Fountain Pen Hideout
Another hand-me-down Montblanc. I wouldn’t go quite as far as to call this a priceless family heirloom, but it is pretty good. My dad’s, from the 80s. My main gripe with Montblanc is that their modern nibs are soulless and lacking in character. This pen, however, being my father’s, does not suffer from that problem,... Continue Reading →
This was found on eBay for roughly half the recommended retail, so how could I say no? Besides, I had never tried a Realo before. This is modelled on the 1911 Large. Sailor’s Realos are piston-fillers based on the full-size models, and this was essentially a 1911L demonstrator with a few tweaks. Rose-gold trim already... Continue Reading →
Well, in Itoya, you have to buy pens. Why would anyone go to Itoya if not to buy pens? It was either this or another Pro Gear Slim... At this point (March 2019), the Laurel Green had just been announced together with the Chenonceau White. I had liked the look of the green material, which... Continue Reading →
March 2019 found me in Itoya Ginza, and I, having gone there with the express purpose of getting myself a set of the 100th Anniversary Iroshizuku inks, found myself stopping short at a very unassuming pen display. Sweet! This was clearly a budget-ish layout: an acrylic rack with punch-out holes, and these Procolor-shaped little things... Continue Reading →
I knew I was in trouble as soon as I decided to stop at that table. Here we go: What a beauty. This was March 2019. The typical London pen show fare was on display: lots of new releases, many many tables of vintage stuff, and some incredibly high-end pens on display at Sarj Minhas’s... Continue Reading →
Since Sailor doesn’t sell loose nibs, I had to buy a whole pen. It’s nothing special on the outside, just a regular 1911L really.But this unassuming exterior hides one of Yukio Nagahara’s nibs. Yukio, son of the legendary nibmeister Nobuyoshi, carries the knowledge of his father’s inventions with him. (He has now left Sailor to... Continue Reading →
My first experience with a Graf pen was in the Faber-Castell boutique in Düsseldorf. I’d always heard that they have extremely smooth nibs, though I balked at what I thought was slightly clunky design. But when the chance to own a second-hand one came (at a tiny fraction of the price — thanks Rupert!), I... Continue Reading →
I bought this because I wanted a pen in this material, that’s all. I missed out on some other models in PenBBS’s Galaxy acrylic, and this was the next thing that was available. And so: I’ve ended up really liking this pen a lot, not just because of the material, but because the subtle curves... Continue Reading →
This is a curiosity from the Soviet era, quite along the line of Eastern countries imitating Western products. China had its own Parker 51 clones, and today we discuss a Russian one: The model name translates to little golden fish, and the novelty factor lies in having a small glycerin-filled chamber with a small plastic... Continue Reading →
Pocket pen time: I happened across this pen at the October 2017 London Pen Show, and had the poor sense to haggle. So it came home with me, and I found it to be even littler than my other Dama. It’s properly pocket-sized, and weighs almost nothing. Very compact in the hand, and I can... Continue Reading →
Flex & Other Follies 