My BFF Rebecca (AKA Squirrel Junkie) is a genius. She made tablet covers from old hardback book covers. She walks you through all the steps needed to create your own vintage book cover for your favorite digital device. Vintage style, modern tools. Brilliant!
While testing out my new Quo Vadis Habana notebook with bright white paper, I decided to do swab tests of every single bottle of ink I currently own. To be fair, most of my ink was a recent acquisition thanks to Julie at Pens Paper Inks…Whatever. I won her giveaway for a mystery box of inks. What I thought would be maybe three bottles of ink turned out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of two dozen bottles, mostly full, of top-end inks, some sample bottles of ink (not shown), some notebooks and a colored pencil set. I was speechless, for weeks.
I added in my paltry collection of maybe half a dozen inks to create almost two full pages of swab samples. As I ink up a pen with the color, I am adding a small handwritten sample with the swab. I plan to do individual reviews of each color over the next couple months. If there are any that you are particularly curious about, leave a note in the comments and I’ll move it to the top of the list.
I tried to color correct these photos to the best of my ability but some of the colors were so vibrant that some of them got a bit blown out and I am discovering the challenge of color correcting for white paper. I will be experimenting with the best ways to photograph my writing samples so hopefully they will get better and more accurate.
I was getting to the end of my 300 page Miquelrius grid book so I went on the hunt for the perfect ink and pen testing notebook. This time, I wanted to have a blank book, rather than grid, with paper designed to stand up to fountain pen ink without feathering. I wanted bright white paper so I would not obscure the colors of the inks. I prefer an A5-ish size and if it could be green, well, then it would be perfect.
Both Goulet Pens and WritersBloc made it pretty easy for me to narrow to my key features and compare my options. Then I spotted the bright white Quo Vadis Habana and its was love at first sight. I have a lined, ivory Habana with the Anis green cover and its one of my favorite notebooks so it seemed like a clear winner. At $16.80, it was also a great price.
When compared to my ivory Habana, you can see in the sample above how different the De Atramentis Pigeon Blue ink looks from the bright white to the ivory paper. Using a book without lines also keeps from obscuring the color or overpowering really light colors.
In a larger writing sample, I chose to focus on fountain pens and liquidy inks that may feather or have longer drying times. I had no feathering issues but the Pelikan purple cartridge refused to dry in any reasonable amount of time and left a messy smudge on my samples (damn lefty!). All the other inks took a bit longer to dry than on more absorbent paper but overall the wait was not too bad. Since this is a book specifically for ink testing, I’m willing to wait when needed to get the inks to dry. The wider the nib, the more ink is laid down and the longer it took to dry. The Muji fountain pen with the medium nib took awhile to dry but it did dry, unlike the Pelikan purple.
When viewed from the reverse side of the paper, there is a tiny bit of show through but both sides of this paper could easily be used. The couple spots were actually from me (still more of the Pelikan purple stuck to my hand and not bleed through).
This is excellent quality paper and if you prefer a bright white stock over a warm white or ivory colored paper, this is an excellent option.
I’ll certainly go through the Habana a lot faster than the Miquelrius bloc but I think I’ll get a better experience with fountain pen inks and less distraction without any lines.
Since unboxing my new Midori Traveler Notebook (MTN) last week, I’ve been on the hunt for accessories and ways to customize it. There seems to be a lot of debate on whether to buy the Midori brand accessories or make your own. Every site I find that stocks MTNs and accessories tend to sell out of the accessories and notebook inserts fast so clearly they are popular. Being sold out may mean you have to make your own inserts or accessories.
Because the MTN do not have any built-in pockets for loose paper and business cards, the first thing I wanted to do was to find a folder or zipper pocket insert to catch those loose bits. I went to Baum-Kitchen first because they carry a wide variety of MTN products but the shop is closed until July 1– the family that runs the business just had a new baby. Then I hopped over to Goulet Pens to see if they had any in stock but they were sold out of the folder insert. Finally, I searched the internet to see if anyone had instructions or an image of what the folder looked like so I could make my own. That’s when I came across the My Life All in One Place and their tutorial to make a folder using a file folder. I winged it with an office folder and its a little shorter than I meant it to be and a touch wider but I measured it by holding one of the notebook inserts up to the folder and drawing some lines and doing a lot of lazy guess-timating so I’m just happy it turned out okay.
I wasn’t quite ready to invest in a set of four rubber bands for over $4 so I improvised with some produce rubber bands I found in my kitchen drawer. I found a blue one and a purple one and they seem to be working great and let me attach a second lined notebook to my blank book and then attaches my new folder to the lined notebook.
I’m still considering adding other personalization like charms, stickers or stamps but I haven’t decided what I want yet. So, as it is right now, the book is fully functional albeit a little plain.
I found lots of videos of people waxing poetic about their MTN and showing off the ways they are using their MTN and the customizations they’ve done. Here’s a few if to inspire you:
And the winner of the Retro 51 Tornado is:
Congrats, Chris! You should be receiving an email from me to make arrangements to send you your Retro 51!
Thanks to everyone who entered to win! I was totally blown away with the response.
Special thanks to JetPens for making this happen!
There’s only a couple of weeks left before Google turns off Reader for good and I’ve yet to make a decision about what service I will use as a replacement. There is a site listing the most popular alternatives as mentioned by hashtag on Twitter called ReplaceReader.
Feedly is topping the list at present but I am still on the fence about it. I set it up but I found the interface a little too “jazzy”. I don’t want my RSS to recommend other content, allow my “friends” to see what I’m reading or any other social integration. Am I the only one who is a total curmudgeon about this?
Feedbin seems popular but because its a paid service entirely, I don’t think very many people have experimented with it yet. I love Reeder for Mac and iPad so I’m leaning towards Feedbin as they are promising integration but, at present, they have only updated the iPhone app which is the one place I don’t usually attempt to read RSS.
I’ve also tried The Old Reader and Blog Lovin’ but did not favor either. While The Old Reader is free, I suspect there will not be a lot of mobile app support for it. And Blog Lovin’… let’s just say I feel a little old to be hanging out in that crowd.
Have you found a replacement for Reader or have you moved away from RSS altogether and found another system for keeping up with your favorite sites?
After my appearance on the Pen Addict podcast a few weeks ago, some of my more definitive statements about things were brought to light, including my recommendation of the Sherpa over a Render K in the Holiday Gift Guide Rebuttal. It lead to the fine folks at Karas Kustoms offering to open my mind to the awesomeness of the Render K by sending me a pen to review. I was surprised and delighted to find a green anodized Render K in my mailbox within a week and have spent the last week using my Render K and experiencing this unique and frankly quite amazing pen.
The first thing to note, of course, is that the Render K are made in the USA. Each pen machined from aluminum so they are seamless. The only thing that is attached is the industrial-grade clip which is held on with two screws. The top of the cap has the same diamond-plate knurling that the Retro51 has and gives some grip if you screw the cap on too tightly.
The original Render K is available for Pilot Hi-Tec C style refills (in an assortment of nine anodized colors as well as brass) and also to fit Pilot G-2 inserts (only in anodized aluminum). I’m hoping they’ll be an anodized kiwi green in the near future. I love the juniper green of my Render K though.
It took me awhile to write this review because I was having some issues with the original Pilot Hi-Tec C refill I was using. I grabbed one of the Hi-Tec Cs sitting on my desk at work and unscrewed the cap, pulled out the refill and put it into my Render K. All seemed good the first day I used it but the second day the ink stopped flowing consistently. I don’t know if I just had an old dried out Hi-Tec C or what but I was getting a little hot when both the Retro 51 and the Render K were not writing as pleasingly as everyone else had raved. I knew this was an ink issue, not a pen issue and not at all a fault of the Render K so I didn’t want to post my review until I found a refill I was satisfied using.
I scanned my desk again and gazed at my ever-growing pile of Uni-Ball Signo DX pens and wondered if the refill would fit. The tip looked quite similar but the plastic tub filled with ink was a smidge longer than the Hi-Tec C so I pulled out a pair of scissors and hacked off the extra 1/4″ or so. It worked perfectly! I am using a 0.38 blue-black Signo ink cartridge and I am loving the Render K more than ever.
The Render K does not ship with a refill but does include a spring and aluminum spacer for Parker style refills, though after my Retro 51 experience, I’m a little hesitant to try a Parker refill. With the plethora of color and tip sizes for Hi-Tec C and Signo DX, I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about it. Though I might brave it at some point.
Once I had a good ink cartridge in the Render K I could turn my attention to the way the pen felt in my hand, the weight and balance and all the fine details of the craftsmanship.
I thought the Render K was going to be heavy but, at 21gms without the cap (about the same as a Lamy AL-Star), its pleasantly balanced so that I don’t notice that its much heavier than my usual daily writers (Kaweco Sports which weigh a mere 15gms with the cap). Its really not that heavy. The cap does not post but I catch myself just rolling it around in my right hand while I’m writing. The silky smooth aluminum and the knurled top feel pleasing, like a new coin or a smooth stone.
When my husband saw my Render K he was very keen to know more about it. When I told him they were machined in the USA he looked all over the pen intently and was outraged to discover that nowhere on the pen did it say “Made in the USA”. I think it would be awesome if there was a special edition that was stamped or etched on the top of the cap or on the clip “Made in the USA”. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Next on my wish list is the Delrin translucent white Render K model. Its gorgeous! I might buy it for myself for my birthday.
(Thanks to Dan at Karas Kustoms for sending me this lovely pen and converting me to a Render K enthusiast! This pen was sent to me for review purposes and this is my unbiased opinion. Really.)
