The Well-Appointed Desk

I noticed that I had never written a review of the Pilot Varsity Fountain Pen so I thought I’d add it. Let me start by saying that I bought this several years ago and was very unhappy with its performance and stuck it in a drawer. It actually took quite some time before I was willing to venture into fountain pens again because of the experience. To be honest, at $3 per pen, I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting.

To a newbie though, the Varsity seems like a reasonable way to get into fountain pens. Its not. The most expensive part of a good fountain pen is the nib and feed, and this one, available in a medium width only, is not good at all. Its a plain steel nib. Steel nibs can be good but not at $3, I think.

If you look at the writing sample above, the pen skips and whole letters will not appear while the ink flow readjusts. It squeaks on the paper, actually squeaks. If you have an aversion to the sound of nails on a chalkboard, you best give this pen a wide berth.

I’m not inclined to write reviews for products that I genuinely dislike and think are terrible. I’d prefer to let me silence speak for itself. However, I get enough people asking about the Varsity and other sub-$10 fountain pens that I felt I should be honest.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll put up reviews of the other entry-level priced fountain pens. Maybe there is a gem among them.

In photo

Typewriter Ribbon Box

AnaJanuary 9, 2013Leave a comment

This is another bit of vintage office packaging from my ever-growing collection. The box included the metal spools and the two-tone ribbon. Written in pen on the box from the previous owner, “old spools replaced 3/1/88”. I wonder if she bought this box in 1988 or if it was in her office for 20 years?

Oh, the little paper ephemera treasures!

In feature

Zebra Dual Tip Permanent Marker meets its cousins

AnaJanuary 9, 2013Leave a comment

I was doing some office organization when I found this Zebra dual-tipped marker in my collection. The body of the pen, with the exception of the brand name, is written in Japanese but I’m pretty sure I acquired this gem from my company’s Hong Kong office or from a hotel in China last spring. Sorry its taken me so long to share it.

Its basically a similar tool to a Sharpie Twin Tip marker or other permanent marking pen. I think every office should have a few of these permanent tools floating around to mark file folders, envelopes and boxes. I don’t find them great for everyday writing because on plain paper, they all have a tendency to bleed. But for writing on a manila envelope, cardboard, plastic, glass or other unusual surface, these tend to be just the ticket.

What made the Zebra notable was that the bold end of the marker is just a little bit finer than the “fine” end of a Sharpie marker. I write pretty small, even on a box or envelope so the difference is just enough to make the Zebra marker appealing. The fine point on the Zebra was comparable in size to the “ultra fine” Sharpie marker or the Le Pen Permanent.

You can see how much these permanent markers bleed and show through on the reverse side of plain paper but that’s not really what they are designed to do.

There appears to be a few Zebra permanent pen options but as recently mentioned by Brad Dowdy on the Pen Addict podcast, pen manufacturers seem to NEED to create complex naming systems for pens sold in the US. There is a single “needle tip” version from Zebra listed on their site called the Z-PM. The closest cousin I could find to my dual-point is the Zebra “Mackee Care” Double-Sided Pen on JetPens. It sells for $2.

In photo

Monarch Staples Packaging

AnaJanuary 8, 2013Leave a comment

These two boxes of Monarch brand staples look several years apart in the design styles. The top box feels like late-50s or early-60s with the Alexander Girard-style lion and the box on the bottom is older and could have been the design used from the 40s to the 50s. Both boxes still had standard-sized staples in it. Thrift score!

In photo

Oh, how novel!

AnaJanuary 8, 2013Leave a comment

What are these darling little metal pieces?

They are pencil sharpeners, of course! These were discovered while home visiting for the holidays. Each one is sturdy cast metal. The gold projectorfilm reels spin freely and the handles on the lantern and boom box can be moved. Pretty cool!

In feature

Sparco Letter Opener

AnaJanuary 7, 2013Leave a comment

Awhile back I expounded on my love for an old plastic letter opener but bemoaned how hard it had been to found any new ones. Well, lookie what I found! It is from a company called Sparco and the cost for this little beauty was a mere $1.50 at the beloved Pieritz in Oak Park. It works like a champ. It has no markings on it at all and its is a lovely translucent blue plastic.

If you’ve never used one of these, you just slip the pointy bit under the gap on the envelope flap and slide it along to use the small razor to cleanly slice open the top of the envelope. I love them because it does not damage a decorated envelope from a mail artist and it makes quick work of bills and junk mail.

I looked all over the internet for an online retailer who sells these. I found a shop called Wayfair Supply that sold the Sparco letter opener for $1.08 each in three assorted colors.

In feature

Clairefontaine Crok Book Plain Notebook

AnaJanuary 7, 20133 Comments

The Clairefontaine Crok Book is a small, composition-sized notebook that is as plain as plain can be — and I mean that it in the best possible way. It has white cardstock covers with the Crok Book logo embossed on the cover and contains 48 pages of 90 gsm of smooth, bright-white paper. It is staple bound along the spine and is officially sized at 6.75″ x 8.75″.

It seemed appropriate to keep the writing tools used in a sample in black (or at least look black or silver on the outside) with this clean white book.

The paper is thick and willing to accept any writing tool with ease. Yes, a Sharpie permanent marker would show through on the reverse of the stock but pretty much anything else you throw at this notebook would be accepted happily. I had no issues with drying time and even my Lamy Studio with the stub 1.1mm nib dried quickly and did not feather or smear. I could even use both sides of the paper without any distracting show through.

I think these notebooks are great for anyone who likes to keep projects in their own notebooks and likes the freedom of unlined paper. It would make a great travel diary with its diminutive page count and at about $4 per book, its more than affordable. Its targeted to anyone who might want to sketch or employ mulitple media with the thick paper and generous sizes. There are two other sizes available of the Crok Book, a landscape format 6.75″ x 4.25″ and 8″ x 12″ and a gigantic 12″ x 17″, and other colors available for the covers if white is too austere for you.

I purchased my copy at Pieritz in Oak Park, IL but if you can’t make the trek to their shop, Notemaker and Writer’s Bloc both carry this notebook.

(PS: The coffee mug shown above is from the Kansas City coffeehouse, The Filling Station.)