My favorite five pen-and-ink combinations from 2022
The desk in my study overlooks a lovely field. The field is blanketed with fog — Edison lights float, seemingly suspended in the air. Halos of light ring each bulb. Quiet early-morning moments like this one — moments filled with reflective beauty — are my favorite moments for writing. Just me and my thoughts.
And my pens
As the calendar year winds down, I recognize how grateful I am for this blogging space. Thanks for taking the journey with me.
Fountain pens, for me, are about combinations. Combinations of ink, nib and paper. The three pillars of analog writing.
My favorites follow suit. My “favorite ink” is a favorite in specific nibs and on specific papers. My “favorite pen” is a favorite when fitted with specific nibs and filled with specific inks. Non-monogamous favorites.
I did all that?
Looking back through my pen-and-ink pairings this past calendar year, five pairings stand above the rest in my mind. Pairings I will definitely revisit in the coming 2023.
Pilot’s Custom 74 (EF nib) & Mid-Toned Greys. Both Bungukan Kobayashi Sohayanotsuruki and Dominant Industry Downpour shaded powerfully and maintained disciplined EF line widths. Prominent shading and narrow writing lines are challenging to produce simultaneously. Excellent control for detailed writing with the 74’s narrow contoured section.
Pelikan m805 (F CSI nib) & Kyo-no-oto Hisoku. Hisoku’s grey-teal hues proved excellent for accent notes and marking papers. The Pelikan’s nib-and-feed brought darker tones out of Hisoku, broadening the ink’s use to journaling, drafting manuscripts and meeting notes. A wet feed, a dry ink, and a crisp italic nib grind combine to make a great medium-length writer.
Nakaya Neostandard (Mini-Naginata Togi nib) & Organics Studio Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass. The grind gives me control over how dark or light Whitman’s green is. Shallow writing angles for dark, M-width lines. Vertical writing angles for yellowed, washed-out greens. The pen’s size, forgiving grind, and mid-toned green make for an excellent longform writer.
Nahvalur Schuylkill (EF Bock nib) & Colorverse Brane. Discovering the seamless fit of my titanium Bock nib in my Nahvalur overhauled my opinion of the pen. The generous EF nib handles finicky shimmer inks without undue drama. Especially with a high-shading shimmer ink like Brane. And the narrow contoured section of the Schuylkill sits comfortably in my hand. EF-F line widths make for great targeted writing — medium and short lengths usually.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. A little something different this week. Thinking through how my pen and ink combinations worked — and worked less-than-well — over the past few weeks.
Inkvent Challenge, Week 1 Retrospective
Franklin-Christoph 03 Antique Glass (EF, mnml) — Ghost performed admirably as a daily driver in my personal EF nib. Consistent light-grey tones with noticeable purple undertones. Would dry out after a few hours on my desk. Perhaps more reliable in a Platinum seal?
Pilot Custom Heritage 912 (SF) — Solar Storm is a powerhouse. Very wet — and so resistant to clogging. The SF nib put so much ink on the page that Storm looked black. With prominent shimmer. A possible fancy daily driver in the future.
Platinum 3776 Nice Pur (B) — Bliss is a bright blue. I expected healthy shading and got minimal from this generous B nib. Blue for when you just want blue ink. No frills. Life inside the box.
Able Snail Classic Large in Powder Blue (B) — Yule Log is a runaway classic. Consistent writing. The shimmer is so generous as to act as shading in this taupe-brown ink. The B nib proved an inspired choice: shimmer enough for easy skimming and lines wide enough for forgiving long-form writing sessions. A keeper.
Mythic Aeschylus Black & Red (M Long Knife) — Spiced Apple is dry when paired with this Kaigelu-ground nib. Red with prominent gold sheen that mutes Apple’s strong red tones. A combination I appreciate. Workable, consistent, and a clever use of sheen to mellow the ink’s color. Great for those who house red in their aesthetic preference.
TWSBI 580 Smoke RoseGold II (F) — Spruce is a firehose in this F nib. So wet as to need 60 seconds or more to dry. So dark as to be near-black. The scent is noticeable but not overpowering — a successful balance. However, the long dry time makes Spruce best-suited to slow, longform writing tasks.
Inkvent Challenge, Week 2 Retrospective
TWSBI Eco-T Mint (EF) — Alpine mellowed from green-black to a lovely dark forest green over the course of a week in my Eco. The EF nib ensured subtle shimmer is noticeable throughout my words. I enjoyed Alpine in a narrow line width — especially for detailed notetaking and scratch notes.
Pelikan m805 Stresemann Anthracite (F CSI) — Memory Lane and my Pelikan CSI nib are meant to be friends. Long and medium length writing friendly. Minimal yet recognizable shading dominate written lines. Shimmer helps writing stand out from odd angles. Memory Lane would work well for lecture or presentation notes.
Kaweco Sport Iridescent Pearl (F) — The narrow F nib robs Jingle Berry of its light-dark purple-pink contrasts. Berry writes a consistent dark purple-pink in this nib. Rapid dry times make this pair a strong choice for scratch notes and pocket carry.
Visconti Homo Sapiens Silver Age (F CI) — Cardinal is a dry, mid-toned red. The wet Visconti feed brought out some shading in the beginnings and ends of words. Like Bliss, Cardinal is a no-frills red. The red would work well accent notes and manuscript marking.
TWSBI 580-ALR Prussian Blue (B) — Appletini is a shock of neon green. Fun for swatches, watercolor painting, and accent notes. The bright green writes dryly in this TWSBI B nib. Short notes, accent notes and reading notes — all of which leap off the page visually.
Sailor Pro Gear Graphite Lighthouse (Z Architect) — Dusted Truffle offers strong shading and abundant shimmer — all in a monotone dusty brown. I dig it. The wide Z Architect grind emphasizes Truffle’s strongest attributes on the page. A go-to pen-and-ink pairing for medium and long length writing sessions. Just shimmery enough to serve well in reading notes, too. And reverse writing dries quickly for pocket notes.
Inkvent Challenge, Week 3 Retrospective
Majohn A1 Black Clipless (EF) — Pick Me Up is a brown with strong green sheen. A dark brown in this EF nib. A “poop brown” as my 4-year old nephew put it. On the dry side, but still a comfortable writer. Better paired with a broad nib to see Pick Me Up’s shading. Reverse writing shines, with caramel brown that sheens green at the beginnings and ends of lines.
Franklin-Christoph 45 (B SIG) — Serendipity is a sheen monster in this wet, broad SIG nib. All red sheen in fun ribbons of line variation. A solid choice for searchable headings — especially in lecture notes, presentation notes, and meeting notes. One dimensional red glint that fits with short, bold writing tasks.
Franklin-Christoph 46 (EF SIG) — Upon a Star is a dream blue ink in this prickly EF SIG nib. Denim grey-blue hues dominate my lines. Minimal shading ends my words in hints of pink sheen. Subtlely fun. This pair dries out after a few hours of life capped on my desk. Slow writing tasks that require detail: reading notes, D&D notes, and commonplace notes.
Nahvalur Schuylkill Chromis Teal (EF) — Olive Swirl is an ink that lives up to its namesake. Olive green tones with periodic pools of shimmer. A dry writer in this EF nib — which brings a normally-wide EF nib into true EF territory. Sweet.
Monteverde Giant Sequoia (F SIG) — Three Kings darkened considerably over the first three days in my Monteverde. Three Kings sits at a muddy gold-brown after six days in-pen. I enjoy Three Kings, surprisingly. The ink even halos on Tomoe River paper. Dark enough for reflective writing and analytic writing. Prominent shading and haloing keeps me interested over long writing sessions. Too dark for accent work.
Lamy Safari Terra Red (B) — Flame is a burst of orange-red on the page. No fuss, no complication. Consistent, wet flow that shades minimally on absorbent paper and halos consistently on ink-friendly papers. An excellent choice for margin notes, marking papers, reading notes, and additional accent work. This generous B nib also keeps longform writing fun. A solid combination.
Notebooks. Work bujo. Odyssey Neptune 400 (A5). Not even one new line. A success, to be sure.
Journal. Endless Recorder in Mountain Snow (A5). My journaling activity was inconsistent over my break. With small children visiting, I spent my time playing with my nephews during the days and then recovering alongside family in the evenings. Family first.
All told, I wrote six new entries across three weeks. Thirteen pages of new writing. Three long form reflections, two one-page jottings, and a two-page swatches of my new inks from our family holiday gift-giving. Details on the inks are below.
Memory Lane’s icy purple carried a four page long form reflection. A long entry. Free wheeling and descriptive. The Pelikan’s CSI grind brought out Memory Lane’s fun shading — which encouraged me to write so much.
Diamine has figured out their shimmer game. Bountiful and clog-free
Written dry. My generous choice of six new pen-and-ink pairings over the past three weeks ensured my minimal writing duties could be spread across many nibs.
Even at one-third to half fills, every single pen survived its respective week on my daily carry.
A 100% survival rate over three consecutive weeks is a record for me. Awards and accolades.
Three cheers for three weeks of inked pens
Newly inked. Another effect of fully novel ink choices and stingy writing time is that I was content with each week’s sextet. Enough that I have yet to consider supplementing my Inkvent palettes with another ink from my existing collecting.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. My family celebrates the Hanukkah and Christmas holidays with gifts. Small gifts. Handwritten cards. And, often, we’re blessed with a few large gifts.
My partner has labeled this: The Holiday Haul
This year’s big gift is the Tactile Turn Bolt in Black Ultem. I enjoy having a full sized pen sans top-knock. The bolt-action mechanism Tactile Turn designed is icing on the metaphorical cake. Cool for the sake of cool.
Standard pens that activate with a finial knock accidentally “uncap” when I sit down. I carry my pocket pens in my rear pocket. Chairs, and especially car seats, will press the knock into my pocket carry pens while I sit down and get out of my seat. An open pen can wick ink into my pants.
Inky pants are now a thing of the past
I’m a sucker for themed inks. Colorverse’s New Horizons four-ink set is heavily, dedicatedly themed. Four muted (read: lovely) colors, each meant to capture an aspect of Horizon’s journey to data collect from Pluto.
Colorverse once again nailed their packaging. Information on 2006’s Horizon launch literally rings the outer box. There’s even a citation! My academic-self swoons.
The folks at Colorverse also notably provide Hex values for the mid-range colors of each ink! The hex values help me to log each ink in my ink database for easy choosing and tracking in future months. An ease-of-use bonus.
Taccia’s ukiyo-e ink line hits me right in the metaphorical feels. Historically significant figures and their art? Check. Beautiful reproductions and historical explanations of those primary sources? Nerd check. An ink that captures the colors in artwork depicting an historical figure I teach about in my world history class? Priceless.
My hunt for a liquid-ink friendly bullet journal stencil winds on with my new Dear Lily task box stencil. Cut to pair with 5mm grids like those in my work bullet journal. Convenient. Promising. Eager to try in the new year.
My father tracked down a neat vintage Shaeffer. The nib lays down a MF line — without any tuning needed. The pen fits short international cartridges. Researching the model of this little writer is a fun project on my task list for my breaks at work during the first week of January.
Who are you?
Lastly, my partner secured two ink sample sets. Inks for my January and February currently inked palettes. Bruhah!
Outgoing / trades or sales. My collection has been a black hole for three weeks. Matter enters. It does not leave.
A galaxy of fun options .. err, “matter”
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. My journey towards the Last Battle in Robert Jordan’s The Gathering Storm continued. Five more chapters captured how Perrin and Mat are faring in the weeks before the series’ culminating battle with ultimate evil.
53% complete. Midway through Chapter 27. iPhone page 573. Mat is leaning on his magical luck to feed a literal army. How one does.
I still return to my phone for reading fiction. Having my book with me, in my pocket, is convenient. And easily searched highlights are an added bonus.
Nonfiction. I knocked out two chapters from Yascha Mounk’s The Great Experiment. An excellent essay on the ongoing work required for liberal democracies to survive. 32 pages. All in pencil and Mildliner.
My Mitsubishi 9850 pencil wears shorter with repeated, loving, thoughtful use. I switched to my brass DUX pencil sharpener at the beginning of my break two weeks ago. The novelty keeps me returning to Mounk’s text.
A shorter point to help find Mounk’s point
Music. My family listens to a lot of holiday music in the weeks before Hanukkah and Christmas. Spotify’s Indie Christmas playlist proved addictive for my partner and me. New-to-me artists playing new covers and even a few originals.
Sjowgren’s This Year For Christmas and girlhouse’s ugly xmas sweater party are standouts for me. Lo-key rhythms and mellow vocals. Well-suited to holiday reading.
