The 2021 DC Pen Show Collection
This year’s DC Pen Show was an absolute blast. I spent most of the week enjoying my purchases from the show.
New pens and ink eased getting back into reading and prepping orientations for the coming school year. I was quite productive this week, all told.
Some highlights from the show: I bought a grail pen. (Hear those triumphant horns blaring?) Also, I now own two nibs made by a new maker. And I got to thank Mr. Speer (of Pen Realm fame) personally for making my birthday pen purchase such a joyful writer.
Two new pens, three new nibs. Saturday escalated quickly. I spoke with the folks at Narwhal about their pens and, interestingly, about their in-house nibs.
Insert whatever sound a narwhal makes
I left with a Schuylkill in Chromis Teal, an in-house F nib, and an in-house M nib. So far, the F leaves a smooth European F. Mine drags a bit like a titanium nib. Pleasant and present.
I also chatted with John at Lemur Ink. He was welcoming as ever. We joked about whether it’s appropriate to call the Blizzard model a stormtrooper. Vital deliberations.
TK-421 vibes
John’s small inventory of Visconti Homo Sapiens caught my eye. I’ve ogled a full size Homo Sapiens for years. The power filler system and new 14k gold nibs are intriguing. The magnetic closure is secure and — importantly — fun to use. And John had an EF in stock. On the table. In a “stormtrooper” model. Gasp.
My Silver Age is a Midi. It is a wonderfully weighty piston filler. With two F nibs. One ground to a crisp italic by The Nibsmith. The other a round F. The palladium nibs are soft. Visconti’s gold nibs are firmer, and still forgiving. Taken together: grail pen acquired.
Esterbrook book clip. Might be the most useful purchase of my show trip. The prongs on the bottom slide into and along a book’s spine. The clip holds a book open and flat on any page.
Helen’s Creations Pen Kimono. Helen’s Creations is a new-to-me shop. I initially intended to buy a kimono wrap for my new Visconti purchase. But the colors and pattern of the sleeve below caught my eye.
The kimono is a better colorway match for my Montblanc 146. And sophisticated. Wowza. [Disclaimer: Helen’s son is a member of my local pen group.]
Sunday, my partner gave me special dispensation from the Great Ink Embargo of 2021. For one day only, I could buy a new ink to match my new grail pen. Give and take.
Sailor Ink Studio 223 came home with me. It’s close in feel to Diamine’s Earl Grey. I was also given the year’s memorial ink: Monteverde 2021 DC Supershow Bob’s Blue.
Movie-star pretty
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. This week’s standout combo is the Visconti (EF), inked with Sailor 223. Moderate flow. High shading. Forgiving. The pair writes consistently, and with a true-to-size European EF line. Worked well with scratch notes (given the round, forgiving nib), journaling, commonplace notes (passages), and meeting notes. No idea how much ink remains.
Sailor Pro Gear (Z) — Feed. Elicited oohs and ahhs during Tuesday’s D&D night gathering. The Zoom nib brings out Yozakura’s dark, ashy shading. A favorite for journaling and for quick writing. D&D notes, journaling, commonplace notes (accent).
Franklin-Christoph 45 (B SIG) — 1/5. Primarily used as a commonplace note taker. Writes consistently, shades well, and offers easily-seen line variation. Solid pairing. Commonplace notes (accent).
Nakaya Neostandard (B) — 1/2. Continues on as a consistent writing pair. No clogs, even after two weeks. Orage is quite dark in this B nib. Journaling, commonplace notes (accent), meeting notes.
Narwhal Schuylkill (F) — 2/3. Acrylic feels oily and smooth like a Sailor or Montblanc resin. Cake is a bit dry in this F feed. Lighter lines work well as accents within my commonplace notes, though. Bonus.
Montblanc 146 (EF) — 3/4. Writing wetter than last week, but still drier than my preference. Maintains a Japanese EF line. Commonplace notes (accent), meeting notes.
Notebooks. Journal. A5 Taroko Breeze. Three new entries over the course of this week, spanning 11 pages. Page 41 awaits; taunting me.
Imbalance is the best word to describe my journaling this week.
Tuesday’s entry is six pages long. Written with my new Visconti Homo Sapiens Blizzard. So: six pages written with an EF nib. Lengthy.
Sophisticated squiggles
The remaining two entries were two pages each. With one page of swatches and scribbles from trying my friends’ new inks Saturday night.
Commonplace. A5 Elemental Paper Iodine. A majority of my analog writing time was spent commonplacing passages from Gessen’s Surviving Autocracy. 11 pages, in fact.
Gessen translates a handful of scholars’ thinking into their own analysis of current American politics. As such, quite a few passages are worth quoting directly (grey ink) and then reflecting on (accent colors). I just finished with Chapter 13.
Three passages, four colors
Written dry. The Sailor has arrived at feed-level. The converter is empty. All that remains is the Yozakura living in the plastic feed.
Newly inked. Tuesday night was D&D night. My friend Justine returned to me the Pelikan m805 I loaned to her. She was smitten. She had re-inked twice in just the few weeks the m805 was on loan.
I suspect there is a Pelikan in her future.
Justine most recently inked the m805 is a new-to-me ink: Colorverse Interstellar Space. It’s an unsaturated, strong shading green.
Scribble on, you shady scribbler
The collection
Incoming / new orders. Plenty of action this week. In addition to what I came home from the pen show with.
My order of two new Musubi notebooks was delivered on Tuesday — a full day early.
Double the notebooks, double the fun
Two features make this notebook well-suited for my teaching bullet journal. The page design and the CAL paper.
The paper sports a grid that is full of subtle details to help organize my lesson plans, meeting notes, and lecture notes. My favorites are the dashes every five lines, the triangles denoting halfway left-to-right, and the x at the center of the page. Oh, and high-faluting page numbers.
I no longer need to count grids so frequently. These design touches will make building a weekly spread quicker and less tiresome than that year.
Excellent design
The white CAL paper allows my ink choices to stand out on their own. Inks no longer compete with colored grid-lines. And CAL emphasizes shading. Awesome.
Outgoing / trades or sales. I’ve confirmed the condition of my six outgoing pens and priced them accordingly. We’re ready, at last, to post them for sale.
The Parker Vacumatic still sits, packed and ready to be shipped off for repair.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. I started reading a new book on Wednesday: Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. It’s clever science fiction.
I’m drawn to science fiction that reflects on serious issues while not taking itself too seriously. She charts this balance masterfully. No wonder Wells won a Hugo Award.
A reader introduced me to Wells and her Murderbot series. Excellent suggestion, Peter!
Friday night was quiet. My partner and I resumed reading Rothfuss’ A Wise Man’s Fear together. We started and finished Chapter Five. Ten pages. Rothfuss is a patient storyteller.
I dig a tradition that brings us together.
Nonfiction. I started my close-read of Tatum’s Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? on Friday. I dig a book that places current issues into broader historical context. Tatum does just that — and well.
Close reading leads to threaded margin notes. Connecting examples to major points within the book. Also, connecting examples to other authors’ thinking.
Threaded
Music. This week was marked with a celebratory energy. I had two lovely new pens and two new inks from the pen show to explore. My work bullet journals from Musubi arrived. And I finally feel recovered from last school year.
My music choices reflected my mental space. A lot of Jack White played this week. In particular, the White Stripes’ Icky Thump record. I can’t get enough of his frantic guitar squealings.
