Fountain pens and the tinkerer’s game
Some pens are perfect right out of the box. Others need some love and attention before they write in a way that brings joy. Still others just never bring joy to your writing, despite functioning well. My Monteverde Giant Sequoia was the latter two.
If Chewie owned a pen ...
The Giant Sequoia worked fine out of the box. The converter seals securely (so no leaks or burps). The The Monteverde nib wrote well enough after a quick tuning but isn’t to my taste. There’s nothing wrong with the original pen as sold. It’s just not “right.”
The pen is an absolute rockstar as a Franklin-Christoph nib holder. The nib collars between F-C and Monteverde are different. As are the diameters of the feeds. However, the nibs are both comparable sizes and thicknesses. Carefully removing the nibs and feeds makes both Jowo #6 nibs swappable.
Different threadings and feed girths
The Giant Sequoia has found a joyful place in my pen rotation as a large, comfortable Franklin-Christoph nib holder. As such, I gravitate toward the Wookiee-pen whenever it’s currently inked. And aesthetically, the black and gold of Franklin-Christoph’s lacquered nibs suit the overall look of the pen.
Oh so worth the tinkering
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. No single pen and ink combo stood nib-and-collar above the others this week. A product of how well-paired all five pens were.
Nakaya Neostandard (B) — Empty. Whelp: the Nakaya survived a week at work without any noticeable damage. B was too wide for most writing outside of my journal or commonplace notebook. Journaling, reading notes (accent), lesson plans, meeting notes (headings).
Monteverde Giant Sequoia (EF-SIG) — Empty. Thé presented as a monotone brown from this feed. Pretty, but without a light side. The EF-SIG ensured great performance: a true EF line wet enough to keep an exceptionally sharp italic grind writing smoothly. Lesson planning, meeting notes, journaling, manuscript marking.
Montblanc 146 (EF) — Feed. Grew wetter and darker as more air was in the ink chamber. Definitely works best while full. Task management, meeting notes, reading notes.
TWSBI 580-ALR (B) — 1/6. A lot of the week’s lesson plan work is in Yozakura. That dusty pink-purple is easily readable from a distance. The B does make taking detailed notes more challenging in a 3.7 mm grid notebook. Lesson plans, reading notes (accent), journaling.
TWSBI Vac700R (F CSI) — 1/4. This nib and feed handle dry inks incredibly well. No hard starts. No scratchy writing. Even pocket carried on Friday, despite the ground nib. Lesson plans, reading notes (accent), journaling, pocket carried once.
Notebooks. Work bujo: Hobonichi Plain A5 Notebook. 11 more pages bring the work bullet journal to page 63. A two-page task management weekly spread. Two pages of meeting notes bookend six one-page lesson plans.
And I made it out of the notebook’s first section of pages. The blue phase of my school year has begun.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
One of my favorite features of Hobonichi’s Plain Notebook is that the gridded pages come in four colors. I use the colors as motivational benchmarks. Reaching a new color keeps the notebook interesting. And there are just enough pages of each color that I get a color change as I start feeling bored with the notebook. Clever design.
Journal: Unbranded A5 Cosmo Air Light. 10 new pages, spread across three entries. Much of my journaling has been replaying key moments of my days. I like to record what I recall happened, and then unpack what it says about who I am right now.
This past week, my grandfather was in the hospital — he is now back home and feeling worlds better. A lot of my writing highlighted how my family came together within the mandated distancing of a coronavirus-infused world. It takes presence to be meaningfully present.
One of the poems that ended March 29’s entry is a darkly beautiful piece by Molly Brodak called “How not to be a perfectionist”:
Yep.
Pocket notebook: The pocket notebook experiment from last week’s inked tines post is underway. I started with a Field Notes blank date book on a trip to the eye doctor. Only one new page of entries: a heading with my vision insurance information and a list of glasses frames.
Out with the old, in with the new
Written dry. Two pens ran dry this week. A third, the Montblanc, has an empty ink chamber from what I can see through the ink window.
The Nakaya’s generous B nib and feed shepherded an empty converter by early Thursday evening. I smile while I write with this pen. A product of its sentimental meaning for me and how the urushi feels in the hand.
The Monteverde dried up Wednesday evening. I don’t typically journal much with EF nibs. This EF-SIG and large pen was a surprise joy to journal with – for the days it still had ink.
Newly inked. I committed to emptying my currently inked, to some success. Huzzah.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. No new acquisitions this week. I’m saving and biding my time.
Outgoing / trades or sales. Nothing new.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. My partner and I travelled through two more chapters of Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind. Our schedules were inverted schedules this week. Time together without one or the other of us falling asleep was rare.
Nonfiction. I dug into Applebaum’s Twilight of Democracy this week. I conquered my deep read Friday night. Deep reading involved making annotations in the margins throughout.
Chicken scratch
I skim a book first. The goal of a skim is to outline the author’s overarching argument. This week’s deep read focused on the evidence Applebaum believes supports the her argument.
Most of my deep reading notes unpack her examples. I also like to tie examples together, and back to other writers’ ideas. Bullet journalers call this old reading tactic “threading.” Old school educators often call it “active reading.” I consider it signposting: pointing to similar, or related, or contrasting evidence elsewhere than on the page I’m writing on.
Signposts across chapters
Music. Arlo Parks has been on repeat nearly all week. More specifically, her new album Collapsed in Sunbeams. Understated energy and excellent poetry. [Disclaimer: one of her singles, Eugene, is rated explicit.]
Tyack & Cuban (1997) had a brilliant title to their now-classic history of American educational policymaking: Tinkering Toward Eutopia. This post was almost, nearly titled in kind: “Tinkering toward a writer.”
