Pilot Petit2 Sign Pen

Pilot Sign Pen Mini in blue-black

I recently bought a Pilot Petit2 Sign Pen in blue-black. You can pretty much talk me into to buying any pen if its blue-black (check!)  and under $3 (check!). It is just a fraction of an inch longer than my Kaweco Sport so its nicely pocket-able.

It also fills that in-between width: the point is wider than a LePen or Sharpie Pen but much narrower than a Sharpie fine point marker. Am I the only person who thinks there’s a gap in their pen-nib-width options?

If blue-black is too austere for you, there are lots of other color options and the Petit2 line includes brush pens and fountain pens. All are refillable with ink cartridges though I’m not sure what the lifespan is on the fiber-tip.

Pilot Petit2 fibe tip pens

Flickr fights back

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If you have used Flickr in the past but — in the age of Facebook and Instagram– sort of forgotten about it, I think it’s time to reconsider.

Flickr has always had some features that made it the go-to for photo storage and sharing. Yes, its a paid service but, as a result, they’ve given users more content and less filler than most other services. In the plus column for Flickr:

  • full-sized image uploads
  • no advertising
  • adult-content filter
  • lots of content-specific groups

Lately, Yahoo let the service languish. They released one iPhone app a couple years ago and then did little to update it while Hipstamatic and then Instagram trounced all over them. Even my loyal Flickr friends were abandoning ship for Facebook and Instagram’s easy digital upload and streaming always-on content.

Dear Marissa Mayer

But the tide is changing and I have to say I am happy to see it. Last summer, Yahoo hired Marissa Mayer as their new CEO and the internet responded with their plea. There were some updates to the website interface in the months following but no news about any improved integration on phones. About two weeks ago, Flickr released a new version of their iOS app which included some queues from Instagram with a built-in camera app and goofy filters so that images can be shot and uploaded to Flickr quickly. They made sharing to Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter pretty seamless but there’s a noticeable absence of “share to Instagram”.

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The new Flickr iPhone app is easy-to-use but is a pretty big departure from the older version so if you were familiar with it, there may be a bit of a learning curve. Flickr has posted a helpful walk-through of all the new features. From the app, you can access your photos, photostream and groups. You can moderate your groups and search for images or people. That’s a lot of action in one little app.

My one complaint is that their is still no support for checking FlickrMail from within the app. Clearly, the folks at Flickr have yet to figure out what a goldmine FlickrMail is. With the exception of “join this group requests”, it is a spam-free email account that only friends and family with Flickr accounts can access.

If you’re a current Flickr subscriber, you should have received a little gift from Flickr in your email recently. Clearly, they are trying to entice people back to the service so go and give them another shot. And tell them what you think. As paying subscribers, our voices and needs should be heard.

Happy snapping!

(For more about the new Flickr app, check out the Forbes write-up)

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Ink-mas?

Ink Drop Dec 2012
Oops, that’s Diamine Matador, not DeAtramentis.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Thanks to Goulet Pens latest Ink Drop, even my pens can look a bit more like Christmas. The DeAtramentis Fir ink even smells a bit like fir trees so its even starting to smell like Christmas around here!

Ink Drop Dec 2012
It should say Diamine Matador, not DeAtramentis!

This writing sample above is a bit more color correct (white balance with white paper is a PAIN!). The Diamine Matador and Noodler’s Green are as true to Christmas red and green as you could probably get. The Rohrer & Klingner Verdura is an elfish green and DeAtramentis Oriental Red reminds me of red fireplace bricks. DeAtramentis Fir is muted green with that wonderful fir tree smell!

The holiday colors were tested dipping a vintage Esterbrook fountain pen so I have fairly true-to-life performance.

Ink Drop Nov. 2012

In all the holiday hullabaloo, I forgot to post the November Ink Drop colors which were all reminiscent of autumn leaves. My favorite was the Noodler’s Cayenne. I must be in a red ink mood. I tested these with a flexible nib dip pen so some of the colors bled a bit more than I suspect they would in a fountain pen.

I am still using the same Miquelrius grid notebook that I’ve used to test all my other pens and inks for the past year or so.

Feeling Blue, Washable Blue

Sheaffer Skrip Washable Blue #42 ink bottle and box

Can I tell you how excited I was to find this vintage Sheaffer Skrip Washable Blue #42 box? Can you imagine how freaked I was to discover there was still a bottle inside the box? And then can you imagine the pure elation when there was still usable ink in the bottle?!?! I thought you might understand.

Top of the Sheaffer Skrip bottle

With shaking hands, I carefully removed the bottle from the box. The flap was missing but the tabs that fold in were still on the box and proclaim “Throw away your ink wiper — use Sheaffer’s Snorkel Pen. It’s the cleanest pen in the world! POINT NEVER NEEDS WIPING! See it today at your Sheaffer dealer!” On the bottle cap the Scrip logo is bright and shiny and the cap instructions say “Tighten cap. Tip bottle to fill well”. I had noticed the unusual color accumulation at the top of the jar but assumed the ink had collected and dried at the top of the bottle.

Sheaffer Skrip bottle

When I opened the bottle, I realized that there is a little divided compartment in the jar that allows you to tip the jar and fill this well with ink and then insert a fountain pen to fill it. How tidy! The ink was just as liquidy as a new bottle of ink and it didn’t smell odd or anything. So I took a chance…

Sheaffer Skrip #42 Washable Blue

I dip-filled my nearest Esterbrook and tried writing a few words to see if the ink still flowed. And it did! Inspired by this success, I decided to go ahead and do a full ink test.

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I sloppily copied out the editorial from the bottom of the box. It reads that Sheaffer Skrip was available in four permanent colors: blue-black, royal blue, jet black and red — and eight washable colors: blue, emerald green, purple, brown, black, peacock blue, melon red and Persian Rose. These colors were “washable” because they were not permanent and could be washed out of clothing. Ah ha!

I never really considered myself a fan of blue ink in the past but I love this color! Its an indigo dye blue with a lot of character and shading. I may just use up this ink and then refill the bottle since the filling well is so convenient. It looks like there’s about a half an once left. Sheaffer still sells the Skrip Blue (though its only labelled “Blue” and not “washable Blue” as well as several other colors) so I could refill the vintage bottle and no one would know the difference! Goulet Pens sells the whole line of modern Sheaffer inks for $8.50 a bottle, so I might have to do a little head-to-head and see if they are the same color.

Expectations and Expeditions, Field Notes that is.

Field Notes + tools

If you have spent anytime on Twitter the past couple weeks you’ll probably be aware that while everyone is tickled with the colors and the durability of the new Yupo-based Field Notes Expedition Edition, there has been a lot of blowback about how usable these notebooks actually are.

If you have note heard about these books, the Expedition Edition is the latest in the limited edition offerings of Field Notes. I love the color of the cover, the tone-on-tone map of Antarctica on the back and the dot grid in grey on the warm white paper. This time, the books are filled with a hard-wearing, plastic-based paper called Yupo for both the covers and the inside papers.Why is that cool? Well, it doesn’t tear and it will not break down if wet. But on the downside, issues have come up because the paper is so tough, it pretty much repels most inks. Why? Because most of the inks that we use rely on a water-based formula, particularly the inks used in fountain pens and a lot of felt-tip style pens. Even softer lead pencils risk being a smeary mess on this practically indestructible paper.

Field Notes Expedition Edition

Both Pencil Revolution and the Pen Addict have done some testing and reviews and established that the tools we all normally favor (fountain pens, PIlot Hi-Tec C’s and Palomino Blackwing pencils) may not be the best tools to combine with the Yupo paper used in the Expedition Edition of Field Notes.

Oh no Pile

So I decided to do my own testing. Since I love pens and pencils with equal enthusiasm, I hope to combine the results from Brad and Johnny into one pile. Pictured above are the tools I tried that did NOT work, which include:

  • ordinary ballpoints (Milan green from Rad + Hungry)
  • Fiction erasable pens: Pilot Frixion Point 04 (blue black, similar models sell on JetPens)
  • Marvy LePens
  • Rollerballs: Uni Vision Micro, Muji and Acme
  • Sharpie Pen
  • Gel-based pens like Zebra Sarasa and Pentel Slicci
  • Pentel Hybrid Technica
  • Felt-tipped like Sakura Micron and Copic Multiliner
  • Pentel Sign Pen (mine is the mini model)

I let all the writing set for a longer amount of time than I would with a standard notebook– anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes. As a left-hander I tend to run my hand through my writing every few lines so I gauged my drying time on an estimate of how long it would take me until I was running my hand through the writing. Some inks I could clearly see were still wet so I gave them time to lose their sheen before running my finger over them. The metallic silver Slicci 0.7 smeared so completely I had to write in what is was with another pen. I found that the regular ballpoint ink was clumpy and behaved strangely though after an indeterminate amount of time it did dry and not smear. Rollerballs and gel ink pens did not do well. Rollerballs, particularly the Uniball Vision Micro still smears 12 hours later — not as badly but still not good. Given enough time, the gel inks do dry and, the finer the point, the quicker they will be to dry, but I wouldn’t recommend them for serious notetaking. All the fiber-tipped pens like the Sharpie Pen, Microns and LePens were pretty much unusable.

The YES pile

Pictured above are the tools I found that DID work:

These all preformed well. The Marvy LePen Permanent and other alcohol-ink based marker pens are a great combination with this paper. The ink does not bleed, feather or show-through the way that it does on wood-pulp paper so if you’ve been wondering when you’ll ever use an alcohol-ink marker/pen, this is a good place for it.

I love the quality of color from the Autopoint Twinpoint on the Yupo paper. The colors of the red/blue mechanical pencil seem sharper on the Yupo than standard wood-pulp paper. I also feel confident that any standard mechanical pencil 0.5 or so or wood pencil, loaded in the range of 2B or HB lead, will be a good tool on the Expedition. I did not eraser testing. Foolishly, I was more concerned with making marks stick than removing them. I’ve just gone back to try erasing my marks (using my trusty Staedtler white plastic eraser) and the marks made with the mechanical pencil and Blackwing 602 leave a ghosted image.

I feel a little mischievous for doing it, but I pulled out my beloved Sanford Noblot and tested it and its been my favorite pencil on the paper so far. I realize this is probably going to create a run on Ebay looking for the last remaining Noblots but what the hell? Everyone deserves paper and writing tool happiness. Any indelible pencils will provide a level of permanence on this paper that you might not get with a standard graphite pencil.

Maybes

While the other reviews I read said that fountain pens and Pilot Hi-Tec C’s do not work, I got passable results. In a pinch, I could use these to take a quick note but they require a good five minutes of drying time. The Hi-Tec C seemed okay after drying for awhile and used a fine 0.4 point. The fountain pen filled with Kaweco turquoise ink was okay once dry as long as I didn’t rub it a lot. So, I’d say in a pinch, if you had to jot something down, these would work but they certainly aren’t the recommended tools.

Tool Testing

As you can see above, the LePen Permanent was the clear winner here, followed by the Palomino Blackwing 602 and a mechanical pencil with 0.5mm lead and probably a HB or 2B lead.

Tool Testing

On my second page of tests, you can see that the UniBall Jetstream, the Autopoint TwinPoint and the Sanford Noblot won for performance here.

Overall, for this Yupo paper, I recommend the finest point on a pen you’re willing to use (0.5mm or smaller), hybrid ballpoint inks like the Jetstream, alcohol-based marker/pens and harder lead pencils. If you’re really working in harsh outdoor conditions, your best bet is going to be a pencil anyway since they don’t freeze. A mechanical pencil eliminates the need for a sharpener and you can carry multiple leads in most models so you can rest assured you won’t run out while in the field.

I hope this helps to ease some concerns about the usability of these notebooks. I love that Field Notes has been willing to try some unique materials and interior layouts. This is a special notebook that will require a special tool but once you find your perfect pairing, I’m sure you’ll be happy with the results.

PS: Field Notes has compiled its own recommendations for writing tools for the Expedition Edition as well.

Top Ten Most Popular Posts for 2012

In my Pelle Journal

Isn’t it about time to start some Top Ten posts? I’ll start with the ten most-popular posts on The Well-Appointed Desk this year. If you missed them the first time, you can check them out today!

  1. Pen Addict Podcast Gift Guide Rebuttal
  2. Kaweco Student Pen ReviewStationery: The Magazine
  3. Midori Pen Holder
  4. Fountain Pen Reviews
  5. Daycraft Planner for 2013
  6. New TUL Pen Reviews
  7. Rhodia Webnotebook Review
  8. Pieritz Office Supplies Shop in Oak Park, IL

Link Love: Snow Day Edition

Pencil Lead Sculpture by Peter Trevelyan (via Present & Correct)
Pencil Lead Sculpture by Peter Trevelyan (via Present & Correct)

Pens and Pencils

dear purse thief
(via Notebook Stories)

Paper and Notebooks

Cartolina MailRoom
Screenshot from the Mailroom App from Cartolina

Digital: Apps for iOS

Other News: