The Well-Appointed Desk

In feature

Link Love: Inky Minky Meinie Mo

AnaMay 30, 2013Leave a comment

Love Objects via Behind The Curtain — Loved Objects (via Behind The Curtain)

Pens and Pencils:

Paper Mate Flair, Brown (UPS Edition) (via Clickypost)
My Fountain Pen Evolution (via Fountain Pen Quest)
TWSBI Vac 700 Review (via Ed Jelley)
Retro 51 Tornado Vintage Surf Review (via From the Pen Cup)
Tale of Two Nibs: Lamy Safari Edition (via From The Pen Cup)
Bic Exact Tip Roller 0.6 Review (via A Penchant For Paper)
22 Different Pencil Designs (via Pencil Revolution
A Brief History of the BIC/Biro Cristal Audio Clip (via Economy Pens)

Inks:

Diamine Eau De Nil Ink Review (via Ink of Me Fondly)
Noodlers Rome Burning Ink Review (via Inkdependence)
Mont Blanc Burgundy Red Ink Review (via Fountain Pen Quest)
Waterman Preface Red with Noodlers Summer Tanager (via JustDaveyB)
Two More Inks, Noodlers (via DaveyB)

Paper:

Hobonichi Japanese Page-a-Day Planner
Palomino Luxury Notebook Review and Giveaway (via Notebook Stories)
From the Mailbag notebook roundup (via Notebook Stories)

Misc:

Walnut Pen Holder Cube (via Clicky Post)
How To Take Meeting Notes That Really Work (via Macworld)
Luciano Lozano Rainy Day iPhone wallpapers (via Ilustrista)
Eight Things Productive People Do at Work (via Lifehack)

(via East...West...Everywhere) — (via East…West…Everywhere)

In feature

Ask The Desk: Pen Testing Notebook

AnaMay 30, 20135 Comments

Ask The Desk Header

I’ve had several people ask me recently what notebook I use to test my pens, pencils and inks. A couple years ago, I found a Miquelrius Grid notebook in my collection and decided that its large capacity would make a perfect repository for all my pen and ink testing.

The book contains 300 pages with a flexible leatherette cover and a glued spine. I’ve ripped pages out over the years and the cover has started to pull away from the spine but the paper satisfied my need for a mid-range quality, bright white paper. Its not as fountain pen-friendly as some other papers but is better quality than Moleskine or office copier paper. It is a good middle-of-the-road paper to give me a starting point when experimenting with inks and pens.

With most tools, besides pencil, I get a little show-through on the reverse side of the page but its not terrible. When I use fountain pen ink with dip pens, I do tend to get feathering and bleed-through. Overall though, the paper in the Miquelrius is a perfect compromise in terms of quality. I don’t want to test all my pens on the highest of the high-end paper because in day-to-day use, most pens end up marking photocopies handed out in meetings, Moleskines, composition books for projects and 3x5s — none of which are necessarily high-quality paper. I feel safe in saying that if a pen performs well on the Miquelrius paper, it will not misbehave too much on lower quality papers and will probably shine on high quality papers.

I’ve tested vintage fountain pens, all sorts of inks including over a year’s worth of Goulet Pens’ Ink Drops, pencils, gel pens and just about everything else that’s crossed my path. The frightening thing is that I’m getting to the end of the notebook so I’m going to need to buy another one or change horses mid-race.

To see all the pen tests and ink tests that have appeared on the pages of the mammoth Miquelrius, check out my Miquelrius Grid Flickr Set.

The notebook measures 6 x 8.25″ and is also available in smaller configurations of 100 and 200 pages as well as the mammoth 300 page edition through the Miquelrius web site. A smaller edition is also available at 4 x 6″. Prices start at $9.99 and go up to $16.99. My notebook was purchased at my local Barnes & Noble.

In feature

Oh, Wunderful Wunderlist!

AnaMay 29, 20135 Comments

I was slow to launch with the digital to-do list. As fellow pen and paper lovers, I’m sure you can understand my hesitation.However, I am working on a large project at work and my team decided to try out Basecamp for group organization and I fell in love. Basecamp is a great place for task and project management for a group or team. It can store text documents, files, to-do lists and even a calendar. We are all madly in love with its capabilities. It made me realize how much a task manager might help me in my personal life, for blog planning, shopping lists, and all those little life to-dos that get jotted on this sheet of paper or in that notebook and then I can never find the right list at the right time. I didn’t want to invest in Basecamp for my personal management ($20/month to start) so I set off in search of a more budget-minded alternative for the miscellany floating around in my head and on various scraps of paper.

My requirements:

mobile app
desktop app
web interface
multiple to-do lists: work, home, blog, etc.
notifications via text message or notifications
nice to look at

And then in walks Wunderlist and went, “Check, check, check… CHECK!” Seriously. Its available for iOS or Android, works on my iPhone or iPad, there’s a desktop app (Mac and Windows) for my home computer and a web interface for accessing while at work, making it easy to input text on a full-sized keyboard as well as making updates or checking things off on the fly. Its nice to look at with a choice of pleasing backgrounds and a clean, clear user interface. Lists can be organized into projects and individual to-dos can include sub-tasks, notes, reminders and due dates. Each to-do can be viewed in the original project list or in the day, week or all views. I feel almost organized!

If you discover that Wunderlist is your new lifesaver too, you can upgrade to the pro version and get a lot of the features that make Basecamp so nifty like team to-dos, delegating tasks, file uploads and more starting at $4.99/mo. Check and check!

In feature

Juicy! The Pilot Juice Pen Review

AnaMay 29, 20134 Comments

Previously, I purchased two colors of the Pilot Juice in 0.5 — originally the only tip size it was available in but now its possible to get the Juice pens in my preferred 0.38 size.

With the option of 24 gel colors in a retractable pen with a comfortable silicone grip and a spring-loaded clip to handle any notebook, I had to try more of these pens. I get practically giddy when I see colors like “dark red”, “coral red” and “coffee brown”.

In my writing samples, I was able to compare the feel of the 0.38 tip size to my previously acquired 0.5. The 0.5 is definitely silkier on the page than the pointier 0.38 and when used interchangeably, you might notice the difference. When just using the 0.38 though, its still an excellent fine line gel pen.

I purchased only ten colors, just to see how I liked them but I have a feeling I might have to acquire a complete set. Of the ten I purchased, I have a duplicate of the Leaf Green — one in the 0.38 and one in the wider 0.5 and the color is slightly different looking. The wider 0.5 width lays down more ink making the color appear a little darker and is much more usable than the 0.38. The Sky Blue was just about the same color as the lines on most lined paper making it a little too light for everyday use unless you use dot grid or blank paper. The Gray is also a bit lighter than I anticipated but I do like the cool grey color. The pen labelled “Green” is more of a blue-green which I quite like once I got past my expectation that it would be Kelly Green. The Grape was a bit pinkier purple than I had hoped. The Dark Red, Blue Black, Coffee Brown and Turquoise Green were all big winners with me. The colors were all rich and complex and pleasing to see on the page.

The Pilot Juice 0.38 is available in 24 colors and the 0.5 offer the same 24 colors plus 6 pastel colors that perform best on dark paper stocks. Each pen is $1.65.

There is a lot of similarity between the design of the Pilot Juice and the Zebra Sarasa Clip pens ($2.20 each). I even purchased them in essentially the same colors. They both have large, spring-loaded clips to attach easily to notebooks or binders and both have a silicone grip area. The grey colors are slightly different between the two models: the Sarasa is more of a warm grey and the Pilot is more of a cool grey. As for the two shades of lime green, the Pilot Juice Apple Green is so light its unusable whereas the Sarasa green is one of my go-to green gel pens. Luckily, the Leaf Green color is more useful — a true green with a little less saturation than most.

I don’t think I’ll abandon the Zebra Sarasa Clip pens for the Pilot Juice but I do like that the colors are a little different. I may pick and choose between the two lines for my favorite hues. The Pilot Juice are a little less expensive per pen so if you have not tried either brand, the Juice are definitely the better bargain.

(This pen was tested on the Miquelrius medium flexible 300 grid paper book purchased from B+N.)

In feature

Review: Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener

AnaMay 28, 2013July 6, 201811 Comments

The nice folks over at Classroom Friendly Supplies sent me one of their desktop pencil sharpeners to review — in green, of course! It is a perfectly vintage shade of green too.

This sharpener has a clamp to attach to the table so there is no drilling necessary to keep it from moving. The only issue I had with the table top mount is that it mounted so that it was positioned sideways on the table instead of having the crank and the pencil parallel to the table like I am accustomed to with the older table mount sharpeners. But it worked fine in this position, especially since my table is oval.

The case is metal with a clear plastic drawer to catch shavings. The handle is silver with a plastic grip. On the pencil side of the sharpener, there are two black squares at the top on a silver segment that can be pulled out to support the pencil as you are sharpening. It took me awhile to work through how the design worked. With the silver section pulled out, squeeze the black squares to insert and clamp the pencil in place. Then sharpen. As I sharpened, the silver section slowly moved in a bit until it stopped. This prevented the pencil from being over-sharpened. Then I squeezed the black plastic squares again to release the clamp on the pencil and remove it. The silver section can then be contracted back into the green body by releasing the center silver bar and pushing the section in.

I did not think that the sharpener was noticeably quieter than other table-mounted sharpeners but it is pretty easy to use and much quieter than an electrical pencil sharpener. It gives pencils a wickedly sharp point but it does leave a little chew mark on the pencils from the clamp.

It makes a fabulously long, sharp point. Wow! (Disregard the little stray wood bit, I didn’t wipe it clean before photographing it.)

What got me really excited was when I sharpened my General’s Layout pencil which has a wider diameter lead than a traditional graphite pencil sharpened to a ridiculously long length and it was still strong enough to use.

To compare, I sharpened the red pencil (Palomino Golden Bear HB #2) with my old Apsco Giant desktop sharpener (the classic) and the other three pencils (a round black pencils stolen from Geeks Who Drink trivia night, the General’s Layout pencil and another Palomino Golden Bear HB #2 with the Classroom Friendly sharpener.

The pencils I sharpened wrote so well. Good quality pencils and cheap giveaway pencils sharpened equally well with the Classroom Friendly sharpener. I even wrote with the Apsco sharpened for comparison and it is noticeably blunter. Since its a clamp mount, it does not damage tables or desks but can still be placed wherever is most convenient and removed when not needed. No longer does your sharpener have to live in the basement!

I like how the Classroom Friendly sharpener so much that I feel obliged to overlook the chomp marks on my pencils. For most of my pencils, the nicks are not a big deal but I think I’ll keep using my Palomino Long Point sharpener for my higher-end pencils like the Blackwings.

The Classroom Friendly sharpener is available in four classic colors (groovy green, cool blue, firehouse red and midnight black) for $24.99 each. Prices are discounted if you make a bulk purchase.

(The Classroom Friendly sharpener was sent to me for review but my opinions are my own and unbiased.)

In feature

Ask The Desk: Cambridge Satchel

AnaMay 28, 2013Leave a comment

Mary Ann asked:

How has the Cambridge leather satchel been working for you?
I am interested in getting one but would like to know more about it from a user.

I’ve had my Cambridge satchel for well over a year now. It is a classic English school satchel in medium brown and measures 15″x10″x4″. Its large enough to tote my 13″ MacBook Pro but on most days I don’t carry it with me since I have a workstation at work.

It is made from very stiff, thick leather. It needed to be treated with mink oil to help soften and loosen up the leather. Once I did that, it became a very comfortable bag to carry. Because of its generally rigid shape though, it is difficult to overstuff it like you might with a nylon bag or backpack.

The strap is adjustable by way of a buckle and is surprisingly comfortable without any extra padding. There’s a lot to be said for leather. I do wish I had purchased the model with the handle on top which would make it easier to pick up and pull in and out of the car. If you walk or take public transportation regularly, you might not need a handle but if you’re pulling the bag in and out of a car, the handle would definitely be advantageous.

It does limit how much I can carry since I can’t overstuff it which has actually been a good thing.

I thought I’d share a peek inside the bag to give an idea of how much it will hold and still close easily.

Inside is an A5 and A6 hardcover notebook (Piccadilly and Leuchtturm 1917 respectively), my Lihit Teffa Bag-in-a-bag (holds my letter writing supplies), iPad Mini in a Macally cover, my LWA members pen case filled with lots of writing tools, a reusable shopping bag, a granola bar, hankie, Pantone business card case, keys, sunglasses, Swiss Army Secretary pocket knife, and a few loose pens.

The Cambridge Satchels are available in several other sizes and a huge array of colors. For the higher price and super durability of this bag, I chose a classic color (vintage brown) which would not feel dated or too trendy. The 15″ size like mine is $172 from the Cambridge Satchel Company. The Batchel (the same bag with a handle) is $187. And the Backpack model which is the same bag as the Batchel with straps to carry as a backpack is $195.

If you’re looking for a classic bag made of durable materials and simple good looks, the Cambridge satchels are a good investment. I was tickled to see that a bag similar to the Cambridge satchel was carried by Susan (Anna Maxwell Martin), the main character in Bletchley Circle set in London in the 1950s. I told you its a classic.

In photo

The Workspaces of Famous Men

AnaMay 24, 20132 Comments

I love seeing he workspaces of authors and other famous folks. So finding this treasure trove of photos of workspaces totally made my day.

William F. Buckley at the eye of his personal paper storm.

This is cluttered space where writer William F. Buckley is a converted garage. He spent a lot of his life and even died here.

Neil Gaiman's writing hut — Neil Gaiman’s writing hut

The writing hut used by Neil Gaiman is one of the most amazing little places. I would love to have a place like this someday thought I doubt I would write anything as loved or amazing as The Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, or American Gods.

The new focus on standing desks and treadmill desks aren’t a new thing. Winston Churchill was a believer in a standing desk fifty years before the Nike FuelBand.

There are a dozen other workspaces to see on Art of Manliness. Enjoy!

(all photos via The Art of Manliness)