 Holiday Gift Guide

I’ve (mostly) kept up with the T.G.S. Fountain Pen Review Archive in real time, adding new pens to the archive as I review them. Every spring I also update the “Best Pens List”, and in the fall, I launch the Holiday Gift Guide! These remain live throughout the year as I feel they provide good general references for those seeking guidance in their pen purchasing decisions.

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I attended the Dallas Pen Show for the first time this year, and spent a LOT of time perusing available vintage pens.

Pen Show Recaps and Travel Posts

2023 was a year of travel, and while I hopefully don’t have to hit the road quite as much in 2024, that’s likely an unrealistic expectation as there are so many places I want to visit, both to expand my own horizons and interact with the readership. As I travel, I generally post recaps of my trips, including pen shows and trade shows (there’s a difference!), as well as the occasional vacation post to share my stationery travel gear of choice.

• 2023 Bag Dump: What Do I Carry to Work

• 2023 Bag Dump, Part II: Travel Edition and Pen Show Packing

• Adventures in Pen Travel and Pens for Vacation

• Travel Kit: National Stationery Show Edition

• 2023 Dallas Pen Show Recap

• 2023 San Francisco Pen Show Recap

• 2023 DC Pen Show Recap

• 2023 Atlanta Pen Show Recap

• 2023 Arkansas Pen Show Recap

• 2023 Baltimore Pen Show Recap

• A Trade Show vs a Pen Show: My Trip to NY Now and Shoppe Object

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Inkvent was fun but I’m feeling ready to conclude for the year!

Expanded Patreon/YouTube Content and the 2023 Inkvent Calendar

The YouTube Channel has been reactivated! During the second half of 2023, I’ve made an effort to supplement the written content on the site with (1) additional video content to showcase more aspects of the pens I review here; and (2) offer some additional perspective on items I’m using week-to-week. Finally, I put together a nearly complete - three more days to go - overview of the 2023 Diamine Inkvent Calendar, which you can follow on this YouTube Playlist.

Our Patreon program has turned into a pen club of sorts, which offers access to monthly meetups on Saturday night via Zoom, as well as additional content and early access/preferred pricing on T.G.S. Curated Shop exclusive releases. I have a lot planned for 2024, so if this interests you please consider joining. (If you join for a year in advance, I believe Patreon offers a discount on the yearly pledge.)

Each year in December I recap the prior year, including favorite acquisitions (Part I), favorite products I reviewed (Part II), and top sellers from the T.G.S. Curated Shop (Part III). Stay tuned throughout the next two weeks for additional recap content.

The Gentleman Stationer is supported entirely by purchases from the T.G.S. Curated Shop and pledges via the T.G.S. Patreon Program.

Year-End Review, Part III: 2023 Best Sellers from the T.G.S. Curated Shop

This post is always the easiest year-end post to do because it’s straight-up math. For me there were also very few surprises: the items I thought would do the best were actually our top sellers, and I probably could’ve named the Anterique ballpoints and Caran d’Ache Infinite 888 pens off the top of my head. What surprised me somewhat was the popularity of the Lamy 2000, as well as how many Roterfaden organizers we’ve sold in so short a period of time. Stay tuned as we’ve already started on the buying for 2024. We also have several new arrivals from the past couple of weeks, including Profolio Notebooks, a Nakabayashi restock, and a fresh round of Caran d’Ache pencils!

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized reseller of all brands sold. Check out the rest of our Year-End Review content, including Part I (Favorite New Acquisitions from 2023) and Part II (Favorite Products Reviewed in 2023).

1. Anterique Ballpoint Pens. This one came as no surprise to me, given how many different variations we carry and how well these vintage-style ballpoints write. My brass pen in Pearl Grey is always with me, and I have multiples of the standard pens and mechanical pencils scattered around my various workstations.

2. Laconic Bookmarkers. I’m continuing to look to resource the full range of the bookmarkers, because they ended up being insanely popular (as expected). For now, I’ve managed to get three or four of them in regular stock.

3. Midori MD Cotton Paper. Apparently my favorite all-around paper for fountain pens is also yours. Midori MD Cotton Paper handles ink well and comes in several formats, including writing pads, notebooks, letter pads, and at least for now, even a “B-Sides and Rarities” Traveler’s Company refill.

4. Lochby Field Journals and Refills. For those looking for a non-leather A5 notebook cover option, the Lochby Field Journal remains extremely popular, and the A5 refills continue to feature 68gsm Tomoe River Paper.

5. Hightide Sandglasses. A TGS Classic! The 30 and 15-minute increments remain the most popular iterations of Hightide’s analog timing device. For more information on how I use these and how you can incorporate them into your routine, I refer people to this post.

6. Lamy 2000 Pens. All of the various iterations of the Lamy 2000 (and recently, the Lamy Studio) have sold well, probably because it’s one of the best workhorse pens out there. Unassuming, reliable and with a timeless design, you can’t really go wrong with a Lamy 2000.

7. Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter Organizers. Honestly, these would probably be No. 1 on the list if we could keep them in stock. We have a restock order in the works, and hopefully it will arrive in time for the New Year. We currently have a couple of A5 and A6 covers in stock, in limited color options.

8. Traveler’s Notebook Standard Size Starter Kit. We recently restocked on the standard size Traveler’s Notebook in all colors except the recently released Olive version. Now is a great time to pick up a Traveler’s Notebook, especially if you plan to use it as your 2024 Calendar, as our dated Calendar refills are marked down.

9. Caran d’Ache 849 Paul Smith Special Edition. The fourth collaboration between Caran d’Ache and designer Paul Smith tops our Caran d’Ache sales list for the year, as these editions always do when they are released. We recently received a shipment of the British Racing Green version, which is by far the most popular though all the colors are excellent.

10. Caran d’Ache Infinite 888. One of the great unsung heroes of the pen world, the sturdy and inexpensive Caran d’Ache Infinite 888 features a standard ballpoint refill (the Swissride) that in my opinion rivals the Goliath. Now if they would only bring back the mechanical pencil…

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