Showing all posts in Ask The Desk

Hello, dear readers, I’m turning to you to help make some recommendations to some of the questions I’ve received lately. I will summarize a lengthy question from Jeff in the UK: He’s looking for a notebook smaller than a standard A5 that will lay flat and will work well with fountain pens. This is a…

Carlos hoped I could help with this: I would like to buy some refills for a Dunhill ballpen sidecar and a Montegrapa rollerball (refill with 12 cm long). Could you tell me what refills should I buy? According to my research, it looks like the Montegrappa rollerballs all take the standard Pilot G2 style refill,…

Jon wrote me recently about left-handed pens: I’m a lefty. Never quite got over someone confiscating my ancient Parker VP, loved that pen. For the past couple of years I’ve been using inexpensive Schneider pens that have facets on the grip that make positioning it automatic. Thought I’d upgrade a bit and have found the…

Don asks: I read your review of the Mirado Black Warrior, where you mentioned that there were much better pencils for very little more money. Can you tell me what these would be? I work in an elementary school, where we usually stock up on gross boxes of relatively cheap pencils, so the Black Warriors…

From Bruce: What notebook would you recommend for a long-term commonplace book? I regularly use Moleskine for everything, but for this notebook I’d like something with thicker paper and built to stand some years of use. Suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you will be using fountain pen inks in your commonplace book,…