One more for the community’s exploration of #21PenQuestions

Ana gave a gift when she adapted these twenty-one reflection questions over at The Well-Appointed Desk back in May. I dig a light-hearted targeted reflection.

I’m thinking through my own standpoint with respect to how I use analog tools like pens and inks and papers. Seeing folks’ desks through their own eyes has been excellent motivation for digging into my own values.

This week, I’m sharing my twenty-one reflections on how I sit with my pens and inks and stationery. How I think about sharing and using my desk bound-comrades. This week: my #21PenQuestions.

1: What is the pen they’ll have to pry out of your cold dead hands?

My Nakaya Neostandard is the stationery heart of my pen collection.

The Neostandard is the “right fit” for how I write. The right size for both rapid notetaking and comfortable longform handwriting. Lightweight and balanced to ease proper writing angles. And an excellent multitasker nib grind from CY over at Tokyo Station Pens.

My partner used this pen to propose to me instead of presenting me with a ring. They know me well. I would re-enter a burning building to retrieve this pen.

Another perk for saying yes

2: What’s your guilty pleasure pen?

I do feel a measure of guilt at appropriating Jinhao’s 82, which blatantly copy many of Sailor’s excellent Pro Gear Slim designs.

However, I’ve had an absolute blast swapping the 82s removable parts. I currently have five fully customized colorways. My giddy giggling as I swapped parts was a clear indication that all of my 82s are pleasurable additions to my collection.

I’ve experienced rapid 82 inflation over the past month

3: What’s the pen (or stationery item) you wish existed?

The stationery item I wish existed is a clear plastic ruler with a 5mm grid printed on it. Why? Because my dream ruler will also sport beveled edges. Awesome right side-up beveled edges. Edges that prevent liquid inks from pooling underneath the ruler.

The closest ruler I’ve found has bevels that require me to flip it upside down when using a fountain pen

4: What pen would you give to a new enthusiast?

I have two answers to this question, depending on the new enthusiast’s primary interest in analog life.

To a new enthusiast who is drawn in by the pens themselves: the Platinum Preppy. A fabulous, reliable nib. Fun and artsy colors. The Preppy is also easy to clean and/or take apart. So learning fountain pen hygiene is, itself, easily accessible.

To a new enthusiast who is drawn in by the wide world of inks: the TWSBI Eco. A piston demonstrator shows off ink inside and outside of the pen. Using the piston with a bottle of ink is fun and easy to learn. And the Eco’s friction-fit nib and feed make the pen similarly easy to clear. Pen hygiene is important.

Double trouble

5: What pen (or stationery item) do you want to get along with but it just never clicked?

I have three avenues into getting along with Conklin’s Mark Twain Crescent Filler. It’s a design with history tied to its eponymous namesake. It’s a sizable and light pen. And it’s colorway uses texture for flair.

Plus: it works quite well!

But I hesitate to fill the Mark Twain because of its push-crescent filling system. The CON-70 of vintage filling mechanisms. And the internal sac is a worry while flushing out during cleaning days.

6: What pen do you keep only because its pretty?

This is the most challenging question of Ana’s adapted targeted reflection. “Pretty” is often enough to bring me back to my desk. “Pretty” gets me started on the kinds of thinking and writing and grading that I need to complete. Pretty is pretty useful.

As such, I keep most of my pens because they are, in one way or another, pretty.

A cop-out? Possibly. A truth? Positively.

7: What pen (or stationery item) did you buy because everyone else did?

My bottles of Sailor Ink Studio 223 and Robert Oster Fire on Ice were both peer-pressure fueled impulse buys.

I stumbled onto a vendor table at a DC Pen Show that had bottles of Sailor’s Ink Studio line for show. The electric excitement around the release of such a deep line of diverse ink colors — in such a short time — drove me to buy 223, because it was closest to the then-rare whispy 123. A serendipitous choice that has since become a favorite ink color of mine.

Fire on Ice was the first ink I encountered with noticeable, frequent sheen. Folks in the community were elated with the color combination. I bought a bottle, sight unseen, from an online vendor. I tore through that bottle and shared it widely with friends.

8: What pen (or stationery product) is over your head or just baffles you?

Thick zippered notebook covers and folios; the kind that house pockets for cards and keys in the inside.

The folders and card slots bulge underneath my notebooks’ pages. Writing is a challenge for me on such mountainous paper terrain. Especially with my penchant for softcover notebooks. Excellent notebook folios that simply don’t fit my particular writing habit. And that’s ok.

How do folks write comfortably without removing their notebooks each time they want to jot a note, or update a task list, or journal? I have a healthy respect for such stationery resilience.

9: What pen (or stationery product) surprised you?

Woodcase pencils run counter to my established preferences regarding writing tools. I prefer moderate-to-wide pens and pencils. I like to cap my pens — holding a pen cap is an in-built fidget spinner.

And yet, I’ve found a deeply satisfying appreciation for woodcase pencils. They’re my go-to annotation writers. There is a romantic ingredient to sharpening a pencil just right while I consider the paragraph I just read, before besmudging the margins next to that paragraph with my own ideas.

Behold the woodcase pencil. The stationery product I dig because of how it breaks all of my preferences.

10: What pen (or stationery product) doesn’t really work for you but you keep it because it’s a collectible?

A gaggle of diminutive Inkvent bottles live in my ink bottle bins. Colors and shimmers and sheens that are apart from my routine color palettes.

I keep these cute bottles and diverse inks primarily because … well, because they’re the Inkvent. My partner has taken to gifting me an Inkvent each December. It’s now household tradition.

A safe way for them to gift me ink that they’ll know I don’t have already — and that I have not over-researched online yet. A gesture of love that brings me joy. Irrational, emotional, and oh-so collectible. I’m collecting inks, sure, but also a history of thoughtful gifts.

I’m not crying. You’re crying.

11: What is your favorite sparkly pen (or ink)?

Jacques Herbin 1798 Kyanite du Népal is the first shimmer ink I owned that avoided clogging all but the narrowest nibs. KdN gifted me my “a-ha!” moment as to the fun to be had with shimmer inks.

Noticeable shimmer. Infrequent punchy sheen. All carried in a spark of bright blue. Class in glass.

A beautiful pirate-treasure-looking glass bottle.

12: Which nib do you love – but hate the pen? (or vice versa)?

Hate is a strong word. A nib I love in a pen body that is ill suited to how I use my pens? That I can answer.

My vintage Esterbook J’s sport incredible nibs. Firm fines, oblique mediums, and EF flex nibs all write incredibly well. And the swappable nature of the nib units are useful for pairing the right writing experience with the right image.

But the old J’s reliance on sacs make the J a model I sigh before inking up or cleaning out. I am eagerly waiting in the wings for Esterbrook to release an adaptor that lets me use vintage Esterbrook nibs in their modern JRs. Esterbrook’s excellent vintage nibs in a modern converter-use pen body. Goosebumps just thinking about it.

13: What pen (or stationery product) gives you the willies?

Glass dip nibs and glass dip pens raise my anxiety. I have a mental image of shattering a beautiful piece of stationery art.

I could use friendly guidance on how to properly use glass dippers. (Dips?)

14: What’s your favorite pen for long form writing?

Pelikan’s m800 model sits dead center in my analog goldilocks zone.

You glorious, good-looking friend

The section is the right size to sit comfortably in my hand over extended writing sessions. The pen’s light weight prevents over-rotation after multiple pages of handwriting. And Pelikan’s generous feeds render their nibs forgiving when I inevitably rotate my pen away from me as my mind wanders.

15: What pen (or stationery product) do you love in theory but not in practice?

Hot take time. I adore the body design, aesthetic color choices and weight of my Visconti Homo Sapiens Blizzard. The size and magnetic cap and vacuum filling mechanism are fabulous. It’s a pen I can use in school and in life. The true business casual of the pen world.

But the nib. The pen did not write well out of the box. I tuned it myself and saw positive returns. But then the Blizzard wrote inconsistently. I brought the Blizzard to a professional nibmeister for tuning. It is better yet but remains inconsistent. Boo.

Alas, Visconti’s Homo Sapiens design is fabulous and just my style — in theory. But in practice, the Blizzard has proved a deeper challenge.

You beautiful pain in my hand. I have hope for you yet.

16: What pen (or stationery product) would you never let someone else use?

I’ve found our community of stationery lovers to be bravely generous. Folks passed every pen around our table at last year’s DC Pen Show, from low entry favorites to high end boutique makers like Tohma.

I make a point of sharing everything, too. I keep a set of Pilot Varsities on my desk for when I can’t give gentle instruction. But I’ll just as quickly share my Visconti Homo Sapiens if I can offer suggestions like “the pen will write without pressure, like you’re painting.”

Equal opportunity pen sharer.

17: What pen (or stationery product) would you never use for yourself?

I have a romantic attachment to the idea of stamps. I find pre-made calendars and pre-organized checklists, fun status designs, and artsy icons appealing.

However, I know myself. Finding the right stamp and ink pad will become its own activity. My thinking would get lost in the shuffle. That’s a me hurdle that makes stamps unwise for me, personally.

But ogling folks’ lovely stamped layouts online? That I gladly participate in..

18: What pen (or stationery product) could you NOT bring yourself to buy?

I have found myself with a Sailor King of Pen in my virtual shopping cart on multiple occasions. The Pro Gear is one of my favorite pen designs. I would welcome a slightly larger version for comfort across long writing sessions. The King of Pen offers just that. I suppose I’m still waiting for the “right” colorway to push me over the proverbial edge. The edge wherein I, at last, push the buy button.

19: What’s your favorite vintage pen?

My heart has a deep-seated fondness for my Parker Vacumatic. I appreciate a pen that wears its history for the world to see. Scratches, dents, wear and age are signs of a life well lived. And vintage pens, like people, can age gracefully with acceptance and proper care.

The barrel stamping on my Vacumatic suggests a late 1940’s origin. My particular pen wears its scratches evenly throughout the body. The section has a narrow divet removed from where the threading meets the body proper. And the blind cap wiggles just a tad.

Personality with a beautiful classic Parker nib. I have designs on a larger model in the coming year.

20: What is your favorite EDC/pocket pen?

Two excellent pocket pens stand out. One standard and one fountain.

Tactile Turn’s Bolt Action pen fits well within my EDC. The bolt is situated on the pen’s side, preventing accidental clicking when I sit down. Inky back pockets are an artifact of my past.

Kaweco’s Sport is the epitome of a pocket pen for me. A smart, compact carrying size that converts into a full-size writing tool when I post the cap. And I appreciate how easy Kaweco’s converters are to clean, which makes for hassle-free ink changes.

21: What’s the pen (or stationery product) that got away?

There are plenty of products that gave me the oohs-and-aahs. I can honestly share that I don’t yet have a product that “got away.” That said, the universe may not be done with me yet.