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A year in review.

12/31/12
Howdy, folks! This little blog has been around for almost a year, now. My first post about pens was way back in February of this year. Like all blogs, it started out slowly. I was getting single digit viewership until the end of April, when it jumped from about 5 views a day to 55 views in a single day. That was pretty huge for me at the time, and I think that was when I decided that some people might...

Diamine Ancient Copper

12/28/12
This is one of my favorite inks. It came in a Goulet Ink Drop, and I have used the entire sample. It's been in my Rotring 600 continuously, and that's odd for me. I delayed so long in writing the review that I don't have enough left that I'm willing to sacrifice a drop for a smear on the page. It's that good. It's a color that looks like lightly tarnished copper. To me, it reminds me of the...

Happy Christmas!

12/25/12
I hope you're all having a great holiday. I'm in Knoxville with my wife and in-laws this Christmas, so I'm low on pictures for the ol' blog right now. I only got one fountain pen for Christmas this year, and that was from my dad. He took a long trip to Alaska this summer, and while he was there he found me a hand-made pen that is heavy enough to be brass, but the cap is magnetic, so I'm thinking...

The Quattro 8x8 Notepad

12/22/12
When I posted this blog on the /r/fountainpens subreddit I got a request for paper reviews. I'm no paper expert, but I did intend to write a review of this odd little pad that I found at a local art supplies store. It's an 8x8 grid paper that comes in a variety of sizes, but the one I got is 4.5"x5.5".  This paper is broken up into all sorts of grids, so if you're a grid-lover you're going...

De Atramentis R.L. Stevenson

12/20/12
This ink, named for a pretty darn good author, is the last of the group of inks that I just didn't care much for. Next time, it's back to inks that are far more awesome.  It's not that RL Stevenson is a bad ink. It behaves really well on all the papers that I used (notebook filler paper, Rhodia, note pads, comp book paper, etc) It's a smooth ink, but not a wet one. When I tried it in my TWSBI...

My new nib has arrived!

12/17/12
TWSBI has some really great customer service!...

Scribal Workshop's Siren

This is the other ink that I tried from the Scribal Workshop line, and it's a bit better. It has the same flow issue that I had with Leviathan, and I actually had the same problem with an ink called "Kracken" from SW but I never wrote up a review of that ink. It flows a little better than Leviathan did, but it's still way too dry for me. Most of the details are in the written review below, but...

Ink Nouveau & TWSBI 700 news

12/14/12
Brian Goulet, over on Ink Nouveau posted a video explaining how to remove and replace the nibs on TWSBI's Vac 700. Interestingly, he does it exactly as I do. It's not hard, but it's nice to see how one does this sort of thing with a pen that is in a higher price bracket. The only thing that I'd add to the video is that you really want to make sure that you seat the nib completely in the section. If...

Scribal Workshop Levithan

12/11/12
The next couple of these inks are from a company called Scribal Workshop. It's located in my old home state of Texas and, according to their website, they do lots of cool stuff illuminated manuscripts and historical inks and such. These inks came to us in an Ink Drop that contained the whole collection. It's a pretty standard sort of collection, and the colors aren't unexpected, but it's good to...

Organics Studios Nickel

12/6/12
I have a bunch of these Organics Studios ink samples, and I haven't used most of them. Some of them have chemistry problems that caused them to clump up (I'm looking at you, every red in the collection), and some of them are fine, but just not colors that I want to use.  Nickel belongs in that second category. It doesn't have any chemical problems, and it flows really well in the Lamy that...

Chesterfield Teal

12/2/12
This is the only one of these Chesterfield inks that I've tried. They are supposed to be  re-bottled Diamine inks, but this is not as good as any of the Diamine inks that I've used. They're shipped from xfountainpens.com in little bottles that are pretty easy to fill a pen from, and Teal looks like it's going to be a really pigmented ink that clings to the walls of the bottle. It turns...