The Well-Appointed Desk

Edelstein Amber Ink Sample Impressions

AnaApril 30, 2013Leave a comment

My pal on Twitter Jose included this “surprise sample” of ink in our recent ink swap. I had to message him to find out exactly what ink it was and it turned out to be the Pelikan Edelstein Amber ink, their “color of the year”. I was playing around with my Noodlers Creaper Flex pen ($14) which I have not used much as I can’t seem to get it to write consistently. The Edelstein Amber shaded beautifully, when I could get the pen to write. The color fluctuates between a pale amber orange to a lovely deep walnut depending on how much ink has been laid down.

The Edelstein inks are a line from Pelikan and they have deemed the Amber their color of the year and it is a limited edition.The name “Edelstein” means “gemstone”and the colors clearly adhere to a jewel palette. The bottles are beautiful too, as if I needed an aesthetic reason to like these inks.

This is my first experience with the Pelikan Edelstein line though I’ve used the 4001 series of inks for years. It seems to be as a good a quality as the 4001 and I look forward to trying it out in some other pens in the future. This whole experiment also made me realize I’ve never posted a review of the Noodlers Creaper … I need to work with it a bit more to determine if the issue is with the pen or the user.

Having tried this sample, I’m definitely interested in trying out some of the other Edelstein inks. Anderson Pens has a nice round-up of sample writings using the other colors in the line.

Other more detailed reviews of the Edelstein Amber ink may be found here:

A bottle of the Amber ink may be purchased from Goulet Pens for $25. Other Edelstein colors are available from Goulet, JetPens or other pen retailers.

In feature, Ink Review

Review: Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-Rin (Bamboo Forest) Ink

AnaApril 30, 2013September 18, 2014Leave a comment

After my review of the J. Herbin Vert Olive, reader Jose offered to do an ink swap with me so that I could compare the Vert Oilve to Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-Rin (AKA Bamboo Forest).

Since the color of the Chiku-Rin is so light, I decided to test it in a pen with a wider nib so I used my grey Esterbrook with the 2442 “falcon stub” nib — its a stub nib designed for “backward leaning” writing.

On my first test, I realized pretty quickly that I had not cleaned my pen sufficiently from its last adventures and I was getting darker results than I should have. I re-cleaned my pen and tried it again. That’s better. The color is a bright, vivid lime-juice green. There is some lovely shading happening when I write giving my writing more character than it probably deserves.

The color is quite light but it does appear brighter and more vivid in person than the photo might lead you to believe. About halfway down the page, I did a swab and writing comparison with the J. Herbin Vert Olive (loaded in a TWSBI Mini with an EF nib) just for color comparison. The Vert Oilive does have a considerable yellow overtone causing to to be frequently described as “pickle juice”. The Chiku-Rin, on the other hand is a cleaner, less muddy light green — more fresh spring grass or tender clover green. Dare I say like bamboo shoots?

I’ve never had the pleasure of trying a Pilot Iroshizuku ink before but I expected a high-quality ink and that’s what I got. I will definitely consider trying other Pilot Iroshizuku inks now as well.

Pilot Iroshizuku Chiku-Rin is available at both JetPens and Goulet Pens for $28 a bottle. Samples of the ink and many, many others are also available at Goulet Pens.

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Refillable cartridge for Kaweco Sport Fountain Pens… wahoo!

AnaApril 29, 2013Leave a comment

Well, well, well… what do we have here? Is this an aerometric squeeze filler for small enough to fit inside a Kaweco Sport fountain pen? Why, yes it is!

Go forth and rejoice, all you Kaweco Sport users! For a mere $3 you too can now use bottled ink without having to reuse old cartridges or attempt to fill a cartridge with a syringe.

How to fill an aerometric filler: To use a aerometric squeeze filler like this, you put it on the pen first. First remove the old cartridge and place this on the pen, empty. Make sure its placed snugly on the pen. Squeeze the filler, then dip the nib into the ink bottle and slowly release to fill the bladder. You may need to to squeeze and release the filler 2-3 times to get it full. Just remember to squeeze gently so you don’t create bubbles or make a mess.

In Fountain Pen Review

Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen Review

AnaApril 29, 2013May 27, 201713 Comments

I had recently seen the Pilot Metropolitan pop up on JetPens but noticed that most of the color options had sold out immediately. Then I heard Brad of The Pen Addict Podcast discuss his rather blah reaction to it and his general aversion to all things gold. So… guess what I bought? Yup. The gold dot version of the Pilot Metropolitan ($14.50). Mostly, because it was the only one left on JetPens but also because I thought it might annoy Brad.

If gold is not your color either, the Pilot Metropolitan is also available in silver or black and the decoration in the middle can be plain, zigzag or dot in any of the colors, you’ll just have to wait until the other color options are back in stock.

Back to the Pilot Metropolitan. It has a soft metallic sheen on the body and a dot pattern just below the cap for added interest. The pen comes in nice packaging. If you wanted to gift this pen to a new fountain pen user, the packaging belies its humble price point. The pen comes with a Pilot ink cartridge and the older Pilot rubber bladder squeeze filler, it looks similar to the CON-20 but a little bit lower end. I went ahead and upgraded to the CON-50 converter ($8.25) but it still kept the whole pen purchase under $25.

The pen measures 5.5″ capped and about 5″ uncapped. Because of the conical shape, posting the cap seems a little awkward though it did fit, I’m not sure it would stay posted without repeated adjustments. If posting the cap on the end of your pen is an absolute must, this pen may not be for you.

The nib is a Japanese M which is about the same as a European F. When writing, it did seem a tad wider than my Kaweco F nibs but not enough to be considered a clearly wider nib. The nib has been worked into flat planes rather than a smooth arc which gives it a different look and its etched with a series of dashed lines. Its really quite a handsome nib.

Fountain Pen Weights

The Pilot Metropolitan, filled with a CON-50 and ink, and capped is 27gms, which makes it almost as weighty as the Lamy Studio. Unposted its 17gms, making it just a little lighter.

When this pen hit the paper — that’s when the real magic happened. Wow, is it a smooth writer! It was comfortable and skated along the paper with little to no friction. Not as slick as some gel pens but it had no scratch at all. It was a lot more pleasing experience out of the package for me than I ever had with my Lamy AL Star.

I compared the Pilot Metropolitan to pens of similar nib size and price point. It is very comparable. To be honest, though, I would most likely compare the Metropolitan’s overall size and feel to an entry level Lamy and I’d favor the Metropolitan for writing enjoyment. Yes, the Lamy has a wider selection of nibs and a wider selection of barrel colors but if what you want is a classic looking pen with a M nib, this would be my first recommendation.

As of this review, JetPens is entirely sold out of the Pilot Metropolitan but Goulet Pens has some of the gold pens left.

In feature

New Rubber Stamps Available in The Shop!

AnaApril 27, 2013Leave a comment

Finally! My new shipment of rubber stamps came in and they are all for you! Visit the shop over on Big Cartel to place your order. This time, I ordered a few on the classic wooden handle just to see if you like them and the pricing was similar so I thought, “Why not?” If you like these stamps but prefer the compact wood block mount, please let me know and I will get them re-ordered in that format. Or vice versa.

I also want to let you know if you are in the US and order several rubber stamps or other small items like airmail envelopes, you will only be charged $6 for shipping, and it will be shipped in a US Priority Mail flat rate box. If the order system charges more than that, I will refund the difference.

If you live outside the US and are interested in ordering any rubber stamps or any other products, please email me directly and I can build a custom order for you and send you a PayPal invoice instead of going directly through the site so I can customize the shipping rates. I don’t want to overcharge anyone for shipping.

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Damn You, Art School and Procreate (it’ll make sense when you read the whole article)

AnaApril 26, 2013Leave a comment

Damn You, Art School is a web site organized by art school disciplines like architecture, fashion, illustration and others that will give you a list of recommended digital tools for a given discipline. The recommendations range from note-taking and sketching apps to business management tools like faxing and time accounting (in the Illustration tab). There are lots of good recommendations for people in all sorts of professional fields or to help you plan out your next creative project. Snoop around, you may find a tool or app you didn’t know you’d need. I do notice a notable absence of the best tools for all creatives: paper and pencil.

Procreate screenshot

Oh, and on the topic of digital tools you didn’t know you needed, I wholeheartedly endorse a drawing app for the iPad called Procreate ($4.99 from the iTunes app store). Even if you do not consider yourself artistically inclined, this app may change your mind. The brush tools are the most realistic I’ve used since the Mac app Painter and there are additional brush sets available for purchase ($0.99 per set and most are totally worth the upgrade). This app is incredibly powerful and includes layers which can have different blending modes and transparency, easy to use undo options, you can rotate the canvas and so much more. There is a whole community of users that share new brushes and techniques. File can be exported to a PSD file and the layers remain intact. I’ve been using the app to create original wallpaper for my iPad. I’ve been watching a lot of Dr. Who lately so I painted a personal nebula. Not as awe-inspiring as the sample images included with the app but I made them with my finger and a few spare minutes. I’m so proud of my wallpaper, you can download it and use it too on your favorite mobile device.

Procreate download file — Click image to access attachment. Then save it to you computer.

In feature

On the topic of pencils…

AnaApril 25, 2013Leave a comment

I went down the pencil rabbit-hole yesterday and found a few interesting tidbits:

A sneak peek of the new Blackwing Pearl expected to be available on May 2 (via Woodclinched)

There is more information about the new Blackwing Pearl available on the Pencils.com site and on Timberlines. The Pearl is designed to fill a spot between the original Palomino Blackwing which was described as “soft and smooth” and the Palomino Blackwing 602 which was described as “firm and smooth”. The original Palomino Blackwing is favored for sketching while notetakers have preferred the 602 so the Pearl should be the good all-arounder pencil. And the white pearlescent paint sounds like it will be fabulous. Just one more week before its available. And, be assured, I will be reviewing it.

I also found an article on Medium entitled “Don’t be afraid of a pencil” about sketching for everyone to help get your point across.

Griffin Technologies has made a pencil stylus -- all the good looks of a classic #2 but it will work with you latest touchscreen device $20 — Griffin Technologies has made a pencil stylus — all the good looks of a classic #2 but it will work with you latest touchscreen device $20

An article in USAToday suggests that kids prefer taking the SATs with paper and pencil. So don’t dump those #2 pencils quite yet.

If you want even more pencil love, check out Leadholder which specializes in leadholders, Leadhead specializes in mechanical pencils especially vintage ones, and my friends over at Pencil Revolution and Pencil Talk.