What I've been using this week! 11-21-2021 Edition

It's week two of this "What I've been using" experiment. The last post got some views, so I guess someone out there likes these. Thanks! Or hates them and reads them, anyway. That's also fine. Enjoy your hate-read! 

That cup in the picture above was made by my friend Julia Scott. Find her work at Semicool Ceramics, and tell her I sent you. In addition to being generally rad, she makes really good stuff. 

Again, this isn't an exhaustive list or anything. I don't keep records that are that detailed. It's just sort of what I've been using most, or what I've been using that I haven't used in a while. Before we get to pictures, I'll say I've continued using those two Diplomat Aeros from last week as well as a Tactile Turn Side Click, various pens that live in Penwells and whatever else around here that I have picked up off of the desk. I was using this bright orange Uniball Signo pen for some small things, and I love the color and how it writes. That orange ink will smear days later, though, so that's kind of a bummer. 

OK! Show and Tell Time!

Show and Tell

First up we've got the Sailor 1911 Mozaique from last week. It's still got this Dominant Industry Pearl Tanzanite in it, and it's still working flawlessly. The Yoseka site has some wording on it that makes it look like it might be some sort of dangerous to use in fountain pens, but I think that stuff is all about the shimmer in the ink, and it's excessively cautious. I can't say how this would work in an EF nib, but this Sailor's Music Stub handles it excellently. I'd say it'll work in lots of pens. 

This is a newly inked up pen. I love this pen from Carolina Pen Co. It always makes me think of moth wings or something similarly soft and gently colorful. I haven't inked it in a while, and that had to change. And I really wanted to ink up this Dominant Industry Autumn Forest Pearl ink. It looks so good in swatches, but it is much more shimmery than the Tanzanite so I wasn't sure how it would actually work in a fountain pen. Turns out: Real well. I have only had it in the pen for a couple of days, but it hasn't stopped up or clogged at all. Flow is good, shimmer is good, and the ink looks great even when there isn't all that much shimmer in a word. Shimmer is usually a bit inconsistent, and that's true here. It's a great green, and the shimmer really adds to it when it's there. That ink card is from Tsubame Note, and they're fun. 

This one is actually Audrey's pen. It's a Sailor ProGear Angel's Delight, and I kinda "borrowed" it from her. I have a Tequila Sunrise in this pen model, and I hate the nib. I've never liked the nib on it, and nothing that's been done to it has made me like it more. I do really like the pen body, though, so I'm going to swap nibs with this one (which I actually do like). First, though, I want to run through the ink in this pen. The Angel's Delight had actually been put back into one of Aud's pen cases for quite a while, and she didn't know it was still inked. Even though this was inked in 2019, it writes perfectly today. The Iroshizuku Kiri-same ink is a bit darker, but that's just some concentration from evaporation. The cap on this pen is great, right? Kind of amazing that it'll work after 2 years. So, to those people who say you absolutely must clean every pen every month: Nah. You don't have to do that.

This is another newly inked pen. It's a Franklin-Christoph Model 20. I was just talking with Aud about how I hadn't used one of these in a while, so it was obviously time to get to it. And I matched an ink to it. Wild. I never do that. This is Earl Grey Tea, and I don't know why it's orange. Maybe it's orange because of the bergamot in Early Grey? I'm pretty sure that's a green fruit, though. The mystery continues. Anyway, it looks great and the flow is totally fine. No issues with this ink so far. Dominant Industry is hitting them all out of the park. 

This is completely different. The Ninipie Pen & Marker is real good. I picked this up from Yoseka in my last box, and it's real good. The direct ink pen that juts out of the top of this highlighter writes well and is a very readable grey. The highlighter is also good, and the combo makes it easy to take notes and write in margins and highlight text without changing pens. I'm impressed! 

Lastly, a shout out to Zebra's Fountain Pen! Yeah. The punctuation is part of it. I picked up a pack of these from the BJ's a couple of years ago, and I didn't see them again for a long time. Now, though, you can find them pretty easily. I've seen them at Target in various color combos and in singles at Walgreens. I'd bet they are other places, too, but I haven't been going that many places lately. I think these are better than the Pilot Varsity in most cases. There are some colors that just aren't as good as the Varsity, but the finer point keeps the ink from feathering on bad papers, and they don't dry out when they're capped. The ink looks kinda grey in the picture above, but I think that's just the way that the light is reflecting it. It's black in reality. 

Okay, that's it. I've included one more picture because I took it, and it looks pretty good. That's a Galen Leather Magnum Opus Pen Case. The hard sides and removable pen tray are pretty great. Reminds me of the Franklin-Christoph New Penvelopes a bit with some of those features, though the tray is a bit different and the closure is magnetic instead of a flap. And the Galen version is $159 instead of the FC's $65-75.