A new pen and notebook from Amazon

Tags

blue myosotis, blue upon the plains of abraham, clairefontaine, fuliwen, j. herbin, lamy blue, noodler's, paradise blue, parker blue quink, straffen, valery, waterman serenity blue, x-fountain pens

Last week an Amazon package was delivered to my door, which is always exciting. I had ordered a Fuliwen pen after seeing a Youtube video, and a Valery refillable notebook which I had found when browsing notebooks.

I am unfamiliar with the Fuliwen brand. Amazon says this pen was made by a “famous company in China called Fuliwen”. I thought the barrel and hardware was very pretty, although now that I see it in person I am not a fan of the pearl bead on the clip.

The section is an interesting shape, one which I have not seen before. The material is advertised as celluloid but I would be surprised at this price point: $19 Cdn.

The medium nib is on the small side for the size of the section I feel. It is stamped Straffen, which I read are made by X-Fountain Pens. I cleaned it and tried to find a blue ink that would match the barrel.

Clockwise from top: Noodler’s Blue Upon the Plains of Abraham, Parker Blue Quink, Paradise Pen Blue, Waterman Serenity Blue, J. Herbin Blue Myosotis, and Lamy Blue. I chose Parker Blue as the best match to the barrel.

And here’s the writing sample. I chose a Clairefontaine notebook. The pen is very smooth with no skips or hard starts, and it started writing as soon as it hit the paper. I was using it in my regular journal later on that day, and it suddenly went dry. I shook it a few times and it resumed writing. But it will never be a favorite pen of mine. That pearl bead is ugly, as I mentioned before, and the pen can’t be posted, which this pen needs, due to it being super light. It just doesn’t fit well in my hand either. But I can’t fault it’s performance, other than running dry once, which was soon fixed.

I also purchased this notebook and cover, made by Valery.

It’s not leather but a very nice imitation. I really like the white stitching and the tree motif on the cover and in the charm bookmark. There is another charm on the spine of an eagle with wings unfurled. It doesn’t seem to fit in with the tree motif; kind of sinister really. But luckily it can be removed.

Here is the inside of the notebook cover. The cords could easily be loosened to release one or both of the charms if needed.

The notebook is pretty standard, lined with very thin paper. I do not know the gsm. I didn’t have high hopes for the pen test but it stood up fairly well.

I’m just realizing now I deleted the photo of the opposite page. Oh well there was no bleed through and just a touch of ghosting. And very little feathering. Safe for our fountain pens.

Overall I am happy with the pen and notebook. Taking a chance on unknown products can be fun.

Happy writing everyone.

A Pen Present from Dad

Tags

pagani, parker blue quink, parker urban, parker vector

Some of you will know that my father, who is 82, lives in our basement apartment. A few weeks ago my Dad told me he wanted to buy me “a nice pen.” He does not read this blog; he is not a computer user at all. But he sees me journal with fountain pens and I often show him my purchases. He especially enjoyed my vintage Waterman because it was made a year after he was born.

So when he wanted to buy me a pen I took to Amazon and found a Parker Urban in a beautiful royal blue. The pen was available from a London seller, and they offered free engraving and a gorgeous lilac pen case! It arrived this past Friday and I am absolutely delighted with it. Dad likes it too!

I am a big fan of Parker writing instruments; I talked about my black Parker Urban in this post and see this post for my review of my Parker Vector calligraphy set. I use my black Parker Urban a lot so when I came across the royal blue one on Amazon I knew it would be a good addition to my collection.

I’m really pleased with the leather pen case. The P doesn’t stand for Parker but for Pagani, which I assume is the maker of the case.”Pagani Collection, London” is stamped on the back of the case, and also on the underside of the flap. The pen sits comfortably inside the case, within an attached elastic. There is also a smaller elastic which can carry a pen cartridge. The case came with the pen inside as well as a cartridge.

Here she is! Engraving was included in the purchase price. I chose the Chopin Script and “For H Love Dad.”

Here’s a close up of the engraving. It’s beautifully done and I love how bright it is, it really pops against the blue. I would have preferred the engraving to be in silver, to match the rest of the pen, but I have no idea if that was an option. I have to say the communication with the seller was less than ideal. I’m also hoping the engraving does not flake off – time will tell. I’m quite delighted with the finished product.

As I said the pen came with a cartridge but I prefer converters so I popped my Parker converter in and filled it with Parker Quink Blue.

The nib is a medium and super smooth. The shape of the Parker Urban really fits my hand so the writing experience with this blue one was just as satisfying as with my black one.

So that’s my new pen. It was a wonderful, unexpected surprise when Dad said he wanted to buy me a special pen. Mission accomplished. Thanks Dad!

 

Parker Vector Calligraphy Set

Tags

parker blue quink, parker calligraphy set, parker vector

My co-workers know I’m into pens and notebooks and ink. I sometimes have parcels delivered to the office so they were there when I received my bottle of Akkerman ink and they were there when I received my Visconti pen. So they are well aware of my addiction. And when Alison found a pen set in a bag of craft items from her husband’s grandmother, she knew I might have a use for it. And I am so grateful she thought of me, for use it I will.

It looks like a VHS tape box, and that’s what Alison thought it was at first. The box is grey plastic with the gold Parker logo on it.

Inside is grey molded plastic, covered in a flocked material. The set comes with a Parker Vector, 4 nibs (including one attached to the pen), a coverter, and 6 cartridges (2 red, 2 black, and 2 blue). There is also a limited instruction manual; more about the history of Parker (in seven different languages) than a step-by-step guide to calligraphy. The pen itself is utilitarian, with no markings on the nib except for the brand name. There is a Made in UK stamp on the cap.

You can see a closeup of the nibs here. I don’t know what they are called officially but in the quick internet research I’ve done most people are saying the set comes with one pelleted nib (like a standard fountain pen nib, shown above in the set of three, in the middle) and 3 calligraphic nibs (fine, medium and broad).

One of the cartridges was in the pen when I got it, and was empty. And judging from the appearance of the other nibs, it was the only one ever used. Shown above I believe it is the medium calligraphic nib.

I cleaned the pen and then I tried putting one of the cartridges in but could not get the ink to flow. I had better luck when I filled the converter with Parker Blue Quink. And then I did writing samples with all of the nibs.

So this is the largest or broadest nib. It was difficult to control and the ink flow was sporadic. I’m sure that’s because I have no idea how to write with such a monster nib.

Next up was the medium nib.

And a closeup of the medium nib.

Next I put the fine nib in the barrel. Changing out the nibs was very easy, incidentally. No issues whatsoever for this newbie.

And then the closeup of the fine nib.

I really enjoyed writing with this nib, until I put the pelleted nib in. Wow, sooo smooth! Couldn’t believe it.

Ahem. The above should read “- also the first time EVER inked.” And here’s a closeup of the pelleted nib.

The set was released in 1989 and from what I can gather there was an Essentials set that came with 2 nib units and 4 cartridges, and a Deluxe set, which is what I have here. The original retail price was around $20. There is a set on ebay currently, with an asking price of $35.99, and one of the cartridges is missing. I also found an expired listing in which a set was purchased for $11, and that had all of the cartridges included, although one was empty.

Finally I thought it would be neat to see all 4 nibs in action.

When I wrote this I was calling them broad, double broad and triple broad in my mind, and then I came across the internet people calling them fine, medium and broad. But you get the idea. It’s a lovely set with a good pen. It writes well once it gets going, and it seems to prefer the converter with fresh ink. If this set was released and perhaps purchased for Grandma in 1989 those cartridges have been sitting for a long time and are perhaps dried out. I had a lot of fun experimenting.

Thank you again, Alison, for this thoughtful gift.

Journal Writing Wednesday: 8 pages

Tags

jinhao x450, paperblanks, parker blue quink

Journals I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree, the Happiness Journal and the Winnable Leather Journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Aug 6): 8

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 522

Total pages written in 2014: 467

Total number of notebooks/pens/ink bought since self-imposed spending freeze (Jan 1/14): 23

• 1 pen + 1 bottle of ink = 2 items in a gift set on Jan 14
  
• 1 bottle of KoninginneNach-Blauw from Akkerman on Feb 5
• 1 Visconti Rembrandt Calligraphy set in Red = 2 items (pen and ink bottle) from Goldspot on May 15
• 1 bottle of J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche from Goldspot on May 15
• 1 bottle of De Atramentis Heather Violet from Goldspot on May 15
• 5 pens, 4 notebooks, 3 tins of ink cartridges from Reid’s on June 14
• 1 Jinhao X450 from ebay; received on June 19
• 1 bottle of De Atramentis William Shakespeare ink from Goulet Pens; received on June 25
• 1 Winnable Leather Notebook on July 10
• 1 Wreck This Journal on Aug 2

Some topics covered this week:

• Spotted in a restaurant during the lunch rush: Paperblanks Silver Filigree Natural Ultra. Beautiful journal on the table beside me. A young lady was very enthusiastically tapping the journal while conversing with her lunch partner.
• A friend of mine got in touch this week; she was in town for a course. We had a phenomenal dinner on Friday night and spent Saturday night with my Dad and then out to watch my husband’s band perform. It was a real treat to spend time with her. Love you Lori!
• The ink in my Jinhao X450 ran out so I put in some Parker Quink Erasable Blue. What a transformation! I like the pen so much better with different ink. I wonder if the J. Herbin ink I put in this pen originally was not good. Oh well I’m very happy with this pen/ink combination.

Until next time, happy writing!

My Ink Cabinet

Tags

akkerman, ink, j. herbin, lamy, parker blue quink, parker blue-black quink

As some of you know I have a small supply of ink, some of which have appeared in blog posts. I have a mixture of bottled ink and cartridges. I can’t say which I prefer – both have their advantages. I was keeping the ink all over the place until I reorganized my office. Now I have all my ink in one place: my ink cabinet.

The top shelf houses my Lamy ink in the middle, and my two bottles of Quink. The middle shelf holds my J. Herbin ink cartridge tins, and the bottom shelf has the rest of my cartridges on the left, my Akkerman bottle in the middle and a spice jar full of empty cartridges on the right. I want to buy an ink syringe so I can re-use the empty cartridges.

Here’s a bit of a close up. I realize now the dark ink against the dark wood does not make for a great picture but you get the idea. The lighter cartridge packages and tins make for an interesting contrast I hope.

The cabinet was a Christmas gift from my sister many, many years ago. I think it originally contained bath products or something like that. I kept the cabinet because I thought it was beautiful. It’s been keeping some figurines safe for me but I recently bought a curio shelf at an antique store and it is perfect them. That left this cabinet open for possibility, and I thought my ink would look nice in it, while still being kept out of direct sunlight.

I will post further updates as the collection grows, as I’m sure it will. I have 11 J. Herbin colours out of a possible 30, so there is definitely room for growth. And then there are the bottled J. Herbin inks!! I will need a bigger cabinet!  🙂

 

Journal Writing Wednesday: 20 pages

Tags

akkerman, incowrimo, j. herbin, monteverde, parker blue quink, parker urban, perle noire, philip seymour hoffman, vanness pens

Journal I’m currently using: Navy Blue Cross Journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (Feb 5): 20

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 171

Total pages written in 2014: 116

Total number of notebooks/pens/ink bought since self-imposed spending freeze (Jan 1/14): 3

• 1 pen + one bottle of ink = 2 items in a gift set on Jan 14
  
• 1 bottle of KoninginneNach-Blauw from Akkerman, via Vanness Pens (see Feb 5 post for why it was impossible to resist) on Feb 5

Topics covered since last update:

• The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman 😦
• How to Begin quote (see below)
• I changed ink in my Manuscript pen; filled it with J. Herbin Perle Noire
• My husband’s new haircut (he did it himself to save money, bless him)
• InCoWriMo: To date I have sent 23 letters and received 15
• Family stuff
• Lovely Tea with my Sister
• I changed ink in my Parker pen; filled it with Blue Quink
• Fell in love with new Monteverde Prima in Purple

This quote was posted by a friend on facebook and I had to write it in my journal. Beautiful.

Most of my InCoWriMo letters received to date. Got some more today.

I just thought this was funny. It appears my ink shipment left Arkansas and went on a mini vacation. First it went to Miami (who could blame it?) and then all the way to somewhere in northern Saskatchewan. It’s been there for a whole 24 hours. I keep checking but it’s not moving. Sigh. I hope it’s not freezing, but it probably is. 😦

Until next week, happy writing.